Looks like HP has beat Apple and iTunes to the punch…HP and McCartney Productions Limited (MPL) today announced an agreement to digitize and deliver the library of legendary musician Paul McCartney via a private cloud. The agreement marks the first time that HP has collaborated with an artist in this way.
McCartney has one of the most comprehensive libraries which includes images, artwork, paintings, film and videos, as well as masters of some of the most popular songs ever written. While there are very well know items in Sir Paul collections, such as the cover artwork for “Band on the Run”, many of the items in his library have never been viewed before.
“I’ve always been interested in creative ideas and new ways of reaching people, so this is a really exciting initiative for me,” said McCartney. “I hope it will allow people who might be interested to access parts of our archives they might otherwise not be able to. I’m looking forward to working with HP on this project.”
Under the agreement, HP will work closely with MPL to digitize the material and design and build a state-of-the-art content management system. McCartney’s library will then be delivered through a private cloud environment. Portions of the library will be made available to fans so they can have a personal and unparalleled glimpse into McCartney’s work.
Laura here: This could be the start of an interesting business for HP if they continue with artists who have large volumes of unreleased work mainly in one discipline (recordings from Prince or Neil Young) or artists who work across multiple disciplines (like Graham Nash or Leonard Nimoy) looking forward to seeing what kinds of access to materials in private clouds that artists will give and what that might mean for traditional distribution models. This could be a real game changer.
