Musopen.com raising funds for public domain classical recordings

If you’re a classical music lover, you owe it to yourself to spread this around.

Musopen, a website offering public domain classical music, is raising money via Kickstarter to have the works of several composers recorded, then released into the public domain (hosted on their website, archive.org, and elsewhere). At this stage, at least the symphonies of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Sibelius are going to be recorded, with further works added depending on the money raised.

Classical music can be a particular problem to obtain in the public domain, particularly obscure works, as recordings require the commitment of a full orchestra and conductor, as well as a large recording space. Consequently, most recordings are directly funded and produced by a classical music label. Furthermore, most classical musicians are paid on a per-session or salaried basis, and so they don’t benefit as directly from the logic of releasing some music for free in order to increase ticket sales later.

Anyway, please donate and send this around. It’s a worthwhile cause.

Also, if you just like classical music, check out the archive of music they currently have available (which is by no means small). They also have sheet music if you’re that way inclined.

via Slashdot