Engineering a campus-wide accessible music library

Abstract

The Library Access to Music Project has created a new kind of music library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The library is always open and available in dormitory rooms and classrooms, because it transmits music on demand over the Institute's cable television system. By using the analog cable television system, LAMP differs from existing commercial offerings in that essentially any musical recording may be added to the collection - not just recordings where "digital rights" have been obtained. Additionally, LAMP is orders of magnitude less expensive than existing commercial offerings, and it is compatible with a much wider range of receiving apparatuses. With these advantages come unfortunate limitations that spring from LAMP's technical architecture and posture under copyright law. Nonetheless, LAMP has been a moderate success since its opening in October 2004, playing an average of 580 songs per day.