Fwd: OPSOUND LAUNCHES COPYLEFT RECORD LABEL TO SELL FREE MUSIC.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: [email protected]
> Date: November 24, 2004 12:31:29 AM EST
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: OPSOUND LAUNCHES COPYLEFT RECORD LABEL TO SELL FREE MUSIC.
>
>
> ++++++++++++++++++
> For Immediate Release
> Contact: Christina Ray
> [email protected]
>
> For further information:
> Sal Randolph
> [email protected]
> 917-854-7612
>
> WEB LINK:
> http://www.opsound.org
>
> OPSOUND LAUNCHES COPYLEFT RECORD LABEL TO SELL FREE MUSIC.
>
> New York, November 23, 2004. Opsound ( http://opsound.org ) an online
> sound pool of copylefted music, launches its experimental record label
> today with the electroacoustic band Catalpa Catalpa's debut album,
> Hardoncity.
>
> "I'm delighted to have Catalpa Catalpa's debut as the label's first
> release," says Sal Randolph, Opsound's founder. "Catalpa Catalpa's
> roots are in rock but their sheer love of sound and noise breaks down
> genre barriers, incorporating elements usually segregated into pop,
> electronica, hardcore, and experimental." A release party for the CD
> will take place in New York at the CBGB Lounge, 313 Bowery from 8pm to
> midnight on Thursday, December 2, 2004. The evening will feature live
> performances from Catalpa Catalpa, Ben Owen & Andy Graydon, Scavenger,
> and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
>
>
> THE OPSOUND LABEL: SELLING FREE MUSIC
>
> Opsound is an experimental record label and open sound pool of
> copyleft music, organized through the website opsound.org. It is a
> laboratory for looking at how artists can release music in a manner
> synergistic with the internet's capacity to encourage communication
> and sharing. Opsound explores the possibilities of developing a gift
> economy among musicians, borrowing from the model of the free and
> open source software communities.
>
> Like the music in Opsound's online pool, all work released on the
> Opsound label will be copylefted, meaning that it can be copied and
> shared freely, remixed, and even resold. "The idea of a record label
> selling free music has always been part of the Opsound concept," says
> Randolph. "Opsound's experiment aims to demonstrate that file sharing
> and free copying help rather than hurt record sales; it takes
> inspiration from the thriving economies of the free and open source
> software communities. "
>
> Opsound uses a copyleft-style license designed by Creative Commons (
> http://creativecommons.org ) especially for music, art, writing and
> other kinds of non-software content. Creative Commons is a nonprofit
> organization dedicated to expanding alternatives to traditional
> copyright through its spectrum of licenses. Creative Commons licenses
> are featured in the cover story of November's Wired Magazine which
> includes a CD of Creative Commons licensed music by artists like David
> Byrne, the Beastie Boys and Le Tigre, given away free with every
> issue.
>
> Selling CDs of free music requires new strategies. "We're
> concentrating on making the CD something physically beautiful and
> interesting, something that people will want to own," says Randolph. =

> The packaging features a fold-out hand-silkscreened poster designed by
> one of the band members. The poster, which serves as the liner notes,
> folds into a sleeve, and the CD is fastened on the outside, rather
> than placed in the sleeve, so that the CD graphics become the cover
> art.
>
>
> CATALPA CATALPA
>
> Catalpa Catalpa's two members Hayes Shanesy and Justin Stewart have
> been playing since grade school and though they're recently out of
> college they've already been in a succession of bands whose names
> evoke their hardcore affinities: Backhand, Bladder, Racecar, Leichman,
> Midnight in the Garden of Eden, and Skankersores. Always restless, the
> Catalpa sound never stays still for long, moving from unapologetic
> beauty to storms of noise with a sure hand for melody and development.
> Among the shimmering washes, pop riffs, and throbbing drones are wolf
> howls, lawn sprinklers blending into rhythms, recordings of friends
> talking. Feedback and distortion are manipulated like instruments,
> exploring the full range from delicate, almost singing sounds to
> crashing waves of loudness. Their first full-length CD, Hardoncity, is
> out now on the Opsound label.