Scott Andrew - lo-fi acoustic pop superhero!

Victor points us to this USA Today article that mentions Magnatune, the download-only record label that uses sliding-scale pricing to allow buyers to pay what they think is fair for music. I’ve been waffling over sending some of my own music in to Magnatune, but I still think it’s a positive step in an interesting direction, and for now I’m satisfied to watch how Brad and Victor fare as Magnatune labelmates.

Meanwhile, at the Just Plain Folks discussion boards, a number of us have been debating the merits of Pump Audio, a service that seeks TV, film and commericial placements for indie musicians. The offer is appealing: the artist retains the full copyright, Pump Audio gets a non-exclusive license to seek commericial placements for the music, and the profits are split 50/50. At least two indie musicians have gone on record as having made decent money from this deal, one of them claiming to have scored $10K from juicy placements with Kodak and the World Wrestling Federation.

Money aside, this strikes me as exactly as it should be. Many publishing houses seek to own 50% to 100% of the copyright (and, therefore, publishing rights) and an exclusive license as part of the deal to shop music for commericial purposes. Some require a fee to participate. This, despite the fact that there’s no guarantee that the music will be placed. At least with the Pump Audio deal, the artist loses nothing if the music doesn’t sell; the copyright isn’t locked up in a vault somewhere.

The encouraging thing is that opportunities are starting to open up to musicians who are off the grid and aren’t getting pulled down into the tar pit with the rest of the major label mastodons. If you write relatively accessible music, there’s a real possibility to make a decent amount of side cash between Magnatune, Pump Audio, CD Baby digital distribution, and selling physical CDs. I think we’ll see more you-retain-the-copyright services like Magnatune and Pump Audio sprouting up in the future.