Magnatune
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| If you are a composer and/or songwriter, please leave your comments and experiences with this company. We want to hear the good as well as the bad! Please rate, from 1 to 10, by clicking on one of the stars. Below is some general information but we make no guarantee of accuracy. Check with the company for all details. Please contact us for any corrections. | ||
| URL: | http://magnatune.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Accepting Submissions: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Uploads: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Mail: | Yes | |
| Submissions Reviewed: | Yes | |
| Types Accepted: |
|
|
| Charge For Submissions: | No | |
| Up Front Money: | No | |
| Royalty Free: (non-broadcast use) |
No | |
| Exclusivity: (Exclusive, Non, Semi) (Semi = Free to place on own but not with another library) |
Non-Exclusive | |
| Re-Title: | Yes | |
| Set Own Price: | No | |
| Contract Length: | 5 Years | |
| Payment Schedule: | Bi-Annual | |
| License Fee Split: (writer/library) |
50/50 | |
| PRO Split Based on 100%: (writer/library writer/library/publisher or writer) |
100/0 | |
| Requires Licensee To File Cue Sheet: | Yes | |
| Notes: | ||
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Categories: Music Libraries M to M | 
Tags: composer, magnatune, songwriter | 
25 Comments »
I have had music available through Magnatune since it’s start. John, the owner, is a great guy. They pay their artists on time and I have never had any issues with them so far.
10/10 from me.
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I have recommended them for years (since June 2004) to indie artists, composers record labels and publishers! They are very fair (paying 50% on ALL sales), transparent and they let the copyright owners keep 100% of their own publishing all while being in a non-exclusive contract arrangement.
As a music licensing buyer (I have also been on the buying side of the table) they make it truly easy to work with and I don’t have to feel like a “second class” client for custom license deals or for uses (such as YouTube) that are covered by one of their Creative Commmons license types such as no derivs, non-commercial, attribution.
All around, a great business model for both the music artists (songwriters, labels & publishers) and music buyers! Highly recommended as a prototype for all future Music Business 2.0 (and beyond) alternatives!
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magnatune’s contract – specifically clause 4.3, waiver of additional royalties- categorically states that you even waver mechanicals and PERFORMANCE royalties. That doesnt give me a warm feeling inside, and even suggests possible re-titling. How can they lay claim to performance monies and ALL of them??
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I looked at that clause. I believe what they are trying to say is that the artist is responsible for any royalties due to anyone who worked on the music. That’s pretty standard as they don’t want someone (say a producer, other performer, engineer, etc) coming to them, after the fact, trying to collect monies. I bet they also say somewhere in that agreement that you are responsible for any AFofM musician union contracts. Also pretty standard.
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no art, its not about distributing royalties to others who worked on the music, its about magnatune NOT PAYING backend at all. Does this mean they retitle and take all the publishing or?…
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Well, as so often stated. You should never sign a contract without a good lawyer letting you know what you are in for.
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re: “magnatune’s contract – specifically clause 4.3, waiver of additional royalties- categorically states that you even waver mechanicals and PERFORMANCE royalties”
This part of the contract is there mainly so that Magnatune doesn’t have to pay a collecting society for the right to play your music on our http://www.magnatune.com web site.
Magnatune lets people listen for free streams of music on its web site. We do this to get people to buy the music. Without this clause in the contract, we would have to pay Pandora-like fees to a collecting society. And, as we know, these fees are very high and have almost busted Pandora. So… this clause in the contract is about people being able to listen to your music on the http://www.Magnatune.com web site.
However, there is another case where that clause kicks in, and that’s in the cases where we think we can make you more money by licensing a performance waiver as part of the licensing deal. For example, if a shopping mall comes to us and wants music, we can license them the music (mechanical) as well as a waiver from paying ASCAP/BMI for playing that music in the mall. In such licensing cases, the musician makes *way* more money because all the money from that license goes downstream to the musician and Magnatune (50/50 split) rather than through ASCAP/BMI’s systems of tracking, which is not very fair to indie musicians.
To give a concrete example, we have a home-improvement store chain the UK that pays $20,000 *per* *month* to play two CDs worth of music in all their stores, which is then split across about 20 musicians. With a collecting society, the musicians would never see the actual fair and realistic percentage of that deal, which is $20,000/20 musicians, at a 50/50 split, or $500 per month for this music license alone.
However, in the vast majority of cases, we do not license the performance right to the client, as they don’t ask for it, and we haven’t added extra fees for it.
Hope that makes sense!
-john from Magnatune
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Hello folks!
I just got this update from John Buckman himself, directly from his “desk”! Please take his input into consideration as I belive it perfectly explains the terms of his agreement which actually ends up benifiting his signed artists. Please see copy below:
———
John Buckman from Magnatune
September 13, 2009
Re: “magnatune’s contract – specifically clause 4.3, waiver of additional royalties- categorically states that you even waver mechanicals and PERFORMANCE royalties”
This part of the contract is there mainly so that Magnatune doesn’t have to pay a collecting society for the right to play your music on our http://www.magnatune.com web site.
Magnatune lets people listen for free streams of music on its web site. We do this to get people to buy the music. Without this clause in the contract, we would have to pay Pandora-like fees to a collecting society. And, as we know, these fees are very high and have almost busted Pandora. So… this clause in the contract is about people being able to listen to your music on the http://www.Magnatune.com web site.
However, there is another case where that clause kicks in, and that’s in the cases where we think we can make you more money by licensing a performance waiver as part of the licensing deal. For example, if a shopping mall comes to us and wants music, we can license them the music (mechanical) as well as a waiver from paying ASCAP/BMI for playing that music in the mall. In such licensing cases, the musician makes *way* more money because all the money from that license goes downstream to the musician and Magnatune (50/50 split) rather than through ASCAP/BMI’s systems of tracking, which is not very fair to indie musicians.
To give a concrete example, we have a home-improvement store chain the UK that pays $20,000 *per* *month* to play two CDs worth of music in all their stores, which is then split across about 20 musicians. With a collecting society, the musicians would never see the actual fair and realistic percentage of that deal, which is $20,000/20 musicians, at a 50/50 split, or $500 per month for this music license alone.
However, in the vast majority of cases, we do not license the performance right to the client, as they don’t ask for it, and we haven’t added extra fees for it.
Hope that makes sense!
-john from Magnatune
————
Sounds “clear as a bell” to me!
Best regards,
Michael
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Thanks Michael and John for the response. Its great to see the owner himself take time out to clear things up, which is rare and inspires confidence.
John, Id like to pass on some of my musical wares in your direction. Shall I use the usual method or would you prefer clicking on the LISTEN tab on my website, to get a good flavour of some of the work already done?
( http://www.juicyaudio.com )
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I have never had a response from Magnatune. My style may not be an exact fit for them.
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Dean, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:24 am Reply:
Me too, and my stuff is used on big TV shows all the time. I think they are sticking to the few genres they specialize in, not dramatic score or anything like that. Also, the tracks are much more like what you’d hear on an album, not really like library music. The tracks overall seem to have a slow start, blur genres and don’t have definitive endings. I guess there’s a market for it, perhaps for diagetic / source music in TV and film.
Seems like a cool company, I’ll keep knocking on their door every now and then with new music.
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I never heard back from John either, other than his gracious email about checking my stuff out, so maybe it wasnt appropriate for them. In fact i just remembered that i contacted him a few months ago BECAUSE of this very site!
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re “I never heard back from John either, other than his gracious email about checking my stuff out, so maybe it wasnt appropriate for them.”
I only release on Magnatune music that people would want to listen to as music in their home. I don’t release music which would only be suitable for production music. There are lots of companies that do production music, it’s just not what Magnatune does. Magnatune sticks to music that comes in albums, that people might buy and listen to on their hifi. Because we don’t have a catalog of what people expect as “production music”, we get very different kind of licensing deals.
As far as “not hearing back” after submitting to us, let me explain. For the past 7 years, our listening process has been manual, and with 300 CDs coming in each month, the volume is too high to get back to each person individually. I hope you understand.
We’re about to come out with an all-Internet system for submitting music, and then you’ll be able to see if your music has been listened to yet, and what the next steps are. It’ll all be automated, like a tech support system.
I’m also a bit behind on listening to submissions, so it’s also possible you’ll hear from me in the next few months, as I’m just now getting through a backlog that appeared at a time where we got a lot of press (and a big batch of submissions)
-john
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I have had dealings with lots of folk in the music industry over the years, & John is one of the most ethical & ready to offer help & advice. I have also earnt the most money from my music through Magnatune. As such, I recommend Magnatune 100%.
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If you’d like to submit music to Magnatune, we now have a tracking & submission system that allows us to track and respond to every musician who sends us music. We’re usually able to get back to you within a few days.
To submit music to Magnatune for consideration, go to:
http://a.magnatune.com
- john from Magnatune
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Matt, January 4th, 2010 at 5:14 am Reply:
Hi John,
You seem to focus on a fairly narrow list of genres/styles. Are you rejecting/accepting music based on your specific genres, or are you interested in widening your catalog? For example, it seems like you don’t have much in the way of ‘score’ type music, i.e. suspenseful, dramatic music.
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re: “You seem to focus on a fairly narrow list of genres/styles. Are you rejecting/accepting music based on your specific genres, or are you interested in widening your catalog? For example, it seems like you don’t have much in the way of ’score’ type music, i.e. suspenseful, dramatic music.”
It’s true, I don’t have much “score” music, mainly because most of what I receive is what I’d call “synth junk” and not of a high enough quality to pick up.
Basically, I only sign things to Magnatune that I’d want to listen to myself, perhaps while eating dinner. It has to be really damned good.
That’s always been the mission for Magnatune: indie music equal in quality to what the majors put out.
As far as genres go, we accept anything that is excellent. We’ve been historically weak in hiphop, for instance, but for some reason about 1/4 of our submissions are now from that genre, and in the past week I signed two hiphop artists, again because they blew my mind.
-john
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Matt, January 18th, 2010 at 4:13 pm Reply:
I guess I’ll wait to submit until I have some live orchestral recordings for you ; )
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They said I was good but not what they’re looking for. Tough to get in.
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Dan, February 10th, 2010 at 2:36 pm Reply:
I got the same thing from John as well.Its Berkeley Ca all the way.
I think hes looking for off the beaten path type music.Reminds me more
of CD baby than an actual licensing company.Better for alternative artists who are looking for a place to sell there music than someone producing more commercially acceptable tracks.I’m movin on.
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One of my artists has songs on Magnatune and he’s had one placement. These guys seem on the up and up.
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It’s true, I don’t have much “score” music, mainly because most of what I receive is what I’d call “synth junk” and not of a high enough quality to pick up.
Basically, I only sign things to Magnatune that I’d want to listen to myself, perhaps while eating dinner. It has to be really damned good.
Well, let me go hire an orchestra so I could blow John’s mind at dinner. JO
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I’ve realeased 3 albums on magnatune now and had pretty decent sales overall and a few licenses too. I know they’ve just changed from selling individual album downloads to membership only and download all you like. Hopefully this works out well and so far i’m very pleased with the sales and exposure Magnatune has given me.
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