Recording company bosses are livid
Recording company bosses are livid after the BBC makes MP3s of Beethoven's symphonies available for downloading:
Managing director of the Naxos label, Anthony Anderson, said: 'I think there is a question of whether a publicly funded broadcaster should be doing this and there is the obvious issue that it is devaluing the perceived value of music. You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing.'
Of course, the value of music that the label executives are so valiantly defending is not its use value (how much enjoyment it can bring) but its exchange value (how useful it is as a currency). To this, I rub my index finger and thumb tips together and declare that the world's smallest violin is playing Beethoven for the record companies. If they're so pissed maybe they should get out of the business of producing music that's in the public domain. Perhaps they should concentrate on producing quality in pursuit of sales - the BBC's reputation is already solid.
(via techdirt) "