In what is shaping up as one of the most poorly-received launches in Internet history, another columnist takes a look at BuyMusic.com and finds it woefully lacking when compared to Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
“BuyMusic.com may want to rename itself BuyHeadaches.com until it works out the kinks in its new music downloading service. The first weeks of any new business’s operations are fraught with glitches and frustrations. Still, once BuyMusic.com resolves those problems, there are others dealing with licensing rights that may drive customers loony-tunes over the long haul,” Suzanne Choney reports for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Apple’s iTunes Music Store, launched in April, quickly became a model of what a good music downloading service should be: easy to use, good quality, with few restrictions on how digital music files could be used. BuyMusic.com, despite a TV ad campaign that mimics Apple’s ads, is no iTunes Music Store. But until Apple launches its Windows-based music downloading service later this year, BuyMusic.com is probably one of the better pay-as-you-go services available for Windows users right now,” Choney reports.
“I downloaded nine songs from BuyMusic.com, almost all of them songs I’d previously downloaded from Apple. Apple charges 99 cents a song; BuyMusic.com advertises its tunes as starting ‘from 79 cents.’ Only one of the nine was 79 cents; the rest were 99 cents, which is generally the price for most songs on the site. Some go for $1.14,” reports Choney.
Choney continues, “Two of the songs I downloaded, ‘For What It’s Worth’ and ‘Sit Down I Think I Love You,’ were by Buffalo Springfield. However, when I played those songs later, neither one was as billed. They were Buffalo Springfield songs, but not the two I had chosen. I was excited to find a third song, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ by Counting Crows, that had not been on the Apple site last time I checked. In playing it back, the file crackled. It was the same with songs from Elvis and The Allman Brothers Band. I don’t know whether this was due to the less-than-stellar Windows Media Audio format, which has a different approach to encoding digital music than the more popular MP3 format or even Apple’s Advanced Audio Coding format.”
Choney concludes, “When BuyMusic.com says the music can only play on one computer, it means just that. I recorded the songs to a CD, then put the CD into another computer and tried to play them. Immediately, my Web browser launched and I was taken to BuyMusic.com’s site, where I got this message: ‘A license for the track you are attempting to play cannot be found on your machine. If you have not purchased this track, but would like to do so now, please click here.’ No, I don’t think so. I think I’m done purchasing, for now anyway.”
MacDailyNews Take: You just have to feel for Windows-only users who are also music lovers. Here’s hoping Apple’s iTunes Music Store for Windows comes to them sooner than later or they buy a Mac, whichever comes first.