Magnatune has started a business of curated online music distribution utilizing the 'some rights reserved' licensing plan in the Creative Commons model.
They seem to be specializing, at the moment, in classical and electronic artists. Artists are encouraged to upload MP3's or send CD's.
From their web site:
We call it "try before you buy." It's the shareware model applied to music.
Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations.
If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use.
Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep their rights to their music.
Founded by musicians, for musicians.
No major label connections.
We are not evil.
Posted by jeff at September 28, 2003 04:19 PM