[access-uk] Re: My experiences with legal download services
- From: "Justin R" <mypc128@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 12:21:40 +0100
that was a very interesting article Andrew and gave us an insight into what
legal downloading is like and what you can roughly expect from it.
Sorry to be luddite guys but, I think I'll get my music, that's available on
CD, the conventional way <smile>. it all sounds a bit tedious to me and a
bit of a con if you can't burn to CD, some of the albums according to
publishers rights. of course, if you buy something like that off the net in
file format... you want to keep it for personal use. so, not being able to
transfer some of the stuff on CD totally puts me off.
The credit system would give me a huge headache at first but, i think I'd
get the hang of that in good time though. the idea, in theory, is a good
one!
However, interesting stuff though. thanks Andrew.
Justin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 10:56 PM
Subject: [access-uk] My experiences with legal download services
> Hi all,
>
> I decided today, since I got a free gift voucher from a friend who has =
> an Oxfam magazine, to try out their www.bignoisemusic.com legal download =
> service.
>
> On the whole, the website is accessible, with the odd pop up menu at the =
> top of the screen, but nothing that can't be got round without using the =
> JFW cursor or whatever.
>
> You start by creating an account, and loading the account up with =
> credits. Of course, you can only buy these in packets, and as the free =
> gift was only for the =A32 offer, I had to buy some more in order to =
> download full albums, which was what I wanted to do. In the end, I =
> decided to buy =A320 worth of credits, because I wanted to see if I =
> could download two albums from it, as my sister wanted a live Coldplay =
> exclusive. This gave me just over 2000 credits, the object of this =
> probably is to make you go out and buy more credits, because you have =
> credits left over from buying a few albums/tracks. The more credits you =
> buy in a package like this, the more you get. For example, if you buy a =
> =A32 credit pack, you get 200 credits, (i.e, 100 credits being =A31). =
> If you buy =A310 worth of credits, you get slightly more than 1000 =
> credits. Of course you can only buy the credits in these packs. I =
> really hate the idea of these credits, as you don't really know where =
> you stand, which is what I feel is the intent of this system.
>
> You can either download a track, download an album, or stream a track. =
> You can also stream a 30 second demo of any track on the system. To =
> stream a full track it costs 1 credit, and to download a track it costs =
> I think around 100 credits.
>
> You can search either by artist, genre or by a specific track. You can =
> also pick from the exclusives that are listed on the front page. This =
> is all very easy. Once you get to an album/track listing, you can as I =
> said either download the full album, an individual track or stream it. =
> On my 64k ISDN connection, I streamed a 30 second demo of a track, but =
> it got streamed at broadband rates (not sure what the quality was), and =
> thus it was awful this end. The streamer isn't grate either, being done =
> within IE itself. I didn't therefor bother any more with the streaming =
> capabilities.
>
> I then went to download a full album. I choose ``Earth Moving'', by =
> Mike Oldfield. I didn't expect much from this album, after all, I had =
> been sherking buying it for a long while, because I have some of the =
> singles from that period, and they are truly awful. Lets just say I =
> wasn't disapointed with the results.
>
> Anyway, this album cost just over 700 credits, (i.e, =A37), which isn't =
> really any cheaper than buying it from Amazon in my view. I choose to =
> download the album in its entirity, and it went away and gave me a =
> standard download box.
>
> The surprise here was that it gave me one file to download, with all the =
> tracks put into one file, approx 38 mb. While this doesn't seem to be =
> compressed, it was very convenient having it all in the one file like =
> this, especially as I am on effectively dialup. I could go and leave it =
> for a while, whilst doing something else, without having to check on =
> which tracks have downloaded etc.
>
> On running this file, I got Windows Media Player, which had to be set =
> up, as I hadn't used it on this system before, which then extracted the =
> .wma files from the archive. I could then go and play the album in the =
> playlist of Windows Media player, but I came out of this and attempted =
> to play using Winamp.
>
> The process went ok, except for at the point when I had to enter my user =
> details, it threw me out giving me a ``media player not supported'' =
> message.
>
> Anyway, back in Media player, I got the same prompts for =
> username/password, and it got the license for me fine. I can now play =
> the files, and I get the artwork etc for the CD. Of course, the usual =
> accessability issues with WMP still stand, and I was really annoyed that =
> I could not use Winamp.
>
> In order to get these files to MP3, I had to burn them onto CD as WMA =
> files converted to an audio CD, then use my MP3 ripper to get them back =
> to MP3. I am really not sure whether I lost any quality in doing this.
>
> I was able to get the files onto my Creative jukebox player, but the =
> players have to support DRM (i.e, be ``secure players'', my phone or the =
> Bookport not being one of these. Of course, also, the files are in WMA =
> format, so the player must support these.
>
> Looking further at the site, it appears that you also have to be careful =
> with the rights that a specific publisher gives you (i.e, I looked at =
> another album that I was interested in), but it only said I could keep =
> the music tracks for a ``limited period''. Another album I saw wouldn't =
> give me rights to burn onto CD or transfer to an audio player. The FAQ =
> also mentions you may have trouble if you don't back up the Windows =
> licenses you are given, some publishers allow the licenses to be =
> re-granted if the system goes belly up, some don't.
>
> All in all, it was an interesting experience, but I think I will stick =
> to regular CDs after this, even though I am donating to Oxfam while =
> feeding my music habbit!!
>
> Andrew.
>
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