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Video blog uses Magnatune music...
This is the first video blog I know of to use Magnatune's music:
http://tinkernet.org/2005/11/24/first-snow/
Last week, I joined the podcaster's yahoo discussion group in response to questions about the Magnatune podcasters-can-use-Magnatune-music-free license. Two things emerged from a flurry of email discussions that week.
Firstly, there were a few modifications to the Magnatune license to allow videobloggers to use our music (specifically, to define an alternate form of crediting the music, which works just for video, ie the "roll the credits" at the end). The fruit of that is the first video blog I've seen using our music, and the author was kind enough to email me about it.
Video blogs are like normal blogs, documenting a person's life and thoughts, but communicated via video rather than text. Seems perfectly reasonable.
 Jan says we're only a few years away from the fully-documented-life, where people video tape every moment of the life, and your life will have one long Magnatune background track (insert maniacal laugh here). Which does remind me of a great movie called "The Final Cut" which was barely distributed in the USA, but well worth seeing, about a future where your entire life is documented and turned into a video epitaph. |
The second outcome of the podcaster's list discussion was the addition of a "commercial podcaster but poor" provision, which says:
- Commercial-but-poor: if your podcast is commercial (as defined above) you can still use our music on your podcast for free, as long as 1) your annual "gross profit" (gross sales minus gross expenses before salaries) is less than $50,000 per year, 2) you give attribution on the podcast to the Magnatune songs as defined below, and 3) a short audio advertisement for Magnatune in your own voice shows up in the podcast, saying something similar to "Some of the songs on this program were provided by Magnatune.com, Magnatune is a really interesting music web site that lets you listen for free, name the price you want to pay, and half their revenue goes directly to the artist. Check out www.magnatune.com"
Response to this was *extremely* positive among the podcasters on the list, and I heard from a few commercial-but-poor podcasts who started using our music.
I've had a few friendly talks with the Director of Music at NPR, who surprised me in telling me that their podcast was limited to using 60 second chunks of songs, as that's all they could get a legal license for. He was very excited to hear that he could use Magnatune music legally in the NPR podcast. Hopefully that'll happen, as they attract an audience of millions...
Posted by John Buckman on November 25, 2005 at 11:52 AM | Permalink
Comments
But if a podcast were "commercial but WEALTHY" (assuming such podcasts exist) then wouldn't this mean a lot of listeners actually PAY to subscribe to the podcast...and since they are paying listeners, they might also be inclined to PAY for a Magnatune CD if the liked it? (either that or they have so many subscribers that ad revenues are the reason they generate over 50K...in that case they must have a huge audience)
What would happen if, by some wild fluke, a major commercial radio station decided they wanted to play Magnatune songs instead of just the typical RIAA (de facto payola) songs? What type of licensing would be involved? (not that I predict this will happen in near future )
Posted by: Jay at Nov 26, 2005 11:00:49 AM
What would happen if, by some wild fluke, a major commercial radio station...
Radio stations don't need a license from us to play our music, they already pay a blanket license to ASCAP or BMI (in the USA) which gives them legal permission to play anything they like without additional fees. That's a USA government law.
Now, if a podcast were really making a lot of money, we'd charge a license for them to use the music, just as if a film wanted to use our music. Yes, we would get advertising out of the use, but I do think that not everything should be free for everyone -- that's why I drew the line at $50k per year in gross profits for "commercial podcast but free".
It's all moot now anyway, as no podcasts are that profitable, so the currentl commercial-but-poor license is just a way to promote our music in podcasts, however those podcasts work.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman at Nov 26, 2005 2:56:34 PM
FYI - I think this predates your example here by a few months (May 2005):
http://www.jmcardle.com/wordpress/?p=5
The download:
http://www.jmcardle.com/wordpress/?page_id=3
Posted by: Charlie at Nov 26, 2005 8:50:25 PM
John,
I did a videoblog entry that was actually borderline journalistic and I used Magnatune music. It preceded Pete's entry (a friend of mine!) but not the one referenced by Charlie.
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/77601
I like your clarification of non-commercial and commercial-but-poor. I'm in the situation where I take sponsor money but consider my podcast non-commercial since I've never returned any of that money to my pocket. I use it for server expenses and equipment expenses and conference expenses. In September I gave a big chunk of my surplus to Gulf Coast relief charities. I use things licensed Creative Commons non-commercial and I've always wondered if some day I'll have to respond to a challenge of that by a license holder since I do generate revenue.
Posted by: Dave at Nov 27, 2005 6:19:01 AM
This guy here has been using this music for a while.
http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/videoblog/
Posted by: Mick I at Dec 16, 2005 9:18:18 PM
