Downloading music
I would like to occasionally download music. Not often, but occasionally, I’ll think of a song and feel a hankering to hear it. Today, it’s “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. I would like to download this legally; I don’t want to just google for a ripped version of it. To that end, I’d like to find a good music downloading service and pay them my money, to reward them for being a good music downloading service. Good music services fulfil the following criteria, all of which are non-negotiable:
- I can download one track, instead of a whole album; I don’t want ten Nina Simone songs, I just want the one I’m looking for
- No DRM. None. I don’t mind what the format is, if there’s no DRM, as long as it can be played on Linux (which is pretty much everything). Bonus points for oggs. Half a bonus point for just plain mp3.
- A track costs a pound or less. I’m not paying more than a quid for one song.
- I feel comfortable putting my credit card number into the site. This means, in practice, that if it’s called something like mp3downloads.haxx0r.ru, I am not interested.
- I can just buy a song by putting my credit card number in and getting it for download. I don’t need to sign up for an account, give them all my details, none of that.
- My music tastes aren’t very eclectic, so I’d expect the service to carry most of what I’d want to listen to. This means that a service for one label alone isn’t really what I want. I don’t want to discover new music with this; I want to get the stuff I already know about and want to listen to.
- I’ll get, probably, about five songs a year. So a subscription service is out, especially since with most of them your music stops working when you unsubscribe.
Does anywhere like this exist? Tesco Downloads ships DRM-encumbered WMA files, which I’m not interested in. Yes, I could convert them to mp3 myself, but that’s not the point; I want to encourage a firm doing the right thing, and I’m interested to know whether it’s actually possible to download music legally without jumping through DRM hoops and giving away all my marketing information. Let me know.
There won’t ever be a site without DRM hoops unless the artist owns the music, rather than the music labels. The music labels simply own “everything” and when non-DRM download sites show up, they are unauthorized and will be shut down through legal action.
Linux means nothing to the labels. In fact, they ignore Linux so much that the Sony DRM “trojan/root-kit” that’s gotten all the attention this week proved no problem to my linux box; cdrdao indicated the data tracks and made for an easy rip & burn filtering them out. I do have another cd that uses the “skip-gap” method of encryption that I may have to run through analog to filter it out, once I’m sure my normal cd players don’t have a problem with it.
Best you’ll be able to find is the ever-migrating sites from Russia (which legally doesn’t care about American copyright, but their ISPs won’t let them host a site like that for long due to the traffic).
Firms want to do the “right thing”. Firms’ lawyers say listen to the labels because you can’t afford the alternative (the guarenteed lawsuit to come).
2 hours later
If you find it (and it is a big IF), can you post the results in a new post please?
2 hours later
Not looking promising so far. mp3.com offers downloads from their “partners”, which are (from their page about the song), Napster, iTunes. RealPlayer, and Musicmatch. All of which are Windows-only.
4 hours later
(well, iTunes apparently works on the Mac too ;))
4 hours later
I doubt this will happen with any RIAA member music. I believe there are a few independent labels that are rolling out DRM-free online stores but if your a RIAA music lover then I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Especially with their recent push to have DRM on all normal CDs. Fair-use is a revenue stream now.
5 hours later
Best solution I can think of is iTunes + JHymn, but that’s not going to work particularly well under Linux. Also don’t know about their prices, since I only take the free tracks they offer.
6 hours later
There’s very few I know of. mp3tunes.com is fine, but only has indy music for the most part. emusic.com has a good selection of older stuff, but it has a weird subscription model. allofmp3.com is exactly what you want — oggs and all — but with legal ambiguity; you pay through paypal, so there’s no real security issue.
6 hours later
Not going to work at all, in fact. Since iTunes 6 JHymm is broken, as they’ve changed the auth. method and Hymn hasn’t worked it out yet.
The best one I’ve heard of, but never used, is the seemingly legit AllOfMP3.com. which just does MP3s and gets around the studios problem by being in .ru whether it gives a flying fuck about the artists, I really don’t know. It says it pays licence fees. But since the _entire album_ for Nina Simone is less than a dollar, I doubt it.
http://find.allofmp3.com/search.shtml?search=Nina+Simonesg=1&sa=1&ss=1&result=ON
I use iTunes Music Store, because I like the interface and am willing to compremise on my freedom for convinence, I’d prefer an honour based system, but there are two many people without the honour.
6 hours later
The only decent provider I’ve found is Play Louder, but they only cover a small niche of artists. It just so happens that I quite like that niche. It’s particularly useful for getting Reuben b-sides for vinyl releases.
7 hours later
I think the entertainment industry are dramatically under-estimating the power of a decent user experience in fighting piracy. I buy music from iTunes rather than hunt it down on illegal sites because the user experience is so much better. What’s more, it wold be incredibly difficult for the pirate scene to create an equally pleasant experience because of their ilicit nature - they have to stay hard to find to avoid legitimate legal action against them and they have to use irritating ads because they have no other source of revenue.
I’m OK buying songs from iTunes on the DRM front because I know that the tools exist to crack the encryption should I ever need to. If the DRM wasn’t crackable I wouldn’t buy it.
DRM really is an amazingly bizzare idea - a technology that means illegal copies have more features than legal ones based on a dumb-as-rocks encryption scheme where by its very nature the attacker must have access to the plaintext, encrypted stream AND the key. I wonder what it will take to make them see sense.
8 hours later
Simon: I agree. What I was hoping for was that someone who does do DRM-free music (a) existed and (b) has recognised the power of a decent UI, so I could reward them with my cash. Clearly (a) is the problem here…
9 hours later
In the past, I’ve used http://mclub.te.net.ua/
Again, being based in the ukraine, I’m not too sure about it’s legitimacy, but it works and I have to pay (via paypal, by the megabyte), so I felt my guilt was absolved.
24 hours later
I take it you’ve seen http://mp3tunes.com/ from Mr. Linspire himself? Only MP3s are sold, although their artist lineup is obviously limited compared to iTMS, et al. Still, a good way to find out new talent :)
47 hours later
Neuro:
Artists:
No artists matches nina simone located. Please check the spelling or search for a different artist.
Fails this criterion: “I don’t want to discover new music with this; I want to get the stuff I already know about and want to listen to.” :-)
2 days later
I think I’m legally bound to tell you to get the Y! music engine. They’re 79 cents each with the subscription, otherwise 99 cents without. The music engine itself is still in beta and I’ve been fighting the quirks.
My favorite part is that I can download as much as I’d (with membership) like in the same way you can like with Napster. You don’t actually own the songs until you officially buy them. Otherwise, you just continue with your subscription. You can also get this working on up to 3 to 5 computers (I can’t remember which).
So my own advice for the Y! music engine: It works for me.
3 days later
Dustin: I looked at Yahoo Music, but I couldn’t work out how to actually buy a track. Where from, say, http://uk.music.yahoo.com/track/413522 should I go to purchase that track? If your answer is “download the proprietary Windows-and-Mac-only client program” then I am not all that keen, since (a) it fails the criterion “I can just buy a song by putting my credit card number in and getting it for download. I don’t need to sign up for an account, give them all my details, none of that.” and (b) closed-source programs are bad.
3 days later
As mentioned above AllofMp3 is brilliant. Cheap, no DRM - you can choose your bit rate and format (Even Ogg!)
4 days later
Pollo: AllOfMp3 seems to be of dubious legality, though, as far as I can tell?
4 days later
Macs rock bitchj@!!
5 days later
cody: thanks for your valuable contribution.
5 days later
please how can i download my fovotite music
6 days later
it was absulutely rubish
6 days later
I don’t understand the point of DRM for old music. We all know that you can get any old song for free if you want it and you don’t mind breaking copyright law, or you live somewhere with lax copyright law. So what is the point? “If we don’t include this DRM, there will be an unprotected version on the net! A thriving file-sharing scene will develop!” Hasn’t that already happened?
“It is the same browser!”
7 days later
Stuart,
Just download the proprietary Windows-and-Mac-only client program ;) :p It works great!
8 days later
with regards to allofmp3.com’s legality, its perfectly legit. Thanks to Russian laws they can distribute as they are. Downloading music you’ve bought is regarded as importing and since its not illegal to import music from Russia. its legal.
9 days later
I agree wholehartedly it seems crazy to inconvienience users with DRM if they are prepare to hand over their hard earned dosh and download leagally. Currently I buy CD’s from sites like Play.com and rip them to mp3 this is cheap, I get a backup (the CD) and no DRM the problems are it’s not convienient and I have to buy the whole album. This means I only buy album’s that have at least five of six decent songs on them. If I want a single I’ll d/l it illeagally because it is more convienient and has no DRM.
2 weeks later
Try http://www.7digitalmedia.com.
2 weeks later
Mary: cheers for the pointer. It’s difficult to tell whether the tracks are DRM-free, though. The FAQ says “The downloads are Windows Media Audio 9 Series encoded at 192kbps and AAC and MP3 formats encoded at 192kbps. These are virtually indistinguishable from CD-quality audio.” and that MP3 format is available “only on selected tracks”. It doesn’t seem to be very clear which tracks are in which formats, but I suspect that most of them are WMA which is DRMed: the Nina Simone album with Feeling Good on it has a little “Windows Media” logo below the album cover.
2 weeks later
use limewire or ares
5 weeks later
hey…any one no how 2 get your music from ares to itunes email me back…please!
6 weeks later
i hope its free
11 weeks later
this is the my own online music store, anyone can have their own and make money out of tracks sold… fully functional web store, http://www.djscoopmusic.com
interested in having your own music store, click on commercial on the bottom.
17 weeks later
Hi,
I think this service http://www.intomusic.co.uk is excellent and a step forward for music on the internet, offers all that your asking except for nina simone.
Tracks at range from £0.59 to £0.79 are encoded in MP3 DRM free 256kbps quality which is twice that of itunes and others. Simple to use , they also offer a subscription service where tracks work out at £0.30 each. They some well known names like Bloc Party, Stereophonics, Elbow, Ray davies and some really different indie music. The artists also get paid more than 50% of the retail price.
18 weeks later
is the ares free
39 weeks later
hello yes i do like ur speach alot and yes ur not cool!!!!! hehe u suc
47 weeks later
Is this stuff free or what? Because im trying to download it and it says its free but then it turns out not to be! Where should I go for FREE downloads and it not having to pay at all?
61 weeks later
Hi there
If its just 1 song that you want to listen too at that specific moment why not watch it online, there are many sites that offer this and dont charge, granted a lot of these sites you have to sign up, register and so on, but there are a couple good sites where you can watch a music video once off for free with out registering e.g http://www.vidzone.tv/ its a UK site as well witch always is a bonus in my eyes, try it if you dont like, nothing lost, right.
90 weeks later
[...] Two years after I first laid out my plea to be able to download music the way I wanted, Amazon have pretty much come through. My canonical test song whenever someone announces a new music service is “Feelin’ Good” by Nina Simone, and here it is on Amazon.com. So, let’s test this service against my list of requirements. [...]
97 weeks later