CDs cost too much, and artists only get 20 cents to a dollar for each CD sold. If they're lucky. And, most CDs quickly go out of print: I buy more CDs from EBay than Amazon.
90% of records signed to a major record label are never released by the label. Online sales (such as over Amazon.com) often cost the artist 50% of their already-pathetic royalty. International sales and mark-downs often net the artist no royalties.
Record labels lock their artists into legal agreements that hold them for a decade or more. If it's not working out, labels don't print the band's recordings but nonetheless keep them locked into the contract, forcing them to produce new albums each year. Even hugely successful artists often end up owing their record label money.
Napster, Gnutella and Kazaa proved that people love music, and they want to share it. Lawsuits may shut Kazaa down (and Kazaa obviously promotes copyright violation), just as Napster was shut down. Clearly there's a huge public demand for Open Music.
Using the Internet to listen to music is usually tedious: there are too many ads, too many clicks, and the sound quality is usually bad. It's too much work, not enough reward. A well run Internet radio station (such as Shoutcast, or Spinner) solves that, but the entrenched record industry wants to kill that too, with onerous licensing terms and odd "rights limited" playback schemes.
My solution:
I thought: why not make a record label that has a clue? That helps artists get exposure, make at least as much money they would make with traditional labels, and help them get fans and concerts.
Magnatune is my project. The goal is to find a way to run a record label in the
Internet Reality: file trading, Internet Radio, musicians' rights, the whole nine-yards.
If you think Magnatune is a worthy goal, please support it. There are powerful forces who want it to fail, so I need your help if this is going to work.
Very interesting concept - I hope it works. Of particular note is the innovative pricing plan: you choose to pay whatever you think the "album" (all digital downloads, no CD's) is worth, between $5 and $18. Check it out.
Article comments
1 - frost@work
Yeah, they sound cool... but it's nothing that Dischord hasn't been doing for the past 23 years (except maybe the 'pay whatever you think the ablum is worth' idea.
2 - TDavid
Good idea, but their selection and execution needs a little help. Not enough artists.
I tuned into their rock shoutcast feed for a few minutes and there are some pretty wild keyboard effects on the songs I've been listening to but unfortunately no ID for the artist :(
Maybe it's the techno version of Guess Who.