Print
Discuss
Send to friend
RSS feeds
Until recently, the music industry seemed to regard the internet with a combination of fear and loathing.
But with the advent of software that stops people sharing files online, record companies are finally beginning to give internet users what they want: a convenient way to download music and burn it to CDs and portable players, while giving artists the rewards they deserve.
The root of this new-found confidence is digital rights management (DRM) software, which is attached to the file like a padlock and can only be opened with the right key.
That key comes in the form of a software certificate that is sent to and stored on your hard disk or portable music player when a song is bought. Every time you play the file, your media player will be told to find the certificate before bursting into song.
With DRM under their belts, the record companies have opened their dusty copyright libraries to online music services.
The recent relaunch of Napster - the original, but illegal, file-sharing network - as a legitimate paid-for service has brought the sites into the limelight, and forced some of the others to cut their prices or offer special deals to entice customers to their services.
Now that there is choice for consumers, we have cupped an ear to a selection of sites to see what you get for your money and what limitations DRM places on you.
You'll find that some of your favourite artists are missing from the online stores. This is because of the complex legal framework of the music industry where different people may own the copyright to the lyric, tune, production and publication of a single song.
When the store can't get all the rights holders to agree, the music can't be sold. You won't find any Beatles or solo Elton John tracks at these sites, for example, but despite this there are enough familiar artists at each site to keep most music fans happy.
You will need a sound card and a reasonably fast PC to download music from these sites, and a CD or DVD burner or portable music player to allow you to make use of music you download.
On average, songs download at a rate of about 1Mb per minute so a broadband connection will make life easier. You'll need version 9 of Windows Media Player to access WMA files that are protected with DRM or WinAmp 5.
Napster
www.napster.co.uk
This is the latest incarnation of the file-sharing service that kick-started the music downloading phenomenon back in 1999. It's now back as a fully legal downloading service, charging £9.95 for a monthly subscription.
This gives you access to over 700,000 tracks, which you can download to up to three computers and listen to for the duration of your subscription to the site. Your subscription doesn't allow you to burn music to a CD or copy it to a portable player, however. There is an extra charge of 99p per track for that.
It's the only major service to provide free software to play songs, and the process of choosing, downloading and playing your music is done with the Napster software rather than on the website.
The software has some neat functions. You can select tracks from your collection and tell it to make a 'radio station' for you. It will come back with a list of recommendations which, when we tried it, included a good mix of old favourites and interesting new choices. You can also listen to other people's playlists or see what others are downloading.
Searching for music within Napster is also quite intuitive. If there are no exact matches for your search, it will return similarly named acts for you to choose from. The player also gives you access to the cleverly designed online music magazine, Fuzz.
If you don't want to subscribe, you can still use the Napster Light player to organise and play your music. You will still be able to access Napster's library of tracks, but you won't be able to hear more than 30 seconds of a track without buying it, and tracks will cost slightly more than for subscribers.
Do be aware, though, that if your subscription lapses you will lose access to all tracks you have downloaded from Napster unless you have paid to keep a permanent copy on CD or a portable player. We would advise you to transfer bought tracks quickly, just in case your subscription lapses.
MyCokeMusic
www.mycokemusic.com
MyCokeMusic, in common with Tiscali, MSN and Wanadoo, has a library of 350,000 tracks to choose from.
This is because the four sites all buy their music from the same company, OD2. We were disappointed that the four sites had done relatively little to make themselves stand out from each other.
Unlike Napster, there is no subscription service so you will have to buy credits before you can download anything. The more credits you buy at once, the less they cost - from 99p for 99 credits up to £40 for 5,000. You can spend the credits in your own time, so there's no need to use them all at once. Children or those without credit cards can pay by text message, at £1.50 for 99 credits.
Each track on MyCokeMusic costs 99 credits to download permanently, or you can stream any track for one credit. Most albums can be bought for 799 credits, although others cost 99 credits per track where there are multiple copyright holders.
You can browse through charts in genres, leaf through the alphabetical listing of artists or search for an artist or title using the search boxes. If you want to check out the music first, you can listen to a free 30-second sample at a low quality by clicking the icon to the left of the song in the listing.
The free samples are available to all, and you don't have to log in or have an account to hear them. The same player is used if you choose to stream tracks but be aware that streamed tracks play at the same low quality as the 30-second samples.
MSN Music Club
www.msn.co.uk/musicclub
Microsoft's site lets you buy cash credits in packages from £2 (for £2 of credit) to £40 (which gives you £50 credit), or you can pay £1.50 by text message for 99p of credit. Parents of youngsters with access to phones should make a note of this.
Alternatively, you can subscribe for £10 per month, which gives you £13 credit. Most of the downloads cost 99p, although some are cheaper and, as with MyCokeMusic, albums cost from £7.99.
You can browse through the charts and A-to-Z artist listings or search for a specific track. Entering a search word into the Artist box will bring up an artist's page if there is only one match, or a page listing several possible matching acts. This makes it very easy to find the music you're looking for.
You can also choose to listen to a short free sample or stream the track at low quality for one credit. MSN also has its own music website which has articles and reviews as well as charts.
At the bottom of most of these articles are links which will take you directly to the MSN Music Club download page for that artist. It's a useful touch, although it's not as good as Napster's version.
Tiscali
www.tiscali.co.uk/music/musicclub
Tiscali's packages range from £4.99 for 500 credits to £49.99 for 6,200 credits. Single songs from the 350,000 track catalogue then cost 99 credits to download.
If you don't want to invest in more than a couple of tracks, with Tiscali you can add them to a shopping basket and pay for them with a credit card, as you might do in a normal online shop. This is a good way to try the service if you're not too sure whether it's for you.
You can also listen to a free 30-second sample of any track but, unlike the other web-based services, there is no option to stream full tracks at all. Tiscali also runs a music website which contains reviews and articles that link to artists' download pages.
Wanadoo
www.wanadoo.co.uk/music
Unlike Tiscali's shop, you can stream music for one credit per play, although the stream is poor quality compared to an MP3 download. You can also listen to a free 30-second sample of any track.
Wanadoo, like MSN and Tiscali, operates its own music site, which offers reviews and other articles with links to the appropriate download pages. It's quite a slick site and the links work well, but it's not as well integrated as the Napster offering.
You can choose a credit package (from £4.99 for 500 credits up to £39.99 to 5,000 credits), pay by text message (at £1.50 for 99 credits) or, as with the Tiscali servce, just add music to your shopping basket and pay with a credit card at the checkout.
Wippit
www.wippit.co.uk
Wippit is slightly different to the other websites reviewed here as it concentrates on smaller artists and obscure tracks, but it does have good coverage of mainstream rock, pop and dance acts.
It currently offers more than 150,000 tracks, with more being added all the time. One of the big differences compared to other stores is that Wippit sells MP3 files, making it the only UK site that iPod owners can use until Apple's own iTunes store appears. About 40 per cent of Wippit's tunes are in MP3 format, one of those that Apple's iPod can handle.
The site is easy to navigate but the search is fairly poor compared to other sites. Instead of a listing of possible matches as with the other shops, you get a 10-to-a-page listing of all your matches. This makes it hard to find what you're looking for if you have to wade through pages of information, although it does offer suggestions if your search doesn't turn up any matches.
Depending on the artist you're after, downloads can be much cheaper than the other sites. Even songs by popular artists start from as low as 79p, which is a lower basic price than any of the other sites, and other songs start from just 29p (although there's a minimum charge of £1 per transaction).
There's no facility to download full albums, however, and the lack of a preview function means it can be difficult to know if what you're getting is what you want.
Wippit's subscription is good value if you like the artists they have to offer, as it gives you unlimited downloads and the ability to burn to CD.
You can download a free track from Wippit. Just type 'promo' into the search box on any Wippit web page, and you will see a selection of tracks. They are all free to download (as you will see from the listed price), so just pick one and add it to your basket.
iTunes
www.apple.com/uk/itunes
Apple's recently launched download service allows you to select from 700,000 tracks from major and independent labels. You can buy and download any song, album or audio book with a single mouse click, and songs cost just 79p. Albums start at £7.99.
Users can buy songs using the iTunes jukebox, which is a key part of Apple's strategy for integrating the sale and playing of music.
The jukebox can also detect if other iTunes users are on a wired or wireless network and allow them to play songs from their collection, but not copy them.
Download it
All of the sites we've looked at allow you to burn to a CD any music you buy. Overall they are easy to use and, with the latest software, it's easy to burn your music. If you like to pick and choose between your favourite tracks rather than downloading entire albums, downloading is a good solution.
The site that gets our Try It award, Napster, lets you download any track from their catalogue once you have subscribed. You can't copy them to CD without paying another fee, but with the sheer quantity of music available and the integrated radio, magazine and interactive options, it's a remarkably good deal.
Wippit is very good for non-mainstream music, not just for odd-sounding electronic music, but for jazz and folk too, among other genres. The other four sites, which share a common look and feel, are reasonably priced and offer a big catalogue but sadly lack interesting features.
Money to burn
A DRM licence enables you to unlock the protection surrounding a downloaded music file, but it also limits the amount of times you can burn it to a CD or transfer it to another device.
So what if you try to burn a track and the procedure fails? The sites we contacted said it should be simple to re-license the file as they would have details of the user's legitimate purchase.
If you change your PC, reformat your hard disk or try to copy the music to another computer, the player software will connect to the shop's internet site and ask you to enter your details to re-license the music to the new PC.
Be warned, though, you can only do this three times with most music before you lose the chance to play it anywhere else.
See also:
50 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in paying subscribers 14 Jan 2005
Latest P2P client includes integration with Skype 22 Nov 2004
Hundreds of alleged downloaders hit with lawsuits 19 Nov 2004
Napster To Go service extended to support smartphones 04 Nov 2004US Virgin Digital site offers one million tracks for 99 cents each 27 Sep 2004More acquisitions may follow as Yahoo plans assault on digital music market 16 Sep 2004UK downloaders pay more than their French and German counterparts 15 Sep 2004
There are many advantages to buying online. Whether you're new to the net or a seasoned web shopper, we can help you find the best shops and save money too 08 Jul 2004The music industry has finally worked out how to make money out of internet music downloads. But will legal online music services be as popular as P2P sites? 18 Jun 2004
Portable MP3 players are the accessory du jour. Succumb to temptation with our round-up of these tiny objects of desire. 10 Jun 2004All Online
del.icio.us
Digg this
reddit!
