Free music or libre music is music that, like free software, can freely be copied, distributed and modified for any purpose. Thus free music is either in the public domain or licensed under a free license by the artist or copyright holder themselves, often as a method of promotion. It does not mean that there should be no fee involved. The word free refers to freedom, not to price.
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he famously burned £1 million in 1994.
James Francis Cauty, also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo the KLF, co-founder of the Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million.
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, however, it can occasionally include footage from other mediums, such as American animation, live action, or video games. AMVs are not official music videos released by the musicians, they are fan compositions which synchronize edited video clips with an audio track. AMVs are most commonly posted and distributed over the Internet through AnimeMusicVideos.org, video downloads and YouTube. Anime conventions frequently run AMV contests who usually show the finalists/winner's AMVs.
.mu is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Mauritius. It is administered by the Mauritius Network Information Centre and registrations are processed via accredited registrars. Some registrars market it as the .music and .museum TLD.
Awareness ribbons are symbols meant to show support or raise consciousness for a cause. Different colors and patterns are associated with different issues.
The Musicians' Union (MU) is an organisation which represents over 30,000 musicians working in all sectors of the British music business.
The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or open content. They encourage creators to create such content by using permissive and share-alike licensing, like that used on Wikipedia.
H.E.A.R. is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing hearing loss, mainly from loud rock music. The acronym stands for Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers. It was founded in 1988 by rock musician Kathy Peck and physician Flash Gordon, M.D. after Kathy developed tinnitus and hearing loss after playing with the band The Contractions.
Mu Phi Epsilon (ΜΦΕ) is a co-ed international professional music fraternity. It has over 75,000 members in 227 collegiate chapters and 113 alumni chapters in the US and abroad.
The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), also known as the ChoralWiki, is an online database for choral and vocal music. Its contents primarily include sheet music in the public domain or otherwise freely available for printing and performing.
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property was an independent review of the copyright law of the United Kingdom focusing on "intellectual property rights", conducted from December 2005 to December 2006. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, commissioned Andrew Gowers to lead the review; Gowers had just left a position as editor of the Financial Times when he took up the position on December 2, 2005. The review coincided with a 2006 survey carried out on behalf of the National Consumer Council, which indicated that over half of British adults infringe copyright law by duplicating and ripping music CDs. Following the review, in January 2008 the government initiated a public consultation period on proposals to legalise personal copying.
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches.
The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) is a nonprofit organisation set up to protect the rights of featured musical artists, particularly in the new digital age. It encourages a greater connection between fans and artists and aims to promote transparency in the music industry specifically to the benefit of the artists themselves.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (ΦΜΑ) is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "who, through a love for music, can assist in the fulfillment of [its] object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession or by working to advance the cause of music in America." Phi Mu Alpha has initiated more than 260,000 members, known as Sinfonians, and the fraternity currently has over 7,000 active collegiate members in 249 collegiate chapters throughout the United States.
John Frank Smith is a British musician and trade unionist.
Future of Music Coalition (FMC) is a U.S. 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization specializing in education, research and advocacy for musicians with a focus on issues at the intersection of music technology, policy and law.
RocketHub was an online crowdfunding platform launched in 2010, its first use was September 1, 2009. Based in New York City, its users included musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers, theatre producers/directors, writers, and fashion designers. Users posted fundraising campaigns to it to raise funds and awareness for projects and endeavors. Operating in over 190 countries, RocketHub was once considered one of America's largest crowdfunding platforms.
Richard O'Dwyer is a British entrepreneur & computer programmer who created the TVShack.net search engine while a student at Sheffield Hallam University.
MusiCares' COVID-19 relief effort was a charitable initiative aimed at providing financial and other forms of assistance to musicians and music industry professionals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative was established by MusiCares, a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 by the Recording Academy, the organization behind the GRAMMY Awards.
