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Smithsonian Folkways to Open MP3 Music Store |
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Friday, 01 April 2005 |
Smithsonian
Folkways to Open MP3 Music Store
Washington Post - USA
The Smithsonian Institution is entering the highly competitive world of
music downloads by offering the Smithsonian Folkways collection of ethnic and
traditional music in an online music store.
Smithsonian Global Sound, the new project, will be formally launched during the
Smithsonian Folklife Festival in June. The enterprise is in the same vein as
Microsoft's MSNmusic, Apple's iTunes Music Store and Sony's Connect.
"This is a museum of sound," says Richard Kurin, director of the Smithsonian
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Folkways will offer music that ranges
from the earliest American folk songs to contemporary groups doing traditional
music from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. The music includes the songs
of Woody Guthrie; the music of Mwenda Jean Bosco, the late guitar pioneer from
Congo; the sound of the Turkish saz, a stringed instrument similar to a lute;
playground songs by Suni Paz of Argentina; and the rich North Indian music of
Kamalesh Maitra.
Global Sound will charge 99 cents a song, which are available in MP3 format. The
Smithsonian will pay royalties to the artists, as its recording label has done
with records and CDs.
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