The fist part of my research will consist of the mapping and analysis of the netlabel scene situation: I want to find out
how netlabels consider the necessity of their excistence, and if they have an ideological goal. In my opinion, netlabels
represent an important part of the open source program, where artists can share and modify their version of the input
to execute their full rights as consumer of a digital product, and to express their creative impulses. So are labels set up
to publish underground artists who don't have a shot at the traditional music labels, for the sheer love of music, or rather
to create a platform where artists can exchange ideas and to extend the music market? I will look where netlabels are
located, and whether the scene is growing and if it could be slowly changing the face of music industry as a whole.
What is the essential point of this scene, and where is it taking us?
The second part of the research is to connect the findings of the first part, to a academic framework. Here I will apply
open source/content theory, network theory, and more general new media theory to this phenomenon. Several media
theorists, and writers have written literature about open source systems, and its true potential to society and user
communities.You will find a number of them in the resources section.
Merging these two parts,
I will eventually come
to a research report, serving as my final dissertation. This research is joined, and further examined in reality,
by my project.
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June 10, 2005 | Together with my mentor I have revised the rough version of the final project, which reassures me that I am on the right track with this research. Seeing the positive response from so many netlabels (thanks to Surfaces netlabel and Ljubljana Digital Media Lab for mentioning me on their site!) and the good reactions I receive, I am quite positively excited to finish this thing as good as I just can. Not many (if any) academical researches have been conducted so far, so I hope to bring this phenomenon under the attention of other scholars and media activists. Last week I was introduced to Atilla, who is part of the team that introduces Creative Commons to Hungary. As we speak, the translations of the licence are finished, and are being checked by the CC group in the States. If all goes well, they will start making this public in some weeks through several communication channels. Hungary is one of the latter European countries to develop a CC license, so the group is quite motivated to reach their goal. The further I get into this research, the more I regret not having another half year to expand its scope even further. As much of this topic is related to copyright, DRM and legal matters, it would be an interesting research even for law students in co-orporation with media students like myself. |
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May 30, 2005 | Lots has happened since my last posting, so let me try to catch up with my diary: I have kept in touch with artists from the Minimum Festival, as some of them have serious interest in publishing on netlabels. They want to know how things work, who gets selected, and what happens next. I've taken it seriously to give them all the information they need, providing them with tips, contacts and examples. Some of those guys really do have talent, and would definitely not be misplaced in some netlabels' line-up. I have also drawn up a rough version of the final research paper, presenting it to my graduation counselor. We'll discuss any details and remarks soon over Skype. Of course the process of reading and learning never quite stops, but I have taken up the pen, to start writing things down. My deadline is a month from now, and I look forward to produce a quality piece of research on this topic. I canceled my order of the Bruno Latour book ('Science in Action'). It's been three months, and still no word (the clerks don't know anything). A friend of mine, who will visit me in a week or so, will buy it in Holland, and bring it over. I believe it will be of valuable importance for this paper, and I do not want to lose any more time over it. |
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May 17, 2005 | The festival was a positive experience, and a great introduction into the electronic underground scene of Budapest. I have spoken with many performing artists, about my research, and the option to publish soundscapes and music on netlabel environments. Despite the fact that some already knew about these labels, none of them had previously released any material in this way. Many reacted positively to the idea. From now it's not longer possible to download the questionnaire from the website. I have gathered a large amount of data from insiders at netlabels to draw conclusions from. I would like to thank all the contributors once again for their positive comments and helpful information. All contributors will be mentioned in the research paper. Those who are interested (I will send out a mail in due time), I will be happy to send you a copy by e-mail. The final deadline is set on July first. |
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May 10, 2005 | We've been programmed by the Minimum Festival on its third day (appropriately themed "Sajátgép / Elektronikus Hanggubanc", which means something like "Computer / Electronical Sound-Knots"). We're going to use PureData as a tool to experiment with sound and music. We're also going to totally tweak and kick James Brown's "This is a man's world" around for kicks. |
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April 28, 2005 | I have found good articles about Digital Rights Management which, combined with articles and resources of Creative Commons and GNU GPL will illustrate the copyright debate in quite a good way. I have updated the resource list. Yesterday I have attended a workshop on Max/MSP and Jitter (also mentioning the free version Pure Data). Being my first introduction to this software, it was quite interesting. To me it was mainly a great example how we can make the software work for us (instead of vice versa) in every possible way. |
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April 20, 2005 | My attention in this week has been on reading and compairing books. You could say it's been (and still is) a literary period for me. That's also why I haven't updated as regularly lately. I have come into contact with Guy van Belle (Waag Society), who could prove a very interesting person to learn from regarding live streaming events: he has lots of experience in this. I've also registered for an upcoming conference called Independent Radios. I think Nextlab, situated in Kultiplex cultural center (where tilos web radio is based) is also quite experienced. I have also had contact with people at Reboot.fm, in Berlin. |
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April 14, 2005 | In the past week I have been setting up a basic structure for the research, dividing it into chapters. That still deserves some attention. I decided that I will not contact more netlabels. I hope those that are still working with it, will send it back soon. The answers are showing some real interesting results so far. I have also presented the work in progress to all the people active at C3, plus some interested students from the Intermedia Department at the Budapest art academy. That seemed to go quite well, and people were really interested in especially the legal implications, and the financial dangers for artists. The real concept of Creative Commons or GPL was still quite new to some... |
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April 7, 2005 | I've been getting a lot of very positive feedback from netlabels and supporters all around the earth. The suspicion that this kind of research hasn't been done academically is confirmed, and the initiative is appreciated. I have started to organize the returning questionnaires (as the number is steadily growing), |
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April 4, 2005 | Every day more netlabel are reacting positively to the research. So far, twelve labels have agreed to |
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April 2, 2005 | After selecting a number of quality netlabels, I sent out requests for their cooperation in a questionnaire I |
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March 31, 2005 | The new idea for a streaming project is taking more and more shape. I'm playing with the idea to organize |
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March 30, 2005 | Today I attended a workshop of Audio Streaming by Akos Maroy (on behalf of Nextlab Budapest) , downtown in Budapest. It made me really very interested in the possibilities of streaming, which I didn't consider until now as a potential side-project for this research. One option would be to gear up the servers and motivate a group of netlabel artists to perform simultaneously over different channels. I am considering if it wouldn't even suit my topic better than the ultrahang festival (food for thought!). My ordered books still haven't arrived from the bookstore: I wonder if their ordering system is any good. A colleague/student suggested to check out the small media library of the Intermedia Department of the art academy downtown. |
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March 29, 2005 | In the process of developping a questionnaire to send to several selected netlabels around Europe and |
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March 23, 2005 | I feel that I get deeper and deeper into the realm of open-source software. People who I've met so far, |
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March 20, 2005 | Put the website online on the C3 server. The Hungarian translation is still not finished, but the rest seems |
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March 11, 2005 | The definitive line-up of the Ultrahang Fesztivál is available, and I decide to focus on next year's event as a |
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March 8, 2005 | Started with programming this website to explain the nature of this research, and to keep others updated |
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March 3, 2005 | Official start of research project at C3. Installing workplace, Creating a work plan. |
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