Forced to stand on your own

One benefit of the open music movement, short term though it may be, is that it forces musicians to be judged on their own works alone.

Take, for example, the German jazz duo 2Extended. They have three albums available on Jamendo, the best being Blue Dreams & Musty Watermelons, which has only two tracks.

It started as an EP with five tracks, but three of them were covers of jazz classics. Since those covers fell under restrictive licenses, they could not possibly go up on Jamendo, which requires Creative Commons licensing for all songs posted.

So there stand 2Extended, with a two song EP. You can only judge them by their own work.

And it is excellent.

But if they were not excellent, you would know it in an instant. They couldn’t cover their lack of talent with covers, as it were.

They stand or fall completely on their own work.

As I say, this won’t go on forever. Once Creative Commons-licensed music becomes more mainstream, covering others’ work which is well-known will be easier and less likely to result in lawsuits. But for the moment, it is forcing creativity to the top.