More on Music Licensing at Magnatune

Guest Blogger: Teresa Malango, Magnatune, teresa@magnatune.com

Magnatune Artist touchingGrace in Feature Film

Feature film "Finding Preet" is a romantic comedy loosely based on the experiences of writer, Priti Chowdhury.

Priti, also the film’s Executive Producer, licensed music from Magnatune artist touchingGrace for the soundtrack. With its fusion of jazz and classical Indian sitar, the song “New Delhi Breakdown” from The Reformations Sessions album was a logical choice for the film.

The film’s story follows Priti Malani, a 34 year old Indian American physician and restaurant owner searching for preet (a hindi word for love). Her traditional Indian parents find her numerous dates from "Indian Internet Matrimonial" sites and her over zealous girlfriends persuade her to join a ten thousand dollar dating service.

As the film synopsis says “She goes to extremes to find love when it just may be where she least expects it.”

The film will initially be shown at independent film festivals in Cannes and Los Angeles.  More about the film can be found at http://www.findingpreet.com

To listen to the music of touchingGrace go to http://www.magnatune.com/artists/touching_grace

Jay Kishor albums can be found at http://www.magnatune.com/artists/jay_kishor

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Fire Jumping in Alaska with Electric Frankenstein

It’s a natural pairing: Magnatune’s punk rockers Electric Frankenstein and Alaskan Smoke Jumpers.

Veteran Alaskan smokejumper Murry Taylor is dedicated to revealing the fascinating and dangerous world of wilderness firefighting http://www.jumpingfire.com

It all started during one summer when Murry began to keep an extensive journal of his experiences as an Alaskan smokejumper. This became his memoir “Jumping Fire: A Smoke Jumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire” published by Harcourt, 2000. In the book, the Murry recounts his three decades parachuting out of planes and fighting wildfires in the rugged West.

After the book was published Hollywood called, Warner Brothers to be exact, taking out an option for a film. The screenplay is in development now with Murry’s participation.

Murry recently contacted us through Joel McComb of McComb Consulting. He wanted to use Electric Frankenstein music to showcase his latest project -- a video of an actual fire jump.

With Electric Frankenstein’s "The Time is Now" as a background track, the online helmet-cam video shows a Smokejumper making a jump over a fire in Alaska.

It’s an incredible vantage point and well worth a look at http://www.jumpingfire.com/

Electric Frankenstien albums can be found at  http://www.magnatune.com/artists/electric_frankenstein

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Magnatune Music on Mars

Ever wonder what it would be like to explore Mars?

CREW 44 tells the story of eight young scientists and engineers training and conducting research at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah during the winter of 2006.

With the music of Magnatune artist Williamson http://www.magnatune.com/artists/williamson lending an electronic space pop feel to the surface of the red planet, the film takes the viewer on a journey into the world of Mars analogue research and into the experiences of modern-day explorers.

Caltech student and filmmaker, Andre Dunford was the geologist for the mission and also wrote, directed, produced and financed the film.  Andre signed a deal with http://Spacechannel.tv, a new online channel started by a fellow geologist and researcher. The film will be the first media available on the channel.

We look forward to seeing more work from Andre http://www.andredunford.com. His next project is in Northern Africa to investigate suspected meteorite impact craters in the Sahara Desert that he discovered using satellite data.

The work of ambient artists
Saros http://www.magnatune.com/artists/saros,
Rapoon http://www.magnatune.com/artists/rapoon,
and Claire Fitch http://www.magnatune.com/artists/fitch
complete the soundtrack.

View CREW 44 at http://andredunford.com/film/film_video.htm

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AudioBerkman

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School has put together a full-length podcast titled"The Digital Learning Challenge" on AudioBerkman using Magnatune music.

The Berkman Center is a highly influential research center at Harvard, really on the vanguard of new ideas and issues in the digital world.  I went to a fantastic conference there in May called "Beyond Broadcast 2006: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture."  The conference that brought together an international group of media & interactive professionals presenting some very exciting work.  It's worth checking out the conference wiki at http://www.beyondbroadcast.net/blog

The AudioBerkman podcasters sampled Magnatune track titled “You Belong” by Lizzi http://magnatune.com/artists/lizzi from the album Love and you and I.

Here's the podcast link:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/audioberkman/2006/08/10/the-digital-learning-challenge

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posted by Teresa Malango, Magnatune, September 2, 2006