Re: GG and Napster and MP3

[Bengt Christensson <Bengt.Christensson@axis.com>]

Napster isn't really a site with music as mp3.com, it is like a huge listing
of MP3 files on other people's hard drives. When you fetch a music piece,
you actually are downloading it from another person's PC/MAC. Napster only
acts as a large "telephone book" that lists the hard drive contents of the
PCs that are logged in. This is what makes this legal case so difficult.

Anyway, searching for Glenn Gould on Napster today gives more than 100 hits.
Almost all of the Sony releases are there, including his "standard" Bach
(Goldbergs, WTC I/II, Inventions/Sinfonias, Suites, Partitas, AoF, Concerti)
plus some Liszt, Brahms, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mozart and Schoenberg.

Although I could very well download this music and easily make my own CDs of
them (I am lucky to have a broadband DSL connection), I still prefer to buy
the actual CDs from a record store (actually from Amazon.com). I don't think
this will be the case for much longer though. The record industry needs to
wake up as a result of Napster's actions and see the Internet as an
opportunity, not a threat.

However, Napster makes a great discovery tool to try out new music and to
compare different versions of the same piece before you buy. For instance,
today I could compare 6 different versions of the double violin concerto and
11 (!) piano and harpsichord versions of the B minor WTC I fugue (Gilbert,
Moroney, Gulda, Gould, Hewitt, Jaccottet, Schiff, Schepkin, Aldwell, Tilney
and Landowska). Also, sometimes you get more and sometime less hits
depending on who is connected at the time (and if they will allow you to get
their files), but as soon as you have downloaded a file to your PC, others
will be able to download from yours - like a virus.

What I find the most interesting however, is how much Glenn Gould there
actually seem to be out there. Seemingly more represented than classical
performers at the same "level of celebrity"!  My theory is that many early
computer users (geeks, hacker types etc) has a weakness for Bach due to its
structure, etc. A similar phenomenon could be seen on early MIDI sites. The
other factor is simply that Glenn somehow seem to attract IT people with his
playing and attitude.

Baffling times!


/Bengt

-----Original Message-----
From: Birgitte Jorgensen [mailto:bj@kemmunet.net.mt]
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 3:59 AM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: GG and Napster and MP3



Mary Jo has raised a fascinating and complex issue...

Do any of you take advantage of Napster's "offerings" of GG recordings?

If so, why? Is Napster ethical?


During the summer I searched the site out of curiosity (and with barely
suppressed unethical intentions) and it came up with zero listings for Glenn
Gould. Perhaps they have since added some tracks. (Did I just hear a
stampede of F_Minors rushing over to the Napster site?)