70,200 SAMPLES IN 33 SECONDS
Johannes Kreidler’s amusing performance reveals the antiquated nature of the music industry’s model.
Who’s bored of talking about music in the digital age, about file sharing, copyright and prehistoric business models? Fed up of talking, Johannes Kreidler, musician and performance artist, did something about it instead.
Fed up of ridiculous copyright laws for new music in Germany, he composed a 33 second piece of music using 70,200 samples (or quotations) from other sources as part of an overall work called Product Placement. By law in Germany, every sample used, no matter how small (the old four or eight bar loop theory is a myth), must be declared on a separate paper form and registered at GEMA, the German equivalent to the Recording Industry Association of America. So Kriedler turned up one day in September outside their headquarters with a van full of stacked and bound piles of paper: 70,200 sheets for GEMA to work through, and for 33 seconds of music!
“With this performance I’ve pre-programmed conflict by presenting GEMA with an enormous and completely absurd amount of administration work in an effort to comply with their arcane registration requirements,” he told the press. He also wrote an accompanying essay, held a press conference and made a video. Check out the music below.
Johannes Kreidler
Categories Art Culture Music Tags Music Art Music Industry
By on 17/11/08
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