Wikimedia CH/CC-Zero-Project
Legal name of organization or individual requesting this grant: Xplosion Management, Carl Flisch
Carl Flisch, Musicologist
Username on Wikimedia project:
Project name:
Please provide a detailed description of your project, including the names of the partners and people involved:
The CC-Zero-Project is an ambitious project that collects musicological worth protecting analogue and digital sound recordings. Our goal is the free availability of public domain related content like music, sound or voice recordings.
Background is a music collection of phonograph cylinders, 78 rpm grammophone records and vinyl records which I have collected since 1977. I'm musicologist and work for the Swissjazzorama (one of the largest Jazz archives in Europe) where I'm responsible for the inventory, rightsclearing and the quality control of the music collection and the record shop.
A friend of me own a music antiquariat and will go in retirement in 2020. He offered me to buy his private collection of inventoried Classical Music for a special price. The collection contains 18'000 grammophone records (1900-1950) in "excellent" quality. It means the recordings are not often played. Many are rarely to find. In my profession as a musicologist, our archive receive monthly many music donations with vinyl discs. But a special assorted collection in this quantity with Choral-, Orchestral- and piano works, I saw last time in the mid of the 1990's. This collection is a good start for a digitization project. Since 2001 I'm specialized in the "rating" of music collections and in the "rightsclearing" of grammophone records. I expect a yield of 70% of public domain recordings.
To start with this project I need some equipment for the digitization and the photography of the records.
I would like to donate all images of the record mid labels and the sound recordings to Wikimedia Commons and the metadata of the images and the sound recordings to Wikidata, if Wikimedia CH can help me with the mass upload of the metadata. I guarantee that I upload just records which are public domain inside the European Union (70 years after the 1st issue date and 70 years after the authors death).
The beginning is hard. I work alone. I plan to ask the local community for a participation on this project to find volunteers amd participants of the social welfare which are interested to find an alternative work to receive more integration income. I'm as well interested to start a "Edit-a-thon" maybe in 2021 to photograph more record images and add the metadata direct inside Wikidata.
Thank you for the opportunity to ask for this grant.
Time Line of 2020 edit
- January 2020: Installation of the equipment, ask for grant by other institutions to finance a part or the full purchase price of the historical classical music collection
- March 2020: Deposit of 50% of the purchase price
- April 2020: Relocation of the complete collection of 18'000 gramophone records
- Mid April 2020: Start with the digitization of the first 300 gramophone records
- December 2020: Rightsclearing of the first digitized sound files and upload to Wikimedia Commons
| General description | Detailed description | Amount in Swiss francs |
|---|---|---|
| Graham Slee Relevation M | Preamp & Equalizer for 78 rpm records (switchable) | CHF 830 |
| Graham Slee Era Gold V with PSU1 | Preamp & Equalizer for RIAA records (2nd hand) | CHF 370 |
| Laser turntable ELP LT-2XA | 2nd hand laser turntable for the digitization of the grammophone records | CHF 1000 |
| Keith Monks Gemini MK III | 2nd hand Dual-Record Cleaning Machine for the cleaning of the grammophone records | CHF 1000 |
| Kaiser Reprostative, self built mount for a Nikon camera from a professional Manfrotto stative head | It's include a five year old Nikon D610 with the original power supply, all cables and a LCD display for the preview. I have self-built the stative from parts for another archive in 2018 and buy this back for a special price | CHF 1100 |
| RME Fireface 800 | Professional audio interface (2nd hand) | CHF 450 |
| Stanton 500-II & D 5107 | Cartridge with a single 78 rpm needle for records in the 1940s | CHF 150 |
| Tracer Technologies Flat Preamp | Preamp without built-in equalizer for records made before 1933 | CHF 100 |
| Total | CHF 5000 | |