Archives are not necessarily a money sink

October 4th, 2010 · · Archives, Good News No comments - Tags: ,

Great news story about Ray Charles leaving his estate and masters to a charitable organisation who have managed to double its value, while contributing millions to worthwhile causes.

Ray Charles leaves soul to kids

His entire estate was turned over to the foundation after he died of cancer in 2004, aged 73. None of Charles’ 12 adult children is involved with it.

A few years before he died, Charles advised he would bequeath US$500,000 to each of them and warned them not to challenge his wishes. One did sue in 2008 for Charles’ intellectual property rights but was rebuffed in court.

Foundation president Valerie Ervin’s main job is to increase the value of the foundation’s investments – a task she aced by ensuring it was not affected by the 2008 stock market crash – and to give away about US$5 million annually.

Its reach has been broadened to education in general, including grants totaling US$5 million to Morehouse College, a university for black men in Atlanta.

Ervin demands quarterly reports from beneficiaries and makes surprise visits to see how funds are spent. A board of directors provides an extra level of oversight. The foundation’s overheads are low with five employees.

The foundation also has a licensing arm, which handles post-1960 recordings. Through a venture with Concord Records, it will release the album Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters on October 26. Among tracks is a duet with Johnny Cash on Kris Kristofferson’s Why Me, Lord?

“We own everything,” said Ervin, who ran Charles’ affairs in the last decade of his life. “Mr Charles was adamant that he own everything that was related to him.” (In fact, Atlantic Records owns recordings from the 1950s, but the foundation controls usage.)

Copyright law needs a digital-age upgrade

September 26th, 2010 · · Copyright, Orphan Works No comments

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Did you ever imagine you could be held liable for copyright infringement for storing your music collection on your hard drive, downloading photos from the Internet or forwarding news articles to your friends?

If you did not get the copyright owner’s permission for these actions, you could be violating the law. It sounds absurd, but copyright owners have the right to control reproductions of their works and claim statutory damages even when a use does not harm the market for their works.

Nice to see a mention of libraries and orphan works in there…

India’s house of vinyl

September 25th, 2010 · · Restoration No comments

Last year, I was on a panel with Atul Churamani, VP of Saregama, the company that possesses the largest collection of recorded music in India.

It’s nice to know there’s a serious digitisation process underway – though it does sound like a big task…

Numero Group are, frankly, heroes

September 23rd, 2010 · · Archives, Good News No comments

Chicago’s Numero Group record label prides itself on digging up obscure soul, funk and R&B treasures:

Indeed, Robert Pruter, author of “Chicago Soul,” calls the research and archival work that Numero does “superlative.” “They do an extraordinary job of documenting,” he says. Pruter, a librarian at Romeoville-based Lewis University, says soul and R&B rarely get the same attention from academics that jazz and blues do, but he predicts that someday it will, and he believes that Numero’s compilations will be key when that day comes.

“Twenty years from now, the sort of people (Numero) is talking to will be dead, and history will die with them,” says Pruter.

For anyone who’s wondering, Shipley and company don’t go about producing historic documents by digging through old records. Any used records of use to Numero have already been picked up by someone else, explains Rob Sevier, Numero’s arts and repertoire guru. Instead, Numero goes through primary sources like producers, artists and label execs to find the music it’s looking for.

Sir Paul Picks HP to Build, Operate His Private Cloud

September 23rd, 2010 · · Archives No comments

Sir Paul Picks HP to Build, Operate His Private Cloud – Cloud Computing from eWeek: Sir Paul McCartney has been one of the world’s most-renowned entertainment content creators for two generations. Like most of us, his personal collection has been stored on old-school media that’s considered at risk.

Not anymore. McCartney has decided to digitize everything he has and is moving it to the cloud.