Online music poobah par excellence Brad Hill, author of The Digial Songstream, reviews the new BuyMusic.com service:
- REVIEW: BuyMusic.com
Online music store operated by Buy.com
SUMMARY:
The first of many iTunes Store clones for Windows, BuyMusic is rough, clumsy, and disregards all competition except iTunes. Compares unfavorably to pre-iTunes services Rhapsody, Emusic, and sometimes Pressplay in interactivity, track pricing, community, elegance, music discovery, and ease of downloading. Subscription-free plan appeals to browsers avoiding commitment. Variable pricing generally higher than implied in promotions. Terrible file delivery. Redbook burning erases DRM. Clear but ugly Web interface.
PRICING AND DRM:
* Tracks are variably priced between 79 cents and $1.19, most in the higher range. Albums are variably priced between $7.00 and $10.00.
* Each track contains its own DRM, specifying a number of downloads, device transfers, and burns. Some restrictive tracks allow only one download; others permit multiple downloads and unlimited transfers and burns.
* Oddly, some tracks list DRM specifications, yet are not for sale.
BROWSING AND LISTENING:
* Web-based interface; no client download. However, the service is closed to Mac users thanks to its reliance on WMP series 9. In fact, pre-98SE users are locked out, too.
* Small WM9 player embedded in corner of Web page plays 30-second samples at 20k. (Occasional 60-second samples.) Very fast buffering, ~2 seconds. Light, clean Web pages load quickly. (See screen shot at www.DigitalSongstream.com/BuyNow-album.jpg.)
* Many tracks do not offer the 30-second sample! (The entire listing for Jazz/Fusion is presented without any listening.)
* No track or artist descriptions. Space provided for member reviews.
* Genre navigation sidebar does not follow to album and track pages.
* Bizarre inaccuracies exist: Liz Phair's "Red Light Fever" album was apparently released in January, 1900.
* Label credit on track and album pages is not linked to other available releases, as in EMusic.
* In each genre: List All and Top 100 get you out of the confinement of Featured lists. Unfortunately, both extended lists are organized by track, not by album, making them enormous and impractical to navigate. (The complete list of music in the World genre takes 533 pages.) The "Browse All Artists" and "View More Artist Matches" (within genres) options work better, delivering an album-based list.
Article comments
1 - R. Moose
There are lots of other issues with 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.
Also, NONE of the email addresses or email forms on the site worked as of early this morning.
All emails to any @buymusic.com address(as given in their emails to me) failed. The Customer Service email form also failed.
Regarding EMusic, the biggest problem is the new EMusic Download Manager 2.0 has a artifical limit of 45 tracks in the queue. I used to log into EMusic once a month and grab a few albums while I was away from my computer. Now I have to log on more often and babysit my downloads. Of course, their TOS agreement says that they can change it without notice and I am stuck with a annual subscription.
PressPlay was interesting, but once your subscription is over, all of the music stops working. Then again, with DRM if BuyMusic goes under, the music will probably stop working too.
2 - Brad Hill
(to R.Moose):
The business about player transfers is a drag, but you could do one of two things:
1) Take your player to work to make the transfer.
2) Download the track again at home, then make the transfer. (Even if the track supposedly limits to one download, I've found that, for now, that limit seems to be unenforced.)
The EMusic 45-track limit is designed to thwart mindless catalog raids that were plaguing the service. I agree with you that it's inconvenient if you back up the truck occasionally and want to load up. But the service was getting crushed by rampant downloading abuse.
It's true that Pressplay leases tracks, but it also sells them for under a dollar each, and those tracks don't expire.
Cheers,
Brad
3 - Eric Olsen
Thanks to you both, practical advise is golden.