The Ann Arbor, MI library has bought a bulk license to the Magnatune catalog of Creative Commons licensed music; the license fee of $10,000/year goes to Magnatune and the musicians, and gives the library's patrons the right to listen, download and copy the music. Libraries are one of the last havens for DRM-crippled music, but Magnatune presents an alternative to the take-it-or-leave-it DRM deal the big labels demand. This is a library first, and Celeste Choate, the library's associate director of services says, this provides "fixed costs, unlimited downloads and annual licenses. The library is interested in getting the most use out of its collections, she said, while containing costs – they don't want to pay per download."
Especially impressive is the fact that the Library's IT department has made a gorgeous browsing/streaming/downloading interface, with social networking features and musical categories from our information data feeds. They even noticed the Creative Commons licensing that applies to our paid downloads and applied that same license on their library music site and allows the library members to reuse our music as they see fit.
Ann Arbor Digital Library: Magnatune
Library uses Magnatune for All-you-can-eat music
Ann Arbor Library Signs Digital Music Deal
(Thanks, John!)
