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General info
Why we are not evil
FAQ
Blog
Music licensing
Big Ideas
Give 3 copies
Founder's Rant
Contact Magnatune

Detailed information
The Business Model
The Plan
Short film
Second life
Podcasting us
Redownload
For programmers
Press Dashboard

For Musicians
Submit your music
For musicians
Recording contract terms
Doing the deal

The Business Model:
how we (and our artists) pay the rent.

Our target audience:

  • People who listen to music in the background while they do other work (i.e. office workers [or any traditional "radio" market]).
  • Fans of music that gets little radio airplay or major record distribution, but has a fairly large audience.
What we provide for free:
  • Radio stations of our very high-quality artists, tailored to each listener's specific tastes.
  • We make it easy to listen to our music, and what we play is on-genre and extremely high quality.
  • A simple interface to save your favorite artists and songs; come back to them, build a collection.
  • A wide variety of music that can be freely previewed and put on a 'temp track" on a work-in-progress. If the music is then proven to work for your use, you can then pay to license it for advertising, films, business, etc.
What we sell:
  • Download memberships without any limits for $15/month
  • Sub-licensed music for commercial purposes (i.e.: trade shows, advertising and web sites), priced from $150 to $5000, depending on length and type of use. This is our fastest-growing and most profitable business area.
  • Merchandise: posters, clothing, mugs with artist's likeness. We're not currently offering this, but we may in the future.
How the artist makes money:
  • 50% of membership fees go directly to the artists who are listened and downloaded.
  • 50% of any commercial sub-licensing (ads, web sites, trade shows, films, etc) goes directly to the artist.
  • Wider distribution of the artist's music means more gigs and more fans.