Buying Music online

Chris and Tomas talk about their digital music experiences:

Chris replays his poor experience buying music online with www.buymusic.com. All I can say is: I’m a happy EMusic customer now.

Granted, I only joined a couple of weeks ago, but it couldn’t be easier, it has no stupid DRM to deal with, and the music collection is great. Then again, I just happen to like much of the bands they were offering, and I think their rock/metal selection has quite a few wonderful bands. Heck, two of my last discoverings there include Tristania and Vintersong, both of which I found great! [Commonality]

I’ve been using PressPlay for a couple of months now, for $9.95/mo. It actually works really well for me, so far. I get unlimited streaming, which I use whenever I’m sitting at my desk (which is unfortunately something like 12 hours/day!). The streams are full-length, 96kbps encoded. I can also download as many songs as I like, with the catch that they will no longer be playable after I cancel my subscription.

I can also purchase “portable” downloads, which I can use on other devices and which will continue to work after my subscription lapses, for about $1 per song.

All in all, it seems like a great deal, and it works for me. It lets me listen to some music I’ve never heard of, looking for new stuff I might like. And I don’t worry about not “owning” my music, as some folks have complained about; if I really like something, I tend to just buy the CD.