Case Studies/Modiba Productions
We employ CC as a means of expanding our audience and allowing the global community to interact with the art we produce in fun, original, groundbreaking ways. — Eric Herman, Co-Founder of Modiba Productions
Overview
Modiba Productions is a "social activist music production company, record label, and publishing company focusing on international - primarily [...] “afrocentric” - music." Modiba's mission is "to use the best in international music as a vehicle for the empowerment of Africa and its Diaspora." Jesse Brenner and Eric Herman founded Modiba while they were seniors at Wesleyan University to combine their passions for music and activism.
License Usage
Modiba has used CC licences (CC BY-NC) on two of their projects - the Nation Beat Animation Contest as well as the Vieux Farka Touré remix contest. Both of these projects also contained socially aware components, with a portion of their proceeds going to a "fight malaria" campaign in Mali (Vieux Farka Toure) and to fund a community center in Recife, Brazil (Nation Beat).
Motivations
From Eric Herman, Co-Founder of Modiba Productions:
- We employ CC as a means of expanding our audience and allowing the global community to interact with the art we produce in fun, original, groundbreaking ways. It is proof in the pudding of the universal connections between us all that we work to demonstrate through our productions. We are proud to help promote and facilitate the sharing of art and music as a means of breaking down the barrier between “artist” and “fan” and allow everyone to participate in a creative process. After all, we are all artists and we are all fans.
- Our last contest on CC, the Vieux Farka Toure remix contest, produced roughly 80 entries, the vast majority of which were inspired and inspirational. We selected two of them for inclusion on Vieux’s remix album UFOs Over Bamako which was an underground hit. It also led us towards connecting with several of the DJs on a personal level. We were thrilled with the results!
