I love reading about all these new local music archives. There’s one in development for Nebraska. “Humanities Nebraska has awarded a $1,905 grant to help fund the Nebraska Vinyl Archive. Housed and developed online, the archive will provide a searchable online database of all the sleeves, labels, artwork, liner notes and other visual materials from vinyl albums and 7″/45 rpm singles released by Nebraska-based artists.”
The city of Peterborough (that’s Ontario, in CANADA) has launched a new Web site with almost 13000 streamable songs by local artists. Alex Stangl is a nice listen. (He’s also got a spot at the Internet Archive.)
The University of Texas at Arlington is developing an online archive to house music from folks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “David Arditi, a UTA assistant professor of sociology, is developing “MusicDetour – the DFW Local Music Archive,” with three goals in mind: to house local music, develop big data that is open and available to all, and to build community…. MusicDetour will be hosted initially by UTA in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology’s Center for Theory, but Arditi said future plans involve philanthropic efforts to fund student workers both for curation and greater web development.”
You can now explore musician Jeff Buckley’s record collection. “Jeff Buckley’s personal record collection, filled with the music that influenced the Grace singer, is now digitally available for fans to listen to. Sony’s Legacy Recordings and Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert have partnered to present Jeff Buckley’s Record Collection, a site offering an intimate and interactive dive into Buckley’s own vinyl shelf.” Mr. Buckley died in 1997.
Musicians in Michigan are getting a digital archive thanks to the effort of one person. “Matt Jones of Ypsilanti has recorded hundreds of Michigan musicians since beginning his River Street Anthology project in March 2015. He lets them record one song in one take with one microphone. He says he wants to document and preserve the diversity of the state’s musical scene.”
The official Web sites of musician Prince have gotten an online archive. “‘We launch with 12 of Prince’s most popular sites, but over 20 years online, Prince launched nearly 20 different websites, maintained a dozen different social media presences, participated in countless online chats and directly connected with fans around the world,’ Sam Jennings, director of the Prince Online Museum, tells Billboard. Jennings was also webmaster of Prince’s NPG Music Club website, which offered music, videos and radio shows to fans online via monthly and annual memberships from 2001 to 2006; in 2006, Prince was the winner of a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award and the NPG Music Club won a Webby Award for best celebrity/fan site.”
Prince’s death caused an astonishing amount of activity on Facebook. “The world lost a legend when Prince passed away unexpectedly at the age of 57 on April 21. As word of his death spread around the globe, millions turned to Facebook to share articles, videos, and moving tributes, while global and local news outlets used Facebook Live. 39 million people had 117 million Facebook interactions related to his passing in the first 24 hours after the news broke.”
Wow! I am really looking forward to this digitizing of Cash Box magazine! “The Swem Library at the College of William & Mary in Virginia has received a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize its entire run of Cash Box, a music trade magazine published from 1942 to 1996. Swem Library is partnering with the Internet Archive, to scan all 190,000 pages of the 163-volume collection and create an online portal for reading and downloading the digital images.” The project was started last month and will be finished by the end of the year.
Interesting. David Bowie’s final album will be the subject of an “Instagram miniseries”. “UNBOUND: A ★ InstaMiniSeries will visually interpret Bowie’s final album, taking the audience ‘on a journey of evocative images inspired by the moods suggested in the album’s music, lyrics, and artwork,’ according to a press release.”
YouTube has acquired BandPage. “YouTube just scooped up San Francisco-based startup BandPage, a software tool that helps musicians sell direct to fans through social media sites, streaming services, and ticket vendors. BandPage says it works with more than 500,000 musicians, who each create a account to link up with third-party services like Facebook, Spotify, and StubHub.”
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is opening up its performance shares database. “By logging onto the PROs’ ACE Database … music users and the public will be able to access what percentage of fractional shares to each copyrighted musical composition is ‘controlled by ASCAP.’”
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