Last July we mentioned that Magnatune, a record label known for pioneering open business models, had hired a developer to work on Amarok, a free software media player.
Today Magnatune founder John Buckman announced $11,570 in sales via Amarok, of which 10% is donated to support Amarok. This number could get much bigger as Amarok goes cross-platform, notes the Amarok blog:
With the greatly improved Magnatune integration in the upcoming Amarok 2, and the eventual release of Amarok 2 on Windows and Mac, it will be really interesting to see how far we can take this in the future. For now, I hope that the Amarok users will continue to buy music through Amarok, as it is a great way of supporting Amarok development, at the same time as supporting independent artists, who get a full 50% of the purchase price.
Buckman also announced that Magnatune would donate 10% of sales made through Rythmbox to support that free software media player.
Both media players enable a user to listen to music from Magnatune for free, and make it easy to buy — just like the Magnatune web site.
Congratulations to Magnatune, Amarok, and Rhythmbox for making a logical collaboration (open source and open content) a practical win-win for users (ready access to DRM-free, CC-licensed music), developers, artists, and the whole movement — it has been too long since last mentioning that it’s about discovery now.
Posted 29 April 2008