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Rants: Where to buy music where the buying doesn't suck?
Wed, 20 Sep 2006

Say you're in the market for some new music (or even old music) and are too lazy to support mom and pop or The Man to head out to the strip-mall to do the deed. I admit -- for books and music where the pricetag is small and the shipping is either free or non-existant, I'll buy online. I really like to support locals, support Canada, all that.. but when it comes down to it, I end up shopping online since its just so bloody convenient (and I'd be a hippocrit if I didn't, seeing as I sell stuff online.) So, if we take it as given you're going to purchase online - where can you do it that it doesn't just suck?

Edit: see below

Yes, this post is directly inspired from reading a slashdot article. I'm not ashamed. Much. Anyway, they were going on about another issue and I wish to play at a tangent.

I've not used iTunes Music Store really; can't. It sells DRMed (they call it "protected", I call it "infected") files that work with the iPod (only the iPod and iTunes related packages), and I'm not interested in near-sited stuff. If I buy it, I want it to work on any computer, any mp3 player.. even one I might write. Or an old one, or a Free one, or whatever. My phone can play mp3s, my PDA, my PSP, my game consoles.. I've seen watches, alarm clocks .. you name it that can play mp3s. So I will not support a file that is DRMed -- only mp3s or raw .wavs or the CDs themselves.. something I can work with. Just as I will not buy DRMed ebooks -- plain or html text is fine, but not some broken format that will simply vanish over time. I've ranted on that before..

Worse of course with iTunes (iTMS) is you cannot even search their database without installing the tool; try it -- head over to the iTunes website and search for music and it tries to launch the iTunes application. Mindboggling. So iTunes is out.. if they want to make it hard to be a customer, hard to find out if they even have the music I'm looking for, I will not be one.

People go on about eMusic; the self-proclaimed "Number 2 provider" on the net (relative to iTMS.) I checked their website and the front page is "sign up now" in big full-screen letters; their other pages (a limited FAQ etc) are all just veiled references to "sign up now" as well. Of course, to sign up you have to hand over a credit card or bank account number and sign up for the monthly plan.. they promise not to take money for two weeks, but will every month thereafter. Again, you cannot search the database without signing up to their package and handing over your precious bodily fluids. Its also adware that you pay for -- you end up downloading a client (after paying for it), that advertises at you. How nice! So its not for me.

Back in the past there was the scary Russian AllOfMp3.com site -- good service, very cheap, allegedly (but questionably?) legal.. I tried it a couple of times, since they delivered .wav or .mp3s, and I used a credit card specifically of very limited credit size.. my online-only card. But really, I want to be on the level and doing the right thing.. I'd like a Canadian store ideally, or at least a legal store, with a big selection, good prices, that I can buy while sitting in my comfy chair.

Alas, I don't think there is such a store. They've all pee'd on the idea -- DRM the crap out of a product in the hopes that the customer will buy it over and over and over -- that they will buy an infected inferior piece of work than a CD, because they are lazy.

And people will, too, damnit.

As I've ranted before.. what happens when people buy a non-iPod and find out their music libraries won't work? Or when they decide to use their music on their XBox while hosting a party and find it cannot work? Will people get annoyed enough to learn when they realize they didn't get what they paid for?

Back to slashdot; this post is inspired due to the news that Microsofts upcoming Zune music player (to compete with iPod and such) will not play one of the music formats that Microsoft sells. So if you have happened to buy music in that particular DRMed format from some online reseller, you'll be out of luck to use that music with your new Zune player. In a way we must all thank Microsoft for being that company which will always stumble and bring the issue to the fore. But what actually got me in the craw, that made me post is this simple observation -- if Microsoft championed this DRM format, and then ignored it for its own player.. isn't this an act whereby Microsft partnered with companies, and then hung them out to dry? If they're small companies, they'll not have a leg to stand on. If theres any large ones though, it could prove interesting -- certainly they will have learned not to trust Microsoft in the future, further than they can throw them. Veeeeery interesting a play Microsoft. Et tu Microsoft.

Edit: I just received a 'one time' spam from eMusic asking me to start my free trial; what is fascinating is that they obtained the email address from the account I started to register yesterday -- but never finished. Hit the 'sign up now' link (that is 90% of every page you see) and it asks for the usual info -- name, email addy -- and then you hit Next and up comes the 'credit card info' page. At this point I lost interest in the site and wrote up the blog entry. I never completed the process to create an account, but they obviously have so many people bail out due to that same requirement, that they spam you the next day to attempt to hook you back in. Data mining of aborted data.. thats pretty low.

A few folks have commented they like eMusic, and I'm glad for them; however I won't proceed with their service.. requiring CC info is bad enough, but the auto-spamming? Thats all too common and cannot be supported :/

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