What does a Magnatune membership get you?
How much does it cost?
Can I just buy one album?
Do I also get streaming?
What download formats do I get?
Are there any download limits?
Can I use the music in my videos, podcasts or other projects?
How do I download music?
Can I burn CDs?
Do you use copy protection? DRM?
What rights do I have to the music?
Does it work on Linux? Mac? Windows? Phones?
Can I use my own music player?
How are your musicians paid?
Can I share the music I download?
Can I share my login with others?
How do I change or cancel my membership?
I was a member before. Can I come back?
Whatever happened to XXX artist? I know I heard them on your site before.
How do I get the music I downloaded into my iTunes library?
How do I add the album cover art to my iTunes library? When I imported the music, there was no artwork.
Can I pay extra to receive a physical copy of the CD?
What about my existing membership subscription?
Answers:
What does a Magnatune membership get you?
Listen to everything on Magnatune without the voice overlay (free streams have a spoken voice every 30 seconds), download any album in any format, and use the music in your own projects under the Magnatune Project Licence.
All downloads are free of copy protection (DRM), and you can also download a PDF of the album artwork.
How much does it cost?
$10 a month, $99 a year, or $299 once for a lifetime membership. Join here
You pay in your own currency, by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other local payment methods, through Stripe.
Can I just buy one album?
Yes. Every album page has a "Buy this album for $8" link. You pay the musician directly through PayPal, and 100% of your payment goes to the musician: Magnatune keeps nothing. You can then download that album in any format.
Do I also get streaming?
Yes. Members can listen to everything on the web site and in our iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android apps, without needing to download it, and without the voice overlay.
What download formats do I get?
MP3 - high quality VBR as well as 128k MP3 (lower quality)
WAV files - perfect quality
ALAC - Apple lossless (without DRM)
FLAC format - perfect quality open source format
AAC files - high quality, for Apple devices (without DRM)
OGG Vorbis - high quality, open source format
Are there any download limits?
No. Members can download whatever albums they like, whenever they like.
Can I use the music in my videos, podcasts or other projects?
Yes, if you are a member. Membership includes the Magnatune Project Licence: you can use any of our music in videos, films, podcasts, games, apps, websites and adverts, including work for your clients, as long as you credit the music. Projects you release while a member stay licensed. TV and radio broadcast, cinema, and background music in shops, restaurants or on-hold lines are not included: license those from the musician.
Not a member? Non-commercial projects may use our music under the Creative Commons licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 1.0
How do I download music?
On any album page, click the "download" button and choose a format. You get a zip file of the whole album, plus a PDF of the artwork.
Can I burn CDs?
Yes, you can burn CDs from the downloaded files. We recommend the WAV or FLAC format, so that your CD is an exact copy of the master and sounds perfect.
Do you use copy protection? DRM?
We never, ever use copy protection: that would be evil.
What rights do I have to the music?
You can play the music just as if you had bought it in a store: put it on your computer, your phone, a USB key, whatever you like. You may also give copies of albums to up to 3 friends (see Give away our music). For using the music in your own projects, see the Project Licence.
Does it work on Linux? Mac? Windows? Phones?
Yes. Magnatune is a web site, so it works in any modern browser on any operating system, and we have apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android (in the web player, open Settings, then Apps).
Can I use my own music player?
Yes. Downloads are plain, DRM-free files that work in every music player. To stream in your own player, use the ".m3u" links.
How are your musicians paid?
We split things simply, and in a way you can see:
Album sales go 100% to the musician. When you buy an album for $8, you pay the musician directly, to their own PayPal account. Magnatune keeps nothing and takes no cut.
Membership fees go 100% to Magnatune. That pays for running Magnatune: the web site, the apps, streaming, downloads and finding new music.
That is the deal our musicians make with us: we keep the membership money, and in exchange they keep every dollar of their album sales. If you want to support a particular musician, buy their album.
Can I share the music I download?
Yes: you may give copies of any album you downloaded to up to 3 of your friends. See Give away our music.
Can I share my login with others?
Sorry, but only one person may use a membership. We may cancel a membership if we find many people using it at the same time.
How do I change or cancel my membership?
Sign in and go to your account page. From there you can switch between monthly and yearly, update your card, see your receipts, upgrade to lifetime, or cancel. If you cancel, your membership continues until the end of the period you have paid for.
I was a member before. Can I come back?
Yes. On the join page, use your old username and password and your account comes back to life.
Whatever happened to XXX artist? I know I heard them on your site before.
We try to be as fair as possible to our artists: our motto of 'We are Not Evil' is as much for them as it is for the consumer. In some cases, this has meant that artists decided to leave Magnatune to pursue agreements with other record labels that don't allow the non-exclusive relationship we have. We don't always agree with their decision, but we of course respect and abide by it. In those cases, we remove the artist's music from our web site.
How do I get the music I downloaded into my iTunes library?
With Windows, right-click on the downloaded file and select 'Expand All' from the menu that appears.
For Macs, just double clicking the download file will do it. Make sure to take note where you put the song files.
*Launch iTunes, and select the 'File' option from the menu bar.
*Select 'Add to Library'. A new window will come up, and you will need to find the album you downloaded.
*Hit 'Edit' and then 'Select All' to highlight all of the songs in the album.
*Press the the 'Choose' button. This will add all of the tracks to your iTunes library, and you can then move them around as you would any other song from playlist to iPod etc.
How do I add the album cover art to my iTunes library? When I imported the music, there was no artwork.
In iTunes, not every album from Magnatune will automatically display artwork. This is because iTunes gets its artwork from a 3rd party service which doesn't always have the latest Magnatune releases. You can certainly add artwork into iTunes, however, fairly easily.
You can use JPEG, GIF, PNG or Photoshop images to add artwork to any Magnatune albums that may be missing it. A high quality JPEG of the album cover is available on the album download page.
1. In Browse view, select the album in your iTunes library.
Click the Browse button to switch to Browse view so that an Album column appears on the right side of the iTunes window. Click an album to select it.
2. Choose the File option from the top menu bar, Get Info or press Command-I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (PC).
3. Click 'Yes' to edit information for multiple items, in this case an entire album.
The Multiple Song Information dialog appears.
4. Enable the Artwork field by selecting its check box.
When you add a check mark to a field, iTunes assumes you want that field changed in all the selected songs. Make sure that no other check box is selected except Artwork.
5. Drag the graphics file to the Artwork panel.
Drag the graphics file directly over the blank Artwork field in the Multiple Song Information dialog.
6. Click OK to make the change.
7. Click Yes to change the artwork when the warning message appears about changing multiple files.
Can I pay extra to receive a physical copy of the CD?
We are no longer offering physical CD's. CD burning technology has come to the point where it is easy to create your own copies of any albums you download from Magnatune, and we offer artwork that you can print at home to give your discs a more polished look, if you would like.
What about my existing membership subscription?
Existing membership subscriptions continue as before. To change or cancel one, email John.