Luxembourg based music service Jamendo hit the german news site heise.de with their Jamendo pro service.
Jamendo pro allows you to buy a certificate as proof that you only play their music, openly licensed and with rights cleared. This saves filling out the many, many forms that german music collecting society GEMA otherwise requires as proof (Yes, you’d have to notify them for the complete Jamendo repertoire of 200.000 songs). GEMA and paperwork, again.
Jamendo pro is a perfect turn-key solution for public music licensing like doctor’s waiting rooms, shops, etc. Yet again proof of the IP innovation potential of open content licences like art libre and creative commons.
Of course, Jamendo pro still has limits for private listening, one-person companies or people listening to music while at work. If you’re interested in the big picture and problems for moving beyond the incumbent’s paradigm of “mechanical reproduction” towards an internet “flat-rate” solution, see this french study from 2005 (english, french pdfs) and this brandnew german study (english pdf).
Note: This brilliant comment from RAIDer found that the name Jamendo contains many important english and german words, “(…) enthält viele wichtige deutsche und englische Worte wie Ja, Amen, end, mend,
do.”, hence the remix with the pink Creative Commons Luxembourg sticker above.
