Magnatune is a record label that gives away 128 kbps MP3s of all their artist's songs for free. If you like what you hear you can purchase higher quality FLAC, MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV versions at a price you set! They share profits 50/50 with their signed artists and they allow consumers to share their purchased songs with 3 friends.

http://magnatune.com/

# Perfect audio quality: you get CD quality audio WAV files, as well as super-high quality VBR MP3s, AAC, and open source friendly FLAC and OGG formats
# No DRM: No copy protection (DRM), you can do what you like with your music, unlike iTunes and Windows-media based web sites
# Listen to everything: all our albums can be listened to in their entirety before you buy
# Good music: we work with artists directly, not with record labels, and all our music is hand-picked. On average, we accept 3 out of every 100 submissions
# MP3s everywhere: Our MP3s play everywhere: iPods, Creative, SanDisk, iRiver and every portable device that supports MP3s
# Musicians get paid: 50% of your purchase price goes directly to the musician, not to labels and their lawyers
# Album art: every album includes high quality album art (in both Adobe Acrobat and 300DPI JPG formats)
# Give to your friends: We encourage you to give 3 copies of any music you buy to your friends
# Name your price: you choose how much you want to pay for the music, and 50% of your choice goes to the artist
# Downloads and CDs: all our music can be bought as a download or a delivered-by-postal-mail CD
# Creative Commons: All our 128k MP3s are some-rights-reserved Creative Commons licensed
# Remix friendly: Tons of our music, acapellas and samples are available for Remixing at CC Mixter
# 100% legal: you're not breaking any laws, Magnatune is completely legal all over the world
# Licensing: all our music can be licensed for commercial use instantly and online. We license more online than anyone else in the world, which is why we're #1 in Google for "music licensing"
# Podcast-legal: podcasters can obtain and use our music for free
# Free review copies: music reviewers (web, print and radio) can get free copies of all our music
# No major labels: we have absolutely nothing to do with major labels or the RIAA

Uh... Magnatune has been discussed here for years already, for example:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....c=15912&hl=

(and it's been mentioned in even older threads)

I can't believe you've only just discovered it.

I personally think that they are worth the publicity, that's how all record companies should be running by now.

sorry, my fault.

I'm sure you opened this topic simply to make me aware of it

So I say thank you

And why would that be? The business model is nice but what makes you think it would work for every record company and consumer?

I don't know if it would work for every record company but I honestly don't care at all. All I know is that it works for me as a consumer and I don't think anybody would prefer DRM'd music or a price of 20 euros/CD over offers similar to Magnatunes. But maybe that's just me.

Apparently the artists get paid but I wonder if they get any advance or any funds to cover the production expenses. A record label does much more than just printing a CD. A quick glance at the music offered there gives the impression that Magnatune basically distributes self-produced releases. This impression is confirmed by the info section:

Easier said than done....

I think this is one of the major downfalls of Magnatune and what limits it a lot. It seems like a very novel concept however, not all music can be recorded/mixed/engineered/mastered at home with just a computer a bit of gear or simply produced for cheap at your local recording studio.

That is obvious, everyone wants stuff for free but that is not the point. Would you give your work for free (or for a really low wage) and let anyone copy stuff you made as if they owned it? Bah, who cares... It's not my work anyway, I just want the music for free and be able to do with it whatever I like, right? If artists and record labels are not earning a penny just screw them. I got what I wanted.

It's easy to vent an opinion such as yours in your position. You have nothing to lose. In fact you just win at expense of others.

But, the corporate world (and *shock* most artists) do not think that way. They actually want something in return for their efforts (like yourself and like everyone else).

I'm not saying that DRM and 20 euro/CD is good or bad either. I just don't understand why people insist in seeing the world in black and white. It's the same thing that saying that GPL is good for all and commercial software/closed source is good only to Bill Gates.

Don't take this personally because it is not my intention to offend you. It is just a healthy discussion between two board members.

The issue is that nowadays, where we have 6billion people, artists still get paid pennies (unless they are big artists), and the rest goes to the record comapanies.

IIRC, artists are getting about 2 dollars per CD.

I'm sure they rather sell direct, at $5 per CD. And at that cost, i'm also sure they would sell much more.

I did not say anything about getting stuff for free. If I was looking for free music I wouldn't post here, I would just be looking at all the usual places. But I do care for the artists, I buy all my music. I'm just usually looking at older, discounted CDs and not at newly printed CDs because I find the prices of new CDs extremely high. I also don't care for individual tracks download, so $8 (or even less if you like) for a flac album seems great.

And once again I don't care what the corporate world wants or needs. I care about what I need and what I am prepared to pay for it. If they don't make the right offer (which they are not) I'll just keep looking elsewhere. So yes, for me it is a black and white situation. They offer me a product that I like, I get it, they don't, I look at other (legitimate) offers.


I understand this is a concern that artists have to think about and a limitation of Magnatune. On the other hand a good home studio is much easier and cheaper to create nowadays, so producing your own music is not that hard (I know that from personal experience).

From what I read over the net, 2$ per CD would be a lot for every artist signed on a major label.
I read that most of them get a few cents per CD, everything else gets lost on the way about 30% at itunes, even more on other distribution ways, a lot at the labels, ...

Magnatune seems to be mainly about distribution and 'getting known'.
They offer a distribution and licensing platform and get 50%.
Distributing everything himself would mean the best profit per sale in any case
but there will most likely not be many sales and it would mean a lot of expenses too.
I personally think that it is a good concept and a nice possibility for artists,
but it has it's up and downsides as everything else.

Another nice thing is the support concept of 'Einstürzende Neubauten', but this needs a faithful fanbase in advance.
I would consider Magnatune as great for not well known artists that just need a distribution platform.

Magnatune seems to be the first one to deserve blame for that, with that "We are not evil" bullshit.


Anyway...

I personally see Magnatune as a glorified version of MP3.com, that is, an outlet for indie groups to do some networking and get themselves better known. With the difference that someone actually took his time filter the music from the best Indie offerings beforehand, and is charging for it.

I pretty sure any band/musician featured at Magnatune would jump to a big recording label on a heartbeat if given the opportunity. Why? Because I honestly believe Magnatune is ripping them off more than the labels. The labels only give them 10%, or maybe less, from profits. But in return they take care of huge advertizing campaigns(that really pays off with sales and gig attendance), make sure stores nationwide are stocked with their records, and provide state-of-the-art recording and production facilities.

Magnatune gives their musicians 50%, but what do they do for them? They set up an FTP server to distribute their music, and press some CDs and make some merchandise to sell through the internet.

I am with you on the first one. I am not into the individual downloads either, I would rather have the entire album from the artist.




That's about right I did research on it once. They get the other $10 dollars. Well I would really say only the RIAA. I hate this people that are "anti-RIAA" when they don't even know what artists and labels belong to the RIAA.



I don't really think you need a state of the art recording facility to produce a good album. Mastering is entirely different story though. At my school we have a 5.1 recording and production studio. It's really nifty. The sound reinforcement in the room is all wooden and their is an isolation booth behind it. Your right about advertising and marketing though ;-D

Well, they do some advertising and the like, not only on the net but the major stuff may be more..

I found this Q/A in the FAQ interesting: http://forum.magnatune.com/read/messages?id=270
So Magnatune can sell whatever you distributed through them (not more or less) for 5 years but it's non-exclusive (major contracts usualy are exclusive).
I think one could get in trouble if another label wants exlusive rights on the band.
I found some more about this: http://forum.magnatune.com/read/messages?id=272

huge advertizing campaigns? for whom? the artists that just scored a big hit? I never seen the labels advertising/promoting unknown artists. Not until they are pretty much sure they have a hit on their hands.

Indeed, but I would not make it a general rule either. Producing your own music is easier nowadays than it ever was and cheaper too. It also makes it possible for bedroom musicians(no negative connotation here) to achieve results noone could have dreamt of 10 years ago.

Nevertheless, this ease applies mostly to music genres that originate from the homestudio practise in the first place:hip hop, electronica, garage rock etc...

You can't easily record a full blown orchestra at home, neither benefit from the high end gear and experience of an expensive recording/mixing studio. In the end, it inevitably makes a difference in terms of sound as far as some music styles are concerned.

Like Rjamorin stressed out, Magnatune is nothing but a user-friendlier mp3.com. I very much appreciate the fact that they offer music in lossless formats and that you can determine how much you are willing to pay for the record but one cannot deny that this business scheme cannot be generalized.

The only kind of artists I think Magnatune is genuinely interesting for is solo home studio based artists who can hope to get more money from Magnatune in the end than they would from an indie label sellling a thousand copies of their record.




Promotion from record labels, and indie record labels in particular does not use the same ways than the ones used by major labels.

Some indie labels actively promote their artists by sollicitating reviews from specialized magazines, by sending promo copies to independant radios, organizers of festivals etc... They just don't try to reach MTV or Rolling Stones magazine




The other issue is that they use a Creative Commons license system. from the info section, you can read:

The license itself is more or less irrevocable. As an artist, even if you withdraw your work from being available under a CC license, members of the public who came accross it when it was still covered by the CC license are still free to use your work under the terms of the CC share alike license. It may seriously hinder the incentives for smaller labels to sign the said artist.

Negative connotations also welcome

Sorry, I know it's OT, but... can't help myself

Actually, it's the other way around. When they find a fairly talented - but unknown - artist, they promote him until he becomes a big hit, through means of TV appearances, high rotation on radios and MTV (all this payed for by the recording company), adverts, campaigns and the like.

It's almost impossible to become a big hit without some prodding by the labels.

Yes, I see that as a problem too, but I don't think that it is such a big problem since it only affects music already released there, nothing else. The artist keeps the right on the music and stays free to do what he likes (at least if I understand that correctly).
I understand that the music getting sold under NonCommercial-ShareAlike could be a problem for some artists but this is also a part of the whole concept.
Well, music gets shared either way, this way needs no RIAA (or the like).

It's definitely nice for the consumer and it may be nice for artists, or may not, it all has it's pros and cons.

I don't know any details about mp3.com and the like, so I can't compare them

you know, for example, how roxette became a big hit? A dj heard them, and started playing music on the radio. DJs and radios do much more than the labels.

Kwambis, I am afraid you are overlooking many aspects of the role of a label. Labels play that part, it's their job to handle promotion. Now there are derogatory cases and exceptions of course, but you are not blessed with the joy of hearing Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera on rotation 24/7 on MTV just because a DJ somewhere found one of their records incidentally by digging some record crates.

Yes, their hit is actually called "The Look". It was a #1 hit in USA before even being released as single or LP.

But how many examples like Roxette can you think of? I can say for sure that most of the greatest acts in history (including the guys in my avatar) wouldn't have gone far without the promotion powerhouses that are the recording labels.


And that's why I said it's almost impossible.

I still think that the major advantage of Magnatune is its customer-friendly approach ... allowing users to get non-DRM'ed highest-quality lossy/lossless downloads with proper artwork at a fair price is something I'd like to see from the major labels as well (but I guess that will remain a dream).

I would even accept watermarked songs (for identification on p2p networks to fight piracy) as long as music data isn't altered and format interoperability isn't compromised e.g. the way Apple does it with their implementation of the AAC format (e.g. allowing to play on iPoo only).

Roberto is of course right about the role that major labels play (or, at least, should play) during production and promotion of their unknown and major acts ... we might discuss whether their means of business are morally impeccable or not ... but in the end, they do work out for them and 'their' artists.

Beatles anyone? What meant to say, is, that at least as far as i can see, record labels only promote their top 20 artists, and you only get right promotion, when you have a sure hit on your hands. This is how i see it.

EMI all the way.



That makes no sense, if that was the case, you would never see new blood on the charts.



I still believe you are seeing it backwards. With the right promotion, you turn any music into a sure hit.

I agree with you 100% on that.

I think allot of the appeal of Magnatune is the availability of various different codecs used for the music and the adjustable pricing policy.

Interview: John Buckman, Founder of Magnatune Records

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=15737