We also produce Marketing DVDs for businesses needing to showcase their product or services.  Marketing DVDs are perfect for trade show presentations, lead follow-up mailers, and target niche marketing.  Stand out from the crowd by having us choose your music direct from independent artists.  We'll research the type of music your production needs, and then provide you a link so you can listen to the music we have chosen BEFORE you agree to the license fee. 

Many of our clients ask us to create a companion Video DVD of their book design.  Some never have a book printed, and opt only for the Video DVD.  However you wish to invest is up to you.

 By creating a Video DVD using your photos and words, and incorporating music, audio, and video, Custom Photo Book is honored to be able to help preserve the memories for your family's future generations.

About Magnatune

Founded in 2003, Magnatune ( www.magnatune.com) is an independent, online record label that hand selects its own artists, sells its catalog of music through online downloads and print-on-demand CDs and licenses music for commercial and non-commercial use. Based on the principle that "we are not evil," the company offers fair-trade music to consumers by equally sharing all revenue from the sale of albums with artists and allowing artists to retain full rights to their music. All music can be previewed free of charge with a "try before you buy" philosophy. Customers can also choose how much they want to pay for the music with pricing ranging from $5-18 for a downloadable album or print-on-demand CDs.

Magnatune offers several music licenses that may work well for you.  Their "Video, CD, DVD" license covers both online and physical distribution of DVDs, including sales.  Their one-time fee for this license can start as low as $19 per song. 

Alternatively, their "single unit" license works well for limited runs, with the one-time fee starting at $5 per song.  If you wanted to use the music for a public event, such as a wedding, reunion, or corporate event, they also offer a "Public Space" license that starts at $30 per album. 

The rates for all licenses can vary depending on several terms, such as duration and how much music is used.   Magnatune is willing to structure custom agreements (including those that combine different kinds of use) to fit the needs and budget for any project or event. 

Details about music licensing at Magnatune can also be found at www.magnatune.com/info/licensing. 

For further information, please visit the Magnatune website at www.magnatune.com.

Industry Observations:

• Radio is boring: everyone I know is into interesting music, yet good music is rarely played on the air. I'm into everything from Ambient, Industrial, Goth, Metal to Renaissance, Baroque, Tango, Indian Classical and New Age (and many other genres!), and so are many of my friends. Yet, these genres are barely visible in record stores, and totally absent from the airwaves. Radio is mostly about Country, Pop, and Rock, with a little bit of dull, safe classical thrown in.
• CDs cost too much, and artists only get 20 cents to a dollar for each CD sold. If they're lucky. And, most CDs quickly go out of print: I buy more CDs from EBay than Amazon.
• Online sales (such as over Amazon.com) often cost the artist 50% of their already-pathetic royalty (due to a common record contract provision). International sales and mark-downs often net the artist no royalties.
• Record labels lock their artists into legal agreements that hold them for a decade or more. If it's not working out, labels don't print the band's recordings but nonetheless keep them locked into the contract, forcing them to produce new albums each year. Even hugely successful artists often end up owing their record label money.
• Napster, Gnutella and Kazaa proved that people love music, and they want to share it. Lawsuits may shut Kazaa down (and Kazaa obviously promotes copyright violation), just as Napster was shut down. Clearly there's a huge public demand for Open Music.
• Using the Internet to listen to music is usually tedious: there are too many ads, too many clicks, and the sound quality is usually bad. It's too much work, not enough reward. A well run Internet radio station (such as Shoutcast, or Spinner) solves that, but the entrenched record industry wants to kill that too, with onerous licensing terms and odd "rights limited" playback schemes.
• I read this article by Courtney Love six months after starting Magnatune, and was stunned by how much I have in common with her vision and understanding of the music business. And, she's much more eloquent than I am.

My solution:

• I thought: why not make a record label that has a clue? That helps artists get exposure, make at least as much money they would make with traditional labels, and help them get fans and concerts.
• Magnatune is my project. The goal is to find a way to run a record label in the Internet Reality: file trading, Internet Radio, musicians' rights, the whole nine-yards.
• If you think Magnatune is a worthy goal, please support it. There are powerful forces who want it to fail, so I need your help if this is going to work.

John Buckman, Magnatune founder/owner Magnatune was originally founded in April 2003, in Berkeley, California.

Photo credit for Buckman photo-animation at top of page and for home page "John-in-a-frame" photo: Sheila Newbery.