Magnatune - a Non-Evil Record Label?

jea6 writes "As seen on Fark and sure to intrest non-crossover Slashdotters, Magnatune is a record company with a catchy slogan. They highlight: 1) We're a record label. But we're not evil. 2) We call it 'try before you buy.' It's the shareware model applied to music. 3) Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations. 4) If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use. 5) Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep their rights to their music. 6) Founded by musicians, for musicians. No major label connections. We are not evil. So if you are anti-RIAA (artist or consumer) and looking for an option (albeit a small option), this may be a start. The music is Creative Commons licensed, which is the brainchild of the eminent Lawrence Lessig."

Comments

*THIS* is what i've been waiting for

[Ubergrendle]

I've been trying this site for the past 48 hours. Their music selection is limited, but its a starting label...its a chicken & egg scenario i think -- Need customers to attract musicians.

I found its offerings to be professional and compentent, if unremarkable. So far the site seems to deliver on what its promising. FREE downloads, FREE streaming audio. Their business model appears to be ethical (by my standards).

Basically I'm waiting a week or two to see in the media if things are kosher before buying something: e.g. this is a legitimate venture?; they're on the up & up?; people don't have nasty customer service problems, etc.

Slashdot users -- this is probably THE busienss model we've been biatching for. If this venture fails, lets try to make sure its not because of lack of demand.

NOTE: I have NO affiliation with this site whatsoever. I can can barely read music. ;)

Re:It may be non evil...

[jsmyth]

but it still sucks unless its got good music.

Depends what you consider good music. From what I can see, the RIAA and cronies tend to be pushing mass-market pop and "easy listening", so they can get their money back and much more.

This way, good music can get to the top so much more easily, if it's all word of mouth and independent of mass-marketting, rather than hyped.

Finally

[soliaus]

I like it, and have just bought 3 albums myself. Im happy to see there is finally a LEGAL solution. Now, if only the RIAA would wake up.

One feature I think is extremely unique is that people can choose what they pay. From $5-18, and the recommended amount is $8.

Re:Artists aren't this stupid.

[johnpaul191]

it depends on what the artist is going for....... did you ever see Josie and the Pussycats? yes the movie was a joke, but the hype factor of artists in the movie is kind of true. there are plenty of artists that were somewhat created overnight through a promotional campaign. they don't write their own songs, they never toured. yes, it's what the mindless masses will suck up, but you can not really consider them a musician or an artist. they are a performer. they could be replaced overnight and often are.

there are some bands that get big from writing songs and touring. the 50/50 split is nothing new, and has worked for many labels and artists for years. Labels like Dischord, Lookout!, Kill Rock Stars have used this model for years with bands like Fugazi, The Donnas, Greenday etc.

It works well for small labels and bands because the label and the band split profits 50/50 and in the early days the bands and the labels both have a real reason to make the records sell. when the bands get huge, the bands make a lot of money this way. that's a better percentage take than any major label could afford.

no, labels like that won't dreate the next brittnany spears, but how many of them exist, and who really want to sell their soul and suck that much anyway.

Re:Works fine, music sucks

[anubi]

I think they are just starting off, just as we do on a new topic. We quickly accumulate a variety of off-topic, trolls, redundant, insightful, interesting, funny, etc. posts. In their case, they will quickly accumulate a wide variety of music - of all types - just as we have types of posts.

The gurus at Slashdot devised this really clever little distributed moderation system that works quite well to sort these posts by genre and revelence. I would think that Slashdot itself may provide an example of a ranking paradigm to help moderate the music at Magnatune. Statistics will evolve which show the more meaningful parameters of the music offered.

If I were working on their system, I would probably try to configure the radio streams so I could detect if the stream was aborted. That is a strong indication the guy on the other end was not much interested in that one. I would maintain statistics on which song of an album was downloaded first. Knowing which track was downloaded first probably will generate data for which tracks are the best ones of the album, based on which spawned off downloads of other tracks.

The album gets modded up for selling a track, a major mod if the entire album sells.

Its a brand new site, a brand new paradigm. But they will have the same bugs to work out as CmdrTaco has worked out here. Maybe they can look over here and talk to CmdrTaco for some insights on handling a torrent of data of various quality and how to set up some sort of moderation system similar to the one working here.

We are evolving. They will too.