Tag Archives: Music

Magnatune: Internet Music Without the Guilt

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Magnatune are a record label; they offer their catalogue for download on their website. They also stream the entire catalogue so that you really can try before you buy. Then, if you like what you hear, you can buy the albums for pretty much what you think they’re worth (minimum price $5). You can choose between downloading a copy in a format of your choice or buying a CD. The music is licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license which enables you to share the music with your firends or to make non-commercial derivative works. The artists get 50% of the cash, and they get to retain copyright.

They’ve got a comprehensive information page, so if you’re a producer or an artist or just a music lover, take a look. I’ve only been looking around the site for the last hour or so and I’ve already found some good music, stuff that I’d be happy spending a few quid on. I’ll listen a bit more and then I might just do that.

(Via jclark.org)

A suggestion for Al

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Al’s a friend of mine who works in the music biz. He tells me to make alternative suggestions when I imply that the mainstream music industry have a pretty screwed idea of how to market their product in the age of the internet. Fair enough. A guy called Mark Cuban has an articulate set of suggestions I might just send him a pointer to.

Can the music industry cry wolf any longer?

This is the only industry in the world that can see thousands of its retailers close, reduce the number of products it sells via cutbacks in artist rosters and albums released, cut back marketing and promotional dollars and then blame a reduction in sales on someone or something other than themselves.

That big bad boogieman of piracy is blowing down everyone’s house. The poor music industry. Except of course that there is nothing more than anecdotal proof that Peer to Peer networks hurt music sales, and to counter those, there are studies and anecdotal evidence that the sampling opportunity that P2P networks create actually help sales.

(Via Scripting News)

More on Music

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An interesting op piece in the Guardian by Victor Keegan on the constant hullabaloo over music downloads. He points out that despite the claims of dramatic drops in CD sales, sales are actually expected to show an increase here in the UK. There’s nothing particularly new in this piece, but I’m linking it in for my own collection.

Avedon Carol also made some eloquent points a few days back on this issue, inspired by suggestions from the RIAA that ISPs should bear the cost of music “piracy”.

Reaction to Robbie

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Rights and wrongs of music piracy aside, am I the only one who finds this a slight exaggeration?

In a reaction to Robbie Williams’ recent remarks on music piracy, The BBC reported some comments from Culture minister Kim Howells:

Mr Howells added that Williams’ comments were helping “do the work for international gangs involved in drugs and prostitution who find music piracy an excellent way of laundering profits”.

This seems a bit much to me really, especially when juxtaposed against the next paragraph in the report:

A prolonged slump in CD sales has been blamed on fans downloading songs from royalty-free websites and an increase in the ease of copying, or “burning”, CDs on home computers.

From what I understand, most of the fuss has been over this last issue, and most of the “solutions” put forward by the Music Industry have been aimed at making life more difficult for the end user – the determined organised criminal won’t be quite so easily put off.

Perhaps what we have here is the start of a new strategy, since the assault on consumers hasn’t met with the most favourable of reactions.  What next… Music Piracy – the Terrorist’s friend?