Open Licensed Music Movement Gathers Momentum In Germany

Drew Wilson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:38:07 +0000

Open licensed music isn't entirely new. Artists seeing the pitfalls of copyright isn't entirely new either. But what is interesting is to see a German music outlet distribute over 345,000 free songs in one month.

In some music circles, there is the well-founded argument that good music is actually a dime a dozen, the only thing that makes a difference is what is actively promoted thanks to the major record labels stranglehold on the various traditional channels to promote their music. Whether or not this is still holding true in Germany is unclear. What is clear is some impressive numbers coming out of one music service. What is clear is that the free music movement (free as in open license music such as Creative Commons) has been quietly rolling along online for the last several years, gradually gathering steam wherever possible. One sign that the open license movement is gathering steam was when ASCAP attacked Creative Commons not once, but twice. It certainly says a lot when a movement gets this kind of attention from such a well-known organization - even if the attacks against it seem to be ill-conceived. Over in Germany, there is a new sign that open licensed music such as Creative Commons licensed music is gathering momentum. According to German site, Darker Radio, the free music charts for August 2010 topped 345,000 downloads (Google translated). A vast majority of the songs appear to be available on Archive.org and Jamendo - both sites that distribute Creative Commons music. Jamendo is a service that allows users to download music for free under a Creative Commons license through file-sharing networks such as eDonkey2000 and BitTorrent. If the user likes it, they can pay for the music after to help support the artist. Questioning the values of copyright, not to mention the real purpose of copyright, has been a topic discussed in Germany for years. One artist, Der Plan, created a music video that sings how ideas are free and copyright is slavery while blowing up various icons of intellectual property protection back in 2004. The video has been somewhat iconic to the questioning of copyright since its release in Germany. In 2008, another German artist, Johannes Kreidler, composed a 33 second song mashing up over 70,000 songs. As part of German copyright law, a form had to be filled out for each and every sample used and sent to GEMA, a German copyright collective. He filled out each and every single one of the required forms and showed up at GEMAs doors with the whole truckload of papers. Video of the event (German dialogue only): The idea was to not only protest how sampling is handled, but also question the validity of copyright in an internet age. Personally, I think it's things like this that major corporations who profit handsomely off of mainstream artists are deathly afraid of - alternative methods of obtaining music that offers music they don't own or control. Questioning copyright is one thing, but if both artists and consumers start to think that copyright benefits neither artist nor consumer and work to cut the major record labels out of the equation, that has the potential to really impact labels who refuse to use alternative business models. This is not to say something like this happens overnight because many large movements take time to build up. Still, it is interesting to see how much the open license movement has grown over the years in different countries around the world. [Hat tip: Gulli] Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Download more than 2000 albums for free on “Jamendo”

Jared Moya — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:10:01 +0000

There’s a number of great free music download sites out there and Jamendo is no exception.

Jamendo bills itself as a “…new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music.”

Now when they say “be paid for,” they mean that hopefully by downloading and listening to an artist’s music, users will decide to purchase more albums or tracks or simply make donations to help support the band. They also see it as opportunity for users to spread the word about the band amongst their friend so that they may also make similar contributions to the bands efforts.

Artists distribute their music under a Creative Commons license which allows you to freely download, share and even remix the music that’s made available on the site.

Jamendo is both BitTorrent and eMule compatible, making for more P2P network options that users can choose from.

For artists, the site allows an interesting and advanced new method for music distribution that weeds out exclusive intermediaries and critics that may otherwise prevent an artists from reaching the public ears.

From the site:

As an artist, you will have a personal webspace hosted at jamendo. This includes: links to your creations and your official web site, forum, photo webgallery, announcements of your concerts, reviews written by listeners, …
jamendo also features many opt-in programs for artists : print your flyers, accept donations from listeners on your paypal account, subscribe to press partnerships,
In a nutshell, jamendo is :

A nonexclusive platform : you remain the owner of your music, and you can still distribute it by any other means at your disposal. jamendo has a strong commitment of complementarity with traditional practices like CD sales.
A zero-cost platform : there is no fee for artists using our service. We provide hosting for free. P2P distribution keeps our costs at a very low level. We just include some non-intrusive advertising on the website and in streamed music to make our platform sustainable.
A free platform : you can stop the distribution of your music on jamendo at any time. Publishing music on jamendo does not forbid you to sign a future exclusive contract with a records company.

Here’s also a few recent statistics about Jamendo below.

So what kind of artists and genres are available to download?

Jamendo has everything from rock to electronic jazz, dubstyle to funk.

I’ve listened to several dozen of the artists already and many of them are pretty decent, if not great. As we all know, sometime stuff is free for reason, and usually free music is terrible to listen to but, some of the stuff on Jamendo is pretty darn good I must admit.

One of the good artists is Revolution Void, which bills itself as “electronic breakbeat jazz”

To help you find new artists worth listening to there’s a “Reviews” section that allows users to both rate and comment on available artists and albums.

Here’s one of the reviews for Revolution Void.

When you decide to play an artists tracks it streams them via the sites’s “jamplayer.”

If you decide to download a particular album it’s just as easy.

After selecting the “Download’ link, choose what file-sharing network, BitTorrent or eMule, that you wish to use.

Another awesome download to listen to is “The Wired CD.” It has tracks from The Beastie Boys, Spoon, Dan The Automator and more.

Beastie Boys – Now Get Busy
David Byrne – My Fair Lady Zap Mama – Wadidyusay?
My Morning Jacket – One Big Holiday
Spoon – Revenge!
Gilberto Gil – Oslodum
Dan The Automator – Relaxation Spa Treatment
Thievery Corporation – DC 3000
Le Tigre – Fake French
Paul Westerberg – Looking Up In Heaven
Chuck D With Fine Arts Militia – No Meaning No
The Rapture – Sister Saviour (Blackstrobe Remix)
Cornelius – Wataridori 2

For all of you out there who are always looking for LEGAL downloads Jamendo’s the site for you. For those of you who rely on “alternative methods,” it’s a still a nice site to grab some albums you may otherwise have never heard of before, or also to get without any of the usual share-ratio headaches.

The album above, “The Wired CD,” shows the time spent checking it out can be worthwhile.

CHECK OUT JAMENDO

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

ZeroPaid.com » jamendo

Open Licensed Music Movement Gathers Momentum In Germany

Open licensed music isn't entirely new. Artists seeing the pitfalls of copyright isn't entirely new either. But what is interesting is to see a German music outlet distribute over 345,000 free songs in one month.

Download more than 2000 albums for free on “Jamendo”