Musopen

Musopen, under the URL musopen.org, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which prioritizes "improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials".{{cite web |title=About |website=Musopen |url=https://musopen.org/about/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The website creates, produces and disseminates public domain music via recordings, sheet music and educational resources concerning Western classical music.{{sfn|Janvey|2013|p=372}}{{cite news |last=Farber |first=Jim |date=September 25, 2012 |title=Musopen: Will This Site Set Music Free? |work=San Francisco Classical Voice |url=https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/musopen-will-site-set-music-free |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} It currently operates out of Palo Alto, California,{{sfn|Janvey|2013|p=372}} although is also maintains an address in Tarzana, Los Angeles, CA.{{cite web |title=Privacy policy |website=Musopen |url=https://musopen.org/page/privacy/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }}

It describes its mission as "to set music free". Although much Western classical music—particularly before the 20th century—is in public domain, most recordings are copyrighted.{{sfn|Tobias|2014|p=208}} This causes a variety of limitations: reduced transmission and sharing; few opportunities to create remixes or mashups;{{sfn|Tobias|2014|p=208}} and difficulty in use for the soundtracks of films and videos.{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Nate |date=2008 |title=Musopen puts classical recordings, scores in public domain |work=Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/05/musopen-puts-classical-recordings-scores-in-public-domain/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The alternative use of early 20th-century recordings, which have passed their copyright expiration, is often not ideal since the sound is often low-quality. Music education scholar Evan S. Tobias noted that "Musopen's initiative of recording music and making it available with creative commons licensing speaks to an era in which people wish to interact, engage, and participate with music beyond its consumption. Furthermore it serves as a model for musicians and ensembles with the means to do the same".{{sfn|Tobias|2014|p=208}}

Musopen operates under a freemium model, in that some content is available free of charge, but premium downloads (HD) require a subscription.{{cite web |title=Signup |website=Musopen |url=https://musopen.org/page/signup/ |access-date=January 1, 2014 |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213091443/https://musopen.org/page/signup/ |url-status=live}} Non-paying users can download music recordings but are restricted to 5 downloads per day; members paying $55 per year receive unlimited downloads of losslessly encoded music. Music from the site has since found its way into a wide variety of media, including TV shows, films, Wikipedia articles, and use in the One Laptop per Child project.{{cite web |last=Baio |first=Andy |date=June 6, 2012 |title=Shut Up and Take My Money: Fans Should Hire Artists |publisher=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.com/2012/06/opinion-baio-fan-funding/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }}

Musopen was created by music producer Aaron Dunn (born 1983),{{cite web |title=Aaron Dunn Sheet Music |website=Musopen |url=https://musopen.org/music/composer/aaron-dunn/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} then a bassoonist attending Skidmore College of Saratoga Springs, New York. After witnessing that the school "janitors would take trash bags filled with the recordings we’d made and throw them out", he researched domain law and concluded that an online repository for public domain classical music was feasible. Dun founded the site in May 2006, although he noted that initially "it went nowhere".{{cite web |title=Musopen |publisher=ProRepublica |url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203177592/201910509349200021/full/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The site attracted more attention in 2008, when it commissioned recordings of Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas for public domain release.{{cite web |last=Sieber |first=Tina |date=May 18, 2009 |title=3 More Exciting Ways to Discover Free Music |publisher=MakeUseOf |url=https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-exciting-ways-to-discover-free-music/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} By May 2008, the site included 100 pieces and a now-obsolete "bidding system", where users could pay money towards the recording of specific works.{{cite web |title=Bid |website=Musopen |url=http://www.musopen.com/bid |access-date=June 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306045531/http://www.musopen.com/bid |archive-date=March 6, 2010 |url-status=dead }}

In 2010, Musopen received considerably more attention; the music critic Jim Farber remarked that it became an "overwhelming hit (literally and figuratively)". It attracted significant media coverage,{{cite web |title=Press |website=Musopen |url=https://musopen.org/press/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} amid its organization of a major fundraiser via Kickstarter to commission recordings of a larger repertoire.{{Cite news |last=Turner |first=James |date=December 15, 2010 |title=Creative idea? Kickstarter connects artists with online funding |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Tech/2010/1215/Creative-idea-Kickstarter-connects-artists-with-online-funding |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The fundraiser looked to record the symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, alongside a plethora of chamber music for public domain dissemination.{{Cite news |last=Esguerra |first=Richard |date=August 25, 2010 |title=Musopen Wants to Give Classical Music to the Public Domain |work=Electronic Frontier Foundation |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/musopen-wants-give-classical-music-public-domain |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The project raised a total of {{USD|68,359}}, more than six times their initial target of {{USD|11,000}}.{{cite web |last=Dunn |first=Aaron |title=Musopen: Record and release free music without copyrights. |publisher=Kickstarter |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/record-and-release-free-music-without-copyrights/description |access-date=June 30, 2024 }} The Czech Philharmonic was commissioned to record the works; in July 2012, Musopen announced that the editing of the recordings was finished,{{cite web |last=Dunn |first=Aaron |date=July 13, 2012 |title=Done! |publisher=Kickstarter |url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/record-and-release-free-music-without-copyrights/posts/266390 |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} after which the audio files were uploaded both to its website and Archive.org.{{cite web |last=Dunn |first=Aaron |date=August 15, 2012 |title=Done and done |publisher=Kickstarter |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/record-and-release-free-music-without-copyrights/posts/266390 |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} The final list of music was announced in August 2012, and included Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, the piano sonatas of Franz Schubert, Brahms's four symphonies, string quartets by Mozart, and a variety of other orchestral and chamber works.{{cite news |last=Rosen |first=Rebecca J. |date=September 9, 2013 |title=The Complete Works of Chopin, for Everybody, for Free |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/the-complete-works-of-chopin-for-everybody-for-free/279471/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526005829/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/the-complete-works-of-chopin-for-everybody-for-free/279471/ |archive-date=May 26, 2024 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}

In September 2013, a second Kickstarter fundraiser was launched by Musopen to record the complete works of Frédéric Chopin. The fundraiser was successful, exceeding the funding goal of {{USD|75,000}} by over {{USD|15,000}}.{{cite web |last=Dunn |first=Aaron |date=June 30, 2024 |title=Set Chopin free |publisher=Kickstarter |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/set-chopin-free |access-date=June 30, 2024 }}

Musopen stands with the ChoralWiki and the Wind Repertory Project as among the most prominent online music repertoire databases.{{sfn|Tobias|2014|p=214}} It has been compared favorably to both Wikipedia and IMSLP.{{cite web |last=Malinowski |first=Steve |author-link=Stephen Malinowski |title=Resources |website=musanim.com |url=https://www.musanim.com/Resources/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} It has also been likened to the Open Goldberg Variations, a crowdfunded project by Robert Douglass and pianist Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka, to create a copyright-free recording of J.S. Bach's complete Goldberg Variations.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=May 29, 2012 |title=Bach score and recording hits public domain following Kick-starter campaign |work=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/29/bach-kickstarter |access-date=June 26, 2024 }} In 2022, Business Insider ranked it among the "5 best websites for downloading public domain music", alongside FreePD, Free Music Archive, Open Music Archive and Mubert Render.{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Dave |date=April 28, 2022 |title=The 5 best websites for downloading public domain music |work=Business Insider |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/public-domain-music |access-date=June 26, 2024 }}

:Primary

{{reflist|group=M}}

:Secondary

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Janvey |first=Alexandra |date=July–August 2013 |title=Learning about music on the Web: Online resources |journal=College & Research Libraries News |volume=74 |issue=7 |pages=370–373 |url=https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/8981/9749 }}
• {{cite book |last=Tobias |first=Evan S. |editor-last1=Kaschub |editor-first1=Michele |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Janice |year=2014 |title=Promising Practices in 21st Century Music Teacher Education |chapter=21st Century Musicianship through Digital Media and Participatory Culture |pages=205–230 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-020615-4 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ORiFBAAAQBAJ}} }}

{{Commons category}}

• {{official website|http://www.musopen.org}}
• {{Internet Archive music|musopen}}
• [https://www.marketplace.org/2010/09/16/tech/free-public-domain-classical-music-way/ Interview] with Musopen founder on the Marketplace radio program

{{Authority control}}

Category:Kickstarter projects

Category:Online music and lyrics databases

Category:Public domain music

Category:Tarzana, Los Angeles

Category:Internet properties established in 2005

Category:2006 establishments in California

Category:Organizations based in Los Angeles County, California