Summary
The mp3aim.com website has a simple design that's easy to navigate. Registration isn't required in order to conduct a search. This is a good thing. I like to conduct a few searches before I commit to joining a site. You can listen to a 30 second sample of a track without leaving your browser. Searching by genre has it's challenges. I found the selection for contemporary Brazilian artists and compilation CDs to be more than satisfactory, although there weren't any real surprises. Using mp3aim.com to build your Brazilian inspired music collection has its advantages and worth an investment in time.
The goal of each review is to share my experiences about using the site and to share contemporary Brazilian music suggestions that may be available on the respective music website. To gain the full impact of using the website, I've conducted several searches and share my impressions below.
Navigation and Searching
On mp3aim.com you can search the music catalogue (note: this is their spelling, RE: non-U.S. site), using standard website search features: alphabetically, free text search or by browsing the genres. Fortunately there are plenty of genres to choose from. However my experience has been, artists and music are usually never categorized where I would expect to find them. And this is certainly the case with mp3aim.com.
Focusing my search on the three artists, it didn't come as a big surprise that free text searching proved to be more efficient. Browsing by genre comes in a distance second. The problem with browsing is you have to wade through too many pages if the genre has a lot of artists. But the real issue is trying to guess how an artist or CD is categorized. On mp3aim.com, this is truly a guessing game. Below, I listed the genres for the singers profiled in this review, you can see how subjective genre placement can be. A lot has been written about the internet’s impact on reader attention span. Most times if we can’t find what we’re looking for fast, we move on. Why hasn’t someone thought about developing an interactive search feature where the user can select multiple genres ?
To get an idea of what's popular on the site and what other users are searching for, mp3aim offers a variety of lists you can consult for purchase suggestions.
1. Top Downloaded tracks
2. Latest MP3 - think New Releases
3. Top MP3 - think canned top artists search, Kanye West, Madonna, 50 Cent, etc.
4. Top Charts - US & UK Top 100 Albums, and Top 75 Singles, respectively.
Listening to Tracks
I like the fact that I can listen to the tracks right in my browser via the site's built-in flash player. Some websites download a small file that plays in the music application located on your hard drive. LegalSounds.com, I site I use frequently, uses this method but I find it a design distraction. Having to delete these files from my hard drive and/or music player is just a pain. For this reason I never use LegalSounds.com to listen to tracks, I pop out to another site for that. The disadvantage for the webmaster is I may even make the purchase at the other site, simply because I'm already there.
Another benefit of the flash player is that it automatically scrubs the track so you hear more of the entire track. Although the scrubbing is audible and may be disconcerting to some, it's helpful in gaining a sense of the entire song. If you’ve ever listened to a track with an unusually long intro, you’ll know what I mean. Downloaded tracks are in the MP3 format only with a bit rate of 192kbps and the audio quality was just fine.
As a serious music lover I prefer to have the complete ID3 tag information about my music. If you're like me, practically every track in your iTunes collection is complete with artist, album, year, genre, track number, notes, lyrics and most importantly cover art. Without this information I feel cheated. Mp3aim.com, like many online music sites needs to do a much better job in this area. Perhaps I've been spoiled by iTunes, but having to add metadata information, from different sources on the web, diminishes the user experience quite a bit. I'm also highly suspicious when I come across tracks on compilation CDs that are labeled as a "mix" when I know from personal experience the released CD contained un-mixed tracks. I've witness this on mp3aim.com few times on Brazilian Dance compilations.
Finally, CD cover art is practically non-existent on the site, and it isn't downloaded with your purchase when you do find it. How the webmasters missed this obvious sales opportunity is beyond me. It's also an added value experience that would encourage repeat purchases. Because I'm committed to iTunes as my desktop music player, 9 times out of 10, I have access to the cover art from Apple’s servers, provided the ID3 tag information is correct.
Pricing and Payments
Mp3aim uses a shopping cart method and you must have credits in your account to purchase tracks. Tracks average between .11 to .15 cents and most CDs are between $2.00 to $3.00. Sale items are specially marked. You gain discounts based on the prepaid package you select. Using most credit cards you can add to your balance via a secure webpage.
Some users may feel a bit squeamish about prepaid packages. My experience at other music download sites has been generally favorable but I have had occasions where I've had to repeatedly request a credit or to have my purchased tracks reactivated due to a server issue. Usually this takes more than a few emails (and keeping good records on my part) to get it resolved. Keep in mind you may need to add additional time to get issues resolved when the site is outside the U.S.
Mp3aim pays royalties and is licensed by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS). The site offers 3 Free downloads of the day as an incentive to keep us coming back to the site.
Comments
Mp3aim claims that one of its distinct advantages over other music stores is that they have the largest music catalog and widest variety. I don't know about the largest but I was impressed with the CD titles I was able to locate as long as I searched across genres. I would recommend this music site to a friend. Actually it was a close friend and fellow music junkie that brought it to my attention. Navigation is intuitive, I was pleasantly surprised by the many Nu Samba titles and sale pricing. I was however disappointed with the "mix" tracks and lack of decent cover art which can be helpful in locating an elusive title.
Please feel free to share your comments. What has been your experience at this site ?
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