Chris and Tomas talk about their digital music experiences:
Chris replays his poor experience buying music online with www.buymusic.com. All I can say is: I’m a happy EMusic customer now.
Granted, I only joined a couple of weeks ago, but it couldn’t be easier, it has no stupid DRM to deal with, and the music collection is great. Then again, I just happen to like much of the bands they were offering, and I think their rock/metal selection has quite a few wonderful bands. Heck, two of my last discoverings there include Tristania and Vintersong, both of which I found great! [Commonality]
I’ve been using PressPlay for a couple of months now, for $9.95/mo. It actually works really well for me, so far. I get unlimited streaming, which I use whenever I’m sitting at my desk (which is unfortunately something like 12 hours/day!). The streams are full-length, 96kbps encoded. I can also download as many songs as I like, with the catch that they will no longer be playable after I cancel my subscription.
I can also purchase “portable” downloads, which I can use on other devices and which will continue to work after my subscription lapses, for about $1 per song.
All in all, it seems like a great deal, and it works for me. It lets me listen to some music I’ve never heard of, looking for new stuff I might like. And I don’t worry about not “owning” my music, as some folks have complained about; if I really like something, I tend to just buy the CD.
I’m a happy Mac switcher. Of course, a Windows PC rules my daytime, corporate world. But at night, at home, I happily use an iMac. Wireless, around the office, I even use a PowerBook G4 and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop for OS X.
The iTunes Music Store is excellent and highly recommended. I have yet to see its equal in the PC world, nor do I suspect I will until its released, later this year, for Windows.
If streaming services meet your needs, then fine. But I’m often disconnected from my desktop and my iPod is the best piece of technology I have ever owned, bar none. iTunes and the iTunes Music Store just sweaten the mix.
Read my other comments here:
http://allierogers.typepad.com/01/2003/07/buymusiccom.html
I _was_ a EMusic Fan, until they forced the EMusic Download Manager 2.0 on everyone.
It has an artifical limit of 45 tracks that can be queued.
I used to go to EMusic once a month and cue up some music to download while I was away from my computer. Now I have to log on more often and babysit my computer to download due to the limitations of the software.
Of course, EMusic’s terms of service says that they can change them at any time without notice (and I was stupid enough to get an annual subscription!)
Regarding BuyMusic, I am upset that they did not make it clear that only the PRIMARY computer can do the download to a player or burn to a CD. I bought a track at work and when I went home to download it to my player, it says that I do not have those rights. Buried in the FAQ is the information, but it is not clear during the shopping process.
I used PressPlay for a while until they scared me off with this ‘we are changing our name to napster’ business. I didn’t try downloading portable music – does it have any kind of DRM in it?
Not sure about DRM in the portable downloads; I haven’t tried them yet.
I just looked it up and it appears to have DRM in it and it’s only WMA. It sounds like they will only let you download the song to a single portable device.
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As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been using Napster 2.0 (formerly Pressplay) for about 8 months or so. Despite a couple…[more]