I first came across Creative Commons while working on my Fair Trade music website, Magnatune. I knew I needed a licence that would enable people to legally listen to and share our files. As it happened, Magnatune was launched almost simultaneously with Creative Commons.

For me, the concept of the Commons was foundational. Later, when I was a board member of Creative Commons, I found it very interesting that every single board member gave a different answer when I asked each to define what the Commons meant to them. For the academics, the crucial issue was that the cost was free, and they were willing to sacrifice some rights in order to achieve that. But as a business, I saw rights as the most important thing — specifically, the right of a creator to create something new without requiring permission, regardless of the field of endeavour. For me, price was not an obstacle as long as it was low, reasonable and automatic.

Creative Commons gave me a business advantage over the competition because, by virtue of their being closed, they had to pay for all their marketing, visibility and awareness of their music. Using Creative Commons, I was able to leverage the creator economy, the pirate community, mixtape fans, videographers and so many other people who needed music.

I remember being invited to present the open culture argument to the French government. I told them that French culture was at a disadvantage to English-language culture, but that sharing could essentially be weaponised as a marketing approach to promote French culture. The worst thing for a creator is not making no money. The worst thing is for no one to see your work.

When I set up my Magnatune website, I licensed all the music under a Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike licence. This enabled the music to be widely distributed, but anyone who wanted to use it commercially would have to pay. I specifically stated that commercial use would not be prohibited, and I provided the terms and costs for switching from non-commercial to commercial use upfront. This enabled creators to decide whether to use my work from the outset, rather than facing unexpected issues later on, such as permission being withheld or the cost being too high, which was a common problem with the non-commercial restricted licence that from other musicians (not on Magnatune).

This approach worked well for many years. The Creative Commons licence meant that my music was widely heard by both the public and creators. Music licensing revenue from converting non-commercial use to commercial use was also quite good. However, I was eventually squeezed out of the market by competitors who kept reducing their prices, until all the companies in the music licensing business were wiped out by AI music generation. Magnatune’s 23-year run was longer than that of most companies.

I was heavily involved with CC Mixter for two reasons. This was Creative Commons’ audio remix website. First, Victor Stone, the programmer of that project, was a friend and a Magnatune musician. Secondly, CC Mixter was an attempt to solve the problems caused by having so many different Creative Commons licences. In an attempt to satisfy many people and needs, quite a few different, mutually incompatible Creative Commons licences had been created. In practice, this made mixing several works impossible, as each licence had different provisions. By standardising on one Creative Commons licence, CC Mixter solved this problem.

Another benefit of CC Mixter’s collaboration with Magnatune was offering amateur remixers a path to commercial success. We held several remix contests on CC Mixter and I selected the best entries to create remix albums, which were then sold to consumers, as well as to videographers and advertisers through third-party download sites. Some remixers received thousands of dollars in payment for their work from CC Mixter.

I think something crucial to the success of Creative Commons was Larry Lessig’s early understanding of the need not to reject the commercial internet. Distribution costs money, and the worst thing for an artist is to go unheard. Creative Commons engaged with the commercial economy from the outset, and Magnatune was part of that trend.