Creative Commons on Last.FM

November 25, 2006 in Music, Web by Carsten Pötter | Comments

Last.FM has introduced Creative Commons charts a few weeks ago. Most netlabels use Creative Commons licenses to regulate the use of the artist’s and label’s work although they give away their music for free.

I think this is a positive and interesting new feature because it helps artists and labels getting more exposure outside the netlabel scene. People seeing the Creative Commons tag will hopefully become curious about it and eventually download and enjoy some netlabel releases.
So tag your tracks although I am guilty of not doing it until today. Mea culpa!

Another great new feature is the event tracker. It shows events within a certain radius, which you can choose from a dropdown list, of your hometown on your dashboard. If you live in a bigger city there are a lot of gigs and other events to discover. If there is one missing you can add it, of course. Very handy.

Tags: Artist

  • Marc
    LastFM and CC are both great. Even though I've read in the terms of agreements that they wont claim the rights/ownership from the music you upload, let alone to download for free.. they indirectly seem to make money out of it..with ads and the paying radiostation-listeners. Right? I;m currently working on an paper about LastFM. In specific I'm going to look at a lot of interesting concepts like non-market commmonsbased peer to peer production, mass creativity, creative commons, folksonomy, long tail etc. Im just starting on it. Don't you think it isnt a bit odd to host your CC downloads on a bigmoneymaking site LastFM? Most CCartists wont bother but if you really look at the core principle it's almost like a paradox. Looking forward to your reaction!

    Marc
  • Carsten Pötter
    Well, CC doesn't mean that the artists or anyone else aren't allowed to make money from their creative work, even if they use a non-commercial CC license. From the FAQ:
    Secondly, the noncommercial license option is an inventive tool designed to allow people to maximize the distribution of their works while keeping control of the commercial aspects of their copyright. To make one thing clear that is sometimes misunderstood: the "noncommercial use" condition applies only to others who use your work, not to you (the licensor). So if you choose to license your work under a Creative Commons license that includes the “noncommercial use” option, you impose the ”noncommercial” condition on the users (licensees). However, you, the creator of the work and/or licensor, may at any time decide to use it commercially. People who want to copy or adapt your work, "primarily for monetary compensation or financial gain" must get your separate permission first.

    I think that's a convenient way to deal with licenses.
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