Cc-europe mailing list

[Paul Keller <pk AT kl.nl>]

Dear all,
please find below a draft proposal for a Creative Commons Music  
Database for Creative Reuse that we have developed together with a  
couple of musicians in the Netherlands. We are currently looking into  
the feasibility of setting this up and in this context i am curious  
what you are thinking about. would something like this make sense in  
other countries as well, are there any specific requirements that you  
can imagine or are there similar systems that you know of? if you have  
any comments (or if you are interested in getting involved) please do  
get in touch with me (either on this list or off list).

all the best from amsterdam,
paul

p.s I had originally intended to present this during the cc-europe  
meeting but since we ran out of time i am now sending it by email.

> Creative Commons Music Database for Creative Reuse.
> Draft proposal by Marco Raaphorst & Paul Keller, 23 june 2009
>
> This is a proposal to set up a web based database containing cc  
> licensed music that can be re-used by other creative professionals  
> when producing audio visual content, such as video clips,  
> documentary movies or games. This is not another music sharing  
> platform that is aimed at musicians trying to promote and distribute  
> their music among end users. Instead it is aimed at creative  
> professionals that require (background) music as part of the  
> creative workflow.
>
> This proposal is written based on the observation that in many cases  
> the music used in audiovisual works prevents the entire work to be  
> be made available under a creative commons license. We want to make  
> it easier for producers of audiovisual works to use cc-licensed  
> music in their works. To this end we propose a system in which cc  
> licensed music is described in a consistent way, that allows  
> producers of audiovisual works to select music based on specific  
> genres (i.e classical, house or rock) and characteristics (i.e  
> uptempo, soft, agressive). The music in the system will be selected  
> by a group of experts from the body of cc licensed works already  
> available online. Given the objective to enable producers of  
> audiovisual works to distribute their own productions under a cc  
> license the selection of music will be limited to music licensed  
> under the cc-by and cc-by-sa licenses (ND does not allow for the  
> syncing of music with moving image and NC substantially limits the  
> ability to distribute the resulting works). The system will mirror  
> the music files that are added to it.
> The proposal consists of two parts: A short description of the  
> features of the proposed platform and a short description dealing  
> with the selection of the content.
>
> 1. Platform Features
>
> The platform needs to store information about cc licensed music  
> files and store the corresponding music files on the server. There  
> are three layers of information regarding each music file:
>
> #1 file properties:
>
> * title
> * artist
> * license
> * playtime
> * file format
> * source location (url)
> * file name
>
> #2 descriptive metadata (implemented as tags)
>
> * genre (one or more tags from a pre defined list)
> * speed (one tag from a predefined list - or better the BPM count?)
> * characteristic (one or more tags from a pre-defined list)
>
> #3 user ratings
>
> Registered users of the platform can indicate if they like a  
> particular track. This is being done by changing a single property  
> from <empty> to <have listend> to <like> to <have used>.
>
> Music files need to be searchable based on any combination of these  
> attributes. The default search interface enables users to search  
> files based on the descriptive metadata. Via an advance search  
> interface we it is also possible to search based on the file  
> properties.
>
> User management
>
> The platform distinguishes between 3 different types of users: The  
> search functionality is available to all (unregistered users).  
> Registered users gain the ability to add their own tags (in addition  
> to those awarded by the moderators) and to store lists with  
> favorites. These lists can then be exported as playlists (on optical  
> storage, mp3 players and flash memory sticks).
> The third type of users are the moderators. They can add new music  
> files to the system and  add descriptive metadata. All moderators  
> can edit alle music files in the system and they can change metadata  
> added by other moderators.
>
> 2. Content Selection
>
> in order to jump start the system it needs to be filled with pre- 
> selected music. We are currently estimating that in order to be  
> useful to producers of audiovisual works the initial release of the  
> system needs to contain between 500 and 1000 tracks.
>
> Marco Raaphorst en Bob Timroff have indicated that they want to take  
> up this task. In order to ensure that the descriptive information  
> entered into the systen tagging of the initial music repertoire  
> needs to be preceded by the development of a tagging methodology  
> (i.e the criteria according to which individual tags will be awarded  
> need to be described and publicised on the website).
>
> The system is open to more moderators. Moderators that want to  
> contribute to the system need to follow the tagging guidelines and  
> need to accept a content selection policy.