Digital legacy to your heirs

Katrina

I worry about this. I spend all this time tagging, attaching artwork. Organizing my music library just so.
Should I just forget about my son getting any money from these digital gems I've acquired?

elwoodicious

Good point, I look at it as a soft investment. I'm cultivating my daughter's taste with all the work I put into my digital collection in the hope that when she is older she does not dishonor me with hivemind choices in entertainment. ;-)

Katrina

My son is programming in java and appears to have no interest in music. I'm so sad, when I was coming up in the tech field, the music came with.

I really do have some rare tracks - I'm sure you do, too-
I just wonder if saving the first Madonna podcast is worth the trouble, I guess.

Katrina

My mom left me silver & china and it has actually been worth something when I had to sell it. If you know what I'm saying. All this time & money over mp3s. My son is doomed.

Katrina

But, but....in 50 years will my download of Madonna's 1-800 -confess podcast be worth anything to my son?

Bad Thoughts

Should I just forget about my son getting any money from these digital gems I've acquired?

I'd like to think that my son will get more out of the Asch Collection by Woody Guthrie that can be dl'd for $9 than the Radiohead CD I bought for $13-$13 and can sell for $3.

elwoodicious

My son is programming in java

Lady, you've got bigger problems than his interest in music. ;-)

pzeke

Such is my faith in the eternal verities of human nature that I am sure that someone, somewhere, will figure out how to create a demand for such digital legacies and cash in accordingly.

jonahpwll

My mom left me silver & china and it has actually been worth something when I had to sell it. If you know what I'm saying. All this time & money over mp3s. My son is doomed.

Music has carried me through some extremely difficult stretches in life, hard times that all your mother's silver and china wouldn't have made a dent in.
Don't de-value your gift of music to your son just because you can't envision a resale price for it. For all you know, your music collection will save your child's life.

elwoodicious

For all you know, your music collection will save your child's life.

Relevant

BigD-Bluez

Interesting question. I'm still puzzling over who to leave my book library to, beyond the Public Library, because I have a fair amount of history I went to some trouble to collect, and being a book fiend (had to chill just for space considerations, music takes up less room, digital music even less) I want my treasures to go to someplace/someone who will equally value them. The MP3 library is equally a thing of value, monetary value not even being the primary consideration. A lot of time, love, and effort went into these acquisitions, or obsession if you want to be like that, and it would be nice to see it appreciated. I still have all my parents opera records which I'm fairly sure they felt similarly about. Hopefully it won't all end up in a dumpster someday.

kargatron

Look at it this way - would you work less hard on your digital library if you were guaranteed it would be destroyed upon your death? Probably not. The library is for you, and its upkeep pays off every day (at least, I assume). Remember that you will eventually die, and there will be no more caring from you after that. So maybe not worry about it.

That's the way I approach the issue, at least.

jackedUPjazz

I suspect that most of our kids will be just like we were when we were their ages, listening to crap until it grows to burdensome to go on. Then they will find their way just as we did.

As for meticulously tending your digital gardens, who knows what future generations will find valuable

More

Dr. Mutex

@elwoodicious: I was thinking more along these lines...

...Now this is what I want you all to do:
If you got faults, defects or shortcomings,
You know, like arthritis, rheumatism or migraines,
Whatever part of your body it is,
I want you to lay it on your radio, let the vibes flow through.
Funk not only moves, it can re-move, dig?
The desired effect is what you get
When you improve your Interplanetary Funksmanship.

amclark2

The record companies and monopolisers are down right now, but not out, and who knows what they may come up with to lock up the music in the future? Maybe someday a large legal digital collection on a hard drive will be worthwhile to someone in a world where the music's somehow become hard to find again.

But yeah, I'm doing it for myself.

BigD-Bluez

Wow, you mean like some kind of aural Farenheit 451, where persecuted music lovers keep contraband iPods under the floorboards, while the masses march about listening to Muzak Soma?

amclark2

Yeah sure, why not? 20 years ago nobody saw mp3's and digital sacking the music industry. Give it 20 more who knows what way the lobbiests and hackers will find to put the thing back in the bottle?

elwoodicious

I will gladly travel the world with my guitar singing the illicit songs of Max Martin to hungry ears gathered around gypsy campfires.

thomnottom

I'm doing it for myself, obviously, but I'm also growing more concerned with the idea of making sure that my wife has ready access to everything in case... you know. This is a bigger deal when it comes to pictures and whatnot, but I also want it easy enough for her to get to any music/videos/whatever even if I am indisposed.

The bigger fear with inheritance in this case is that your son or daughter would have to pay taxes for being willed an external hard drive filled with eMu droppings despite the fact that he or she can't get any money FOR them.

BigD-Bluez

pay taxes for being willed an external hard drive filled with eMu droppings

First they have to know it's there to tax it. Second they have to be able to find them.

Scenario 1: "Files? What files?"

Scenario 2: "They had all been erased."

Scenario 3: "I was afraid it was all porn and I didn't want the children to see it."

amclark2

If you die before Dec. 31, there's no federal estate tax. After that there's a $1 million exemption, so at this point my kids don't have to worry too much.

elwoodicious

cafreema

Katrina

No new laws on this, as far as I can tell. I've been watching.

Doofy

I doubt there will be, in the foreseeable future. They can't stop people from finding free albums, how on earth are they going to stop my future grandkids from listening to my mp3's.

I don't discount the possibility of Big Brother RIAA someday doing an end-around, once all your music is in "the cloud," and checking whether you are "licensed" to have/hear it.

choiceweb0pen0

I put something about my mp3 files in my will. No kids yet, so it just goes to my wife for now. This mainly came about from my brother-in-law and one of my wife's cousins, who is a lawyer, starting a "create your own legal will" website called 10-minute will.

Germanprof

Wow, had not even thought of that...of course, you can give your CDs to your children, but your MP3 purchases are in some sense tied to your own identity in terms of online accounts and so forth. Has there been any legal discussion of this in the world at large yet?

Katrina

I thought I'd read something about Apple not willing to give access. Can't find it now, though.
The main thing would be to make sure your heirs have the right passwords.

Some states have laws for social media accounts