Jamendo
Encyclopedia
Jamendo is a music website
and a community of music authors. It bills itself as "the world's #1 platform for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses."
All music on Jamendo is free to download and licensed through one of several Creative Commons
licenses or the Free Art License
, making it legal to copy and share, as well as to modify and make commercial use of for some, depending on the license. Jamendo allows streaming of all of its thousands of albums in either Ogg Vorbis or MP3
format, direct download links, and downloads through BitTorrent.
The name is derived from a fusion of two musical terms: "jam session
" and "crescendo
".
There are more than 42,000 albums available for download now on Jamendo. Widely varied music genres and styles include: Dance/Electro, Hip-Hop, Metal, Jazz, Lounge, Pop/Songwriting, and Rock.
Based in Luxembourg
, Jamendo is multilingual. While the website was primarily in French
at first, there are now complete, official versions in English
, German
, Italian
, Polish
, Portuguese
, Spanish
and Russian
available as well (as of November 2008).
In April 2008, Jamendo launched a special interface for searching for MP3
and Ogg Vorbis torrents.
While sites such as YouTube
are still implementing plans to offer artists a share of their advertising revenue, Jamendo claims to let artists keep 50% of the revenue generated, and almost 100% of the donations that Jamendo visitors give go to individual artists.
Jamendo works with Musicmatic to offer services to professionals on the freemium
model.
media players Rhythmbox
(since version 0.9.6), Listen, Totem Movie Player, VLC media player
, Songbird
, Clementine
and Amarok 2 already provide integration with Jamendo.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
and a community of music authors. It bills itself as "the world's #1 platform for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses."
All music on Jamendo is free to download and licensed through one of several Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to 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 or the Free Art License
Free Art license
The Free Art License is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without needing the author's explicit permission.The Free Art License recognizes and protects these rights...
, making it legal to copy and share, as well as to modify and make commercial use of for some, depending on the license. Jamendo allows streaming of all of its thousands of albums in either Ogg Vorbis or MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format, direct download links, and downloads through BitTorrent.
The name is derived from a fusion of two musical terms: "jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
" and "crescendo
Crescendo
-In music:*Crescendo, a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases, see Dynamics * Crescendo , a Liverpool-based electronic pop band* "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", one of Duke Ellington's longer-form compositions...
".
History
Jamendo was launched in January 2005. Since then, it has had over 45,000 albums uploaded to the site (as of April 2011).Site features
- Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to 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...
or Free Art LicenseFree Art licenseThe Free Art License is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without needing the author's explicit permission.The Free Art License recognizes and protects these rights...
licensed music - BitTorrent for full album downloads
- Ogg Vorbis and MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
encoded audio files - An integrated rating and recommendation system and tops
- TagsTag (metadata)In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
and reviews to discover artists - Voluntary donations to artists through PayPalPayPalPayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
- 7 genre-specific radio streamInternet radioInternet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
s of music from hosted artists (Jazz, Metal, Lounge, Dance/Electro, Hip-Hop, Rock, Pop/Songwriting)
There are more than 42,000 albums available for download now on Jamendo. Widely varied music genres and styles include: Dance/Electro, Hip-Hop, Metal, Jazz, Lounge, Pop/Songwriting, and Rock.
Based in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Jamendo is multilingual. While the website was primarily in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
at first, there are now complete, official versions in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
available as well (as of November 2008).
In April 2008, Jamendo launched a special interface for searching for MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and Ogg Vorbis torrents.
Business model
According to one article on Jamendo's business model, 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 January 2007, Jamendo provided an advertising revenue sharing model for artists.While sites such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
are still implementing plans to offer artists a share of their advertising revenue, Jamendo claims to let artists keep 50% of the revenue generated, and almost 100% of the donations that Jamendo visitors give go to individual artists.
Jamendo works with Musicmatic to offer services to professionals on the freemium
Freemium
Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...
model.
Integration with media players
Jamendo has possibilities of integration within media players. The free softwareFree and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
media players Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. However, Rhythmbox functions on desktop environments other than GNOME.-Music...
(since version 0.9.6), Listen, Totem Movie Player, VLC media player
VLC media player
VLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project.VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to...
, Songbird
Songbird (software)
Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser, with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."...
, Clementine
Clementine (software)
Clementine is a cross-platform free and open source music player and library organizer. It is a port of Amarok 1.4 to the Qt 4 framework and the GStreamer multimedia framework. It is available for Unix-like, Windows and Mac OS X...
and Amarok 2 already provide integration with Jamendo.
See also
- Comparison of BitTorrent sitesComparison of BitTorrent sitesThere are many different BitTorrent websites, each providing information about files distributed via the BitTorrent protocol. They typically contain multiple torrent files and an index of those files. In a typical scenario, a user would enter such a site and browse or search for the content they...
- DogmazicDogmazicDogmazic 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....
- List of musical works released in a stem format
- MagnatuneMagnatuneMagnatune is an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, founded in spring 2003 by John Buckman, then-CEO of e-mail software company Lyris. It aims at treating both its musicians and its customers fairly—its tagline is "We are not evil"...