Berklee College of Music in Boston has set up a fabulous web site and public resource in BerkleeShares, a collection of free music lessons in MP3 audio, Quicktime video, or PDF printed form. Given its contemporary slant, Berklee’s lessons are connected to jazz, pop, and rock in performance, including lessons in music production and technology.
In its whitepaper on the site, Berklee says they are following the lead of MIT, which made a huge volume of their course content available to the public online through its Open Courseware initiative, now hosting more than 900 courses by MIT faculty.
Why would a college give away its content for free? Wouldn’t it undermine their enrollment, their special educational edge, or their cachet of mystery in the community? Just the opposite, actually.
Smart institutions of higher learning have discovered that their customers don’t buy just curriculum, but curriculum in context…learning not just from, but with exceptional faculty, in a social environment with others of similar interest and abilities. Public access to lessons and instructional resources by Berklee faculty only underscores the powerful collection of talent they have there, and the potential for learning they can provide in context. Plus, as a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of contemporary music and musicians, it’s the right thing to do…a mission-driven bonus, if you will.
The exceptionally cool thing about Berklee’s lessons is that they are available under a Creative Commons license, meaning you can download them, transfer them to your iPod, print them out, burn them on a CD, share them with your friends, and the like, without fear of copyright litigation (as long as you follow the simple rules of the commons license).
By releasing their creative content to the world in a clear, open, and free way, Berklee is positioning itself as the heart of contemporary music instruction, and the place where really smart and talented people want to be. That can’t be bad for business, and it’s certainly good for the world.
