Personal Praxis: cbc and my money and a tale of web 2.0
Jun 2nd, 2008 by nancyzimmerman
Like many of us, I’m still sorting through what role mainstream media plays in this new web 2.0 world.
I don’t watch tv anymore, really. YouTube and viddler have my attention now.
I haven’t cancelled my subscription to National Post (and here you thought I was entirely lefty. surprise!) but I rarely read it – I prefer grabbing headlines off twitter and reading the selected articles.
But here’s a purpose it does serve for me. I sometimes look to mainstream media to be the expert, sort through it all, and provide the most worthy content. CBC still does that (although that is changing).
So here’s the story.
Have you ever had a piece of music just reach out and grab you? This past weekend, Howard Dyck on cbc aired stunning music by a rather obscure composer named Zelenka: I had to have it.
Alas! a google search yielded little, itunes came up empty and I lost all hope when cbc pointed out that the recording “was not available commercially”.
WAILING & GNASHING OF TEETH! (yes, over a piece of classical music)
Enter web 2.0.
I cried out my pain on twitter, and my cry was answered by a woman in Nebraska (named Barb, to be specific) who actually knew of Zelenka! Barb pointed me to a recording of the piece on youtube (see below). Now I strongly suspect the recording is under copywrite and should not be posted on youtube! But I listened anyways, and listened again and again until my addiction was complete.
I also cried out my fate – having fallen in love only to discover the music was UnAvailable (anyone who can relate?) – on facebook. Enter my buddy Clive who responded with a link to Amazon with several second hand recordings.
GREAT REJOICING!
And for the icing on the cake, David (see link above re: cbc changing) e-mailed me with a link to a place I could order the score.
My point is simply this. Mainstream media may yet serve us all well, if it can figure out how to draw our attention to the quality stuff (as opposed to the quantity of crap, so ably poked at by Morning Brew). And if it weren’t for the exposure it received (illicitly?) on YouTube, I may well have forgotten about it. As it turned out, I am going to purchase the recording, for sure, and likely the score. Perhaps the sky isn’t falling. Perhaps this brave new world of new business models may result in wins for everyone.
Readers: have you ever started out with errrrr, grey-area consumption of something that resulted in a purchase?
fyi – here is the piece that caught my attention. It’s just over 2 minutes, it grabs you, and doesn’t let you go til it’s done.
I am always amazed how reaching out to social networks nets amazing results. Indeed, Twitter and Facebook provide connections…but it’s blog commenters who can add the most interesting value to a topic. I find the comment sections on many posts fascinating. Ohh look, I just left a comment. Fascinating! Ohh, found this post via Twitter…so there you go.
Hi Nancy,
The same thing happened to me in December 2007. I wanted to find the music used in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilNLeXefmNw
This is how I did it:
http://www.bokashiman.com/2007/12/the-web-gets-the-music-to-me-fast/
I felt quite pleased with the results.
Al
What an awesome piece of music. Two minutes in which one’s spirit soars! Thank you for finding and publicising it. By the way, what is the name of the piece?
Hi Nancy -
Thanks for the credit and thanks also for pointing out this piece, which I’d never heard before. It’s a stunner, isn’t it? (BTW, Kate, it’s the Miserere from Zelenka’s Requiem in C Minor – Although oddly enough, sources now seem to disagree on whether he actually wrote it or not!… check out: http://www.jdzelenka.net/FAQ.htm ) I’m repeatedly amazed at how much gold there is out there that we haven’t discovered yet, and am looking forward to hearing the whole Requiem that it’s been excerpted from. Who knows, maybe someday there’ll be a live performance here in Vancouver if the right conductor were clued in.
- D