Ethical Music Sharing More Profitable Than RIAA Suits

Internet Music Wihtiut the Guilt

Stephen Downes brings my attention to a very interesting project that shows some interesting and alternative way to look at the music business and at ways of making independent artits and musicians survive while doing their best:

"This is a very nice story about a music publisher, target="_blank" href="http://www.magnatune.com/"
class="Troll">Magnatune, which has adopted the open publishing approach
to selling its tunes. "The idea is to let users try music before they buy, and when they do, to give half of every sale to the artist." It was so refreshing to find a music site online that doesn't treat me like a criminal. Oh yeah, and they're making money, too."

"The website now brings in $15,000 to $20,000 a month, 80 percent of it from downloads, the remaining 20 percent from licensing deals."

This is what Magnatune says on its front page to its visitors:

1. We call it "try before you buy." It's the shareware model applied to music.

2. Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations.

3. If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use.

4. Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep the rights to their music.

5. Founded by musicians, for musicians.

6. No major label connections.

7. We are not evil.

By Chris Ulbrich, Wired News, October 8, 2003

[via Stepehen Downes]