http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2010/09/music-in-libraries-were-doing-it-wrong.html
I liked what the Librarian in Black is saying here. The profession has yet to find an elegant solution to question of music in the library. Music is now mostly digital (so says iTunes sales), but library solutions are quite terrible. It’s simply too hard to transfer music from the library website to your personal computer or digital music player. For every extra step users are forced to endure, the less likely they will to utilize the library. If it isn’t seamless and easy, then it isn’t worth doing.
Do I have a solution? Maybe. How about streaming music? Many digital players nowadays have internet access (Zune HD, iPod Touch, Archos players, even the Zen X-Fi kinda). And it’s easier to get rights to stream music than offer to up for download. If libraries were allowed to host music files for streaming, they could competently build and catalog collections of music that users would use. Part of this also needs to be an enhanced interface. The library website needs to be known as a place for music for the music to be used.
