Universal Records & The Resurgence of Vinyl
Universal Records has decided to start a new crowd funding campaign to address the resurgence of vinyl.
UVinyl, a.k.a The Vinyl Project, is proposing limited re-releases on vinyl from the Universal Music catalog. But few details have been made available yet and the official web site, which will be at uvinyl.com, has yet to have gone online.
All that is known is that donations may result in bonus content, like free music and/or video downloads and personalized art prints. But personally I’d like to see an artist / label partnership that enables donators to obtain rare recordings, like that of Eight Second’s “Almacantar.”
Eight Seconds is a rock band from Ottawa primarily known for Canadian hits “Kiss You When It’s Dangerous“, “Where’s Bula” and Sincere“, which were taken from this Universal Records album. And for “Tell Diane” and “No Picasso” from their subsequent release, “Big Houses” on ATCO Records.
A re-release of Almacantar may be imminent independent of this new project this year. But this could have been an interesting fallback, provided the band were consulted in an acceptable amount of time.
This being an American project I suspect most Canadian releases would take some time to be considered, not only because of popularity in the states but because of contractual and rights issues.
I suspect its success will depend on the compensation artists will receive for these re-releases, especially the lesser known acts. I’ve signed on to get more details on UVinyl and will post additional information, if any.
Canadian Musician Guitar Contest
Thought you’d like to know that Canadian Musician magazine and Erikson Music are giving away a guitar package. Details can be found by clicking here.
This contest ends August 31, 2013.
Canada Post To Honor More Canadian Recording Artists
Canada Post will be issuing a series of postage stamps, prepaid post cards and limited edition frame prints dedicated to Canadian recording artists The Guess Who, Beau Dommage, Rush and The Tragically Hip on July 19th, 2013.
These collectibles are available for pre-order and previous collectibles for Bryan Adams, Edith Butler, Robert Charlebois, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Bruce Cockburn, Robbie Robertson, Ginette Reno, Paul Anka and Joni Mitchell remain available at their online store.
Library and Archives Canada’s Secret Deal
I’ve been keeping an eye out for details on this secret deal for several days now, since the Ottawa Citizen broke the story.
Apparently Library and Archives Canada has decided to contract out their digital conversion. And instead of consulting the archivists of Canada, they entered into secret negotiations with canadiana.org in exchange for an exclusive contract that would last ten years.
Unfortunately this deal may translate into user fees for Canadians who want to access anything considered other than “basic” on the database. And the Ottawa Citizen article mentions a $10 per month fee for this online access, making some wonder why Canadians need to pay to access their own material.
Having accessed these services for decades for free, I am concerned that these fees may shut out researchers like yours truly. Will I be able to access this database for free at the Archives in Ottawa ? Will individuals have access through their public library for free ? Will students be able to access the database via their university or college for free ?
Yes, it is quite expensive and time consuming to digitize material. But what will happen after that contract expires ? The public has clearly not been consulted and were not given answers as to what is involved here.
And this is why I signed the openmedia.org petition and may also consider contacting my local Member of Parliament over this issue.
Please consider doing this as well on this Canada Day weekend.
Good Morning or Happy Birthday ?
Say, did you know that you can’t sing “Happy Birthday To You” on Youtube ?
That’s right. The age old tune is still copyrighted and to use it you need to pay up.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s an adult or group of children that sings it. And when a film production company called Good Morning To You Productions Inc made a documentary about the songs history, they were required to pay a $1,500 synchronization license fee to use it on their film.
Had this company not paid they would have been liable up to $150,000 in damaged for copyright infringement so they paid up. But of course they also decided to launch a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court representing the Southern District of New York, on behalf of all who were forced to pay to use this song.
The composition was originally entitled “Good Morning To All” and composed in 1893 by Patty Smith Hill and her sister Mildred Hill. And the copyright to that song of course expired in 1921 in the States. But a change in lyrics in 1924 and a different arrangement in 1935 caused the copyright to linger.
Fast forward to 2013.
The plaintiffs claim that they have evidence dating the traditional lyrics to 1911. This would date both the composition and traditional lyrics to over 75 years, rendering both public domain.
They also dispute whether copyright was actually established in 1924 because Robert H. Coleman was only credited for compiling, editing and publishing “Harvest Hymns”, a songbook which featured the melody and lyrics to “Happy Birthday To You”.
The class action lawsuit also alleges that copyright for “Happy Birthday To You” had not been established in several subsequent publications and copyright registrations.
What’s annoying about this is that in Canada there’s no dispute whether this song is public domain with lyrics or not. But everything that is uploaded to Youtube is subject to American law so hold off uploading your birthday videos guys and gals until this is settled.
10 Years !
iTunes is ten years old today !
It went online on April 28th, 2003, offering Apple users 200,000 recordings, and sold over ten million mp3s by the time Windows compatible software was released for the service, on October 15th, 2003.