Website Shout Out: Bad Panda Records

From the site:
“Every Monday, Bad Panda Records distributes one song by a different artist freely, legally and digitally only.

“Bad Panda Records has been made possible by the cooperation of friends, who share a great passion for music and an interest in the future of music industry. The number of contributors to Bad Panda Records have been growing thanks to a common desire to voluntarily and freely help the cause by taking part in the project.

“Inspired by the illuminating Wired article written by David Byrne in 2007, and by the pioneering Free Music Movement aiming for music ‘liberalization’ since the early 90s, and finally by Lawrence Lessig that laid the foundations of a free music culture, Bad Panda Records believes that Creative Commons (CC) has articulated a radical view of what this might look like by advocating the freedom of creative work, which can be altered, used, shared and even commercially used by others. Artists can choose to publish their work among six different main licenses, that allows their music to be shared and used freely for other projects as long as the artist is given attribution as the original creator. CC licenses work alongside copyright, allowing artists to legally share their work while maintaining all of their rights and the licenses given to the author, instead of losing them to lawyers or publishers. Many musicians are already making use of these licenses to disseminate their music and build creative dialogues with fans and other artists. Consider the file-sharing debacle that continues to plague the music industry. Artists are already finding their music shared for free online, outside of their control. Rather than wasting many precious resources attempting to kill music piracy, it seems more practical to embrace sharing and develop something appropriate for the post-napster world.”

The amount of music available on Bad Panda is limited since it started in December of 2009, but those who run it seem to have the proper commitment and inspiration to keep it going strong for many Mondays to come.

Also check out our posts on RIP! A Remix Manifesto and the Free Music Archive, both of which also deal with Creative Commons.