As you mention, the same thing happened with public radio stations. Unlike libraries, they could have continued to make use of the older format independent of the public's drift (or stampede) to CDs. They received those treasures for free, as well as tons of commercial product as promos, with the idea that they'd behave as cultural institutions and share this wealth over the air. Lots of things went wrong with that scenario, but the key one was financial strangulation, just as is happening with libraries. A few of us do benefit from those pathetic scavenger sales, but that wasn't the idea at all.
Yes, it's long past the time to be upset by the death of these quaint notions of public good; time to resurrect them from other directions. The diminution of such institutions is one prism through which to view the copyright issue. Good luck, Tim Brooks, et al.
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Biel
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 12:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folk Music in America
I was lucky enough to get two sets of FMIA as they were being discarded by our college library and radio station as they were concentrating on only NEW media. The same holds true of the New World Records which I am almost complete on for the first 140 issues or so. It is a shame how some libraries don't recognize the educational and cultural value of things if they are not on the LATEST media. Our library had a great spoken word, dramatic, and historical LP collection when I arrived, and I bought almost all 600 of these at $1 a disc about ten years ago. (I only missed the Folkways JAZZ series -- someone working the sale must have grabbed them before opening.) These FMIA and New world LPs had been donated to libraries and public radio stations enhance the libraries of America, and all too many didn't appreciate them. I castigated them AFTER I hauled them off!
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folk Music in America
From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, July 01, 2013 9:18 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
I've been poking around the MP3s. This is great stuff. The books are _very_ complete but not overly obtuse. Making MP3s and scanning the books must have been an undertaking. Much appreciated. I see the point about cassettes vs sometimes scratchy LPs, but my experience with LOC's products is the duped-cassette versions were often very bad-sounding. I always assumed lowest-bidder syndrome. In general, I always thought LOC anthologies were compiled and manufactured by and for scholars, not audiophiles.
One thing I don't understand -- assuming the master tapes for these LPs still exist (you'd think they would if they were always in the possession of the LOC), then why can't they be reissued as FLAC and MP3 downloads via Smithsonian Folkways. It seems it wouldn't cost very much to digitize 1970s vintage master tapes given the vast resources of the LOC. They'd probably make back their digitization costs in a few years, sooner if they also sold downloads via iTunes and Amazon.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cary Ginell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folk Music in America
> OK, that does it. I'm pulling out my set and listening to it this holiday weekend. It will be like
> the first time all over again Thanks, Dick!
>
> Cary Ginell
>
>
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