Horst seine Freunde

[Hier geht es zur deutschen Version]

In this year 2024, I have devoted myself almost exclusively to caring for a family member. This has raised many existential questions for me and I haven’t found time to answer them, let alone even formulate them clearly. So here is an attempt at a beginning.

I am still committed to the idea of free access to culture. Especially the #ccmusic scene, i.e. all the people who publish music under a Creative Commons license. Call it netaudio, netlabels, whatever. I like #ccmusic, it’s established itself as a hashtag. And I also like the idea of the “Free Culture Movement”. And I also like the idea of the “friends of ccmusic” – a group that is currently forming.

But why do I like it? Why do I (still) put so much energy into making music available for free? What do I get out of it?

I have now come to the conclusion that these are completely wrong questions. If I listen to myself long enough, everything boils down to one question:

What kind of world do I want to live in?

I have already answered this question several times in this blog. And unsurprisingly, the idea of “free culture” is part of the answer. Because I want to live in a world in which fans are not immediately sued when they do what fans do: namely, in their enthusiasm for music, create something for themselves and other fans with the music (or photos, videos) of their stars. Otherwise, what would be the point of a fan club?

A small side note: I am firmly convinced that we would have fewer problems with fascists if young people had the feeling that they could do something themselves that goes beyond mere consumption, i.e. if they could create something themselves.

It is about self-empowerment.

It’s about countering the brutal antisocial logic of neoliberal capitalism.

Aha, revolution, upheaval, rioting, I hear you.

No, not really. Let’s not kid ourselves. The system is the way it is and we’re not going to get out of it any time soon. But that doesn’t really matter to us if we manage to do our own thing. As well and as nicely as we can. With our friends. Because my hope is still that change takes time, that it has to develop and that instead of an “against”, it needs a very strong counter-offer in the sense of a “for”. Try to get your kids off their smartphones without making them an attractive offer. You won’t get very far with “read a book”.

Friends of ccmusic

The Friends of ccmusic will be founded in January. Whatever form it takes, preparations are underway. If you like, come to the next meeting on Sunday, December 8th.

That’s exactly my thing. A group of nice people, some of whom I like to call my friends, who are trying to get something going together. But to what end? That’s the crucial question, or „Gretchenfrage“ as we like to say here in good old Germany. Doug Whitfield has just written a nice blog post about this. And I would like to agree with him here.

A concrete, measurable goal should be formulated. I myself too often make the mistake of doing things simply because I do them, without asking myself what the end result should be. Not everything has to have a goal. Especially in a creative process, playful, aimless doing is incredibly valuable. But if we join together in a group, we should at some point agree on what we actually want to achieve and what we are actually doing to achieve it. This can also be done in very small steps. But it should be concrete. And measurable. In order to be able to assess whether we are still on the way to our goal or whether we need to adjust our course.

This also includes realizing what kind of niche we are in. Doug pointed out very well that we won’t topple the big platforms any time soon. But I think we can make an attractive counter-offer. So let’s get down to business, here are my ideas.

Possible goals of the Friends of ccmusic

The Friends of ccmusic are committed to the idea of the “Free Culture Movement”. We want to help ensure that all people who do “something with music” are able to do so freely and self-determinedly without constraints, using whatever means they see fit. We also want to make a counter-offer to the market-based logic of the music industry and its platforms. Our aim is to put the creative side of “Creative Commons” back in the spotlight. To this end, we are also addressing musicians who have had little contact with Creative Commons to date.

Our goal is to strengthen a creative commons in the field of music. This is achieved in particular by:

1. Organizing and promoting barcamps, conferences, concerts, workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and events of a similar nature.
2. The publication of information material in digital and printed form, e.g. an information brochure for musicians “Why it makes sense to use CC licenses”
3. A website on which we make the following content available:
   • A toolbox of web tools needed to realize your own ideas. There is a curated list of instructions, tutorials, resources, etc. This is also in collaboration with the OER community (OER = Open Educational Resources).
   • An overview of sources of #ccmusic on the net, i.e. netlabels, blogs, podcasts, etc.
   • An F.A.Q. for musicians
   • A music magazine / blog with reviews of albums, interwiews and news from the world of #ccmusic.
4. Cooperation with other associations whose purpose is to strengthen the Creative Commons.

And who is supposed to do all this?

Now, in my middle-aged recklessness, I’ve overshot the goal (sic!) again. Of course, none of this is feasible. But I think it’s a nice vision that we can keep in mind.

As a first step, I think the idea of a flyer / information brochure aimed explicitly at musicians to inform them about Creative Commons is a good one. That’s something I’ve wanted to do here in Cologne for a long time. I’ve also had a lot of conversations with bands who are part of the left-wing music scene but don’t release under Creative Commons. I want to reach them. And I’m now simply giving myself the task of implementing this in the first quarter of 2025.

Kotti, I’m relying on your help…