“Last week Buy.com tried to take a bite out of Apple’s successful iTunes Music Store by rolling out a low-priced song-download service said to be simple and reliable,” reports Jefferson Graham for USA Today. “But in an example of the technological trickiness involved in offering users the freedom they desire while giving music labels the protections they demand, early customers have found they can’t transfer the tunes they buy on BuyMusic.com to digital portables.”
Graham reports, “The Mac-only iTunes has won raves for ease of use, both in burning CDs and transferring songs to Apple’s iPod players. But BuyMusic’s tracks have started out as unplayable, even on portables lent to the press in a promotional blitz.”
“BuyMusic.com’s tech support staff was of little help when contacted Thursday. An e-mail response read: ”We are unable to provide technical assistance after you have downloaded the music… to your primary computer. In addition, we are unable to credit you back for failed or damaged copies once you have successfully downloaded the music.,” Graham reports. “Apple has sold 6.5 million songs since April; BuyMusic won’t release figures, but ‘it’s not millions,’ [Buy.com’s CEO Scott] Blum says.”
Full article here.