I just read about this website. They hire musicians to play classical for release to the public domain. In order to pay for the musicians, they ask for donations. If I were a more successful indie game developer, I would definitely throw a couple thousand dollars their way, because good music that is entirely free of copyright would be worth it for games, and many other endeavors. Right now they're subsisting on $5 tips. Check it out. The cool thing is, you can bid on which piece is performed next! http://www.musopen.com/
I think you're missing the point, Dan. Actually I'm not sure what your point is, because your post seems to be entirely irrelevant to this thread.
ChrisP, I happen to know that you contracted the services of Duncan Watt for Mayhem Intergalactic. I believe Duncan would be disappointed in your support of this sort of post, ChrisP.
You're reading a lot into my short reply. As for your second paragraph... heh. OK, run and tell him about this thread then. See what he says. I'm still not entirely sure what your point is, because it seems you're being deliberately obtuse. That said, given the video that you posted, I'll take a stab that you're protesting against the very idea of "free music". I completely agree with that video. Heck, I'm a "writer" (of games) myself. However, I believe that your protestations are unfounded, which I why I said that your post doesn't seem relevant. Here's why: Firstly, the musicians that play for that website are being paid. That's the point. And the composers are long dead, they don't care. So you can't have any objection on that score, unless you have some bizarre objection to copyright lapsing. Secondly, there is already free music to be found all around the internet which is legal to use freely for commercial purposes. (To be clear, I am not talking about pirated music. I know my copyright law.) This isn't going to change, so you might as well stop fighting it. Thirdly, guess why it's free? Because it's not as useful! Free music is usually either not as good or not as appropriate for any given project. FYI, Mayhem Intergalactic originally used a public domain recording of Holst's Mars. I gained enough money from that bootstrapping to be able to pay Duncan for his excellent purpose-made compositions, which were obviously much better suited. Are you saying this was somehow immoral? Please.
My point about Duncan, and I don't want to put words into his mouth, is that I've heard him on MANY occasions lament the under-paid musician/composer who undercuts not just the competition but his/her own value. Your own contradicting point: Custom music services are VALUABLE. My original post, if you MISSED IT for some reason, while you were ARGUING AGAINST ITS RELEVANCE, is just that! My post was this correction of the original post: The Harlan clip was a bonus PS. IGM is a great example to everyone reading this post BECAUSE custom music services are VALUABLE to Indy Game Developers. It's really not that difficult to read my post.
Are you 100% opposed to free software as well, because free software undercuts companies that want to charge for software?
Custom music services are valuable. Stock music services are also valuable. I don't see the problem here.
It's hard to comprehend what you said, or at least locate a point within it. Do you object to musicians recording public-domain music and voluntarily releasing their work into the public domain? If so, it seems hardly a leap to imagine you'd object to programmers building on FOSS code and releasing their work as free software.
Agreed. Also agreed. I had the impression that you, Dan, were saying that stock music is a bad evil thing. Perhaps I misinterpreted you; if so, I regret the misunderstanding. However, if you're going to persist in being deliberately vague about your meaning, then you can hardly blame other people for not getting it. It seems that ultimately we're in agreement, and that this is just a communications problem...
Back to the original post... I had a peruse through the files. It's great they are doing this kind of thing for very old classics, this kind of music is a great history lesson for music students. Having a listen to these representations I found them certainly far from perfect (great effort mind you!). The files are very raw with coughing in the background, various mistakes and chair creaking sounds from the orchestra members. The recording quality is low too. So I doubt many people would want to use them for commercial work. Great to be able to listen to them though.