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USA Today looks at online music services

updated 12:50 pm EDT, Thu April 24, 2003

USA Today reports on the pending announcement of , noting that existing pay music services have fewer than 300,000 customers and Real Networks' recent acquisition of Listen.com: "Though Apple declined to comment before the announcement, those who have used the new service say it's as easy as buying a book on Amazon.com. Recommendations based on listeners' preferences are plentiful; the system seamlessly interplays with Apple's free iTunes jukebox software and with the iPod."

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04/24, 01:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
3 steps

Step 1. Have a shiteload of music available.
Step 2. Have the service at a cheap price.
Step 3. Have a subscription plan at a cheap price.

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04/24, 01:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
Choices

I don't want a subscription plan. There are way too many things that you pay monthly already, and I don't want to add to that pile.

Charge me per song!! :-) (But maybe also have the option to subscribe for those of us who will consistantly download 50 songs/month).

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04/24, 01:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
no subscription

no, no subscription fee should be charged, ever. don't force me to pay for music I may not download... I've resented having to subscribe to music services because If I only want to download 1 song in three months that song will cost way too much... If I want to download 12 songs in one month I'd end up having to subscribe to a more expensive plan when I don't want to download twelve songs every month

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04/24, 01:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Just wait...

iTunes and iPod, in future updates, will lock out songs that are not verified as from a cd or purchased through Apple's service.

I am amazed that no one seems concerned with this. Chalk another one up to Apple's blind fanatic base.

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04/24, 01:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
Typical spin

Wolpert's final comment implies that Rhapsody is cheaper at 9.95 for 50 songs. But that only allows live streaming - no recording/burning.

Apple's service will purpotedly allow you to burn to CD, iPod, whatever for $1 per song.

The same ability from Rhapsody costs $60 ($10 subscription + $1 per song CD fee)

Apple wins again - even better if it's less than $1 per song.

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04/24, 01:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
lock out songs

Is this your precognition kicking in, or has that policy been stated somewhere?

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04/24, 01:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
Read before whining...

First paragraph of article:

On Monday, Apple is expected to unveil its long-rumored music download service, which will offer per-song downloads from all five major record companies at 99 cents a track, without requiring a monthly subscription fee as current services do.

It sounds about right! Why buy an entire disk from some one-hit-wonder when there's only one worthwhile track?

How would this pricing model for an entire opera or symphony? 99 cents per act or movement? What if a movement is 25 minutes? And what about getting the libretto?

This could be interesting for finding and actually getting recordings of obscure music.

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04/24, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re:no subscription

I pay my monthly fees to Emusic.com and have been perfectly happy with there service.
A huge selection of music for a very reasonable monthly fee.
Download as much (or as little) as I want.

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04/24, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Subscriptions

Well a subscription *option* might be good for some people. Especially if the price and capabilities are right. You'd need to be able to burn or move the song, though, otherwise it's not worth it. The only way this service is going to work is if it's cheap and people who buy the songs can do what they want with them. If I buy a cd I can lend it to whomever i like and who's going to stop me? If I can't dothe same with a service song then there is no point to it.

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04/24, 02:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Just wait...

You mean you [b]use[/b] iTunes? I find their music software to be below par, so I use a third-party app. It doesn't skip or add artifacts to known-good tracks.

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04/24, 02:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
300,000

I truly believe Apple can top 300,000, if the price is at 99c. If there is not a subscription, thank you, how could this be tracked? simply by signup? will there be a signup? And that doesn't necessarily mean they are downloading.

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04/24, 02:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Just wait

iTunes and iPod, in future updates, will lock out songs that are not verified as from a cd or purchased through Apple's service.

I am amazed that no one seems concerned with this. Chalk another one up to Apple's blind fanatic base.

No, we're just not concerned over some rumored service. Even if they put what you claim in there, who cares. DON'T USE IT!!! Geesh, its not like anyone is forcing us to use Apple's Music service (if they even have one).

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04/24, 02:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Just wait...

to the user who seems think that iTunes will soon lock out mp3s not from a CD...

Chalk one up to your rabid paranioa.. There is no indication that Apple will lock out MP3s you download or acquire from other places... nor is there any capability to do this in the mp3 file structure...MP3 has no built in DRM of any kind...

Music files you download from Apple's new service will likely have some sort of DRM that limits where you copy it... but I'm willing to bet it will be something along the lines of the iPod simply hiding the files away in an invisible directory...

In any case, there is no cause to bash apple for decisions they HAVE NOT MADE yet on pure rumor... why must you people be so paranoid about your pirated music?!

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04/24, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
.Mac

While the article may say otherwise, I'd be surprised if there were no subscription fee or other hidden costs. 99 cents per song with no minimums or other catches does not sound like a typical Apple pricing model. (Don't get me wrong, it would be great, but I've been an Apple customer too long to believe that they'll ever be the cheapest of anything.)

If there are subscription fees/hidden costs, I hope you get some credit for being a .Mac member. .Mac is not worth $100 per year as it stands, and it would sharply increase my likelihood to re-up this fall if I got some worthwhile music-related benefits for doing so.

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04/24, 02:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
EMI

EMI has teamed up with more that 20 outfits including Freeserve, BT, and Tiscali to flog its music online in Europe, the music giant announced today.

The move is being seen as a bid by EMI to embrace the digital world while trying to tackle the twin problems of falling music sales and the increased use of illegally downloaded material.

In what it's describing as the biggest European music download initiative by a record company in Europe, EMI claims punters will be able chose from more than 140,000 tracks by some 3,000 artists.

Once purchased, punters will be able to burn music onto CD-R or copy tracks to portable players. They will also be able to buy singles online as soon as the songs are played on the radio ahead of their full commercial CD launch.

The online catalogue will include music from outfits such as Coldplay, The Dandy Warhols, and Norah Jones. It will also provide access to EMI's back catalogue including David Bowie, Deep Purple, and Pink Floyd.

Said Tony Wadsworth, chairman & CEO, EMI Recorded Music UK & Ireland: "EMI has a vast digital catalogue and is now providing consumers with the music they want in a way that is faster, safer and more adaptable than is currently available on any of the current services - and it's legal."

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04/24, 02:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE:.Mac

Amen, brother.

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04/24, 03:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
EMI

was out yesterday, they are the FIRST, not Apple....

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04/24, 03:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: .Mac

I wouldn't be surprised if .Mac members got some kind of "goodie" related to the music service, but my understanding (from a little bird) is that the service will be for ALL Mac users and NO Windows users at first. Windows etc will be added once the service has proven to be a hit.

Personally, I think Apple is going to OWN this space the way they have decided to OWN pro video and print.

As for the pirates who don't plan on using the service: what makes you think Apple *wants* your cheap-b******, no-ethics, mama-didn't-raise-you-right a** anyway? I thought that was what Gateway was for.

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04/24, 03:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: EMI

was out yesterday, they are the FIRST, not Apple....

Ever heard of PressPlay, Listen.com and others?

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04/24, 03:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: eMusi & Apples servie

I currently use eMusic's service. It is $15 per month with unlimited downloads. You can download single songs or entire albums. They have thousands of great albums on the site available for download & it is updated all the time. I have downloaded at least 1000 albums since I signed up for the eMusic service. The eMusic service is more than worth the money in my opinion (a complete understatement), but there is no way that I will pay $1 per song for any service, at that price I would rather just go to a record store (intract with other human beings & maybe see a cute girl or two etc) & buy the CD & do what ever I want with it including maybe selling it on eBay later on if I get sick of it. In my opinion $1 a song will not fly, at least not with me! If it is a reasonably Priced subscription service i'm in!

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04/24, 03:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
Reasonable.

I have eMusic - 'backwater' doesn't begin to describe the range of their catalog. I have some good stuff from them, but it's not mainstream. And not worth $10 /month.

99 cents per track is in line with what a typical CD costs per track now. And that's trading packaging for bandwidth, servers, etc. It's reasonable. A dollar every few days or weeks to get a new song? Not bad at all and I don't have to buy the entire album.

DRM'd to me and my iPod? No problem. I believe artists should be rewarded for their work, and this makes sure that chain stays intact. I'm not going to get into the discussion here of how much artists get and everyone else gets, but most file traders throw that up as if it were a reason not to fund the status quo. News flash - the artist gets even more stiffed if you don't pay the royalties by trading files. And the industry slump so far is not enough to make the suits decide to toss away another 15% of their take to get back the 8% 'protest'. And it's not a protest. If they started paying better royalties to the artists, do you think for a minute that traders will suddenly start buying 1st run CDs again to get all their music. You're dreamin'.

This sounds wonderful. It should be this easy. It should be per song with a subscription *option*. It should be DRM'd. It should be high quality.

And if it's Mac proprietary, fine. Apple needs and deserves to profit from well done deals, guts and innovation. Let it loose later.

*JP*

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04/24, 03:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: EMI

Bet it uses Windows media files, that aren't supported by the Mac Windows Media Player. These files are the format of choice (at the moment) for Online Music services. I have yet to find ONE onlie music service provides BOTH A. Files Ican play on the Mac and B. Available outside the USA.

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04/24, 03:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
eMusic cont'd

Just as a reality check - yes, I am en eMusic charter customer, and in the previous post I mentioned it was pretty sparse. Here's the charts page: http://www.emusic.com/charts/

Here's the top 20 Albums. Good stuff, but not the Billboard Top anything - niche stuff. We need a breakthru like the Apple service.

1 Various Artists - Avid - The Rat Pack - The Early Years
2 - Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun
3 - Steve Cunningham, guitar - Classical Surroundings, Vol. 12: Guitar Music of Carcassi, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Tarrega, Guiliani, Aguedo, Haydn, Moleno and Bartok
4 - Donald R. Schmitt - UFO Crash At Roswell: An Audio Documentary
5 - Alirio Diaz, guitar - The Guitar Artistry Of Alirio Diaz: Music Of Tarrega, Lauro, Sojo, Albeniz, Haydn, Sans, Scarlatti, J.S. Bach And Mozart/Sor
6 - Nina Simone - Nina Simone Live At Ronnie Scott's
7 - Scott Morris, guitar - Invocation: Guitar Music Of Sor, De Falla, Rodrigo, Paganini, Brouwer, York And Mertz
8 - John Lee Hooker - Live At Sugarhill
9 - Booker T. And The M.G.'s - Soul Men
10 - Montserrat Gascon, flute; Xavier Coll, guitar - Tangos and Habaneros for Flute and Guitar
11 - Ricky Skaggs - Live At The Charleston Music Hall
12 - Sonic Youth - Live Venlo, Holland 12.27.83
13 - Perry Como - The Best Of The War Years
14 - Jonathan Adams - Guitarist
15 - Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Groovin'
16 - I Am The World Trade Center - Out of the Loop
17 - Isaac Hayes - At Wattstax
18 - Rev. Gary Davis - The Sum Of Our Life- Solos Songs and Sermons 1955-57
19 - Pig In A Can - You Can't Poison A Pig
20 - Todd Rundgren - Todd Rundgren And His Friends

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04/24, 03:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
Reasonable

Would everyone stop complaining about the price. 99 cents a song seems right on target. At $20 a CD with 12 songs 99 cents seems on target considering you don't get the physical album or the extras that come with it. Apple's service seems to be a pay and own the song just as if you bought it on a CD. It won't be a listen to only/ just streaming service. You'll be able to do whatever you want with it. For those of you saying how you download 1000 albums and this is too much money, how many people need to download 12000 songs, you are just downloading music for the sake of downloading music. For the majority of people pay per song is the best pricing. Some people by a DVD for $20 because they will watch it more than once other just rent. As long as it meets the needs of some and makes money it's not a stupid overpriced service. If you like your subscription service stick with it. Apple can't make everyone happy. I personally welcome a service where I can search for a particular song that I heard on the radio and get just that song.

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04/24, 03:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
What Formats?

What formats? AAC in Itunes and in the Ipod would be nice.

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04/24, 03:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Holy s***!

Did you know that you can go to any library in the U.S., check out CD's and rip them? How come the RIAA isn't suing the public library system? Those libraries spread communist liberal swill and the RIAA must stop it. Choice must be eliminated. The FM radio is great for making americans listen to whatever the Major Labels and the RIAA decide is good music. That's the way it should be. Good ol' radio!

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04/24, 03:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: reasonable

Well said all around.

The only thing I'd add is that IMO, 99� per song is too much, and should be the high end of the pricing�even assuming there's more than one standard price. I think 49�-75� is fairer. Why? If 99� per song was what people thought was fair, then there would not be a "slump." The same price per song as a cd without the cd, does not make alot of sense to me (and I like the idea of an Apple service); but we'll see.

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04/24, 03:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: re: reasonable

I meant the "reasonable" signed by "JP".

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04/24, 03:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
RIAA is trying...

RIAA *is* trying to sue libraries.

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04/24, 04:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
1$ is too expensive

You can buy a whole CD for $ 12 in stores (less if you buy them second hand), so why pay more for a download ??? no booklet, no lyrics, no nice package, no DVD or video tracks bonus.

1$ is too expensive, they will fail if it's not cheaper :(

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04/24, 04:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
re Reasonable

Well....if you think 99 cents is too much to pay for a track, then don't participate. It's not a bargain--for your needs.

On the other hand, I think that, for a lot of people, 99 cents IS a bargain...and if there are enough of them, that's going to set the price for the market.

And I think that the price is low enough (below a magic $1 figure) that it's going to generate impulse buys that cause people to buy more than they thought they would.

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04/24, 04:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
$0.99 is fine...

For new music, but the price doesn't scale to old songs (like Ziggy Stardust or Purple Haze) which you could easily find on a compilation disk for probably $10 for 20 songs.

Although, ever since CDs came out the average price I have paid is $16 for around 8-15 tracks - which means that we have ALWAYS been paying more than $0.99 per track for new music.

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04/24, 04:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: $0.99 is fine

"Although, ever since CDs came out the average price I have paid is $16 for around 8-15 tracks - which means that we have ALWAYS been paying more than $0.99 per track for new music."

Yes, right--but given the option of paying less, or nothing, why pay more? This is why there is so much piracy. Any service must be easy and the price must be *fair*. Granted if I don't think 99� is fair, I won't click for it; and since I don't think it's fair, I won't click for it.
Music is in no position to say, "Well it's 99� take it or leave it!!" This is what they've been doing with cds and what have been people been doing? They've been leaving it.

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04/24, 04:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
Rhapsody not Mac friendly

Just a note on top of the fact that Rhapsody isn't cheaper like what Wolpert said in the last paragraph of this story. $9.95 is the subscription price to listen to music not burn or download it. It's an extra .99 cents per song to burn the music. Check out Rhapsody's website subscription page. If I just want to listen to music iTunes has plenty of web radio stations that are FREE!

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04/24, 04:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Advantages

Advantages over buying a physical audio disc:
(Most Important) The liberty to buy the tracks you want. Liberty is something you fight for and sometimes you can also buy it.
A little cheaper on a per-song basis.
No need to rip (think of your grandmas). Then organize at will with iTunes and iPod.

Advantages over pirate P2P networks:
Probably constant quality of rips.
Browsable directories, better than old-Audiogalaxy.
If they could reserve the recommendations to the songs you actually buy (in contrast with Amazon), that could be great even thought hordes of non-consumers will complain.

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04/24, 04:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cons

But the main problem with P2P networks remains unsolved. Children don't have *credit cards* even though they have the cash, so they rely on P2P networks, and populate the networks with Terabytes of free music. Not only because it's free (even though this is the main reason), but because it's easier than getting out to the local music store.

If Apple could solve this, they's get a Noble Prize.

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04/24, 04:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
who cares?

>Ever heard of PressPlay, Listen.com and others?

apple will show them how its done correctly.

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04/24, 05:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Rhapsody

Check out Rhapsody's website subscription page. If I just want to listen to music iTunes has plenty of web radio stations that are FREE!

Yep, but with Rhapsody you can make you own playlists - you're actually having a huge jukebox.

I hope that Apple will make something like that.

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04/24, 05:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
poor audio quality

I'm wondering why no one has mentioned the poor audio quality of Mp3's? An Mp3 is in no way the equvalent of an "unripped" audio CD. This impacts on my willingness to spend equivalent amounts for the compressed Mp3 version of a track. I think they should max out at perhaps $.25 - .50 per.

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04/24, 05:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
Here's a question(s)

What if you use this service to download say thousands of songs. One day, your computer crashes, or for some reason, get's destroyed. You loose all your files. You have no backup. Do you have to pay to get your files back.

What if you have multiple computers? Can they share the files, or do you have to pay for each copy?

I'm sure all these questions will be answered on monday. These are just some things to think about.

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04/24, 06:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
my 50 cents

I agree, I probably would not be willing to pay more than 50 cents per song.

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04/24, 07:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
f*** that

.99 per song is resonable considering you get what you want and ONLY what you want. i sure as h*** am not purchasing entire albums as most of the RIAA artists are incapable of making a good ALBUM. bravo to the .99 cent song download. most albums only have 3 or 4 good songs (the popular s*** that is) which should figure nicely- reminds of buying those singles so long ago

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04/24, 07:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: audio quality

when rapshody offered the 49 cents a track. Every track i burned was top quality great sounding music. But 10bucks a month plus a $1 to burn is too much.

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04/24, 07:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: f*** that

Those singles "so long ago" were only a quarter. And in my opinion had a lot better sound quality than any CD. (That is until they wore down or became damaged).

The point is, there are several ALBUMS I would like to have. I'm not going to spend the exact same amount to download them as I would to go to the local mom and pop record store to purchase them. If the price was the same, I'd rather have a physical copy and rip it myself than just downloading the album and burning it on a low quality CD-R instead.

As far as the loss of file on my computer. My insurance would pay for any CD's lost in a fire or something, but they probably would not pay for any file lost on my computer.

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04/24, 08:24pm | report spam | close Reply |
Singles...

" Those singles "so long ago" were only a quarter."

And what was a quarter back then is now, thanks to inflation, about....a dollar.

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04/24, 08:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
they were huh?

the singles i speak of were tapes along the lines of 3-5 dollars. are you speaking of singles from vinyl?

damn man, you lapped me...i still buy vinyl singles BTW, but at 8-10$ a pop, but its all good since stuff from bedrock and other DJ labels genereally doesn't have a n LP release outside of the big ones like Bedrock Breaks etc...i digress

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04/24, 10:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
just wait

Soon, you will not be able to play songs you have obtained via sharing. f*** Jobs and his c*** elitist attitude.

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04/24, 11:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well...

Well, it is illegal...

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04/24, 11:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Too many options

The problem I'm seeing on this board is that even in this small cross-sampling, there's a huge disparity of what people want in a service. You've got the 'I want a subscription with unlimited (or high limited) downloads' vs the 'I only want to pay for what I download' vs. 'I want a jukebox/playlist like Rhapsody'. There's those who see .99 a song a good price for them, esp. to get a few songs from an album, vs. the 'its got to be cheaper, because otherwise I'll get the full album'. And then there's always going to be the 'I'd pay $1 a month for unlimited downloads as long as there's no restrictions on what I can do with it."

Yeah, there's no way anyone here will think whatever apple does is a good thing...

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04/24, 11:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Here's a question

What if you use this service to download say thousands of songs. One day, your computer crashes, or for some reason, get's destroyed. You loose all your files. You have no backup. Do you have to pay to get your files back.

The answer to this one is simple. Tough sh**. If you have a thousand bought CDs, and your entertainment center catches fire and turns them into a gelatenous blob, does EMI send you a new copy of the CDs you lost? If you drop a book into the toilet, will Random House replace it for you?

Why should an on-line service be different than buying the real thing? This isn't software. You're not licensing the music. You're buying it.

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04/24, 11:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: holy s***

Did you know that you can go to any library in the U.S., check out CD's and rip them? How come the RIAA isn't suing the public library system? Those libraries spread communist liberal swill and the RIAA must stop it. Choice must be eliminated. The FM radio is great for making americans listen to whatever the Major Labels and the RIAA decide is good music. That's the way it should be. Good ol' radio!

The RIAA, MPAA, and the publishing industry have been against libraries for years. Currently the book publishers are fighting to prevent libraries from carrying electronic books, and they've tried in the past to break them up from killing sales in the past.

Oh, and choice has nothing to do with it.

Radio doesn't play what the major labels want them to play (unless of course the labels pay for it, oh, they do). But radio as you knew it died in 1996 when the FCC allowed the big companies from owning way too many stations in one market. So now Clear Channel owns some 8 stations per market, Infinity owns another 8, and some smaller companies own some as well. But they all borrowed to the hilt to buy all these stations, so they need to make money, and the only way to do that is to play music (or talk radio) that most people will listen to, esp those in the right demographics, so they all go for the hip hop, or alternative, or a few other formats, and that's it. There's no room for the small station playing new, unheard artists, or playing to a niche market (like 40's/50's music, classical, blue grass, etc). No money in that.

Plus, to cut costs, all programming is done basically from the main office, so every market's got the same type of stations (the Jammin' Oldies, the Mix of the 80s and 90s, Classic Rock, Oldies, etc). I know you'd all like to believe its all the RIAA's fault that FM radio sucks, but its not. (Of course, logically, it makes no sense why'd they want the stations to play music from just a few of their artists so they'd sell more discs and such, but then again, that would hold true for Internet radio and we all saw how they did their best to kill that).

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04/25, 12:12am | report spam | close Reply |
oh please

NYU library has sooooooooooooo many CD's i RIP'ed soooooooooooooooooooooooo many of em i feel soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad. NOT!

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04/25, 07:26am | report spam | close Reply |
burn baby burn

OK so how many people have lost files once stored on a hard disk?

Right and now how many people have had their entertainment centre burn down taking all of their CD's with it? Thought not...

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04/25, 09:00am | report spam | close Reply |
Comparisont is Moot

Rhapsody doesn't support the Mac.

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04/25, 09:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Fire:

"If you have a thousand bought CDs, and your entertainment center catches fire and turns them into a gelatenous blob, does EMI send you a new copy of the CDs you lost?"

You're right, EMI wouldn't send me new copies, but my insurance company would send me a check. The problem is, insurance does not cover files stored on my computers.

"OK so how many people have lost files once stored on a hard disk?"

I have, and I know several others who have. There are two kinds of people in this world, those who have lost files, and those who will. Loosing the amount of files that I have has taught me to make backup's I know.

I guess I should rephrase my question. If I download a song, will I have to pay for every time I download the same song, say, if i wanted to put it on more than one of my computers? Having this option to re-download your songs would help with file loss as well.

Once again, this is a question for you to ponder. It was formulated by only the "rumors and assumptions" that I've read. None of us know any of the specific details, so I urge you to think about it and that's all. If you want to make a comment, please make one about something that you have observed and/or read. Making up a rumor or stating what you think as fact won't get any of us anywhere. Replying with comments like " Tough S***" won't get you anywhere. Why does it seem like one of you's can only think as much as to swear at my post? Well, I'm done with this one now, mock me as you please.

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04/25, 09:51am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: fire

Right and now how many people have had their entertainment centre burn down taking all of their CD's with it? Thought not...

Yeah, but how many people have scratched up a CD by throwing it in their glove compartment or on a shelf, or had their child think its cool to scratch them up with their toy blocks? Or how many have had a CD melt on them in a car? Or just start to decompose. My point was, if you buy a CD and it gets destroyed or breaks, its toast.

You're right, EMI wouldn't send me new copies, but my insurance company would send me a check. The problem is, insurance does not cover files stored on my computers.

Then you need better insurance or do backups to cover that. And insurance may not cover your CDs either, if they have no proof you've just lost $4000 worth of CDs in your fire. And really, if your HardDrive crashes and burns, wouldn't you think you're music collection would be low on your list of concerns, unless that's all you have on your computer.

Replying with comments like " Tough S***" won't get you anywhere. Why does it seem like one of you's can only think as much as to swear at my post? Well, I'm done with this one now, mock me as you please.

Sorry, let me rephrase it. You're SOL (that's sh** out of luck). That's what I'm saying. You're not going to be able to redownload it most likely.

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04/25, 11:47am | report spam | close Reply |
Replacing lost music

What if you use this service to download say thousands of songs. One day, your computer crashes, or for some reason, get's destroyed. You loose all your files. You have no backup. Do you have to pay to get your files back.

I buy e-books from Fictionwise. They keep track of every book I buy. If I ever need to re-download an e-book, I just log in, go to my "bookshelf" page of books I've bought, and re-download.

It would be nice to have the option to stream the songs you buy, as well as download, so you wouldn't necessarily have to keep a local copy. You could download a song if you want to burn it or store it on iPod. (MP3.com was similar when they started -- and online storage locker for your music. That was cool.)

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USA Today looks at online music services

updated 12:50 pm EDT, Thu April 24, 2003

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