Jamendo

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

Jamendo S.A.
TypePrivate
IndustryMusic
Founded1 December 2004 (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
ParentAudioValley
Websitejamendo.com
licensing.jamendo.com

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".[2]

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

History
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,[5] Skype's investors. Starting in January 2007, Jamendo tested an advertising revenue sharing program which was later dropped.[6] In December 2007, the second version of the website was launched, offering a new design and new functionalities.[7] On 18 June 2008 the platform passed the 10,000 albums milestone.[8]

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.).[9]

June 2009 saw the release of Jamendo's first mobile applications for Android[10] and iOS.[11] That same month, Jamendo's co-founder and CTO Sylvain Zimmer received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Luxembourg.[12] In December 2009, a partnership was made with Deezer, giving Jamendo artists the opportunity to release their music on Deezer as well.[13]

Jamendo faced financial difficulties in early 2010 and started looking for investors.[14] Stability returned when MusicMatic (now Storever),[15] a Brussels-based company specialized in music solutions for businesses and public places, entered Jamendo's capital.[16]

In August 2011, Jamendo obtained the "PUR" label from the French authority HADOPI,[17] 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.[18]

Jamendo’s former logo (2012–2015)

On 8 December 2014, Jamendo PRO turned into Jamendo Licensing,[19] 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.[20]

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

In February 2019 Jamendo has adopted the Independent Management Entity (IME) status.[21] 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.[22] 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 (192kbit/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,[23] 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.[24]

In 2016, Jamendo generated $1 million for independent artists, and passed up to 65% of revenue to the rights-holders.[25]

Jamendo works with Storever (formerly MusicMatic)[26] to offer music solutions for chainstores and public places.[27]

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[28] 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.[29] 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[30] offers low-priced music licenses for synchronization in audiovisual projects (advertising, film, television, video games, mobile applications, YouTube videos, etc.), while In-Store[31] offers background music solutions for commercial spaces (stores, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc.).

References
  1. 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. "Jamendo Press Kit". Jamendo. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  3. "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.
  4. "Jamendo, the Music Gold Mine: 40,000 Independent Artists to Discover for Free". Jamendo. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  5. 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.
  6. "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.
  7. "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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. "The first Jamendo mobile application available on Android!". Jamendo. 2 June 2009. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  11. "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.
  12. Sarah Brock (29 June 2009). "Jamendo monte enfin sur la première marche" (in French). L'Essentiel. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Thomas Kletschke (27 October 2014). "Aus Music Matic wird Storever". Invidis. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. "Jamendo Has A New Look!". Jamendo. 24 April 2012. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  19. Jamendo Licensing, available at licensing.jamendo.com
  20. 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.
  21. SA, Jamendo (13 February 2019). "Jamendo Adopts the Independent Management Entity (IME) Status". Digital Music News. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  22. "La Sacem et Creative Commons Renouvellent leur Accord" (in French). SACEM. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  23. "Jamendo: A business model that works! (Maybe)". TeleRead. 30 January 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  24. "Jamendo Advertising Revenue Share". Jamendo. Archived from the original on 22 February 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  25. "$1 million Generated for Independent Artists in 2016 by Jamendo". Jamendo. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  26. "Jamendo catches up with MusicMatic". Jamendo Blog. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  27. 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
  28. "Creative Commons – CC Plus". Creative Commons. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  29. "$1 million Generated for Independent Artists in 2016 by Jamendo". PR Newswire. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  30. "Jamendo Licensing Catalog". Jamendo Licensing. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  31. "Royalty-free background music". Jamendo Licensing. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
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