A Happy Filmmaker

Filmmaker Chris Gavin blogged yesterday that he had used music from Magnatune under our Creative Commons terms, and now Youtube has asked him to join their "partnership" status, where he makes money sharing ad revenue with them. He came back to us at Magnatune to ask about getting the right kind of commercial license for the music, and writes about his experience:

One consequence of the YouTube approach, is that I've decided to secure the appropriate licence on the sound track of the film to enable the agreement to go ahead. Fortunately back in 2008, I was (and still remain) fairly scrupulous about music usage rights on my films, and I had sought music from www.magnatune.com Under the terms and conditions they had then, I was able to buy the album and use it for internet distribution of a non profit-making film. Now that the YT partnership has been offered, I got back in touch with Magnatune last night and got a very speedy and reasonable deal to 'upgrade' to a more suitable licence to reflect this change in circumstances. I can say that not only is Magnatune a great source for new and varied music, but that they also very much have their act together in terms of enabling film-makers to effectively and affordably gain the licences they need to use the music in productions. Now, I only wish there was a way of retrospectively improving the video quality of the old YouTube film. Three years ago, there was no HD option on YouTube only something called 'HQ mode' which seems to have been scrapped since then.

Thanks Chris! I'm happy you're happy! (grin)

A nice example of the free-use-brings-commercial-licensing business model...

-john

At the Restaurant Show

This past spring, Magnatune launched a new side-business called MoodMixes, which provides restaurant music and in-store music.

Because our musicians sign with us directly, we're able to offer restaurants and shops a much lower price than if they play any old music they want, because they then have to pay the high ASCAP/BMI fees (which they don't have to pay if they use us).

Also, in case you haven't noticed, lots of shops and restaurants aren't very good at picking appropriate music for their environment, while we've been sifting and categorizing the best of indie music for nine years now (which is why some of you become paid Magnatune members).

Last week, we exhibited at the national restaurant show:

here is a picture of me standing in front of our booth:

We were the only music company present, other than the collecting society's booth. What's surprising is how apathetic small restaurant owners are about their music. They don't seem to care that much either about having good music, or dropping their bill from several thousand dollars per year to several hundred.

My perception is that restaurant owners have their small circle of trusted suppliers, for everything from bottled water to furniture, and that's how they feel comfortable buying things.

So... one of my major initiatives for MoodMixes is recruiting resellers, as to that end we're paying a 30% commission to people who sign others up to our music service. We did manage to interest about a dozen major restaurant and bar consultants, and that's probably the best outcome of the show.