Listen Here: Edmonton Public Library Will Begin Offering Free Downloads of Music by Local Musicians in April

Background: While this is the first project of it’s kind to launch in Canada we’ve posted about similar project in other locations during the past couple years. Projects Include:

• Denver, CO
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Iowa City, IA
• Nationally, in New Zealand

From the Edmonton Journal:

Fifty albums will be available for free when capitalcityrecords.ca launches at the end of April. Users will also be able to make playlists, look through a collection of digitized gig posters, and share memories about some of the city’s defunct music venues.
“This is an opportunity for us to take advantage of cool new technology that can help people engage with cultural history in exciting ways,” says Alex Carruthers, the EPL’s digital public spaces librarian. Members will be able to download the albums for free, while non-members can stream the tunes. Musicians will receive honorariums based on the length of their albums ­— $100 for four or five songs, $150 for six or eight, $200 for nine or more.
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Carruthers, the visionary behind Capital City Records, also sought input from dozens of local musicians, managers, radio hosts, journalists and computer programmers. Through a series of brainstorming sessions, they discussed such issues as licensing fees, musical diversity and curation.

Read the Complete Article
The Edmonton Public Library was named the 2014 Gale/Library Journal “Library of the Year” last June.

Filed under: Gale, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries