Rhiannon Lives Here

Online music stores and music download services are steadily rising in popularity due to their unrivalled convenience and our obsession with everything digital. Magnatune is one such web-based music service, but with a twist; it's also a "next generation" record label for independent artists of the more obscure variety, and offers a very unique way for its customers to purchase music. Magnatune has been around since 2003, but I've only just recently discovered its existence. It started as a project created by John Buckman, Magnatune's founder and owner, to find a way to run a record label fairly in the digital age. This is a guy who understands how music on the internet works. Mr Buckman wanted to help the artists promote themselves in the big, bad world, all the while allowing them to make just as much money as they would with traditional labels and keeping them in control of their music. To do this, Magnatune offers a few different pricing models that allow you and I to purchase and listen to the music available on the label. These are:

1. Buy the albums individually for a fee and then download the music files or have a CD sent to you.
2. Subscribe to an "all-you-can-eat" plan to stream as much music as you want from the website.
3. Subscribe to an "all-you-can-eat" plan to download and keep as much music as you want.

What makes Magnatune different is that the amount you pay is up to you. For example, I can purchase an album and pay as little as US$5 which is the minimum amount, or as much as US$18 which is the maximum; whatever I think the album is worth. Member subscriptions work in much the same way. Subscription prices are calculated per month (though you pay for three months or one year at a time) and the amount you pay per month is up to you, with a minimum price of US$10. There is also a lifetime subscription, which is a one time payment that allows you to download or stream music from the website forever. Now, here's the juicy part... All of the music Magnatune offers is available to listen to via their streaming service before purchase, and all of it is completely DRM free. Magnatune understands the way we want to enjoy our music; listening to it wherever we are and sharing it with the people we care about. They also offer their music in a wide variety of formats, including high quality VBR MP3's, low quality MP3's, WAV, FLAC, AAC and OGG Vorbis. That's right. That wasn't a typo. They actually offer CD quality WAV and FLAC formats for download, which is almost unheard of and something I am especially appreciative of. The main reason I don't purchase from services such as the iTunes Store (well, other than the insane rip-off prices) is that they don't offer CD quality tracks. Sorry Apple, but 256kbps AAC just doesn't cut the mustard. Something else that I feel is important to mention is that Magnatune always gives 50% of what it makes to its artists. This is a company that truly cares about artists and their rights and well-being. It certainly makes a change in this climate where the music industry as a whole is in such a state of disarray. While several artists have adopted the "pay what you think the album is worth" approach, most of them have been big name artists such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails who have already permeated the mainstream masses. Everyone knows who those artists are. It's much, much harder for small independent artists to offer similar pricing models with their own albums - as much as many would like to - simply because they don't have the same amount of exposure. This is why I think services like Magnatune are so important right now. The music industry is on shaky ground with an uncertain future. Magnatune is helping to shape it into becoming something new, and I feel its doing it the right way. Do you buy or listen to music online? If so, what do you use and why?