Musopen Inc. is a
501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
non-profit organization located in
Tarzana, California, launched by Aaron Dunn in 2005. It aims to "set music
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
" by providing music to the public free of charge, without copyright restrictions.
Mission and charitable activities
Musopen provides an online library of
public domain music recordings and sheet music. It also raises money to finance classical music recordings which are released into the public domain.
In 2008, Musopen released newly commissioned recordings of the 32
Beethoven piano sonatas into the public domain.
In 2010, the site organized a fundraiser via
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
to commission recordings of a larger repertoire, raising a total of $68,359, more than six times their initial target of $11,000. In July 2012, Musopen announced that the editing of the recordings was finished, after which the audio files were uploaded to its website and
Archive.org. The final list of music was announced in August 2012.
In September 2013, a new Kickstarter fundraiser was launched by Musopen to record the complete works of
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
. The fundraiser was successful, exceeding the funding goal of $75,000 by over $15,000. All recording for this project has been finished and editing was completed in April 2015.
Online music library
Musopen operates under a
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
model, in that some content is available free of charge, but premium downloads (HD) require a subscription. Sheet music is available for download to all for free, and recordings can be played using an
HTML5 player. Non-paying users can download music recordings but are restricted to 5 downloads per day; members paying $55 per year receive unlimited downloads of
losslessly encoded music; and "benefactors" paying $240 per year may in addition request recordings (as of October 2018).
[()]
See also
*
Open Goldberg Variations
*
History of music
*
Public domain music
*
Internet Archive
References
External links
Musopen Homepage* Musopen Kickstarter-funded recordings on Archive.org
In MP3 formatan
as multi-track high quality WAV files(not suitable for end users)
{{Authority control
Kickstarter projects
Online music and lyrics databases
Public domain music
Tarzana, Los Angeles
Internet properties established in 2005
2005 establishments in California
Organizations based in Los Angeles County, California