Magnatune blog

Pirates, Pop and the Catwalk - April and May New Releases

We’ve added a whole host of talented musicians and DJs to Magnatune during April and May. The wide variety of genres and top quality musicianship demonstrates that we only add high-end music to our downloads website.

Here’s an overview of our latest additions. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we do.

 

Electronica
If you are looking for a perfect start to an uplifting weekend then check out our hottest release, Creation and Destruction by Love Amplifier. It’s packed full of feel good dance tunes.

 

Fashion Themes from Alexander Lisenkov contains a fabulous collection of upbeat electronic dance grooves ready made for the catwalk. This album is also suitable for parties and a broad selection of projects.

 

Looking for this year’s hottest summer album? There’s no better choice than another high-energy release from Vate. Cachonda will appeal to any clubber due to its highly individualised style and makes a perfect choice for beach parties. 

 

Classical
For music a little more chilled then perhaps Daniel Estrem’s album Telemann Trios on Guitar is more appropriate - wonderfully relaxing colorful classical guitar music.

 

Renowned talented soloist Sebastian Forster adds to his classical collection with exquisitely performed Beethoven’s Sonatas providing great energy, drama and passion in Magnificent Obsession series with Vol 6.

 

Alternative Rock
We’ve added some great new releases to our Alternative Rock section. London based artist Robin Grey returns with another fantastic album, More Than Today  that demonstrates impeccable song writing skills and gently experimental, slightly quirky, fresh nu-folk tunes.

 

Also new to our alternative rock collection this month is Cole Pond by The Donnis Trio, a confident indie folk driven EP with melancholy vibes - a great choice for chilling out.

 

A strong selection of crisp, acoustic instrumental guitar sounds also comes from Jon Swift’s album Travelog. Relaxation at its finest! Bellwether, Arbutus from Nathan Mathes also consists of easy-going, laid back summery tracks.

 

World
Introducing Claudia Schwab to Magnatune Claudia’s album Amber Sands is a combination of refreshingly original Irish, Indian, Swedish and Eastern European music styles overlaid with Austrian yodelling. This album is definitely worth a listen!

 

If you are in the process of planning a pirate party this summer then don’t miss this! Ahoy and shiver your timbers to some Irish World music with a smattering of pirates from Barbepeste Official Orchestra. Bootleggersis full of fun tracks and individuality.

 

Luke Gartner-Brereton provides our listeners with some relaxing music therapy in his latest release, Ambrosia. Listen to the serene sounds produced by Luke in his latest release.

 

Jazz
We would also like to welcome Oliostere to Magnatune. Their new release, Circonflexe, is cool progressive jazz at its finest. According to the band the concept of the album revolves around claves and rhythmic patterns making each track distinguishable.  

 

Electro Rock
If you’re searching for instrumental pop music to work with your latest project then try Kyven’s aptly named album For Commercial Use Only.  You can even add your own lyrics.

 

New Age
Searching for music to fall asleep to, but in a good way? Strange Slumber, Music for Wonderful Dreams by Barry James was written as a present to Barry's godson and his parents, who are avid music fans and love to fall asleep to various kinds of music.

 

Ambient
Everyone should take the time to listen to this truly wonderful experimental album from Francois Couture! Ludovica consists of electronic, acoustic, vocal and traditional sounds. Can you hear the hand saw?

 

Would you like to hear your music on our website? You can find out how to submit your music here.

 

 

 

I'm in the New York Times magazine

The New York Times Magazine has a story appearing this Sunday, about ZPM espresso (a kickstarter-backed coffee machine company) and my attempt to buy them when their company ran out of cash.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/magazine/zpm-espresso-and-the-rage-of-the-jilted-crowdfunder.html

Unfortunately, the link to me in the story (at the end) is incorrect, it should be http://decentespresso.com/ but other than that, it's a heck of a good read!

Overview of Magnatune releases in March 2015

If you're one for the deeper darker side of ambient, have a taste for melody driven indie folk or perhaps veer towards traditional instruments such as the lute or cello then be sure to check out our latest additions to the Magnatune music library.

Here's our monthly roundup of some the best new music added during March.

Rock
We're thrilled to see the return of Nathan Mathes to Magnatune. Nathan's new album, Recs is crammed full of impeccably crafted indie folk songs about life's struggles and how to never give up. Easy Weather by the Bell Hours is another brilliant album that we've added to our rock collection. Easy Weather is a sentimental take on modern rock and roll. Both albums are certainly worth downloading.

If, however you are on the search for rock that's a bit different then we recommend Swell by Hollywood Drunks. Swell is an energetic swirling vortex of rock, funk, rap and alternative brewed with elements of comedy.

Jazz
For music lovers looking for tunes that create a cool vibe and exude an air of sophistication then we highly recommend our latest addition to our Jazz library. Downtown Ride from Canadian composer Francois Couture is a fitting choice.

Ambient
Another great choice is the aptly named EP Solitude, from Julian Blackmore. Solitude consists of one 20-minute track that takes the listener on a journey into the depths of a dark ambient world. Solitude is perfect for anyone looking for a sinister or eerie track.

Looking for music that's a bit more upbeat? Then Summer 2014 by Kyven could be the answer. Positive and uplifting 80s pop with modern chops.

Classical
We've added a wide selection of albums to Magnatune's classical section recently, particularly from lute, clarinet and cello musicians including James Akers, Romualdo Barone and Alison Crum and Roy Marks.

Also new to our classical collection this month is the latest album from Daniel Estem. Daniel is our second 'most downloaded' artist on Magnatune. We are confident that Daniel's new release, Bach Harpsichord Suites on Guitar, won't disappoint and will prove to be just as popular as his previous works.

Electronica
In addition we also have a whole host of electronica new releases starting with Prisma by Philipp Weigl. Prisma oozes relaxation and eases the listener into a blissful, dreamlike state.

At the opposite end of our electronica spectrum is the faster paced, urban electronica cumbia album Exotica from Vate. Exotica would make a superb audio choice for a variety of end uses. We also love the latest release from Mike McGuill. Stult consists of confident, fresh new electronic sounds.

New Age
In our World category you'll find The Lake, a new release by Hans Christian. The Lake produces an utterly captivating sound of New Age meets Indian cello. Following his magnificent debut album, Australian composer Luke Gartner-Brereton also returns to our World section with his latest release Ronroco Dreaming - a blend of classical tones with folk/Latin rhythms.

Remember, you can listen to all the latest releases by visiting our website, even without a membership.

Did you know you can also find us on Facebook?

February 2015 releases

This month we added 21 new albums to the Magnatune library. Here is a selection of latest additions to our downloads website.

 This month’s new releases certainly provide an eclectic mix of music. From the melodic and haunting melodies in Ray Montford’s album Vintage is Now, to the opposite end of the music genre spectrum with high speed, hard core rap by Loc Saint.

 This month we would like to welcome The Old Recruits to Magnatune. Their sound can be best described as a new take on old funk. Their album, Keep Your Head Up is packed with gritty grooves that will take you back in time.

 For fans of classic rock this will be an album that you won’t want to stop playing. Written and performed by Deep Winter the self titled album is a mix of garage, rock, blues rock, dance rock, rock and roll, alternative and psychedelic rock – wow, that’s a lot of rock!

 Also new this month is Chillout and Lounge Music by Alexander Lisenkov. This album is made up of 16 chilled out tracks spanning different genres from lounge to reggae. The perfect background music for spas and salons, travel videos or simply when you feel the need for a little bit of ‘me time’.

 We love the latest addition to our Electronic section. Music for Televisions Volume II by Kalabi really is a masterpiece. We recommend that all our subscribers give the album a listen - you won’t be disappointed!

 If you are looking for an album that oozes atmosphere you may want to listen to Julian Blackmore’s latest release, Essence Vol. 1. We think it is the perfect choice for a science fiction movie project. Alternatively, you might want to use it whilst practising yoga or meditation.

 For more of this month’s new releases head on over to our Recent Albums page then simply select the album of your choice and start playing. Remember, setting up an account is easy, but if you need a little help please contact us. You can also find us on Facebook.

 Happy listening! 

 

Retina display support

Magnatune now automatically detects retina display devices (i.e., iPad, HD Android, and 4k monitors) and swaps in album art and artist photos at twice the resolution in those cases.

I find the difference to be dramatic, especially with thumbnails of album art, with the text now suddenly being legible.

As indicated in another blog post, retina images are sent to you in WebP format, if you're running a browser compatible with that image format. In that case, retina images are actually 25% smaller than their jpeg non-retina equivalents!

If you're curious as how how this all looks, and you have a non-retina display, try looking at these two images:

-john

Webp image support

Parts of Magnatune are very image heavy, such as those that show many album covers or many artists.

Starting today, if your browser supports it, these images are in Google's new WebP format, which (in my tests) results in images about 1/2 the size as JPG, without the annoying boxy artifacts (especially around edges and text) that jpeg often creates.

I recently added "retina image" support widely to Magnatune, so that if you have a "retina monitor" (iPad, high res Android, or 4k resolution monitor) the Magnatune web site automatically detects this and sends you album art and artist photos at twice the horizontal and vertical resolution. The downside to this is that the "retina" images are much larger, which is why I wanted to implement Webp support.

In my tests, the Webp "retina" images are 25% smaller than the equivalent non-retina JPEG images.

Currently, WebP is only supported in Google-based browsers (Chrome on Desktops, and Android) as well as Opera.

There does exist a javascript to enable WebP support in other browsers. However, I found that loading it caused strange bugs in my own code, so I decided not to use it.

Hopefully WebKit (Apple) and Firefox will eventually support WebP. It seems very high performing.

-john

https support at Magnatune

I've just finished adding https support for Magnatune, which you can reach at https://magnatune.com.

I've also confirmed that we are not vulnerable to the Heartbeat vulnerability.

Note that graphics and audio files are not provided via https, but everything else is. All modern browsers work: I tested IE10, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Older versions of IE (IE8/IE6) do not work with our https support.

The only bug I know about with our https support is that using the search feature takes you out of https mode. Also note that https mode is not available in the download member version of the web site. Both of these are on my to-fix list.

ps: one big motivator for adding this support was that we were accidentally listed on the "experimentally approved" list of EFF's excellent HTTPS EVERYWHERE plug in and magnatune didn't actually work with https yet!

2nd generation iPhone app released

We've just released a second generation Magnatune iPhone/iPad app:

New features:

This app has a visual approach to finding music, by sliding around album covers.

A playlist is automatically kept up to date in the background, so you can queue up several albums for listening.

You get to indicate which genres of music you like (or don't like), and then in all browsing only albums in those genres are shown.

There is a new "hot" albums page (again, you can limit it to display only genres of music you like).

There is also a new "radio" feature with many subtle playlists that we've brought in from our MoodMixes background music for business. "Blissful World" "Chilled Electronica" "Classy Classical", and more

You can make your own playlists, favorite and share music via social networks

you can download music to your iPhone/iPad for offline listening.

the current version is iPhone only, but we have a universal version in beta testing, which should be released shortly.

Here are some screen pictures:

For those of you who prefer a more traditional music app, modeled after Apple's own music app, we're continuing to develop our first generation iPhone/iPad app, which you can download here. We have a new version of this app currently in beta as well.

SmartPhone control of Magnatune via Apptui

The iPhone/Android app called "Apptui" recently added strong support for Magnatune.

I've been using (and testing) it these past few weeks, as their Magnatune support went into beta, and I'm pleased to say I'm finding it quite useful. It's free, and downloadable here.

What does apptui do?

Here is a screen showing the basic idea:

Apptui turns your smartphone into a remote trackpad to your web browser (that's a generic feature for every web site) and then it also adds site-specific navigation and control buttons for Magnatune.

Here's a typical use case.

Let's say you are playing music at Magnatune.com, in your apartment, and step away to make dinner. With your smartphone, you can easily use the stop/start/prev/next buttons to control the music playing. If you don't like a track, skip it. Or use the stop/start button if you want some quiet.

There's also a built in search button, and menu buttons to jump among the genres:

anything you can't do with the magnatune-specific components, you do with the screen of your smartphone, which works like a remote trackpad.

All in all, it's a bit like Apple "remote" app for iTunes. It's not a general replacement for the Magnatune iphone/android app: it fills a different need, of remote controlling your browser's session with Magnatune. And FYI, it works both on the free and member sections of magnatune (i.e., http://download.magnatune.com)

How to write a press release

A pianist friend of mine wrote me today, asking:

how do write press releases, john? I need to write one for the new album. the label director showed me his draft, and it looks boring. are there books about this?

My friend suggested I pass the advice onto my blog, so here is what I wrote him:

I haven't written one in years, but I used to be good at it, and then I relinquished it to my employees, who did a terrible job.

Here is one I wrote, that is pretty good: [prlyr1.pdf]

The key item is "downloads of its applications for Linux have surpassed all other Unix-based versions combined" which was my angle to get into a "Linux is winning the Unix wars" story, which was starting to emerge back in 2001. Also note that I give a lot of substance in paragraph two. I also am piggy backing on the "will Sun survive Linux?" and "Oracle comes to Linux" news that were hot topics at the time. This press release is mostly not about us, but could be part of someone else's story.

Most releases tend to be filled with meaningless words, look at this one that my MBA wrote: [lyrpr2.pdf]

words like "announce" (duh) "leading" (leader?) "award winning" (sure) "utilize" (use?) just make you not read on. The article continues with lots of chest pounding about how great we are. Yawn. Where's the story angle? There isn't one here. What could we have done instead? We should have turned this release into a story about how crowd-sourcing of anti-spam lists (MAPS RBL) was the new battle strategy against spammers and that the corporate world was starting to embrace that approach. *That* would have made a good story!

-

Think of a press release more as an elevator pitch.

Your first sentence needs to get their attention, or you're lost.

The next few sentences are the meat, and need to sustain the attention. Flesh out the story idea, don't self-aggrandize. It's a press release, for god's sake, the reader knows your agenda.

If they're still reading, you're home free, and you want to give them some quotes that they can use in their own article. When the journalist calls, be sure to have a few more references in your pocket, that were not quoted in the press release, so the journalist can do the own 'research', come up with a distinct article, and not just reprint what every other journalist just received.

Short is better than long.

Pitching a story that isn't about you is a very good idea, so the journalist doesn't feel like a shill.

Hope that helps!

-j