Online Music Stores Compared 594
prostoalex writes "DesignTechnica has a comparison of the leading online music stores. With the variety of services available they only concentrated on several top ones. Conclusion? 'If you simply want to download music from the charts, then Yahoo and Wal-Mart are your cheapest options. For your MP3 player, there are several options, with Yahoo the best of all. If you're an iPod owner... then you're stuck with iTunes.'"
Stuck, huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Poor, poor us.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is one of the more worthless articles to appear on
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
As for iTunes DRM...I simply burn it all to a music cd for archiving purposes. I can't say I've ever run into Fairplay's limitations, which are pretty damn liberal.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Give me the power to resell the stuff I bought and I will reconsider. In this case I want to sell the licence.
If not, it's just a glorified renting system.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
Why the hell would you transcode it more than once?
Yeah you got a point about transcoding. No, I don't like DRM any more than the other guy, but give me a break! That's the weakest anti-DRM argument I've seen in a long, long time.
Maybe I'm not that a sophisticated user, so would you please care to tell me: Why the hell would you transcode it more than once?
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Informative)
To clarify, when you buy from iTms you buy a contract to do certain stuff with a mediafile. You don't buy the media itself, you don't own i
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't say that Yahoo is a replacement for buying music -- you'll probably still buy the thi
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can tell you why I prefer a subscription service over 'owning' the music.
- When I hear about a new song I may like, 10-15 seconds later I'm listening to the whole song. As a result, my collection's always growing.
- I have 3 different computers I use nearly
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Informative)
It means you need to pay more attention to corporate terminology. Veritical Integration [wikipedia.org] refers to the practice of aligning business units (or in this case software units) in such a way as to allow them to interoperate freely and easily. Sometimes that's a bad situation with Windows vertically integrated with Internet Explorer and MS Office.
In this case, however, it's a good thing. The iTunes software integrates from the iPod and CD/Ripping level to a well designed library that's been integrated with a Music Store, CD Burner, Hi-Fidelity music player, and Movie Player. (The latter is currently limited to music videos and trailers.) What this means is that you can use one easy to use application to handle all your music needs. The alternative is to download separate software packages to load the MP3 player, rip CDs, play music, play videos, burn CDs, and purchase online music. Such was the market before the arrival of iTunes.
good, bad, huh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Vendor lock-in is vendor lock-in.
I can't put Yahoo music on an iPod and I can't put iTunes music on my RCA MP3 player. I can look at anybody's HTML in IE, and I can look at RTF generated from Office in other office apps.
Is this just a case of: MS, bad; Apple, good.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Informative)
No, horizontal integration [wikipedia.org] would be if Apple owned the technology or songs behind music stores, then rebranded those same stores many times. Or alternatively, if Apple offered a wide number of music-related disparate products. e.g. GM and Ford horizontally integrate their product lines across a variety of brands that appeal to different markets. A looser horizontal integration would be Proctor and Gamble
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can confirm the legality of allofmp3.com You can legally buy/download mp3-songs from this site if it does not breaks the law the national legislation of the country in which you will be during that moment Sorry for my english.
All it will take is the RIAA
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, that would do it. Or all it would take is for the RIAA to make it illegal not to tithe 10% of all your income to them, and we could all be arrested. Luckily the RIAA doesn't make law, and the law as it currently stands doesn't seem to make downloading from allofmp3.com illegal.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'm constantly surprised how many people DON'T know about allofmp3.com."
I don't expect you to believe this or even understand this, but there are lots and lots of people who know about allofmp3.com, but have absolutely no interest in using it. Not all geeks share the same moral compass.
Classify people into "cool" or "uncool" based on their use of allofmp3.com if you like. There are simply people out there who see the world differently.
"For me, it is simply the only legal option."
I guarantee you it's not.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
I smell a rat. (Score:4, Informative)
http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/usco
Pay particular attention to a), 2.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
" According to this article http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm [museekster.com] [museekster.com] AllOfMP3 is operating legallly in Russia. Near the bottom of the page, it says Moscow police investigated them, and prosecutirs found nothing wrong."
So-called "Lolita" sites, which feature nude photos of minors and would be waaaaay over the line in the US and most countries, operate happily in Russia as well. They sell subscriptions to anybody with a credit card, but it's strictly caveat emptor -- if it's a no-no in
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Regaurdless of this. Think about it. You aren't helping anyone by using this service aside from the guys in russia. The artist will NEVER see ANY of the MONEY you give them.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Are you sure? On what grounds?
Copyright is all about copying and giving out copies of things, not so much about receiving copies of things, and the law that applies is copyright law, not theft laws, because what's happening is not theft (regardless of what anyone would have you believe), but copyright laws.
So, perhaps you can clarify which copyright law makes this illegal and how?
For example, if I'm in an establishement that hasn't paid its ASCAP fees,
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
As it stands, the legality is questionable ( there is no official ruling ), which is probably a safe bet it is not legal, but I doubt anyone's going to come banging on your door, especially since the IP records are stored in Russia
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
...And of course it's not even *true*. (Score:5, Informative)
iTunes of course is software that Apple provide that allows you to upload to your iPod (the sort of software you'd expect any MP3 player vendor to provide with their hardware), and there are 3rd party utilities - both commercial and free - that also offer this functionality.
This is distinct from the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) which was added after iTunes and iPod's had already been available for some time, but is a feature of the software (for logical reasons, as it would be much less user friendly if it had a completely separate application window).
You can of course use music from stores with the iPod. I buy from the iTMS, but I also buy MP3's from the outstanding Emusic [emusic.com] all the time (I like the service as you get plain MP3's so there is no messing about with keys or authorisation, and you can entire albums as single
The 'problem' is that the iTunes Music Store only supports iTunes, which only (officially) supports the iPod (though unoffically it's possible to use it with a number of devices using 3rd party plug-ins), NOT that the iPod is somehow 'locked in' to the iTMS, which it isn't.
This is a premise that a 10 year old should be able to grasp, but is apparently way above the heads of Chris Nickson, the editors at Designtechnica, ScuttleMonkey and prostoalex.
Re:...And of course it's not even *true*. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's locked in to iTMS as far as DRMed music stores go. eMusic is great, and the way forward, but a lot of major labels just won't contribute material to non-DRMed stores. The article is talking about popular, chart music. In this res
Re:...And of course it's not even *true*. (Score:5, Insightful)
I appreciate the point your trying to make, and it's not entirely invalid (and I'm not just trying to be perverse
It's correct to say that it does not support other vendors proprietary DRM technology - any more than they support the iTMS - it's still true to say that it plays music from other vendors though, it just depends on how the other vendors encode their music (which really, is up to them and the record companies).
Given this and overwhelming dominance of the iTMS in online music sales, it seems absurd for the author to claim the iPods are 'locked in' and assert the other players are 'open', when the other players are just as locked, but to different systems (and a smaller share of the market to boot).
This is not an attempt at a fanboy post defending the iTMS - I'd prefer non DRM'd music too (even though the iTMS lets you burn unencumbered to audio CD, which is at least something - I just think the assertion made in the article is false and that its the music stores and their proprietary non-interoperable formats that are the problem, not the players, which by and large handle common formats (would be nice to see more Ogg Vorbis support though).
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:2)
Napster? Doubtful.
Wal-Mart? Don't make me grin.
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:2)
I get your point...Windows is the most popular OS, but it is far from "good". iTunes, however, is an easy to use, semi-multiplatform solution that makes sense and works well, even on older systems.
My question is what would you say is better?
Re:Stuck, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow even posters do not RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course I still believe in the ripping CDs myself method. If I want music I still want my little piece of plastic, especially since entire albums still cost about the same.
Re:Wow even posters do not RTFA (Score:2)
Which means breaking the law if you buy DRM'd music (unless your one of those lucky sods who gets to live in a country without the DMC-fucking-A). I don't know if that little bit of plastic is worth that much.
Re:Wow even posters do not RTFA (Score:2)
That's what's so great about iTunes, though. Put the CD in the drive and drag it to the Library folder. Instant rip and addition to your library as MP3s.
iTunes library is a well-organized directory (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:iTunes library is a well-organized directory (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow even posters do not RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
iTunes is a db frontend. With that, you get all the niceities of a database with a friendly GUI wrapper. It's so beyond a structured file directory that it's like comparing a database driven application to one that stores data in discrete text files.
Re:Wow even posters do not RTFA (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple's lawyers are attempting to stop this, which seems anti-competitive to me, but I suppose the DMCA isn't really designed to aid competition, innovation, or the rights of anyone but big business, so they might well be successful. So it's a risky option, in theory.
iTunes (Score:2, Insightful)
iTunes is free so that doesn't really bother me much. I can just download my music and start playing it on my computer. I don't own an MP3 player, but if I were going to buy one it would be an iPod. That's not because I'd have to buy an iPod to play my music, it's because I think the iPod is the best MP3 (I know not technical MP3) player out there. Just my opinion.
Re:iTunes (Score:2)
TFA said that you were locked into using the iTunes software or an iPod if you bought music from the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes software is free (as in beer). My point is that I don't mind being "stuck" using the iTunes software. It has nothing to do with an "advantage over mp3s". In fact, iTunes and iPod can play MP3s.
"Stuck" with iTunes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh come on my friend (Score:2, Informative)
I thought, well, I'll just download iTunes again, log in as me, and it'll start re-downloading the $1,500.00 worth of digital songs I bought from Apple.
Well, I was wrong, and haven't "bought" a song online since.
Re:Oh come on my friend (Score:2, Insightful)
(It's just DATA, folks. Back it up.)
Re:I work 14 hour days most of the time (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you don't have the time to back up your data, but you DO have the time to read Slashdot? Uh, I think you have your priorities mixed up.
Since the data in question resides on your hard-drive, then the existence of that data relies on you. You can't assume that some magic elves come to your computer and back up YOUR data while you sleep. If you don't back up your data, and your HD dies, it's YOUR problem.
Sure there is. It costs money. And everyone would start claiming that "uh, my dog ate my HD, can I re-download the songs?". The key to safekeep your data is in YOUR hands. If you choose not to take the necessary precautions, it's your decision, and your problem.
Seriously, what is this "I want others to take responsibility of my data, and back it up for me, because I'm too lazy to do it myself!"-mentality?
Re:I work 14 hour days most of the time (Score:3, Informative)
So, you don't have the time to back up your data, but you DO have the time to read Slashdot? Uh, I think you have your priorities mixed up.
LoL exactly! Sorry, but anyone who claims they "don't have time to make backups" gets exactly what's coming to them. Making backups is just one of those things you HAVE TO DO. Period. There is NO rationalisation/justification for ever not backing up. I own a small business, and believe me, no matter how overloaded I am, even during the tough times when I'm working 18-h
Re:I work 14 hour days most of the time (Score:3, Insightful)
The cost really isn't that high, and I'm sure most people would happily pay a couple bucks a gig to redownload their purchases if need be.
What I think would be a logical and equitable solution would be to allow people to redownload their tracks, any
Re:Oh come on my friend (Score:3, Insightful)
Well. (Score:2)
However, I agree with you. I don't understand why there seems to be a time limit on songs you download...they leave it up to you to handle the backups, and proprietary DRM songs shouldn't be hard to re-obtain.
Re:Who the hell owns 5 bleeding edge computers? (Score:2)
As for the iTMS being overpriced, I think that you would find it is Apple that is trying to hold the price of songs down as the music industry is putting huge pressure on them to increase the price of music. If it were not for the iTMS and their marketshare, the price per download would easily be 1.5-2Xs as high as it is now. And I at least, along with much of the market I suspect would
Re:Oh come on my friend (Score:3, Insightful)
Why? That's not the case with the majority of software sold. Lose that, and you have to buy another copy. I think people need some education if they believe in such fantasies. But I'd say most people do know that they aren't entitled to another copy. Only the wilfully ignorant or over-expectant would think like this. Do you have any evidence to suggest most people expect replacements of products they l
Re:"Stuck" with iTunes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Those iPod owners are "stuck" with iTunes? The iPod has only 90% of the MP3 player market. And iTunes is the market leader for music downloads and it has the largest catalog. In fact, Apple reported to its investors that ITMS has the second most signed-up accounts (10 million), behind Amazon. In other words, Apple has built the only successful music "ecosystem" in the industry with iPod+iTunes+ITMS. So "stuck" seems to be an odd choice of words.
The "lowdown" is also misleading. Under iTunes, they put $0.99/song, but not $9.99 for most albums. But for some reason, they put the album purchase information under Napster.
Not a very useful article.
Re:"Stuck" with iTunes? (Score:2)
Besides a small savings at walmart, which you pay for with reduced rights, and Yahoo subscriptins, I do not see ITMS any better or worse than anything else.
Re:"Stuck" with iTunes? (Score:3, Funny)
"As a betamax owner, I don't feel "stuck" with Betamax. I find my Sony player is considerably better than any of the recently released VHS players and Beta is currently considerably more popular"
Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
I call bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
That's bullshit. I have an iPod, and only a tiny fraction of my music has come from iTunes. I would think by now that everyone would be aware that the iPod is very capable of playing mp3s, regardless of where you got them from.
Contradictory and wrong (Score:5, Informative)
eMusic allows MP3 downloads but iPod owners have to use iTunes?
No. You can use eMusic downloads on your iPod too.
iTunes downloads with fairplay are only playable in iTunes and on iPods?
No. iTunes downloads with fairplay are playable in any application that supports QuickTime. There's a very simple api for extracting the decompressed audio data from those files. The user must authenticate with the music store before the files can be decrypted, but that's it.
Re:Contradictory and wrong (Score:2)
Looks like another format war (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't ypou love vendor lock-in.
2 strikes in the conclusions alone (Score:5, Insightful)
Because we all know that the iPod isn't a mp3player, don't we?
The iTunes (program) - iTunes Music Store (the store) confusion should be a clue to the cluelessness the review has.
Emusic and allofmp3 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Emusic and allofmp3 (Score:2)
Re:Emusic and allofmp3 (Score:4, Interesting)
There is extensive documentation of the legitimacy, legality, and safety of e-commerce transactions with allofmp3.com. Russia is a signatory of the Berne Convention, and alloofmp3.com pays the required fees to the licensing authority in Russia.
Why are you so ready to accept the RIAA's definition of "legitimacy?" Do you have any independent and supportable evaluation of allofmp3.com's legitimacy?
Re:Emusic and allofmp3 (Score:3, Insightful)
More accurate to say (Score:5, Insightful)
The best music store (Score:5, Informative)
I can buy lossless formated music, ogg or even raw
And also, there are a number of different ways to pay (in case you do not trust Russian stores):
-Credit Card
-Pay Pal
-Xrost
-Bank Transfer
-WebMoney
Cool uh?
Re:LOL (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually legal?, Where?. IIRC where [I suppose] you live it is legal to DOWNLOAD music, although it is illegal to SHARE [upload] it.
Now, IIRC again, in Russia [where this service is given] it is legal [maybe it is not fair but it is still legal and, you know some laws/practices in the US that are not fair but again, they are LAW].
So, when someone is downloading a bought music file from allofmp3.com they are not doing anything illegal.
So, could you explain me where is the "illegality" of this?
Cheers.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
IANAL, but what I've been able to drudge up from lawyers about this is, there is no clear legal answer for US citizens as to whether downloading from AllOfMP3 is legal. It could be argued, for example, that the purchase takes place in Russia, and therefore it is a legal sale by Russian law, and that the downloading constitutes a private individual importing a good purchased overseas. There are laws about what goods can be imported and how, but nothing barring purchased data being transferred over the internet.
Therefore, (according to this interpretation) if it is legal to buy in Russia, legal to import, and legal to own in America, the purchase is legal.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Interesting)
http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/usco
So long as purchasing from all of mp3 is legal in Russia and the US purchaser intends to use it for their personal use everything is fine.
Re:The best music store - allofmp3.com (Score:5, Interesting)
$0.17 Musicians' unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists' royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead
So, pretty much the artists are not being really paid too much, as anyone can tell you, where artists earn is in live performances. So, my opinion is that each RIAA CD people buy is only giving money to them [the RIAA] and almost nothing to the authors.
If people really want to support their artists they should go and watch them LIVE.
Artist's royalties NOT that high (Score:3, Informative)
Ask any artist how big their royalty checks are.
simple math : $1.60 $0.0 (Score:3, Interesting)
Oddly musicians have to pay for there recording sessions (a fixed cost usually fronted by the studios). If the musicians wrote there own music they get the publishing royalties as well.
Its not a great deal for musicians, but the publicity spending (payola?) is why most musicians fall over themselves to get a recording contract.
Are iPod owners idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
Right, because I'm such a moron that I can't figure out how to get an mp3 onto my iPod.
Re:Are iPod owners idiots? (Score:2)
Right, because I'm such a moron that I can't figure out how to get an mp3 onto my iPod.
I'm an ipod shuffle owner. One of the things that drove me nuts is the shuffle required you to use the itunes software to move the MP3 files onto the player. Even though I could mount it as a USB thumb drive, no joy for just moving my files onto the player and having it work. Loads of fun since my primary workstation is Linux and there was no itunes software. (
Not quite, mate... (Score:4, Informative)
Write-up is incorrect (Score:3, Insightful)
They are all MP3 players. Some also play AAC or protected AAC. Some also play WMA or protected WMA.
They also all play WAV, most play AIFF. Note these formats span the entire player industry - there is no 'lock out' other than what the labels create for themselves.
It is not a given that this idea (selling unprotected music) is totally outlandish.
Keep this in mind next time you see the labels gnashing and wailing about vendor lock-in.
Music Services (Score:5, Interesting)
Musicmatch is owned by Yahoo - why is it different? (Yahoo Music engine is a 3 meg download for Windows - a tiny player with pretty good functionality, especially compared to Napsters memory hogging skinned Windows Media Player).
With the Windows Plays for Sure stuff (Yahoo, Napster to Go) it only transfers to a Plays for Sure portable. While the article briefly touches that mentioning it's only a handful of players now, they should have specifically called "Doesn't work with iPods!" As someone already noted in the comments, iPod has 80-90% share of the portable MP3 market.
And last but not least, licenses. With the exception of Yahoo (I believe), if your hard drive crashes you lose your license for tracks you've purchased for 99 cents each. Gone, poof. Like losing a CD. You'd think that buying a song online, they'd have a record of your purchase and let you re-download, but no.
I've used most of the services, except iTunes on a Mac, and if Yahoo puts some marketing muscle behind YME they have a shot at 2nd place and displacing Napster. They offer the same functionality for less than half what Napster and Rhapsody try.
As a Linux only user, I'm contiually frustrated by my lack of music buying options online. I suppose I should try out SharpMusique as an iTunes interface one of these days.
Re:Music Services (Score:2)
Just see my other post above, a nice option is allofmp3 [allofmp3.com]
You are welcome.
P.s. no... I deffinitley do not work there =oP
How am I "stuck"? (Score:2)
I've never even been to iTunes. In what way am I "stuck" with iTunes?
Why? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't understand the frustrating part. The author tries to make an issue of having to convert iTunes songs into mp3 or WMA. But why would you want to? iTunes also plays songs bought from the iTunes Music store.
The only possible reason to do the unweildy conversion is to get rid of DRM. But the author is willing to accept DRM from other stores and, IMO, worse conditions:
Napster You don't own the music, however, and if you cancel your subscription, all the tracks you've downloaded disappear.
Looks like once you start with Napster, you're also stuck with Napster.
Yahoo However, as with other subscription services, you only have access to the music as long as you maintain your subscription.
Same with Yahoo.
Maybe the full disclosure should be placed at the beginning of the article?
online music == low quality ripoff (Score:3, Insightful)
But none of the legal online music shops sell their tracks in a lossless format!
As long as they don't do that I don't see buying tracks online as an option.
Piratebay (Score:5, Funny)
Good, but flawed, summary (Score:5, Interesting)
"
Online music has come a long way
Read carefully, you see either a predetermined bias (fine, it's in everything we read and the wise know how to look for it) or misunderstanding of the topic (not fine; he's offering advice here).
iTunes is a software product that runs on Windows and Macintosh computers. You can't download music "from iTunes". What he means is downloaded from the iTunes Music Store with the iTunes application on your PC and I would be fine with that if he just said that once, at the beginning of the article, but he doesn't. Most people are more careful to differentiate between the iTMS and iTunes itself.
"
You know, he writes in such a nice, matter-of-fact style that even after reading the entire article, I'm not sure whether it's bias or ignorance we're reading. But, for the record, the iPod will play pretty much any music format except ogg vorbis and WMA audio, you can get music files from any source, including some of those listed in the article, and iTunes-the-software will happily import and play other formats on your computer or upload them to your iPod, whereupon you can happily enjoy them just like any other mp3 player.
Magnatune.com? (Score:3, Interesting)
(price per album $3 -> ?? (you decided)..
thier downside if they don't have the huge selection you'd expect of alot of places.. but IMO if you check out thier licensing scheme and the formats you can D/L (VBR MP3, VorbisOgg, FLAC, raw WAV, and AAC) it outweighs that.
Re:Magnatune.com? (Score:3, Informative)
Yahoo's Music Store changed my life... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have long since been a subscriber of Yahoo's Launchcast -- their internet radio station that could play music based on your ratings. And as a work day went on, I would tag songs 1, 2, 3 or 4 stars, or even "Never Play Again". Yahoo would learn my tastes and has since then, recommended countless songs that I'd never have heard before. Bands like Nightwish, Evanescence, Lacuna Coil are bands I heard of before many, many people.
Now with the advent of the Yahoo Music Store, the same great benefits exist except that I can put them into my MP3 player and take it all to go. I admit freely however, that I convert all my music OUT of the
Now I'm paying a low monthly fee ($4.99 prepaid one year in advance) to get my grubbies on all the music I can handle. And probably, there are people that take advantage of the $5 price a LOT more than I do. But as a casual music listener, who is always looking to find new types of music that might pique my interest, Yahoo's Music Store has nailed my needs on the head solidly, and I'm glad to pay for that benefit. If you don't want to pay $5 a month to get unlimited downloads, then the RIAA has a good reason to go after you; however given their greed they want to come after me as well.
Oh well... at least if they bust down my door I can prove I'm legit
What about the smaller guys? (Score:3, Informative)
Currently, I'm using http://www.karmadownload.com/ [karmadownload.com] as it seems the most geek friendly (and legit) site going at the moment. High quality MP3, no DRM, plus they support the independent artists. The only bummer is the Flash they use. Oh well, can't win them all.
My experience with the Yahoo music service. (Score:3, Informative)
I've been using the full Yahoo music service for a couple of months now, and so far I love it. It has changed the way that I listen to music.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Yahoo, and I don't use other Yahoo services (I'm a googlite). I do know someone who works for Yahoo, but I don't believe that has influenced my opinion of this service.
I can't compare the Yahoo service to the other services (because I haven't tried them) other than to note that it appears to be a fair bit cheaper. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to raise the price at some point.
The selection seems very good to me, but I have noticed that often they will have an album minus one or two songs.
The sound quality is very good: 192, rather than 128.
The client software was very buggy initially but is much better now. I'm running it on a Win2K notebook with a PII 366 CPU. It's not fast but it is acceptable.
But most of all, I like this subscription model. It's really great having access to everything. This way I do a lot of trying out new music and following up on suggestions. As soon as I joined I looked around and gathered some albums that I hadn't heard in years. I'm listening to more music now and I'm discovering lots of new stuff. It's a great feeling of musical freedom to have everything available at your fingertips.
The problem is that now I'm hooked. If I wanted to quit I would have to look at all the music I've collected, decide which songs I liked the best, and purchase them for $0.80 a song. On the other hand, I could just keep subscribing and still pay much less than I would if I wanted to buy even a few of these albums I've now collected.
My biggest complaint is that they manage your music data the same way that most other big music apps do. I heard someone say that iTunes stores everything in your folder structure in the tags and xml files. That sounds like a much better way to do it. I wouldn't use the iPod/iTunes because of the price and lock-in, but kudos to them for using such an open and sensible system.
Re:WIPO: I don't download music (Score:2)
I do buy most of my music via second hand CDs (or new if I can't find them second hand) but a failing HDD is not a reason to avoid iTunes .
Re:Screw that (Score:2)
I do occasionally get some things off of iTunes(things i can't get normally or only want one song off the album) , first thing I do is back it up to external media .
There are plenty of good reasons to avoid online services such as yahoo or iTunes but that is not really one of them .
Re:WIPO: I don't download music (Score:3, Insightful)
Back up your data. If you're not smart enough to know that, you're not really qualified to have a conversation on this subject. In fact, you're not really qualified to discuss anything related to technology.
Out of curiousity, when you buy direct from an artist as opposed to buying a CD, what format do you get it in? Do they come play it in your living room? And what do you do to ensure a fire or theft doesn't remove your ac
Re:WIPO: I don't download music (Score:3, Informative)
He buys used cd's and cds direct from musicians to avoid the RIAA tax. In case you don't know, there are shops in most communities that resell used cds for a fraction of the original price. Often you can get them for only $2 or $3, and are usually allowed to preview to your hearts content to verify there are no scratches you can't live with. Likewise, many musicians sell their music direct to the fan either by their web
Re:FYI I'm not a troll buddy (Score:3, Insightful)
Might want to investigate menu optio
Re:iTunes has Fair Play? (Score:4, Informative)
Umm, yeah, sort of, but not quite, exactly.
Microsoft's Fair Play program is a promotional tool used in some countries. It's a registered trademark of Microsoft, and basically gives sales staff prizes for selling software. For example, here's a link for those of you who speak Russian:
http://www.microsoft.com/rus/fairplay/ [microsoft.com]
If you don't speak Russian, well, note the URL.
Apple's FairPlay is a DRM encoding/decoding scheme for music files. It's added onto Advanced Audio Codec format audio (which is not, as you hear often, a proprietary Apple format and works fine in many players) to create a file in the encoded format (which is proprietary).
So it's Microsoft Fair Play (TM) versus Apple FairPlay (TM). And it's AAC with the
Stuck with an easily unlockable format... (Score:3, Insightful)
Right answer: Since you're going to strip the DRM off any music you keep anyway, isn't it nice that iTunes makes that so easy and convenient?
DRM is evil. If you aren't burning the music you buy to audio CDs you're just asking for the fuckup fairy to turn your music collection into digital hash. And once you do that it doesn't matter what format it was originally... it