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Music Media Businesses The Internet

Puretracks.com Enters The Online Music Fray 174

Posted by timothy from the enjoy-the-long-canadian-winter dept.
Greedo writes "Two articles, one from the CBC and one from The Globe and mail report that puretracks.com has launched, offering 99-cent (Canadian dollars) downloads for music tracks. As a Canadian who wishes Apple would get their iTunes Music Store available to non-US customers, this may be the alternative I've been waiting for. Although I think they only offer .WMV files (boo)." Check out mgoyer's " rough review" of the service.
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Puretracks.com Enters The Online Music Fray More

Puretracks.com Enters The Online Music Fray

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  • WMV is windows media video.

    P is for PEDANT
    R for Ridiculous
    O for Ostentatious
    J for Just Kidding
    • I just read the article.. (It's not slashdoted!) They say WMA format limited to Windows machines only. Most portable devices are not supported, only those supporting WMA format. Oh ya, you also have to download their client program to download the files.
  • HTTP 403.9 - Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected
    Internet Information Services

    And I think you mean .wma, not .wmv... unless they're serving up video as well, but since I can't get to the site, I don't know ;)
  • I live in Canada, and I thought this sounded cool for a minute. But if it's not an mp3, that's no fun.
    • I looked at this site a few days ago but immediately closed it as soon as I realised that it was only windows media audio. (IMO, having a paid WMA is worse than not having this music to begin with.) Their server also runs on IIS. Obviously they're "M$ Whore$."

      For what it's worth, I'll mention that it looked like a knock-off of the iTunes Music Store. The layout was completely the same. They even had the same listing style on the front page for showing the most popular albums.

      FWIW, I'm just going to

    • Well, you should know more than anyone that nothing cool comes out of Canada. Well, except for those damn cold fronts.

  • For canadians only... (Score:3, Funny)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:00AM (#7218959) Journal
    From their Help page, linked to on the home page:

    "Puretracks.com is available to Canadian residents only."

    And there was me thinking that the internet was international. Yeah, yeah, IP boundaries and all that but is it that hard to set up an international online music store?
    • Yeah, yeah, IP boundaries and all that but is it that hard to set up an international online music store?

      Technically, no. Legally, yes. The only reason iTMS wasn't available outside the US when it launched was because the record labels have different distribution arrangements in different countries. The same laws that require region coding on DVDs and that force you to wait a month or two for a new CD or pay triple the price to import it, are the laws that keep US-based Apple from selling music in other c
      • laws that require region coding on DVDs

        I'm sorry, but exactly which laws are you talking about? Can you cite a title and section (as well as the country, if outside the US) of these "laws"?

        If you meant "MPAA/RIAA self-imposed rules to screw consumers", then you should say so - but that's not a law.
        • If you want to get technical then: Copyright Laws. The MPAA/RIAA rules are only enforacable through the Copyright Law framework.
          • This has zero to do with copyright law.

            It has to do with contract law. DVD player manufacturers sign a contract saying they will implement region coding.

          • If you want to get technical then: Copyright Laws.

            OK, I've read both the Canadian Copyright laws (C-42), and the US ones (Title 17).

            I didn't see anything about requirements for region-coding DVDs.

            If they are implemented in the copyright laws of other countries, please list the country, and the appropriate section of the law.

            Again, please post a reference to the specific section of the law in question.
    • Maybe it's because all you can download are Rush, Triumph, and Celine Dion tracks. :)
    • Think about trade tariffs, duty and taxes. They likely just didn't want the headache. I am sure there are a dozen laws that are archaic that could be used against them if they did an international site. Or maybe they didn't want to compete with an american store that was launching?

      The Canadian and American music industries are kinda odd. They are seperate entities with totally different takes on RIAA crap. I'm guessing the cost was prohibitive to sell to the states.
      • Think about trade tariffs, duty and taxes. They likely just didn't want the headache. I am sure there are a dozen laws that are archaic that could be used against them if they did an international site. Or maybe they didn't want to compete with an american store that was launching?

        The Canadian and American music industries are kinda odd. They are seperate entities with totally different takes on RIAA crap. I'm guessing the cost was prohibitive to sell to the states.

        Nice to see that you think that by "int
    • "Puretracks.com is available to Canadian residents only."
      Not that I (a Canadian) will be using it. That is, not until they provide media files that I can copy and listen in any place, unrestricted. There must be no platform dependence or stupid client software requirements. I'm paying for the music after all...

  • The 'rough review' (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Since there's almost no way that server will hold up:

    Puretracks, Canada's first online music store launched today. Thoughts:

    Tracks: $0.99CDN
    Albums: $9.99CDN
    Approx 175,000 tracks. Supposed to double in size in a month.
    Question: How much does the artist get?
    Pages do not render properly in Mozilla
    Has a wishlist - That's a good idea
    Server intermittenly crashes (they're using Microsoft) (hello load testing). I know Apple's iTunes Music Store also had issues the first day but this being a Canadian site I'd expe
    • Remember who Brain Robertson represents; record labels. As a result he does not care about the musicians; he is more concerned about staff layoffs.

      Somehow I doubt that this service will help anyone who has been layed off from a record store. That buisness model is obviously failing and it is unlikely to be revived
    • "Does not work with iPods the most popular portable music device" I think the Sony Walkman has sold significantly more units than the iPod.

    • Re:The 'rough review' (Score:3, Informative)

      by lamz ( 60321 ) *
      Forbes [forbes.com] has an article about the puretracks.com launch, but also mentions that iTunes is expected to launch for Windows this week!
  • What a great seller! I can easily browse their site, but whenever I try to preview a song, I get :


    Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e31'

    [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Timeout expired /player/player_new.asp, line 18

  • Patent (Score:2, Insightful)

    by metalligoth ( 672285 )
    I wonder if Apple's failure to bring iTMS to market in non-US nations is due to the patent out there described here [msnbc.com]. If that is the case, given the slim profit margin in selling music online, I'd have to think any non-US ventures would be doomed to failure until either all the companies buy (eat) one another or go bankrupt, or somehow the patent is challeneged.
    • How on earth do you patent selling something. "Oh, I patented the rights to sell combs, so all you other comb stores must bow to ME!"

      Maybe if the patent offices people knew anything about technology... grrrrrr
    • given the slim profit margin in selling music online

      Why is this a given? Do you have any actual data on just what the profit margins are for online music distribution?

  • .wma on iTunes 5 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jadriaen ( 560723 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:03AM (#7218996) Homepage
    A lot of web sites are speaking of iTunes 5, that should be released tomorrow (Thursdag), for Mac OS X as well as Windows. It also will support WMA-files, even on the Mac. For more info, see Mac OS Rumors [macosrumors.com]:
    iTunes 5 to accompany Apple music announcements Thursday?

    Several rumor sites have suggested this to be so. We have recently seen test builds of iTunes 5, and it does indeed appear to include WMA audio support -- even with the Mac version. The Windows version still has some outstanding bugs -- not something one would expect only days from release, although the build in question was compiled roughly one week ago -- including sometimes completing MP3 CD burns without giving an error even though the disc in question is damaged and will not play.

    There are some features listed in the build notes (self-expiring song downloads to enable free promotional downloads of whole tracks, for one) that are not testable without the corresponding changes being enabled on the server end, and it appeared that under Jaguar there were some problems with the new look-and-feel.

    The big question in the minds of the grapevine appears to be this: will iTunes 5 ship as part of the final Panther package, or will Panther users have to upgrade from iTunes 4 via Software Update, even though version 5 was available before Panther's release? There are not yet clear answers, but we suspect this issue will be addressed as part of Thursday's announcements...which are also rumored to include new iPod accessories and possibly even modest modifications (lower entry-level price, possible new high-end model) to the current lineup itself.

    • Well, I find it sad that Apple is going the WMA route but it's their service. However, the wording makes me wonder if WMA is going to be optional, after all it says "include WMA audio support". Regardless, so long as it's possible to transcode it to a non-DRM encumbered format then it's acceptable but just barely. Personally, I'll restrict my purchases to iTunes to counterbalance the specter of a total MS monopoly in online music formats. The rionic thing is that the RIAA members would rather die than ever
    • It will SUPPORT wma. Doesn't mean the iTunes store for Windows will be selling wma, which I find highly unlikely, since Apple's fancy mp3 player, DOESN'T SUPPORT wma, right now anyway.
    • " A lot of web sites are speaking of iTunes 5, that should be released tomorrow (Thursdag)..." (emphasis mine)

      So they're opening up iTMS for Deutschland now? I had no idea!

      (Note: If you don't think this joke is funny then mod it down. I have an unpredictable sense of humour and I can't tell right now if it's working normally right now.)

      • " A lot of web sites are speaking of iTunes 5, that should be released tomorrow (Thursdag)..." (emphasis mine)

        So they're opening up iTMS for Deutschland now? I had no idea!

        (Note: If you don't think this joke is funny then mod it down. I have an unpredictable sense of humour and I can't tell right now if it's working normally right now.)

        Well, actually you are referring to the iTMS voor Belgie, because it's a Dutch/Flemish inspired typo. And your humour: not dry enough for me, but it's not irritatin

  • Moaning about WMA only... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fruey ( 563914 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:04AM (#7219012) Homepage Journal
    Nobody moaned too hard when Apple launch iTunes in the US only and for Apple customers only with iPods and all. They sighed a little that they didn't have a cool iPod and would actually like something for their Windows (or Linux) machine.

    Now you're (collectively) moaning that this new Canada only service is WMA (and hence windows) only, even though there are workarounds to transcode (yeah lose quality blah blah) to MP3 or OGG good enough for walkmanlike headphones.

    Commercial stuff like this will always be led out by simple economic decisions. Like how much the whole infrastructure costs. Even if that means dopey in IT puts WMA because it's already built in to the solution they've already been committed to forever. Or whatever.

    • damned if i'm going to pay money for something that is mostly acceptable for crummy headphones.
      • Yeah well I'm taking a highest common denominator otherwise I get stewed by the audiophiles.

        You want real quality sound, you buy the CD.

        • Well not to quibble but the audiophiles think CD's are of moderate quality. One of the reasons the apple iTunes sounds better is they arent ripped from CD's but rather higher quality sourced from the music studios like DAT etc. Better input generaly means better output or the ability to have better output. BTW there are good walkman headphones they cost about 300 bucks though.

          Yes I'm a somewhat audiophile DVD-Audio sounds like a decent source to rip from to bad there is so little content avalible on it.
          • Dude, you're wrong. That's what Steve says. Don't be caught in his reality distortion field. The audio that Apple gets is the same audio that all the other services are getting, and the source is WAV files ripped from CDs. I know people supplying these services from the major label side and they're not going back to the masters.

            The highest quality pay service in the US at this point is MusicMatch, who is selling WMA tracks encoded at 160Kbits vs Apple's 128Kbits AAC. That said, iTunes is way easier to
    • Normally I'd agree with you about WMA being a necessary evil to get an online music retailer launched. For better or for worse, in most countries the RIAA (or their appropriate country-specific clone) will only feel comfortable peddling their wares digitally if they can have their DRM locked into the format. Since Microsoft is a big, well-known player, I'm guessing the tendency is for the tech-phobic peeps at RIAA to reflexively go toward them (name-brand recognition) when buying into a DRM scheme.

      Havin

  • Uses WMV and looks like crap using Mozilla. Written in ASP.

  • I wrote them a nice note, complimenting them on the site design, navigation, organization, etc; I was even encouraging about the selection, saying that while they didn't have everything, they had more than enough to encourage at least $100 a year out of me.

    Then I said, "but of course, since you only support Windows and I have a Linux box and an MP3-only portable player, I won't be giving you any business at all"...and how sorry I was about that.

    Best I could do....
  • for expecting your IIS webserver to standup to a *real* load level.
    I mean come on, they server audio to make money yet their web server can't handle a /.ing
    That's just poor design, whatever platform you use.

    Now if they actually only use wmv, that would suck for all those who can't/won't browse them.
  • Non-MP3 DRM enabled. Nuff said.

  • They don't get it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pdaoust007 ( 258232 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:21AM (#7219176)
    How can they compete with mp3's that can be acquired for free, have no restriction AND can play on any platform (Windows, Mac, Unix) or portable device?

    To attract consumers to their service they must have some value added service. All I can see is less value with all the DRM restrictions and the propietary format they chose. I own three portable mp3 players (one is an iPOD) and none of them can play this WMA crap.

    Give me a true alternative to P2P applications, a reasonable price (a lot of their albums are over $10CND) and I will use a paying service for sure(I currently use eMusic but it's only good for indy music).
    • How about consistent audio quality?
      Windows Media Files may not be the best but I bet the quality is consistent.
      Attempting to get any less that popular music on regular P2P can often entail downloading 4 versions of the same song just to find pops, hiss or that it was captured from radio.
      True there is a great deal of good quality stuff our there but it is mixed with a great deal of crap.
    • ow can they compete with mp3's that can be acquired for free, have no restriction AND can play on any platform (Windows, Mac, Unix) or portable device?

      Don't you get it? That's the point - The music industry is forcing everything to WMA format (and possibly other heavily DRM-ed formats in the future. I'll call them all WMA for brevity here.)

      They know it will take a few years, but that they will eventually win. Here's the scenario:

      1) Make all current and classic songs only available "legally" in WMA f
      • At that point, they've won the war, although battles will continue to be fought for some time.

        Maybe only if they produce something that people want to listen to so badly that they must buy from the RIAA and put up with their restrictions instead of from less draconian artists.

        IMHO, at some point the restrictions / price tipping point of the RIAA vs. other sources of music will be reached.
    • search for track by artist/genre/title/etc.
      select format mp3/ogg/etc
      select bitrate
      high speed download

      just like a thousand pirates have done before and eventually got shut down. they shoulda charged per download.
    • How can they compete with mp3's that can be acquired for free, have no restriction AND can play on any platform (Windows, Mac, Unix) or portable device?

      Don't you get it? That's the point - The music industry is forcing everything to WMA format (and possibly other heavily DRM-ed formats in the future. I'll call them all WMA for brevity here.)

      They know it will take a few years, but that they will eventually win. Here's the scenario:

      1) Make all current and classic songs only available "legally" in WMA
  • For the record, as several other have said it:

    If it's not MP3, it won't play on my portable player, and so it's useless to me at any price.

    I'm not paying for DRM. If you can't trust me as a customer, you can't have me for a customer.
    • Just use mencoder to bypass the so-called DRM and re-encode it as MP3

    • If you can't trust me as a customer, you can't have me for a customer.

      I see this same sentiment crop up time and time again on this topic and I ask this:

      Are you offended by stores that employ anti-shoplifting measures (tattle tape in books, nogo wafers on clothing, surveillance cameras, etc)? After all, by doing so, they are stating loud and clear that they think that their customers are going to walk away with merchandise if they aren't watched.

      I don't mean to troll, just playing the devils advocate.

      • Re:Not MP3 == useless (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Gonarat ( 177568 ) *

        Are you offended by stores that employ anti-shoplifting measures (tattle tape in books, nogo wafers on clothing, surveillance cameras, etc)? After all, by doing so, they are stating loud and clear that they think that their customers are going to walk away with merchandise if they aren't watched.

        Anti-shoplifting devices do not bother me because they remove or disable them once I purchase the item. After I leave the store, I am free to do with the item as I wish. Walmart/Target/J.C. Penney, etc. does n

  • Doh (Score:2)

    by dolo666 ( 195584 )
    Now that puretracks is /.'d, will the music downloads run at a snail's pace? Hopefully not.

    I think this is EXACTLY what we need to combat the RIAA. Cheap songs, cheap albums. Not only that, you may find artists putting more top-notch tracks on their albums, since people will likely pick and choose the songs they want.

    If more online stores like this opened up, I think we'd see a lot less illegal p2p (not that I care).
  • Everyone and their pet monkey is going to want to run an mp3 downloading service now.

    Do we really need an article on each and every new startup?

  • WMA and DRM (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Feyr ( 449684 ) * on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:30AM (#7219264) Journal
    if you're canadian, let them know you would not consider buying anything from them in their current format.

    i know i did. as someone else posted, if you can't trust me as a customer, you can't have me as one
  • Great.

    I'm starting a new pr0n pictures site where all the images will be available in BMP format only.

    I'd love to know how this business model and song format was agreed upon in whatever meetings the collection of innovative geniuses at puretracks.com had leading up to the site's launch. Who would start off by limiting themselves so severely out of the gate?

  • Canadian CD tax (Score:4, Informative)

    by tessaiga ( 697968 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:37AM (#7219345)
    Why would Canadians need an online music service when Canadians are legally allowed to make copies [neil.eton.ca] for personal use? The whole point of the 21-cent CD tax [cb-cda.gc.ca] (PDF) over there is to explicitly allow this sort of thing. After all, Canadians are already paying an ever-increasing amount [wired.com] for this very privilage.

    Granted, this currently only applies to sneakernet and the application of this argument to peer-to-peer networks has yet to be tested in court. This is IMHO a very important point that needs to be clarified in Canadian law for the good of the public. Otherwise, everyone there runs the risk of having to double-pay for every song they get online -- once to download the song, and once again to burn it onto CD.

    • This thing is really getting out of hand - I don't want or need this music copying "permission", but look at this bullshit:

      HDD - $21 per gigabyte...WTF? That's $2100 tacked on the price of a 100GB HDD?? Guess I won't be buying HDD's in Canada - let's all look forward to a vigorous black market in HDD in Canada.

      DVD-R/RW etc.. $2.27 per disc??? What a crock of shit - especially since this law doesn't give us the right to copy movies - so what is the point of this? So now when I go and make a home movie
      • Try being a smoker!
      • The levies are NOT PER MB

        The levies are set by this board of people and ar enot per MB. And if you would just compare Canadian [ncix.com] HD prices to US ones you would see that they are not only comparable when you take into account the exchange, but because of the US dollar you can often geta better deal buying from a Canadian suppler.

        So stop spouting bullshit when you have no clue what you are talking about.

        • The proposed levies are indeed $21 per GB, I found it on the gov't site. Apparently by selling the drives with music already on them they can get around the levy. Also consumers may order from the states (or wherever) themselves without levies - but if the drive is made in Canada then the manufacturer has the joy of charging $2100 or so on a $200 drive.

          I'll admit that I'm "spouting bullshit" - because that's what this whole proposed levy is - complete and utter bullshit that could potentially kill the Ca
          • This proposal is the EXACT SAME as the previous proposal from about 5 years ago. The actual levies are set by a copyright board that is NOT under control by the Heritige Minister, who is the one proposing these extravagant amounts. The board has a history of assigning much lower levies. Example, 5 years ago the proposal was for 1 dollar a CD, the board enacted it to be 2 cents or something, which the CD companies effectively absorbed.

            The board has sole discretionary power to decide what the levies are, ev
  • The first company who actually has any of the songs i want from any of the artists I like gets my business. I've basically tried Emusic, which actually did have good stuff. But MusicMatch had almost nothing, only top40 stuff it seemed (which you can just pick up from a music store or download from Kazaa or eDonkey). Makes me wonder if Itunes is/will be just as bad.

  • The DRM Might Be Illegal (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Myriad ( 89793 ) <(myriad) (at) (thebsod.com)> on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:45AM (#7219463) Homepage
    'You can transfer your music downloads an unlimited number of times to 3 separate portable devices'

    Is only part of the DRM restrictions they have.

    However, it might be illegal: in Canada we pay a levy on all recordable media which goes towards paying artists for copies of music made (even if you use the disc for data!).

    Additionally it is perfectly legal for someone to borrow your CD and burn a copy of it. You cannot burn a copy and give it to them, though, as that would be considered distribution.

    Thus, between paying a levy on all recordable media and having the right to make as many copies from others as you want, DRM Restrictions which seek to limit this ability could be considered in violation of Canadian law. The law says I am entitled to make my copies, but now you won't let me.

    Of course IANAL, and they could cover themselves by making it the DRM an EULA item - ie, "By purchasing this music you agree to be bound by our terms of service..." blah blah.

    I, for one, won't use this. Screw that. Pay almost the same price for DRM locked, poorly formatted music that I have to pay twice for if I backup to CD? Bugger that. I'll just buy the CD that I can then do what I want with (within limits of course).

    Blockwars [blockwars.com]: realtime, multiplayer, free!

    • The reason you expose do not apply here. With this service you can burn the songs (up to 3 times) on a CD.

      You can copy the CD all you want after that.

      The law allow you to copy music for personal use but it does not prevent anyone to make it hard to copy the music.

      Also with the levy, you pay the artist (author and compositor) twice, not the record company or the interpret (ie Celine Dion will be only paid once for the sale on the song but will get nothing from the collected levy).

    • However, it might be illegal: in Canada we pay a levy on all recordable media which goes towards paying artists for copies of music made (even if you use the disc for data!).

      Not only that, but more fundamental (and I wish people would bring this up more often) -- this service violates Fair Use in Copyright law. Sure, the material I purchase is copyrighted but by introducing platform, client, and copy/burn quotas my rights under Fair Use are being taken away.

      As far as I'm concerned, DRM format pay-for-

  • Slashdotted... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Inode Jones ( 1598 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:46AM (#7219470) Homepage
    You know, maybe if they put up a simple HTML page to introduce you to the service instead of streaming video using Flash 6, the site would not be so heavily loaded...

    Kinda reminds me of the Ontario Electricity Market Operator www.theimo.com [theimo.com]. During the post-blackout period, they posted the current Ontario demand hourly. It was useful to check their site to determine if rolling blackouts were required. One problem: they ship you a 100KB background bitmap which for some reason wasn't cached by MSIE. During peak use, the server failed to keep up with the load. I wonder what they could have done had they simply dropped the bitmap for that week...

  • OS Limitations (Score:4, Informative)

    by elliotj ( 519297 ) <slashdot AT elliotjohnson DOT com> on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @10:59AM (#7219639) Homepage
    Ok, I tried buying a song from my tiBook, mainly because I wanted to see if I could convert from WMA to MP3 and put it on my iPod. As a Canadian Apple user I'm a little pissed at ITMS for not being available here.

    When I tried to create an account and proceed to enter my credit card info, I got the following message:
    Sorry, Puretracks only supports the following OS's: Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / 2003 / XP and IE 5+

    It was on an .aspx page. I expect the payment part uses some active-x control that will limit you to those OSs or x86/Linux running IE in Wine. I assume they do OS detection from the browser ID.

    Bummer.

    What's up with people making new web services in this fashion? I mean, how much harder is it to select technology that will work on all platforms and do your development from there?

  • What a joke.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jhiltz ( 237938 ) on Wednesday October 15, 2003 @11:00AM (#7219652)
    As a Canadian waiting for a decent music service i'm sorry to see all the limitations outlined in the review..

    It's interesting that while all the RIAA riff-raff has been going on, emblazoned throughout the media - no one has even questioned the fact that Microsoft has managed to somehow collude with all the recording companies to ensure that all the songs on any of these online services are in WMA/DRM wrapped audio format. Pretty unfortunate for all of us Linux and non-Microsoft OS users. These music services will be a success, and quietly behind the scenes I believe the happiest company involved will be Microsoft - now knowing they have yet one more thing to keep you locked to their platform. This note of course doesn't even touch on all the problems with the limitations imposed by the DRM being used for the songs off Puretracks. But anyway, enough said for now...

    Jeff


  • only $0.14 US per track!
  • Wow! That's a great price! Isn't that something like $.02 US?

  • MP3 Services? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by spludge ( 99050 )
    Are there any of these services that are MP3? I'd really like to use one of these services but I tried pressplay and I *couldn't* listen to my downloaded music after I finished my subscription! That and having restrictions on moving my music around is a pain in the ass.
  • Anyone can start up a Linux-only, Ogg Vorvis-based service. Takes a little bit of scripting, is all.

    <?
    if (eregi("win",$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"])) {
    include("Location:sod_off_lamer.php");
    exit;
    }
    elseif (eregi("mac",$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"])) {
    header("Location:no_cigar.php");
    exit;
    };
    ?>

    or something similar before your <HTML> line ought to do it. Of course, you have to supply pages explaining why users of lame OSes are not welcome.

    More subtly, you could arrange things so that Windo

  • It seems like 99 cents per song, which has become the de facto standard price for online music sales, is much too expensive. That comes out to almost $14/full CD - approximately the same as buying a CD at retail. BUT ... there's no manufacturing/printing cost, no inventory cost, low distribution cost, etc.

    A much more reasonable (and acceptable, to me) price would be in the 50 cent range per track. At 99 cents, I'm staying away. At 50 cents, I'm not just testing the water, I'm diving right in.
    • This is cheaper than the deal Apple was forced to cut with the RIAA (C$ 0.99 is about $US 0.75 per song).

      Unless they've signed a parallel agreement with the RIAA and can determine your physical location, Americans won't be able to take advantage of the lower price, though.

      One wonders how they're going to pull it off, though. Apple reports that the 30c or so it gets to keep (70c to the RIAA members or whomever owns the electronic distribution rights) pretty much equals the cost of servers, bandwidth, etc.
  • Thank you for visiting Puretracks.com.

    Due to overwhelming publicity, our store is currently at full capacity.

    Please return shortly.

    Thanks again for visiting.

    Puretracks.com
  • I wonder how much Jobs had to pay to get this article on slashdot.
    More seriously though, they are doing everything half-assed, most of the songs are probably from crappy Canadian bands that no one actually cares about.
    When will these Canadian record companies and the CRTC realize not many people give a shit about Canadian music-- I feel it had to be an act of god for their site to be down... anyone that is willing to pay .99c for a Celene Dion song should be stopped at any or all costs.
  • Magnatune.com [magnatune.com] got it right - they offer all thier music in various formats, including both FLAC and Ogg!
  • Magnatune [magnatune.com]!

    You can download the tracks you buy as MP3 (fixed or variable rate), WAV, OGG, or FLAC. No DRM. No country restrictions.

  • .. am going to hold out for puretracks.de to come online. I'll finally be able to get all my David Hasselhoff without risk of being sued by the RIAA.

  • From the PureTracks site:
    " ... Based in Canada, and open all hours, the Puretracks* music store is operated by Moontaxi Media Inc., one of North America's leading online music providers. For more details about our affiliate and partner program please contact us at Partners@Puretracks.com. ..."

    Moontaxi media is an internet broadcaster, the provider of canned music on Air Canada flights and your dentist's office, responsible for hundreds of internet streaming music channels, and a whole bunch of other things

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