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BuyMusic.com launches Windows answer to iTunes | |
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| Time: 11:10 EST/16:10 GMT | News Source: E-Mail | Posted By: Brian Kvalheim | ||
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Windows users now have a place to go for legal music downloads. Scott Blum, the owner of online retailer Buy.com, Tuesday launched a new online music service called BuyMusic.com, which his company is billing as "the world's largest legal music download store." The announcement was made at a media event held in New York's Times Square. | ||
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| #1 By 2960 (156.80.64.105) at 7/23/2003 3:03:56 PM |
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From what I've read so far, the DRM control/usage issues on the downloaded music is a nightmare.
Different songs have different 'privilages' extended to the user. Different numbers of burn times, different numbers of allowed computers, etc... Man, what a nightmare! Another horribly failed attempt that again doesn't take what the _customer_ wants to do with their legally purchsed music into account. And apparantly most popular songs are not 79 cents, most are 99 cents. TL |
| #2 By 3653 (63.162.177.143) at 7/23/2003 3:57:24 PM |
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Of course its not as good as iTunes, TechLarry... lover of all things mac.
But, you might try actually TRYING the service before coming to your conclusions. Everyone else, balance... "nightmare" "horribly failed" with "From what I've read so far" |
| #3 By 1845 (12.209.152.69) at 7/23/2003 4:55:48 PM |
| From what I've seen on the site, most songs are indeed 99 cents, albums 9.99, and transfers and burns are unlimited. Still sounds like a great deal to me. Oh, did I miss a nightmare somewhere? All the simplicity must have lost me. |
| #4 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 5:33:19 PM |
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mooresa, you don't really have to "use" it to know. The products are "essentially" equivalent--it's the pricing, rights management, and distribution model which don't need to be experienced to be critiqued as these details are in the contract/purchasing agreement.
Let's start at: 1. You don't own anything. Compare these entries in the ToC's: "1. Definition of the iTunes Music Store Service. Apple is the provider of the iTunes Music Store (the “Service”) that permits you to purchase downloads of digital content—such as sound recordings—under certain terms and conditions as set forth in this Agreement." vs. "3. Content Use Rules . All downloaded Content is sublicensed to End Users and not sold, notwithstanding use of the terms “sell,” “purchase,” “order,” or “buy” on the Site or this Agreement. Your Digital Download sublicense is non-exclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicenseable, limited and for personal entertainment use only within the United States. End Users who buy Digital Downloads may play the Digital Downloads an unlimited number of times on the same registered personal computer to which the Digital Download is originally downloaded." with iTMS, the user BUYS the content and is allowed to transfer his files to any computer any number of times. In fact, the user can authorize three computers at any one time. BuyMusic restricts the user to maintaining their files on one machine and have no rights to transfer them if they upgrade. Buy a new box and you get to buy the songs again! Yay! 2. Song pricing -- I haven't found a single song worth purchasing for $.79 yet. Some of the better songs quickly run up over $.99 I don't see how anyone can actually make an arguement for this service being cheaper. In fact, it's about the same price but in addition is rather confusing. 3. DRM -- some songs are rather loose, but a large number are insanely shocking. Further below on the two types of restriction: 3a. CD burning is restricted on an absolute number of burns basis. Many are restricted to 3 or 5 burns. That's it. iTMS always allows unlimited as long as you "shuffle" the playlist occassionally. 3b. Transfer to players is restricted? This is nuts. The number of transfers doesn't denote the number of players, but the number of times you can transfer. Well, what if you have a flash-based player or have even maxed out your HD player? If you "load" your player with a playlist every morning, you're going to be stuck after the first week. (Many songs do not have this restriction, but any that do, I would view as absolutely useless, and those that are are restricted to 3 or 5 (nuts, absolutely crazy); from a rough perusal, this accounts for about a little less than 10% of the songs, but it completely negates these songs as purchasable in my mind.) 4. Bugs (?) who knows if these are jsut bugs, but maybe not... A few albums said: "This album is not for purchase as an album. Tracks must be purchased individually." But then when I clicked on a track, it said: "This track not available for sale individually." So what is it available for? Sampling? If so, how many of their albums can you only browse but not purchase? (As I said, i can discount a bug, but if they are inflating numbers and confounding users, bad choice.) Anyway, that's the "start" of what I would call a "nightmare." Not too incredibly exciting, but certainly not a very good offering by comparison to what is available. And, yes, many would consider objection #1 enough of a "nightmare" to keep them away. This post was edited by sodajerk on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 19:15. |
| #5 By 1845 (12.209.152.69) at 7/23/2003 8:05:11 PM |
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With all due respect, jerk, whenever you purchase a CD or DVD you aren't purchasing it. You are purchasing the media itself and a usage license. Apple no more has the right to sell the content than buymusic.com does.
Also, it seems to me that if you are enabled to burn the content in unprotected format to a CD, you have freed yourself from the restrictions placed upon you at the time of purchase. Purhaps one of way of viewing it is that while the specific file you download is bound to DRM, the file on the CD is not. I doubt it would fly in court, but it's a thought. |
| #6 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 8:16:27 PM |
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with all due respect, Bob, you do in fact buy the CD. What you don't buy is copyrights. The same applies in the case of Apple's store but not for the Buy store... with Buy, you are licensing a sub-license to the permitted number of downloads to a specified machine. HUGE DIFFERENCE: with iTMS I specifically own a digital file whcih carries with it any licensing rights established by Apple with the copyright holders. With Buy, you don't own anything but the magical interplay between the internet, a PC, a digital file, and some text. As I mentioned, buy a new box and bye-bye music. Does your CD disappear when you buy a new CD player? No. And not with the iTMS either. HUGE, HUGE, HUGE DIFFERENCE.
I don't see your CD loophole. You don't burn the CD in an unprotected format. Sure you can, but once you do, you are degrading your original file... If you want to regress to the days of mixed tapes, fine. But I don't want to purchase, download, burn, rip again with less quality, burn, repeat to make transferrable files of legally purchased music. There is a huge difference here as well: the potential to be breaking the law (in fact, you are), the impairment/reduction in quality, and thirdly, many more steps involved. Sure you can do it (you can just pirate everything right now if you wanted to, yeah?), but to say that there isn't a restriction because you can circumvent it... well, that's one of the worst arguments I've heard from you in a long time. You're getting rusty. |
| #7 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 8:27:55 PM |
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I should probably be clearer: I never said you purchased copyrights via iTMS--who could be so retarded as to think so?
I said you actually bought the content, and could port the content wherever you desire (as long as it's within the licensing agreement), and any rights or licensing restrictions granted to that physical content you can exercise. (Potentially, I could transfer the rights to these sound files to another owner for example.) This may sound elusive as well, but to make it clear: when you physically download a file from BuyMusic to your machine, you do not OWN that file or any other file. You have no rights to any licensing of that file on other machines. You do not have a lifetime license, you only have a sub-license for a license for the time period that their is a relationship between that physical computer and the BuyMusic web site and its EULA. |
| #8 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 8:30:30 PM |
| Jagged, this too is limited. Some are unlimited, but I would say 60% are restricted to 3 to 5 downloads; 20% to 1... roughly. And again, these downloads are still tied to the same machine. As I said, you are in a licensed relationship with BuyMusic--and they are restricting you to one machine. You cannot download your 3 to 5 times on different machines. I've checked it out thoroughly, big boy. |
| #9 By 1845 (12.209.152.69) at 7/23/2003 10:30:19 PM |
| How does it feel to be a big boy, Jagged? Guess you'll have to give up your digital watch now. Big boys don't wear them. ;-) |
| #10 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 11:41:43 PM |
| oh, sorry, Jagged... it is both number of transfers and computers it can be on... But still the sub-licensing problem still exists just on more than one computer. This makes it more flexible and less likely to be problematic for some, but it eliminates the benefit of multiple transfers if "transfering" the file to a computer on your network or your laptop counts as a transfer/download. And again, despite the fact that it can 'span' more than one computer doesn't mitigate the fact that you don't own ANYTHING. |
| #11 By 3339 (66.219.95.6) at 7/23/2003 11:44:59 PM |
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I've got a few more minutes... do you want me to move onto a site navigation critique?
Well, most anyone wouldn't be sick enough to want... no, demand a "Sort By USage Rights" Options, but that's me. Despite my own opinion, I think the navigation, in short, sucks. I would say this is actually Lindows-level cheap and pathetic. |
| #12 By 1845 (12.209.152.69) at 7/24/2003 2:28:53 AM |
| I found exactly what I was looking for when I searched. I knew exactly how much it cost, what rights were offered, and even saw other items similar to those for which I searched. No nightmare. No horror. No patheticness. Rather straight forward, I thought. I'm just a developer, though, so I suppose I'm too biased. |
| #13 By 2960 (156.80.64.155) at 7/24/2003 12:07:35 PM |
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mooresa56 wrote:
"Of course its not as good as iTunes, TechLarry... lover of all things mac. " For gods sake man, don't be an idiot. I don't have unnatural attractions to any platform. I call it like it is. Where Apple sucks, I say so. Where Microsoft sucks, I say so. You obviously haven't been paying attention. And I never even mentioned ITunes or any sort of comparison. Nice Troll attempt... TL |
| #14 By 2960 (156.80.64.155) at 7/24/2003 12:09:05 PM |
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Oh, and I don't NEED to try it. I've already had enough family members and friends do so and not one of them really cared for it for the exact reasons I stated.
I am not against letting someone else be the guinea pig sometimes :) TL |
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