New MP3 music shops reviewed
21. June, 2004
Finally, record companies are giving online music seekers what they want: digital music. The kind of music that can be purchased and downloaded to a computer over the Internet and then listened to on an MP3 player or on the computer. A number of new online music shops have opened up and many existing ones have updated their pages in all parts of the world. Even Napster and iTunes have opened in Europe to compete in the land of Euros, Pounds, Rubles and Kronor.
In this review, we focus on MP3 shops that serve customers globally, or in particular regions outside the USA. An updated review of US-only digital music shops can be found here.
Buying MP3 music is completely different from buying a music CD: , rules, pricing schemes, and technology are different. Pricing practices vary, from purchasing individual songs to subscribing to a monthly music download or streaming service. There are differences to what can be done with the purchased music product. For instance, there can be limits on how many times a song can be copied to another computer, burnt on a CD or copied to an MP3 player. Not all music shops state these rules upfront, so choose from shops that tell what you'll get.
The most common file formats for downloadable songs are WMA (Windows Media Audio) and MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3). Apple uses its own AAC format and an open source format called Ogg Vorbis exists as well. The music in a WMA package usually has technical restrictions on how it can be used, while MP3 music typically doesn’t have technical restrictions, but has licensing policies which state the terms of use.
When searching for digital music on the Internet, you'll soon appreciate shops that are easy to use, offer reasonable pricing and payment options, and don't require extensive software installation or powerful computer hardware.
Digital music shops one by one
Pricing: Starts from $0.49 for a single opus to $7.99 for a compilation of several hours of classical music. Payment by credit card or through PayPal. After your payment, you get an email with a link where you can download your music.
Availability: The music selection is available globally and comes in MP3 format. Personal use is allowed on your own computers and portable players.
Description: eClassical is the easiest-to-use music shop known in the online world. Once you hit the home page, you are only two clicks away from a free trial MP3 download. No additional software other than your web browser is required. We experienced somewhat slow downloading at times, but classical pieces tend to be long, anyway. You don't have to register to the shop at all if you prefer to pay with PayPal. eClassical is an elegant and straightforward music shop with music going for a reasonable price.
Price: From $9.99 a month for downloading 40 songs to $19.99 a month for 90 tracks. A great way to start is to sign up for a free two week trial, which allows downloading of 50 tracks. Payments by credit card.
Availability: Global availability. The music is packed in MP3 format and can be used for your own personal use any way you want.
Description: The selection of music varies: the mainstream pop/rock section may not feature all the hits of the day, but the classical music section for instance, is great. Emusic can be easily accessed on a browser, but to make downloading easier, you can install optional download manager software that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Emusic is good value for money and is worth giving a try.
iTunes France, iTunes Germany, iTunes UK
Price: Germany and France: 0.99 Euros for a chanson and 9.99 Euros for an album, UK: starting from £0.79 per song and £7.99 per album. Credit cards accepted.
Availability: Only available in countries where the iTunes shops operate: Germany, France and UK. You can burn CDs and synchronize downloaded music with your iPod music player. The iTunes come in Apple's own music format (AAC).
Description: Large music selection along with audiobooks. You must have a Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Mac OS X computer since iTunes requires you to install playlist software on your computer. iTunes is a great choice for Apple computer users or iPod owners. If you have neither one of those, consider other shops that support a wider range of portable players, more flexible pricing options and allow you to shop while traveling outside your home country.
Pricing: £0.80 - £1.50 per song and albums starting from £6.40. Listening to streaming music costs £0.01 per track. Mobile phone and credit card payment options.
Availability: Only in Great Britain. Burning CDs and transferring music to portable players allowed. WMA format.
Description: The music selection favors the hits of the day. The design of the whole shop and its music selection is obviously targeted at young listeners who may not have credit cards. It is possible to pay with mobile phones by sending a text message. Maybe the MyCokeMusic shop will find its audience, but we found the site difficult to use, difficult to read (because of their choice of fonts) and the always-present and distracting animation graphics didn't help at all. The shop can only be accessed on a Microsoft web browser, but the site fails to mention it.
Price: Monthly subscription £9.95 for listening (streaming) only. An additional cost of £0.99 for a song and £9.99 per album for file downloads. Without a monthly subscription, downloads are £1.09 per track. Seven days free trial for new customers. Credit card and bank debit cards accepted.
Availability: In the UK only. Napster radio stations stream music to subscribers who are allowed to listen to the whole music selection. Each downloaded song can be burnt to up to five CDs and copied to a portable player. Napster has tested Rio, Creative and Dell music players to be compatible with their software. WMA music format.
Description: Wide choice of music. Napster makes you install an add-on software, which requires a Windows 2000 or XP computer. If you only want to listen to music on your computer, and not download music, you might consider signing up for Napster. However, if you want to download music and take it with you on an MP3 player or burn CDs, other shops offer better prices and don't require as much from your computer.
Price: £1 - £1.50 per song, added to the phone bill.
Availability: Only in the UK for O2 subscribers.
Description: O2 is a mobile network operator, which markets a digital music player with 64MB of memory space. If you have a compatible mobile phone, you can connect the player to the mobile phone and download music to the player over the O2 mobile network. Currently, O2 is pioneering the service over the GPRS mobile network, but it wouldn't be big a surprise to find these types of services on the new 3G networks soon.
Price: £0.99 for one song, down to £0.60 for a bundle of tracks. Listening (or streaming) £0.01 per track. Many other options available for purchasing music packages. Payment options: credit card and mobile phone.
Availability: You can stream music, purchase individual songs or a bundle of songs, download them to a computer, burn CDs and transfer to a portable player. The music comes in WMA format. Individual tracks may have regional restrictions, but the shop informs you about them.
Description: Tiscali Music Club shop has fine-tuned its functionality, design and ease of use over time. The music selection is great and the choice of packages gives flexibility to pricing. The shop can be accessed using Microsoft browser. The optional Sonicselector software can be installed for managing streaming, downloading, burning CDs and organizing of playlists.
Price: Prices start as low as £0.29, but Robbie Williams is still worth £1.19 per track. Payment by credit card. If you are in the UK, you can pay by mobile phone also.
Availability: Mostly MP3, but also WMA music format. Three copies can be made for personal use.
Description: Plenty of artists from all imaginable music genres, except for mainstream pop/rock music. Still, worth checking out.
These four shops have plenty in common: the music originates from a system that manages the song database, licensing, downloads and purchases for all shops. Prices vary from £0.62 to £1.50 per track and payments are accepted by credit card or by mobile phone. Big noise music donates 10% to charity, while HMV really wants to sell you CDs and DVDs.
All of them have a fairly good music selection. A Microsoft web browser must be used, but the shops provide a handy function, Dr Download, which checks your computer for the required software components.
Indie music shops
The best online MP3 music shops
Avec Mobile's favorite online MP3 music shops are Tiscali Music Club and eClassical.
Tiscali offers good music selection with a good choice of payment packages. Finding, listening and downloading music is straightforward using the browser software alone. It is also possible to install the free add-on software Sonicselector, which gives you all the whistles and bells, along with better control over the music you want to stream, download, burn and listen.
Shopping at eClassical is a refreshing experience compared to the other MP3 shops. We bet your MP3 player that making the first purchase at eClassical is faster than a purchase in any other shop. It is a prime example of how to keep things simple and easy: find what you want, make the payment and download. Prices are customer-friendly, but you'll have to know how to manage the purchased MP3 music on your computer and portable player.
Both Tiscali and eClassical serve customers outside their home bases - it's a World Wide Web, after all. At this point we'd like to restate that this is a review of non-US music shops; the updated review of US digital music shops is here.
O2 is an interesting concept that is likely to get even better in the future. O2 is the first music service (that we are aware of) tailored for mobile use. Today, the service requires a specific portable music player purchased from O2, but surely O2 is aware that there are mobile phones that can play MP3 tunes.
