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Magnatune an Open Choice, iTunes an Expensive Choice

Issue 160

From Issue #160
August 2007

Aug 01, 2007  By James Lees
 in
Finally, a company that understands Internet media distribution.
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I like the music there and its a reasonable price

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 05:48.

I found a few bands that I like at magnatune a while ago. One is called Electric Frankenstein, they are a punk/rock/speed-rock band I guess. CD's cost about $5.00 to make. Flac files cost less and sound just as good. I don't want to pay more than $5.00 for an album and this is a good solution for that. I just wish they sold music on vinyl. Digital media tends to last around 9 years as far as I know. That's the average shelf-life of a CD, and hard drives fail all of the time. It kind of sucks to have to back up your music collection every time you get a new song or album. I definitely support their work because they are independent and I like some of the music they release. If you are looking for something free as in freedom, and as in beer, you can also check out this list of sites to find out where you can find music that is free and Creative Commons Licensed with some rights reserved just like at Magnatune but free as in beer. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators

I support Magnatune, other independent music labels, and I'm boycotting the RIAA's products. Find out why you should too at http://www.boycott-riaa.com and http://www.downhillbattle.org

Their definition of "Open

demiurg's picture
Submitted by demiurg on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:33.

Their definition of "Open Music" is quite interesting, they invite you to "be a part of the Magnatune's marketing team by requesting free recruiting cards or printing Magnatune mini-posters and handing them out", i.e. work for them just because their web site runs on Linux!

---
Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin
Metalink Broadband

My blogs:
Blogger
LiveJournal

---
Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin
Metalink Broadband

My blogs:
Blogger
LiveJournal

"they invite you to "be a

Cristiano's picture
Submitted by Cristiano on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 09:17.

"they invite you to "be a part of the Magnatune's marketing team by requesting free recruiting cards or printing Magnatune mini-posters and handing them out"

You have informed so nice Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin.

Regards,
Cristiano

Response to your comment and your blog post on blogger

James L's picture
Submitted by James L (not verified) on Sat, 11/03/2007 - 20:01.

First I'd like to point out a few things about your blog post and the comment above. It's not that they are an open source project but that they contribute to open source projects and to the open source community, while helping to spread the idea of open source and open freedom. Magnatune has greatly helped and supported the Amarok project, they are even holding a contest allowing people to take samples from the Magnatune sample pool to create a theme to Amarok when it first loads. They have also helped by giving a bunch of songs to the Amarok Live CD Project to be put on the CD. Nikolaj who is working for Magnatune is developing Magnatunes integration into Amarok. If you look at it they do have a programmer who is contributing to open source. The thing is, it's not about the Amarok project but about how they should still get recognition because of the creativity of their business model, and the choice to use Linux and open source software within the company.

Last time I checked or what I feel as a crisis in the music industry would be called DRM. Magnatune is trying to find new ways to fix this crisis and they have found it within "Open Music" and DRM-Free music. Any company that promotes the freedom of choice and creativity is a freedom fighter. From what I remember in school and from purchasing things in my life, is that it's up to the consumers to say an album is lousy or not. So before you go saying the labels are lousy you should visit Magnatunes site and maybe listen to some of the artist that are in the genre of your liking; since you said you did not visit their site.

I'd also like to know how you warped the definition of "open Music" to Magnatunes promotional/Advertising campaign. One has to deal with music in the concept of open source software applied to music, while the other deals with allowing people to promote a site and label company they support, because they feel it's doing the correct thing unlike many label companies today.

I'd also encourage you to check out some of the other sites/projects created by John Buckman such as BookMooch.com so you can see it's not just about business to him, but the spread of creativity and freedom. By the way I don't work for Magnatune or for Buckman but support the ideas he follows, and the promotion and use of Linux and open source software.

Nobodys for free, all others pay cash...

Ken Melton's picture
Submitted by Ken Melton (not verified) on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 17:34.

So, what you're saying in this advertisement... err... article, is that I can either listen to artists that no one has ever heard of for next to nothing and feel really great that I'm supporting a company that supports the open source movement; or I can use iTunes, accept that the artists that I have heard of have signed exclusive deals with evil labels that force us to pay through the nose to get songs that are only moderately free. This is the unfortunate reality of life; artists sign the deals that restrict their music. If you want to it be free, how about trying to convince your favorite artists to sign with an independent label. The only risk is that they may never get their work heard in the mainstream.

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