Jamendo is a site on which artists can give their music away to audiences for free, under a Creative Commons licence (which can, of course, include prohibitions against people using that music in a commercial context elsewhere). Fans can make a donation if they wish, but there is no requirement to do so.
Fans get free music via mp3 download, or complete albums via BitTorrent or eMule — and artists get access to a whole community of people that might otherwise never have found them.
Do you need help giving your music away for free? Is Jamendo a solution looking for a problem? How is this useful to you? As usual, let’s have your review of this site in the comments.
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Tagged: Copyright, creative commons, download, Legal
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2 Comments
I work with new media at an indie record label and I’ve been using Jamendo to promote our bands for almost a year. I agree that it’s a good way to get your music into the hands of people who may never find it otherwise. It’s helped gain exposure over seas as a lot of Jamendo’s users live in places like France, Britain, etc…In our experience we’ve found that people are more likely to review your music if you give them a full album rather than a song or two.
Do you think for a site like this to survive it is going to have to offer artists a source of revenue soon?
Jamendo’s been really good to us, actually. We put an EP up there quite a while ago and the response has been so positive that we’re giving thought to a tour of France. We haven’t put our next two releases up yet, though – slightly hesitant to make EVERYTHING Creative Commons immediately. We also had one “fan” keep requesting that we post our latest album on Jamendo… which, if he cared that much about it, he could have bought cheaply on Amie Street or iTunes and shown a little support.
But for the sake of international exposure, it’s quite wonderful!