Online label Magnatune - slogan "We are not evil" - has announced its latest releases, available for download in forms from MP3 all the way up to CD-quality WAV files. And it's showing a little bit of its wicked side by offering a free download said to be 'the perfect album for those times you wanna get a little lucky'!
Magnatune has an unusual business model, in that users can listen to music online for free, and then decide how much they want to pay to download an album. Prices range from a $5/£3 minimum up to $18/£10 - you choose what you think the music is worth - and 50% of the price paid goes directly to the artist. Oh, and there's no DRM on any of its recordings.
The Magnatune site also has streaming radio mixes in a number of genres - classical, electronica, jazz and blues, metal and punk, new age, rock and pop and world music - enabling users to sample the music available in the catalogue.
This month's new releases include an acclaimed recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ambient Teknology's The Devils Toxin - Atek Rebirth Vol 1, which is described as "a darkly driving, mysterious album of exceptional underground dance music with heavy trance influences", and three volumes of Bach Cantatas by the American Bach Soloists.
Each month Magnatune also offers a free album download, and this month's is The Art of Persuasion: a sultry magnatune mix. The label says the album is "Rumored to have a potent effect": it "features 73 minutes of sultry downtempo music by 12 of our best-selling artists: Artemis, Cargo Cult, Burning Babylon, and more."
Click here to get your free copy.</p