I’ll give them their due, Magnatune replied to my letter pretty much straight away (it’s just taken me a few days to post it here).

Hello

Nothing has changed with regards to the creative commons licensing. If folks want to use non- tagged versions of the song, they just have to write in and we will point them in the right direction. Please follow the thread from John regarding the announcements and feel free to add any thoughts.

http://www.magnatune.com/info/submit

Regards,
Joel
Magnatune.com

I’d disagree with the statement that “nothing has changed”, since a fortnight ago I could download the CC music anytime I wanted, without having to email and ask. But we’ll see what happens when I want to license another album. I’m still wading through the ones I’ve got already – today marks the point at which I’ve played all 781 tracks in my collection – it’ll take a bit longer before I’m able to “name that artist” when it’s on random though!

Here’s an email I sent to Magnatune today about their recent change to the Creative Commons downloads they offer. I’ll let you know if I get a response.

For years now I’ve been licensing Magnatune albums under the Creative Commons license. I think it’s a wonderful idea, and I presume from your page on it, you think so too:
http://magnatune.com/info/openmusic

I’ve been promoting magnatune to my friends and family for years. I play your music at houseparties. I write about you on my weblog. I’ve made the occaisional CD for my parents, and written on the label that it’s from magnatune and that it’s fully licensed. I mention you every time someone is talking about music downloads. All in the spirit of the Creative Commons.

http://www.gravitystorm.co.uk/shine/index.php?s=magnatune&submit=Search
(I would also hand out your cards, but I keep emailing you asking for them, and still haven’t got any.)

But now you’ve stuck the robot voices in your creative commons licensed music. That sucks. I can see why you want to do it for your radio feeds, but messing with the Creative Commons stuff is just silly. I want to listen to creative commons music. I don’t want your music under normal terms and conditions; for me, it’s very important that it’s creative commons. It’s what I believe in, and I thought you did too.

Still, I can use the creative commons license to strip the speech out of the tracks, and then use them as I normally do – that’s the benefit of the license you use. But it seems silly to make me have to do that.

Please, please, reconsider degrading the creative commons idea like this.

Song of the day: “Reflections“, by Rob Costlow from the album Woods of Chaos. Really nice, modern piano music, and the entire album is very good. “Reflections” gets the pick for the rythmic chords signature, which develops into a fine, fast syncopated riff. One day I’m going to learn how to play piano, and be this good.

Song of the Day : “Summer Breeze” by Solar Cycle, from his album Sunlight. Appropriately named, I guess – it’s quite upbeat stuff, and I like it. I’ve had the bass riff from 2:03 onwards stuck in my head all day today. Other mentions: “Feel Alive”, and the cough-cough song (you’ll know what I mean if you listen to the album!)

I should do this more often, since I like to raise awareness of Magnatune whenever I get the chance. At my last house party, I played some laid-back music in my room on loop – The White Sail by Chris Harvey, and three or four people came asking what it was. And to the same end, I’ve ordered some of the new Magnatune promotion cards, and I’ll see who I can palm them off onto.

I’ve not been posting much, because I’ve got so many other things on my plate at the moment. When I move flat, I’ll have an internet connection at home for the first time in ages, so you’ll probably get lots of just-back-from-the-pub ramblings. I can tell you’re looking forward to that already.

In the meantime, it’s nice to see that others are making use of Magnatune’s offerings. I’ve got a small selection of artists on my work PC, and it’s used by a certain other ICT engineer to play music in her office and at home. Apparently others in her office quite like it, but they’re oblivious to the whole creative-commons malarky.

Another recommendation for you all: Arthur Yoria’s album “I’ll be here Awake”, which I frequently play at home.

I spent quite a few years feeling a bit uneasy about music and computers, aware (yet not really caring) that my huge music collection was, ummm, yeah. But I was so irritated by the music industry with their bogus “copy protected” CDs and their insane drivel about how much piracy was costing them (as if I would ever have been able to afford a 4000-song music collection by paying 15 quid for a CD when I’m only wanting one track from it) and all that kind of nonsense, so I was on the lookout for another option. Slightly over a year ago, I discovered an unusual music website, called Magnatune. It’s got a few great features, which are great for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »