PC DOWNLOADING:DOWNLOADING MUSIC used to come with strings attached. Now it's the norm to be able to play your digital music on whatever devices we like. Here are four of the more popular services that fit the bill.
iTunes Music Store
(www.apple.com/itunes)
There have been a lot of changes at the world’s most popular digital music service, which has one of the most comprehensive online catalogues (with a couple of notable hold-outs, such as The Beatles).
Apple has sold more than six billion songs, making it now the leading music outlet in the US ahead of Wal Mart and Best Buy.
By the end of March, all 10 million tracks will be available DRM-free – giving buyers more control over their purchases including the ability to listen on players other than iPods.
Pricing at iTunes has also been changed with tracks now costing €0.69, €0.99 or €1.29, while Apple says most albums will still cost €9.99.
Free iTunes software needs to be installed to download and buy music.
Music in iTunes Plus (the DRM-free version) is available in 256-Kbps AAC encoding.
With the lifting of DRM, Apple also announced music could be purchased directly on iPhones using 3G mobile networks.
eMusic
(www.emusic.com)
Billed as the No 1 site for independent music, eMusic is perfect for anyone whose tastes are less mainstream and veer towards electronic and indie. If Passion Pit, Bon Iver or Underground Resistance mean nothing to you, you may want to look elsewhere.
eMusic is second only to Apple in terms of digital sales and has four million tracks available from 40,000 independent labels. Tracks are encoded at 192Kbps for music and 64Kbps for the 5,000 audio books it stocks.
The site uses a subscription model rather than selling individual tracks. Three bands of subscription are available up to €20.99 per month – which gets you up to 75 downloads a month.
Last year eMusic got a Web 2.0 makeover, which makes it easy to access reviews, see what people with similar tastes are buying, save albums for later and create your own playlists.
Although not mandatory, downloading and installing the eMusic Download Manager, which will automatically add music to your preferred music library, eg iTunes or Windows Media Player, makes the experience seamless.
7Digital
(www.7digital.ie)
Last October, 7Digital announced its catalogue of more than four million songs would be available in DRM-free MP3 format and encoded in extremely high quality (320kbps). This followed a deal with the big four music labels (Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal) which means songs bought on 7Digital can be played on practically every digital music player, mobile phone or PC and legally copied between them.
The site accepts credit cards and PayPal and has a facility to pay by text.
7Digital’s software and catalogue powers a number of Irish services including Eircom’s and CD World and is behind more than 1,000 sites worldwide.
An area of the site, indiestore, enables unsigned artists to sell their music directly to fans.
Downloadmusic.ie
(www.downloadmusic.ie)
Flying the flag for upcoming Irish artists, Downloadmusic.ie lets you purchase tracks for €0.99 by sending a text to a specific number for the song you want. You receive a text back with a PIN number which enables you to download your chosen song.
The site is well in tune with the zeitgeist and goes to great lengths to encourage artists to sell their own music without the need for a record label. Over 1,100 artists have signed up to do so and 55,000 downloads have been sold.
