![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Big music in "still not getting it" shock
Jun. 3rd, 2008 12:59 pmI seem to be posting a lot about music issues at the moment, but it seems to be on my mind for some reason.
Last.fm have released a digital downloads service called 7 digital. This is a huge improvement over online music stores. It has non-DRMed tracks in MP3 forrmat at transparent (>=192Kbps) bitrates. Also, once you've bought them, you can download them as many times as you like. They sell single tracks for 79p-99p (coincidentally the price of a track on iTunes), and you can pay via Paypal.
However, it's still not a viable service, even though it's finally enabled me to get legal copies of some Mike Oldfield tracks only available on expensive compilations full of music I already own. I've had a look at several albums on there and the minimum price seems to be £8 an album.
They seem to be missing something fundamental. If I can buy a popular album in HMV for £5, they are not competing. If I can have an unpopular album shipped from the US or Hong Kong for £5, they're not competing. While I'm willing to spend a couple of quid on tracks I like from an album I don't want the rest of, the economics of buying a whole album off this site don't make sense.
(Ideally, I'd prefer to buy lossless FLAC as well, but that's a lesser issue.)
Finally, most of the stuff on there is only available in WMA. Frustratingly, there's no search option to say "I'm not interested in shitty DRMed crap of negative value". To be fair, the poor availability is the fault of the music companies, not 7digital.
Amazon also has its own MP3 download store. Which is only accessible in the US. What in holy gibbering f*** is that about, exactly? Again, amazon is used to operating in an international environment. I suspect that it's the music industry demanding it be locked down for fear of undercutting their own international divisions.
This is utterly moronic. They can't *not* undercut them because I can already often order a physical CD from the US for less than I can in the UK. *sigh*
Last.fm have released a digital downloads service called 7 digital. This is a huge improvement over online music stores. It has non-DRMed tracks in MP3 forrmat at transparent (>=192Kbps) bitrates. Also, once you've bought them, you can download them as many times as you like. They sell single tracks for 79p-99p (coincidentally the price of a track on iTunes), and you can pay via Paypal.
However, it's still not a viable service, even though it's finally enabled me to get legal copies of some Mike Oldfield tracks only available on expensive compilations full of music I already own. I've had a look at several albums on there and the minimum price seems to be £8 an album.
They seem to be missing something fundamental. If I can buy a popular album in HMV for £5, they are not competing. If I can have an unpopular album shipped from the US or Hong Kong for £5, they're not competing. While I'm willing to spend a couple of quid on tracks I like from an album I don't want the rest of, the economics of buying a whole album off this site don't make sense.
(Ideally, I'd prefer to buy lossless FLAC as well, but that's a lesser issue.)
Finally, most of the stuff on there is only available in WMA. Frustratingly, there's no search option to say "I'm not interested in shitty DRMed crap of negative value". To be fair, the poor availability is the fault of the music companies, not 7digital.
Amazon also has its own MP3 download store. Which is only accessible in the US. What in holy gibbering f*** is that about, exactly? Again, amazon is used to operating in an international environment. I suspect that it's the music industry demanding it be locked down for fear of undercutting their own international divisions.
This is utterly moronic. They can't *not* undercut them because I can already often order a physical CD from the US for less than I can in the UK. *sigh*
