Successful Format Of Informal Interaction Fuels Interest In New Series

Live From Covent Garden, the new informal concert series which successfully launched on 31 July 2005, will present its second musical evening on Sunday, 9 October, with lutenist Paul Beier (http://magnatune.com/artists/beier) performing for a specially-invited audience from London's cultural community. Sponsored by John and Jan Buckman, founders of Magnatune (www.magnatune.com), Live From Covent Garden quickly established its aim of bringing together musicians and audience in a setting that encourages collaborations and the exchange of ideas about music and the arts. On 9 October, the Buckmans will open their doors at 6:00 pm for champagne, and Beier's performance will begin at 7:00 pm. As at the inaugural Live From Covent Garden event, which featured members of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, two 45-minute sets of music will be separated by an interval during which dinner will be served and conversation encouraged. There is no fee, and the casual dress is appropriate.

"Our goal with the house series is to bring back the intimacy and honesty that used be so widespread in music," remarks John Buckman, "to create a forum where frequently unheard music can be enjoyed closely, in a setting similar to how it was initially performed. For most people attending the event on 9 October, this will be their first opportunity to hear the renaissance lute in a small room, rather than the concert hall, which does not do it justice."

Paul Beier has produced three solo albums for Magnatune featuring music of Italian renaissance composers Michelagnolo Galilei, Simone Molinaro and Alessandro Piccinini. His Live From Covent Garden performance will include solos and duets, with Elena Cˆsoli, by Perino Fiorentino, Vincenzo Galilei, Francesco da Milano and Enriques de Valderrabano. A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Paul now lives in Milan where he teaches Lute, Basso Continuo and Renaissance Ensemble at the Civica Scuola di Musica (Accademia Internazionale della Musica). His wide-ranging repertoire extends from the early 16th century to music of J. S. Bach and Sylvius Leopold Weiss. He has performed throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America and made over a dozen recordings as soloist and director of the ensemble Galatea, earning such accolades as the Disques du Mois from Repertoire magazine, and a 5 rating from Diapason.

The Buckmans' musical enthusiasm and interest in the music industry led them to found Magnatune, a multi-genre web site which offers albums as paid downloads and CDs manufactured on demand. Based in Berkeley, California, Magnatune is at the vanguard of recording companies embracing artist-ownership. All of the musicians who record for Magnatune maintain control of the copyright in their recordings. All of Magnatune's albums can be listened to in their entirety as high-quality MP3s, assisting customers in identifying music they enjoy. Uniquely on Magnatune, purchasers choose the price according to their own discretion. They can pay from USD $5.00 to $18.00, or £3.00 to £10.00, for an album download, depending on their estimation of the music's worth. The average price paid per album has been $8.21, with half the purchase price always paid directly to the musician. Of the eight music genres Magnatune offers, Classical is far and away the most popular, representing 35% of overall sales.

Live From Covent Garden, which are invitation-only, no-fee events, are scheduled to occur monthly. Future concerts in the series will feature recorder player Emma Murphy (http://magnatune.com/artists/da_camera). A later concert in the series will stray from the previous Classical focus; on 20 October the San-Francisco based band Artemis (http://magnatune.com/artists/artemis) will perform, featuring cello, African kora and tabla supporting relaxed, down-tempo electronic songs.

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About Magnatune

Founded in 2003, Magnatune (www.magnatune.com) is an independent, online record label that hand selects its own artists, sells its catalogue of music through online downloads and print-on-demand CDs, and licenses music for commercial and non-commercial use. Based on the principle that "we are not evil," the company offers fair-trade music to consumers by equally sharing all revenue from the sale of albums with artists and allowing artists to retain full rights to their music. All music can be previewed free of charge with a "try before you buy" philosophy. Customers can also choose how much they want to pay for the music with prices ranging from $5.00 to $18.00, or £3.00 to £10.00, for a downloadable or print-on-demand CD.

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In May 2003, John Buckman launched the independent, profitable online record label Magnatune (www.magnatune.com). Mr. Buckman brings a background in both music and technology to the enterprise. At an early age he began designing software, as well as playing and composing music. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and a master's degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris, France. His professional career began in Washington, DC, as a researcher at the think tank The Academy for Advanced and Strategic Studies, and later he worked for the Discovery Channel as a programmer. Prior to founding Magnatune, Mr. Buckman founded Lyris Technologies, a software and services company for email marketing, publishing, e-mail filtering and spam prevention, in 1994. Lyris was sold to the JL Halsey Corporation in the spring of 2005. Frustrated by the music industry's unfair treatment of artists, Mr. Buckman decided to create Magnatune in 2003 as an artist-friendly record label that shares profits equally with musicians and allows them to retain the rights to their work. Magnatune has successfully used creative commons and open source principles to establish a new kind of business model for the music industry.