Jamendo

Last updated

Jamendo S.A.
Company type Private
Industry Music
Founded1 December 2004;19 years ago (2004-12-01)
FounderPierre Gérard
Laurent Kratz
Sylvain Zimmer
Headquarters
Luxembourg
,
Luxembourg
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Alexandre Saboundjian (CEO)
Jocelyn Seilles (General Manager)
ProductsJamendo Music
Jamendo Licensing
Services
Parent Llama Group
Website jamendo.com
licensing.jamendo.com

Jamendo is a Luxembourg-based music website and an open community of independent artists and music lovers. A subsidiary of Belgian company Llama Group, [1] [2] and Independent Management Entity (IME) since 2019.

Contents

Originally, Jamendo was a music platform under Creative Commons licenses. As of October 2015, Jamendo no longer presents itself as such but rather as a free streaming service for personal use. The stated purpose of Jamendo is to bring together musicians and music lovers, while providing opportunities for artists to become better known and earn money through its licensing services.

The name "Jamendo" is a portmanteau derived from a fusion of two musical terms: "jam session" and "crescendo". [3]

At the heart of Jamendo lies an economic model that provides free music download and streaming for Internet users, while allowing artists to sell commercial licenses of their music for commercial use, such as music synchronization for audiovisual creations or background music in a public space through Jamendo Licensing. [3]

Based in Luxembourg, Jamendo has a community of 3 million users in 2017.

In late 2013, the catalog has 400,000 titles, shared by over 30,000 artists from over 150 countries. [4]

In May 2015, the homepage of the site indicates a total of 460,000 titles and 250 million downloads since the launch.

In December 2016, 40,000 artists from more than 150 countries are part of Jamendo, sharing more than half a million songs to be streamed and/or downloaded for free. [5]

History

Jamendo's former logo (2007-2012) Jamendo Orange.png
Jamendo’s former logo (2007–2012)

Jamendo S.A., originally created under the name Peermajor SARL in 2004, was launched in January 2005. It was funded in June 2007 by Mangrove Capital Partners, [6] Skype's investors. Starting in January 2007, Jamendo tested an advertising revenue sharing program which was later dropped. [7] In December 2007, the second version of the website was launched, offering a new design and new functionalities. [8] On 18 June 2008 the platform passed the 10,000 albums milestone. [9]

At the end of 2008, Jamendo launched Jamendo PRO, a music licensing platform for commercial use, making Jamendo music available for the synchronization of audiovisual projects (film, TV, advertising, web and corporate videos, video games, apps, etc.) and as background music in public places (stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.). [10]

June 2009 saw the release of Jamendo's first mobile applications for Android [11] and iOS. [12] That same month, Jamendo's co-founder and CTO Sylvain Zimmer received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Luxembourg. [13] In December 2009, a partnership was made with Deezer, giving Jamendo artists the opportunity to release their music on Deezer as well. [14]

Jamendo faced financial difficulties in early 2010 and started looking for investors. [15] Stability returned when MusicMatic (now Storever), [16] a Brussels-based company specialized in music solutions for businesses and public places, entered Jamendo's capital. [17]

In August 2011, Jamendo obtained the "PUR" label from the French authority HADOPI, [18] which was renewed the following year.

On 24 April 2012, the third version of the website was launched. It offered a new design, new functionalities allowing for more artist promotion, ten new genre-specific radio channels, etc. [19]

Jamendo's former logo (2012-2015) Jamendo logo.png
Jamendo’s former logo (2012–2015)

On 8 December 2014, Jamendo PRO turned into Jamendo Licensing, [20] showing an entirely reshaped version of their commercial service.

As of October 2015, Jamendo officially became Jamendo Music, showing its willingness to clearly differentiate the two parts of the company (Jamendo Music and Jamendo Licensing). Jamendo Music intends to provide music for private use only, and Jamendo Licensing is a marketplace where anyone can sell and buy music, whether it is for a multimedia project (television, movie, advertising, video production) or as background music for commercial space. [21]

By 2018, Jamendo was a subsidiary of Belgian company Audio Valley. [1]

In February 2019 Jamendo has adopted the Independent Management Entity (IME) status. [22] Created by the Directive 2014/26/EU transposed in Luxembourg Law in April 2018, the IME legal status allows commercial entities to perform activities similar to national copyright and related rights Collective Management Organizations such as, for copyright, SACEM, SGAE, GEMA and SIAE.

Sharing music for free

Jamendo offers artists the opportunity to publish their music for free under Creative Commons licenses (and also the Free Art License in the past). In order to avoid contractual litigation, artists joining Jamendo cannot be registered to any collecting rights society, such as GEMA in Germany, SGAE in Spain, or SACEM in France. More flexibility is observed in other collecting societies, recognizing music under Creative Commons licenses as long as commercial use is excluded. This is notably the case for SACEM in France. [23] In the United States, ASCAP and BMI recognize the use of Jamendo by their registered artists.

Each artist has a profile displaying uploaded albums and singles, along with artist information. These profiles are managed by the artist, with access to various features and tools like stats, notifications about interaction with the music, fan messaging, etc.

Website

Users can listen to MP3-encoded audio files (96 kbit/s) and download in MP3 (192 kbit/s) and Ogg Vorbis formats. Listening and downloading is free, unlimited and without any advertisements. The site is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Portuguese.

Each user has a personal account in which extended features are available, for example, creating playlists, saving their favorite songs and albums, becoming a fan of an artist, sharing on social networks, reviewing tracks or albums, and following their favorite artists. The website also promotes new music through an editorial feed on the homepage, along with top charts and genre-specific radio channels. A search engine allows users to look for specific artists or titles, but also search by tags, which are chosen by artists to describe their songs (genre, instrument, mood, theme, etc.).

Jamendo is integrated within media players like VLC media player, Cantata, Songbird, Clementine and Amarok 2. It was integrated into Rhythmbox from version 0.9.6 until 2.9x, then removed for technical reasons, but the library can be accessed from Rhythmbox's Grilo plugin. Jamendo is not integrated into Banshee by default, but can be integrated with a plugin.

Business model

According to one article on Jamendo's business model, [24] Jamendo's use of voluntary donations represents the first serious attempt for a file sharing site to provide a direct way to pay artists. In 2007, Jamendo provided an advertising revenue sharing model for artists. [25]

In 2016, Jamendo generated $1 million for independent artists, and passed up to 65% of revenue to the rights-holders. [26]

Jamendo works with Storever (formerly MusicMatic) [27] to offer music solutions for chainstores and public places. [28]

Jamendo Licensing

The Jamendo Licensing service is an intermediary between artists and third parties who wish to use the music in their projects. Based on the CC Plus [29] concept, the licenses are granted mainly for the uses not covered by Creative Commons licenses. Jamendo’s artists are free to opt in and out of the service, which grants them an up to 65% share of all income generated by their licenses sold on the platform. [30] This share is determined by several factors, such as the type of contract, the amount of sales, and so on.

Jamendo Licensing answers different needs in music licensing: Catalog [31] offers low-priced music licenses for synchronization in audiovisual projects (advertising, film, television, video games, mobile applications, YouTube videos, etc.), while In-Store [32] offers background music solutions for commercial spaces (stores, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc.).

Related Research Articles

Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow authors of creative works to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Content owners still maintain their copyright, but Creative Commons licenses give standard releases that replace the individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, that are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers</span> Non-profit performance-rights organization

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadcasters, and digital streaming services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free music</span> Music in the public domain or under a free license

Free music or libre music is music that, like free software, can freely be copied, distributed and modified for any purpose. Thus free music is either in the public domain or licensed under a free license by the artist or copyright holder themselves, often as a method of promotion. It does not mean that there should be no fee involved. The word free refers to freedom, not to price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Music Group</span> Dutch–American music corporation

Universal Music Group N.V. is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. The biggest music company in the world, it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creative Commons license</span> Copyright license for free use of a work

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

Magnatune is an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, founded in spring 2003. It only sold music for download through its website but added a print-CD-on-demand service in late 2004 and in October 2007 began selling complete albums and individual tracks through Amazon.com. In May 2008, Magnatune launched all-you-can-eat membership plans. From March 2010 Magnatune dropped the CD printing service and moved exclusively to all-you-can-eat membership plans. Magnatune was the first record label to license music online and as of May 2015 had sold over 7,000 licenses in its twelve years of existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music industry</span> Companies and individuals that create and sell music

The music industry refers to the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free-culture movement</span> Social movement promoting the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others

The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's original creators, by using the Internet and other forms of media.

Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation Sirius XM that is presently based in Oakland, California inside of the United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project", which is a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits such as genres and shared instrumentation. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service that would generate personalized channels based on these traits as well as specific tracks liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier and additionally a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, which is an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.

SpiralFrog was a very early music streaming service based in New York City that launched in the United States and Canada on September 17, 2007. SpiralFrog offered free and legal music downloads, all supported by advertising, and was the largest site of its kind in North America. On March 19, 2009, SpiralFrog terminated operations due to loan recalls. While SpiralFrog was not successful in the end, it nonetheless helped shaped the digital music industry shift from the purchase to streaming models, and its ultimate revenue recovery

Dogmazic is one of the primary free music download managers in France. Dogmazic was created in December 2004 by the Bordeaux-based Association Musique libre!, a major proponent of the French free music movement.

Deezer is a French music streaming service founded in 2007. The company has been a subsidiary of Access Industries since 2016. Deezer is available via web and on various digital platforms, including Android, iOS, macOS and others.

Creative Commons is maintaining a content directory wiki of organizations and projects using Creative Commons licenses. On its website CC also provides case studies of projects using CC licenses across the world. CC licensed content can also be accessed through a number of content directories and search engines.

A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to stream digital copyright restricted songs on-demand from a centralized library provided by the service over the internet. Some services may offer free tiers with limitations, such as advertising and limits on use. They typically incorporate a recommender system to help users discover other songs they may enjoy based on their listening history and other factors, as well as the ability to create and share public playlists with other users. It may also include customized radio or social media platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ONErpm</span> American music distribution service

ONErpm is a digital distribution service and fan engagement platform founded in 2010 by Emmanuel Zunz and Matthew Olim, the latter one of the co-founders of CDNow, a pioneer in digital music. The company offers such services as direct-to-fan sales, distribution to multiple web outlets including iTunes, Spotify, Amazon MP3, Rdio, Google Music, Deezer, eMusic, YouTube, music sharing widgets and an app that allows artist to stream and sell music on Facebook

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin MacLeod</span> American composer and music producer (born 1972)

Kevin MacLeod is an American composer and music producer. Described as "arguably the most prolific composer you’ve never heard of", MacLeod has composed over 2,000 pieces of royalty-free library music and made them available under a Creative Commons copyright license. One of his compositions, "Monkeys Spinning Monkeys", is among the most-played on TikTok; from January through June 2021, it was played over 31.6 billion times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spinlet</span> Digital media company

Spinlet is a digital media company, focusing on Afro-Centric content. Spinlet’s primary service is music streaming and downloads available globally via web browsers, and the Spinlet app on iOS and Android. The Spinlet platform provides the largest music catalog of licensed African and International content from content licensers such as Content Connect Africa, Africori, Symphonic Distribution, TuneCore, La Cupla Music, Deliver My Tune, and many other indies. It allows the users to purchase, listen, share and discover music while offering integration and storage of the user's music library on their mobile device. On October 2015, the Spinlet app had been downloaded nearly 2 million times.

Kobalt Music Group, Ltd. is an independent rights management and music publishing company. Founded in 2000 by CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt acts primarily as an administrative publishing company, not owning any copyrights. Also offering label services and neighboring rights, the company has developed an online portal to provide royalty income and activity to artists and allow them to manage their rights and royalties directly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphonic Distribution</span> Worldwide Music Distributor

Symphonic Distribution is a digital music distribution company launched in late 2006 by Jorge Brea, in Tampa, Florida. Symphonic Distribution delivers music from Independent Record Labels and Musicians to online retailers such as Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Napster, Deezer, Pandora, Amazon, and Beatport.

Radionomy was an online platform that provided tools for operating online radio stations. It was part of Radionomy Group, a company which later acquired the online streaming platform SHOUTcast from Nullsoft, and eventually consolidated Radionomy into its SHOUTcast service.

References

  1. 1 2 Nicolas Madelaine (12 July 2018). "AudioValley veut lever 10 millions d'euros pour rembourser Vivendi". Les Echos. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  2. ↑ "Targetspot publishes its annual revenue and prepares to start a new chapter in its history". Llama Group. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Jamendo Press Kit". Jamendo. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  4. ↑ "400,000 Tracks on Jamendo: the Free Music Platform Keeps Growing". Jamendo. 2 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  5. ↑ "Jamendo, the Music Gold Mine: 40,000 Independent Artists to Discover for Free". Jamendo. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Jérôme G. (18 July 2007). "Jamendo : levée de fonds pour la Musique Libre" (in French). Génération NT. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "Jamendo launches its advertising revenue sharing program with its artists". Jamendo. 15 January 2007. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Jamendo has turned 'Orange': Launch of the new version". Jamendo. 7 December 2007. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Paul Glazowski (21 June 2008). "Free-Music Champion Jamendo Nets 10,000 Albums, Adds Partners". Mashable. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Éric Dupin (6 February 2009). "Jamendo lance officiellement une alternative concrète à la SACEM" (in French). Presse-Citron. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  11. ↑ "The first Jamendo mobile application available on Android!". Jamendo. 2 June 2009. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  12. ↑ "Jamendo finally available on the iPhone and iPod Touch!". Jamendo. 19 June 2009. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  13. ↑ Sarah Brock (29 June 2009). "Jamendo monte enfin sur la première marche" (in French). L'Essentiel. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  14. ↑ Guillaume Champeau (9 December 2009). "Musique libre : Jamendo signe avec Deezer un accord commercial" (in French). Numérama. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  15. ↑ Robin Wauters (7 January 2010). "Digital music startup Jamendo runs out of steam, mulls sale". Techcrunch. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  16. ↑ Thomas Kletschke (27 October 2014). "Aus Music Matic wird Storever". Invidis. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  17. ↑ Robin Wauters (8 April 2010). "MusicMatic buys Mangrove's share in Jamendo, intends to raise more funding". Techcrunch. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  18. ↑ Jacques Franc de Ferrière (21 August 2011). "Hadopi : Jamendo sera labellisé PUR " dans l'intérêt des artistes "" (in French). ITespresso. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  19. ↑ "Jamendo Has A New Look!". Jamendo. 24 April 2012. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  20. ↑ Jamendo Licensing, available at licensing.jamendo.com
  21. ↑ The Jamendo team (4 November 2015). "Say hi to the new Jamendo Music" (in French). Jamendo. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  22. ↑ SA, Jamendo (13 February 2019). "Jamendo Adopts the Independent Management Entity (IME) Status". Digital Music News. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "La Sacem et Creative Commons Renouvellent leur Accord" (in French). SACEM. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  24. ↑ "Jamendo: A business model that works! (Maybe)". TeleRead. 30 January 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  25. ↑ "Jamendo Advertising Revenue Share". Jamendo. Archived from the original on 22 February 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  26. ↑ "$1 million Generated for Independent Artists in 2016 by Jamendo". Jamendo. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  27. ↑ "Jamendo catches up with MusicMatic". Jamendo Blog. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  28. ↑ Sylvain Zimmer in "Les enfant du web" podcast #62 on Oxyradio http://www.oxyradio.net/podcast-163.html Archived 14 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine – 17 May 2010
  29. ↑ "Creative Commons – CC Plus". Creative Commons. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  30. ↑ "$1 million Generated for Independent Artists in 2016 by Jamendo". PR Newswire. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  31. ↑ "Jamendo Licensing Catalog". Jamendo Licensing. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  32. ↑ "Royalty-free background music". Jamendo Licensing. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
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