The Open Omani Audio Library

The Open Omani Audio Library

The Ministry of Heritage and Culture has recently launched a digital audio library of traditional Omani folk music on SoundCloud which allows members of the public to download and reuse Omani music free of charge.

The Ministry of Heritage and Culture is responsible for collecting, preserving, and promoting Omani literature, art, and other expressions of Omani culture. As part of the efforts of preserving this culture, the Ministry of Heritage and Culture has commissioned the recording of over a 100 traditional Omani songs where folk bands were taken to a professional recording studio and were recorded performing traditional Omani songs from different regions in the sultanate.

Until very recently, these precious recordings were kept in the archives of the ministry and very few people had access to them. This changed when the ministry decided to adopt an open data approach to its archives by making as much of its data as possible available online free of charge. As part of the open data initiative adopted by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, the ministry uploaded its audio library to SoundCloud. These traditional Omani songs are not only now available to stream free of charge, but they may also be downloaded and re-used for any purpose without the need to seek permission from the ministry.

The decision of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture to share its audio library on the Internet is part of the efforts of the ministry to make Omani culture widely available for everyone to experience. These downloadable files can also be useful assets for Omani filmmakers and digital content creators who can use these audio files as background music that can be used legally without the need to pay royalties or seek permission from anyone.

The audio library of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture is an excellent example of how government agencies in Oman should make their content accessible in the most convenient way to users. Government agencies in Oman hold in their archives troves of rich Omani content, and it is unrealistic to expect members of the public to go physically to each one of these agencies and ask for physical copies of this content.

The approach adopted by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture is also interesting because the ministry chose to publish its content on a third party website (i.e. SoundCloud) and embedded the audio player of SoundCloud in its own website. This approach is practical because it allows the ministry to provide an easy to use audio player without having to invest in the development of a custom-made solution, it allows the users to take advantage of the features of SoundCloud such as mobile playback, and it exposes the content of the ministry to the worldwide community of SoundCloud.

There are other government agencies that have adopted a similar approach in utilising third-party content sharing platforms. For example, the Public Authority for Radio and TV publishes the content of OmanTV on YouTube. However, the approach of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture is more progressive because it does not only make its content available for streaming, but it also allows the users to download and reuse this content freely.

The efforts of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in making Omani culture available on the Internet for everyone to enjoy and take advantage of should be applauded. The Ministry of Heritage and Culture should also be recognised as one of the leading government agencies in applying the principles of open data to cultural works that go beyond traditional technical datasets.

Source | https://www.muscatdaily.com