Posted on - December 2, 2003 [at] 12:38 pm by Brad
Tagged in - rant
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A few weeks ago I saw Magnatune.com owner John Buckner on The Screen Savers on TechTV. It wasn’t the first time I had heard of Magnatune, but I hadn’t paid much attention. I kinda tune out when most people talk about music industry revolutions these days. But I listen to The Screen Savers.
It was more interesting than I had originally thought. The concept is basically “shareware music”. People can download 128k (i think) MP3s from artists and decide then if they want to pay to download high quality .WAV versions of the songs/albums.
I FTP’d them my I Don’t Know What I’m Doing album MP3s last week for the heck of it and they wrote back today saying they’d like me to join Magnatune. I now have some forms here to fill out and send in if I so desire.
I basically have no idea if this is a good idea or not. It’s apparently non-exclusive so I believe I can keep on doing what I want here, but that it will provide a service I would very much like to have: if a visitor decides they’d like to buy a high quality version of my album (or songs from it) they’ll be able to do that through Magnatune and download it from them. Thereby removing my manual CD-burning, labelling and mailing labor from the picture, which would be certainly all right by me. For that it seems worth it.
I’m really interested and also terrified to see what happens! Hooray!
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7 Comments on this post
scott reynen on Magnatune
December 2, 2003 at 12:54 pm
have you considered using bitpass.com? it allows you to provide paid digital downloads directly from your site, and with more flexibility than magnatude.com, though magnatude.com does have the advantage of exposing you to a new audience.
victor on Magnatune
December 2, 2003 at 12:59 pm
You already know what I think of this idea: it’s non-exclusive, you own your music forever and your listeners will never be prosecuted as criminals. I am not a lawyer but if there’s a downside I haven’t seen it — doesn’t mean it isn’t there, I just haven’t seen it.
John is one of the “good guys” — not a revolution, just a sane alternative.
Congrats and hooray.
Chris Burkhardt on Magnatune
December 2, 2003 at 4:45 pm
I’ve seen Magnatune before. I’ve never bought anything from them though.
If it’s really non-exclusive then I say go for it.
Hooray… for something. It might be an exciting thing to try, at the very least.
scottandrew on Magnatune
December 2, 2003 at 8:55 pm
I’m interested to know if they can actually get “work” for your music. It seems to me that it’s in his best interest to find placements for tunes. That would actually be pretty sweet. How about “We’re Not Friends” as a deodorant jingle? ;)
Keep us posted on how it goes. I looked at Magnatune awhile back but was seized with a bout of laziness. It might be worth it to have someone else handle the digital distribution and payments and stuff.
Mark Gardner on Magnatune
December 3, 2003 at 1:39 pm
Would this prevent you from participating in CD Baby’s digital distribution program, which seems to be an exclusive deal?
Mark Gardner on Magnatune
December 3, 2003 at 1:39 pm
Would this prevent you from participating in CD Baby’s digital distribution program, which seems to be an exclusive deal?
Daniel Holth on Magnatune
January 10, 2004 at 9:57 pm
I found you on magnatune and now I’m listening to you and music about spam. Thanks. Mr. and Mrs. Sucks would be proud.