Magnatune has seen the future, and it is open

This is normally something I'd toss over into the sidebar, but I don't want you to miss the significance of what's happening with Magnatune, an internet-based music label. TechCrunch has a write-up about what they are doing, but here are some highlites: You can stream any full album you want for free. When you want to buy an album you can get it in nearly any format you want, even OGG and FLAC if that's your thing. These files are not DRM-ed, and your user license allows you to share those files with three people. In fact, they give you links to send them to so they can download it themselves. And if you ever lose your copy, you can download it again (unlike iTunes). It's pretty amazing really. Now if they would only start offering good music.

I wish CDbaby would move to this type of format rather than their deal with iTunes. While it's great for so many independent artists to be able to find retail space in a place like iTunes, I think a lot of musicians would want to sell their music in the Magnatune model if they had the chance.

Technorati Tags: music mp3 itunes magnatune cdbaby internet

Posted by Mark Allen on Thursday, December 29, 2005