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Free public domain classical music on the way

Aaron Dunn, of the organization Musopen, talks about his project to build a royalty-free library of classical music played by symphony orchestras that you can listen to, make a movie with, and use to sell stuff.

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Soon, you’ll be given a library of classical music played by symphony orchestras for free. You can listen to it, make a movie, use it to sell stuff, whatever, it’s yours.

Why? Because this guy Aaron Dunn thought it would be a good idea. Aaron runs an organization called Musopen, it’s dedicated to providing copyright-free music. His plan: hire a symphony orchestra, pay them up front, release the music to everyone. He posted the project on the website Kickstarter where people can contribute to projects they want to see happen. Aaron’s goal: $11,000. So far, he’s raised more than $70,000 from both Kickstarter and outside donations that came in when people heard about it.

We talk to Aaron Dunn about where the project goes from here. We also talk to Fred Child, host of American Public Media’s Performance Today about what this means for the average music listener.

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