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Digital music store

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An online music store is an Internet service that sells audio, usually primarily music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. The realization of the market for these services grew widespread around the time of Napster, a music and file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning that made a major impact on the Internet scene during the year 2000. Some services have tethered downloads, meaning that playing songs requires an active membership.

In 2000 Sony became the first company to make music from one of the major labels available for sale on the Net. The big record companies were apprehensive to license their catalogs to outside companies and refused the late 90's requests of MP3.com and Emusic (then called Goodnoise) to sell digital song downloads. They eventually decided to start their own services, which they could control directly.

Sony's service turned out to be an ill-conceived affair. Not only was the service difficult for consumers to navigate and use, Sony's expensive pricing of US$3.50 per song track turned off many early adopters of the service. Furthermore, as MP3 Newswire pointed out in its review of the service, users were actually only renting the tracks for that $3.50. After a certain point the files expired and could not be played again without repurchase. The service quickly failed.

Undaunted, the record industry tried again. Universal Music Group and Sony teamed up with a service called Duet, later renamed PressPlay. EMI, AOL/Time Warner and BMG teamed up with MusicNet. Again, both services struggled, hampered by high prices and heavy limitations on how downloaded files could be used once paid for. In the end, consumers chose instead to flock to the free file sharing programs, which were far more convenient to use and free to boot.

Non-label services like Emusic and Listen.com (now Rhapsody.com) sold the music of independent artists to keep in the game, but it wasn't until Apple Computer introduced iTunes in 2003 that sales of digital downloads took off. Now there are newer services that have started in recent years, to continue selling the music of independent artists. Two such sites are Independent Music Online, Inc. and Magnatune.

Compared to file swapping

Much controversy surrounds this issue, so many or perhaps all of these points are disputed.

Advantages

  • More respectful to copyright law as interpreted by groups like the RIAA.
    • Decreases chances of legal disadvantages.
    • Avoids some social stigmas and moral regrets that some people have.
    • Arguably promotes creation of music.
  • More consistent and higher quality meta-data, because the entering of the meta-data is more centralized and done by groups with financial interests.
  • Companies sometimes feel more accountable to users than other users.
  • Higher audio quality for similar reasons as meta-data.
  • Centralized repository of music makes it easier to find the songs you want.
    • Notably Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs claimed in his introduction of the iTunes Music Store that file swappers get paid less than minimum wage for the work required to download audio.

Disadvantages

  • Decreased selection, because of more attention paid to copyright concerns.
  • Increased price.
    • Some file swapping advocates claim that, because file sharing costs nothing, any pay service essentially costs infinitely many times more than file swapping (although this is only true if the time of the user is not costed).
  • Digital Rights Management sometimes irritates consumers. The restrictions vary with the service sometimes within songs of a service.
  • Doesn't support record labels. Criticisms of record labels include overpricing, monopolies, and lack of support for artists.

Stores

Along with those mentioned, companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Coca-Cola have plans for paid services as well.

Audible.com

See Audible.com.

File:Audible Logo.gif
  • Pricing: Varies per title. There are two subscription plans where the user can buy 1 or 2 books per month for approx US$10 per book.
  • Platform(s): Mac, Windows for downloads, hundreds of devices from 40 manufacturers can be used to play the files, including the iPod, Windows CE, Palm and Symbian devices.
  • Downloading: There are 4 quality levels, and you can listen online. Downloading requires free software that is available from the web site.
  • Burning/Copying: Most titles can be burnt to CD once (some leeway is allowed for bad media). Files can be copied to "authorised" devices.
  • Streaming: Streaming of purchased titles using Windows Media Player.
  • Radio: No streaming radio, but many radio programs can be downloaded individually or on subscription. The twice-weekly XM Satellite Radio program "This is Audible" is available for free download.
  • Format(s): 4 quality levels.
  • Digital Rights Management: .aa format files are based on MP3 technology, but include copy protection by means of an Audible user name and password. Licenses are available for schools and libraries.
  • Preview: Extracts from titles are available in flash format, Approx 10 minutes per sample.
  • Trial: 1 month free, includes 2 audio titles
  • Catalog: Thousands of titles in all major genres. Audio editions of books, newspapers, magazines, radio programs and original shows. www.audible.com offers approximately 70,000 hours of spoken audio programming from more than 250 different providers.
  • Features: Wish List, My Next Listen, author interviews, free download each week. The audio files contain DRM, but play on hundreds of MP3 players, Windows Media players, Real Media and iPod devices.

iTunes Music Store

See iTunes Music Store.

  • Pricing: One set price for songs (e.g. 99 cents in the US); most albums cost $9.99 in the US. Prices vary depending on the country where the user is registered.
  • Platform(s): Mac OS X (not Mac OS Classic), Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
  • Downloading: Yes.
  • Burning/Copying: Yes.
  • Streaming: Not for purchase, only for previews.
  • Radio: Yes (built into iTunes).
  • Format: AAC @ 128 kbit/s.
  • Digital Rights Management: Up to five computers, unlimited CDs (seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods (formerly three computers, and ten unchanged playlist burns).
  • Preview: 30 seconds.
  • Trial: N/A.
  • Catalog: More than 1,000,000 files; includes audio books; (originally iTMS contained about 200,000 files).
  • Features: Allowance, Podcasts, gift certificates, iMix (user-submitted playlists), Billboard charts, radio charts, advanced search, music videos and movie trailers.
  • Global availability: US, Germany, France, UK, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Norway, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Ireland and Japan addressed credit-card holders only.

Sony Connect

See Sony Connect.

  • Pricing: Single set price for songs (99 cents in the US), albums generally cost $9.99
  • Platform(s): Windows 98 SE and later
  • Downloading: Yes.
  • Burning/Copying: Yes, usually limited to 3 device transfers, 5 ATRAC CD burns, and 7 audio CD burns with the same playlist; however, this varies with the label.
  • Streaming: Samples
  • Radio: none.
  • Format: ATRAC3 @ 132 kb/s.
  • Digital Rights Management: OpenMG-based system, up to 5 computers can be authorised, amount of ATRAC/audio cd burns and device transfers depends on song and label.
  • Preview: 30 seconds.
  • Trial: None, although many 'free music download' promotions use this service. (e.g Aeropostale, Albertson's, and EB Games's promotions)
  • Catalog: ~8-900,000 audio files.
  • Features: MoodMixes (auto-selected mixes of songs based on genre and mood)
  • Global availability: US, UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and Monaco.

Rhapsody

See Rhapsody.

  • Pricing: Unlimited tethered at $9.99 per a month, non-tethered at $14.99 per a month.
  • Platform(s): Windows 98 and later
  • Downloading: $.79
  • Burning/Copying: $.79
  • Streaming: Unlimited with All Access Plan
  • Radio: Unlimited
  • Format(s): Windows Media (proprietary)
  • Digital Rights Management: Yes
  • Preview: 30 seconds
  • Trial: 7 days
  • Catalog: 95,000 + albums; 65,000 + artists; 1,100,000 + songs
  • Features: 25 Free streams a month

AllOfMP3.com

See AllOfMP3.com.

  • Pricing: By traffic - 20 US dollar for 1 gigabyte
  • Platform(s): any (Microsoft Windows for AllOfMP3.com Explorer utility)
  • Downloading: Unlimited
  • Burning/Copying: Unlimited
  • Streaming: Samples
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s): MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media, MPEG-4, MPC, various lossless audio codecs
  • Digital Rights Management: None
  • Preview: Full-length at 24 kbit/s
  • Trial: -
  • Catalog: about 200,000 songs
  • Features: Guestbook for each artist, lyrics, charts, advanced search

eMusic.com

See eMusic.

File:EMusic Logo.gif
  • Pricing: Subscription
  • Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux
  • Downloading: Basic package is $9.99 per month for 40 downloads ($.25 a song) with Plus and Premium packages offering more downloads per month.
  • Burning/Copying: Unlimited
  • Streaming: No
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s): MP3
  • Digital Rights Management: No, impossible with MP3
  • Preview: 30 seconds
  • Trial: 50 MP3s
  • Catalog: Over 600,000 songs
  • Features: eMusic claims its songs will play on any digital media player, including Apple's iPod.

Independent Music Online

http://ind-music.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Music_Online

  • Pricing: Bands/Artist set their own price
  • Platform(s): Any OS that can play Ogg Vorbis, AAC, or MP3 music files
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Streaming: Not for purchase, only for previews.
  • Radio: None
  • Format: Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) @ 160 kbit/s, AAC (.m4a) @ 160 kbit/s, MP3 (.mp3) @ 160 kbit/s (coming soon)
  • Digital Rights Management: None
  • Preview: Full Tracks
  • Trial: Artists can offer free tracks if they choose
  • Catalog: 50+ Artists and 150+ tracks
  • Global availability: Any with Internet Access

Magnatune

See Magnatune.

  • Pricing: Per-album: $5 minimum, customer's choice
  • Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Copying: Yes
  • Streaming: Yes
  • Radio: Yes
  • Format(s) [1]:
    • 44k/16bit WAV in zip file
    • FLAC in zip file
    • OGG in zip file
    • 128kb MP3 in zip file
    • MP3 VBR in zip file
    • CDs
  • Digital Rights Management: No
  • Preview: Entire song, 128k MP3
  • Trial: N/A
  • Catalog: 174 artists, 326 albums, 4176 songs [2]

MusicNet

See MusicNet.

  • Pricing: Subscription
  • Platform(s): Microsoft Windows with AOL
  • Downloading: Yes, tethered
  • Burning/Copying: Premium Plan only
  • Streaming: Yes
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s):
  • Digital Rights Management: Yes
  • Preview: 30 seconds
  • Trial: 30 days with AOL sign-up
  • Catalog: 250,000 songs
  • Features:

BuyMusic

See BuyMusic.

  • Pricing: Cost per download: 79 cents-$1.29 per song
  • Platform(s): Windows 98 and later
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Copying: Yes
  • Streaming: No
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s): Windows Media
  • Digital Rights Management: Yes
  • Preview: 30 seconds
  • Trial: N/A
  • Catalog: 304,000 songs
  • Features:

Napster

See Napster.

  • Pricing: Subscription
  • Platform(s): Windows 2000, Windows XP
  • Downloading: Unlimited tethered at $9.99 per a month, non-tethered at $14.99 per a month.
  • Burning/Copying: Extra cost
  • Streaming: Unlimited
  • Radio: Unlimited
  • Format(s): Windows Media
  • Digital Rights Management: Yes
  • Preview: 30 seconds
  • Trial: 7 days
  • Catalog: 1,000,000 + songs
  • Features:

Musicmatch Downloads (aka Dell Music Store)

See Musicmatch Downloads.

  • Pricing: Subscription
  • Platform(s): Windows 98 and later, Mac OS
  • Downloading: No
  • Burning/Coping: No
  • Streaming: Platinum Plan only
  • Radio: Unlimited
  • Format(s): Streaming MP3
  • Digital Rights Management: No downloads, streaming only
  • Preview: N/A
  • Trial: 7 days
  • Catalog: 10,500 artists
  • Features:

MP3.com

See MP3.com.

  • Pricing:
  • Platform(s):
  • Downloading:
  • Burning/Coping:
  • Streaming:
  • Radio:
  • Format(s):
  • Digital Rights Management:
  • Preview:
  • Trial:
  • Catalog:
  • Features:

Jeff O's Retro Music

Jeff O's Retro Music - 50's Songs You Never Heard!

  • Pricing: $0.75ea.
  • Platform(s): All
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Coping: Yes
  • Streaming:
  • Radio:
  • Format(s): Mp3
  • Digital Rights Management: No
  • Preview: Yes
  • Trial:
  • Catalog:
  • Features:

Download Music Mart

Download Music Store featuring Legal Music Downloads from Independent Artists and Labels

  • Pricing: $0.99ea.
  • Platform(s): All
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Copying: Yes
  • Streaming:
  • Radio:
  • Format(s): Mp3
  • Digital Rights Management: No
  • Preview: Yes
  • Trial:
  • Catalog:
  • Features:

Puretracks

See Puretracks.

  • Pricing: $0.99ea./song, $varies/album
  • Platform(s): Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Copying: Yes
  • Streaming: Yes
  • Radio: Yes
  • Format(s): WMA
  • Digital Rights Management: Yes
  • Preview: Yes
  • Trial: Yes
  • Catalog: 700,000+ tracks
  • Features: Puretracks Plus gives you 100 music channels for $4.99/month. 14 Day free trial.
  • Browser(s): Initial support was only for Internet Explorer. The website still states to this effect, yet, Mozilla Firefox is compatible.

Mindawn

See Mindawn

  • Pricing: $0.99-$1.24 per 10 minutes of music per song. Albums $6.99-$8.99.
  • Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Copying: Yes
  • Streaming: No
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s): Ogg Vorbis, FLAC
  • Digital Rights Management: No
  • Preview: full song, played up to three times
  • Trial: N/A
  • Catalog:
  • Features: Artist receives 75% of proceeds for music which is exclusively distributed and 55% for non-exclusive music. Music distributed in open file formats.

SacredAudio

See SacredAudio.

  • Pricing: 25% off retail. Albums $3.99-$11.99
  • Platform(s): All
  • Downloading: Yes
  • Burning/Coping: Yes
  • Streaming: No
  • Radio: No
  • Format(s): MP3
  • Digital Rights Management: None
  • Preview: Some songs
  • Trial: All
  • Catalog: 100 Albums
  • Features: Specializes in sacred/traditional Christian music.

Pricing

Per-song

By volume

Subscription

Platform

Linux

Macintosh

Windows

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