Magnatune Reaches Out To Commercial Podcasters

Berkley, CA (Top40 Charts/ Lyris Technologies) - Magnatune, the Internet record label known for its progressive approach to online music sales and licensing, today announced a new 'commercial-but-poor' licensing clause that allows smaller commercial podcasters to play the label's entire catalog of over 450 albums free of charge.

The new clause allows commercial podcasters with a gross annual profit of less than $50,000 to play Magnatune's roster of over 200 emerging artists in exchange for attribution to the label and artist, as well as a short announcement by the host about the label. CD quality sound files are made available to commercial podcasters, who are free to use them for full airplay.

'Even prominent podcasters are often limited to playing 60 second chunks of songs in their shows, as that's all they can get a license for,' said John Buckman, founder of Magnatune. 'Some podcasters pointed out to me on a discussion list that there was a need to make podsafe music available to smaller commercial entities too. So far the response from the podcasting community has been extremely positive.'

A number of prominent podcasts such as Groovetek have already been playing music by Magnatune's artists, and with commercial podcasting starting to flourish, Magnatune's presence on these podcasts is expected to grow.

'We recognize that a huge number of podcasters are diehard music lovers who want to help great music find a larger audience,' said Buckman. 'While major record labels and licensing wonks are busy trying to punish and curtail podcasters, Magnatune sees these enthusiasts as the ideal community with which to share our music.'