iTunes #2 for Music Downloads in the US

NPD market research group published a study announcing that iTunes is now the number two music retailer in the US due to the amount of music it sold in 2007. This is based on a 12 track equivalent CD for music downloads. 20 million songs were sold on Christmas day 2007 alone. Beyond these amazing sales figures and other facts like 48% of US teens didn't buy any CDs in 2007. 

What caught my attention was a quote from an entertainment analyst who stated that the industry struggles to improve the value of each digital customer. This is something I've attempted to address in my music download reviews and commentary. There are many music websites that are basically just one-step above bare bones in ease of use, search capabilities and aesthetic value. When will they get it, strategic improvements in the user experience can generated increased traffic and loyality. 29 million people purchased online music last year. That's up from 5 million from last year. With solid branding and better music selection and the increased numbers of baby boomers and gen-xer's entering the legal mp3 music download market, there stands additional opportunities to aid lagging CD sales and put a jolt back into the music market.

Mp3 Music Downloads Under the Radar

Could it be mp3 bloggers have found a safe way to sharing their files ? I'm not suggesting others should follow suit, but some bloggers seem to have found a way to promote their favorite music that seems to be catching on. By storing the actual mp3 file on storage sites, like megashare and posting the url in their blog, they appear to be getting around some of the illegal implications of P2P sharing. After all it seems to be a similar business model used by some mega music download sites like klite-pro. By subscribing you'll have access to unlimited music downloads, the pretty girl says in the demo, when in actuality you're using their service to tap into the music collection of fellow subscribers to the service. As I understand it, the mp3 files are not on the klite-pro servers. This strategy seems to be working for individual music bloggers now with a slight twist.

When mp3 bloggers talk about a new release or their favorite artist's work, it has the potential to create a buzz about the music and for the artist. The assumption is this could lead to greater exposure. Recently this music chatter has been studied to figure out the impact of music blogging and social network on buying decisions. Music lovers are constantly in search of new music and rightfully so they want to hear what all the buzz is all about. As the technology gives us greater access, it also has a downside. A shorter attention span and instant gratification can be the by product of too many choices. So being able to audition the music can have a positive affect on a products lifecycle. This concept hasn't gone unnoticed by the RIAA. Music bloggers are offering a service not just to their readers but also providing free product promotion to the record labels, promo agencies, and an assorted list of stakeholders. I doubt this happy medium will last for long. But it does appear to signal a possible shift in the RIAA response.

Free Music Download Sites May Be on the Rise

We've all read about the struggles of the music industry for sometime now, each year there’s a steady decline in CD sales. Many believe that the technology has created the demand for instant access, increasing P2P pirating and threatening future profits for the record labels as a whole. But sympathy for the Industry wanes each year as we hear about RIAA litigation settlements targeted towards teens who either don’t know better and/or aren’t properly supervised. The need to protect creative copyrights is important but is litigation an effective deterrent ?

Today the industry consists of four international conglomerate holding companies. These music groups control 70% of the world music market and 80% of the U.S. music market. Small and specialty record labels have either been absorbed or just withered away due to staggering competition. There’s no wonder the industry remains in a slump when the landscape is in a chokehold. Consumers feel the loss too, when access to diverse artists and musical styles, that don’t necessarily fit into the mega sales model, become so far and few in between, purchasing naturally slows up.

Fortunately some artists and entrepreneurs are testing new business and distribution models. Many artists have begun selling their music directly to consumers on the internet and bypassing record labels for their own survival. It’s an attempt to align themselves with the way consumers are searching for music to download.

Apple's iTunes has sold over four billion songs since 2001, but many companies with online music models have not been as successful. It seems as one new player emerges another folds, just recently Yahoo announced it would close its subscription service and migrate its customers to Rhapsody subscription service.

With the enormous appeal of MySpace and Facebook, music lovers have gravitated to sites like Last.fm or iLike, to create communities to discuss and share their music tastes. I like the idea of discovering new music based on my collection. But it can be hit or miss. But if you enjoy the social aspect, it does have it's appeal.

Imeem and Last.fm are riding a new trend of ad-supported, online music streaming. With agreements from the record labels, users create playlists, from music already tied to the site, and share them in a community. But these site agreement may not contain the complete catalog of an artist’s work. There may only be access to certain tracks. Further investigation of some ad-sponsored sites reveals there are limits to how many times you can listen to a free track. Well I can't say I didn't see that one coming. But for a monthly fee you can avoid advertisements (which usually play at the beginning of the track), and download the track at a higher bitrate. Is it me or have we just gone 360 with this "new" business model ? This sounds like your everyday mp3 music download service.

There’s little argument that the labels have been slow to embrace the rapidly changing landscape. The technology is forcing this shift and I expect we’ll see more business models introduced and fail before someone else gets it right, like Apple does.

I don’t think I’m asking for much, just give me intuitive and elegant software (or web interface), an extensive music catalog and a good user experience. That’s what I call value and good branding. That’s what keeps this music lover in a purchase mode.

Brazil Music Download Surprises at Audio Lunchbox

If you're searching for independent artist and indie labels, Audio Lunchbox just may fit the bill. They seem to offer a  wide selection of artists as represented by the many genres listed on the homepage. The cover art in the ALB Staff Favorites and Weekly Editor's Picks makes finding your music easy. I never thought of my myself as an indie fan but a few random searches turned up several CDs already in my collection, many of them were purchased during my trips to Brazil.

I was surprised to find Rica Amabis' Sambadelic. This artist takes an unusual approach to rhythm, always the adventurist but sometimes it's hard to follow the melody.  Sambadelic is one of my earliest electro Samba CDs, I picked it up without knowing anything about the artist. If you're a fan of Amon Tobin, Rica Amabis may be appealing. But it's an aquired taste to be sure.  

I was pleasantly surprised to come across the always exciting BossaCucaNova and their CD, Um Batida Diferente. I first came across this group via the now classic Brasil 2Mil: The Soul of Bass-O Nova compilation, which I highly recommend. Through the use of turntables, electronica and hip-hop beatz, these guys always pay their respects to the Brazilian classics as they work the groove into a different beat.  

Other than Peter Gabriel's Real World Records, the Luaka Bop label, spearheaded by David Burne of Talking Heads fame, has to be one of the coolest labels in bringing authentic world music to a larger audience. If you've been paying attention to any of these posts by know you know I practically swear by compilations. The Brazil Classics series volumes 1-5 is an excellent series and it's available on audio lunchbox. Here you'll find original genre classics, popular artists and liner notes that read like a mini encyclopedia,  giving you the full background and history of the artists and their influences when these timeless music was created.

Tracks are .99 cents and albums are $ 9.99. Audio bitrate are 192 Kbps VBR MP3 and Q6 Ogg Vorbis. Using the shopping method purchases are finalized with credit cards, paypal or lunchbox  lunchcards.  Two interesting features of this website are the community message boards and the fact that cover art is included with your purchases.

Cheap Music Downloads of Emerging Artists at Mp3tunes

The mp3tunes music store has a very simple interface, Top Songs and Top Albums, on the right  and genre navigation on the left side of the home page.  The focus of this music collection is on emerging artists. Which makes it practically useless for my type of artist or CD searches. However I did find a few interesting tidbits based on free text and genre searches. But in fairness one would use this site to find new music not execute hard core searches for well know artists. The songs are DRM-free and playable on any iPod and mp3 music player. Two unusual but useful features are Mr. Locker, which keeps track of every song you purchase and lets you download the song again no charge.  The other is the Artist Café, which offers promotional opportunities and other tools for performers. Standard price is .88 cents per song and $8.88 per album. The audio bitrate is 192 Kbps VBR mp3.

Mp3sparks - Missing in Action, Again.

Normally by this time I would have posted sample artists searches for the website I was reviewing. It's my way of testing the site's search options, as well as highlighting their collection of Brazilian contemporary music.  It took me several days to complete the initial review because the site disappeared, then it returned for a few days. Unfortunately, now its been down all week. Once it reappears I'll post my results. Sorry for the delay.

Mp3sparks is a Feature Rich Music Download Powerhouse, Let's Hope it Stays Around

Note:
I've used mp3sparks.com in it's previous incarnation as allofmp3.com. This was before what some have reported as U.S.Congressional pressure on music download sites emanating from Russia. So it didn’t come as a complete surprise that during my review the site had become inaccessible for about 72 hours or more. It has since returned. I think the site offers good value and makes shopping for online music easy and convenient. They offer several features to personalize how information is displayed. The audio quality options are the best I’ve seen on any website. I’d hate to see a mp3 collection like this disappear permanently. However, the integrity of mp3sparks.com has again been called into question with alleged ties to a cybercrime group.

Summary

The home page of this graphic intensive website shouts we've got the goods. Obviously they understand the power that cover art plays in the buying decisions of music lovers. There’s a wealth of tools, lists and charts that offer useful information in making purchase decisions. Listening to tracks on mp3sparks offers the best user experience I've seen on music site. This is just one of the principle reasons why I’ve been a member for years. Recent addition of ratings and display enhancements, along with daily content updates, makes this site more than just a pay and go experience. However, genre searching needs an overhaul and reliability is cause for some apprehension.

Navigation and Searching

I like having quick access of the "Just Added" list right from the homepage before I do any searching. This allows me to see the site's latest CDs, by date, and flip through the cover art. You can search without registering to investigate the strength of the site's catalog. The common search methods, free text, alphabetically and by genre, are available but the real standout is the variety of bestseller lists and unique charts for purchase ideas. Practically every music site has some sort of Top Ten list, but none have the depth that mp3sparks has. Aside from National Charts by country, Greatest 500 Albums, Bestsellers of the Week, think of the value of being a search by

BBC World Music Awards
Latin Grammy Awards
NJR (French) Awards
Digital Top 10 
Indie Top 200
Top rated Albums
AllAboutJazz Picks
Billboard's European Top 100
Best sellers in Soundtracks
MTV Chart, just to name a few.

Having the ability to set preferences for My Collection is a very cool feature. All my purchases can be marked and displayed by selecting certain options. I can also vote on any CD that I like and check off if I own it or not. IT's my guess these community settings feed the site’s other suggestions list: "Customers That Bought .. " & "Similar Albums/Artists".

Searching by genre yields too little results, perhaps that why this option appears at the bottom of the site. It hardly seems worth the effort. Therefore my only recourse to search for Brazilian contemporary music was based on my knowledge of artists and CDs. See a future post for the results of my sample searches and recommendations.

Listening to Tracks

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, mp3sparks makes listening to your track easy. Simply select the track and an embedded music player appears and begins to play a 30 second preview. If you’re a registered user you can listen to the entire track. There’s no scrubbing like at mp3aim.com. This site plays a mono, low quality version suitable enough to make a purchase decision. Mp3sparks has the most extensive bitrate options I have ever seen, 128 kbps to CD quality. However, ID3 track information may need clean up for downloaded tracks. I’ve noticed this with other Russian music sites as well. Especially when a track includes Latin characters like the ç (cedilla), ê (circumflex) or ã (tilde). Cover art is not download but in a pinch one could always cut and paste from the site.


Pricing

Purchasing follows the standard shoping cart method. As with other sites, you must have credits in order to make a purchase. You can refill your balance in increments from $25 to $100, using credit and debit cards as well as phone pin purchasing. In the past I’ve experience problems with this site accepting my credit card from the U.S., I believe this is due more to pressure from the credit card industry and questions about copyright issues. However, I could not locate the About US link on the site leaving these types of questions unanswered. Track pricing depends on the file size and the bit rate. For 192 kbps quality tracks are approximately .12 to .30 cents and a single CD $2.15, double CDs, $5.25. Because I purchase a lot of music there are times when it's convenient to know what I've bought from a particular online music store. Most sites offer download histories as does mp3sparks, but thirty days is inadequate. However you can request purchasing statistics beyond that period via email.

Comments

Has some of the best charts and bestseller lists I’ve ever used. I normally don’t bother with these tools on any websites because I normally access a site with titles in mind. But the variety and uniqueness of these charts are worth consulting. Without a doubt my favorite feature is being able to listen to the entire track right within the webpage. With the exception of iTunes, the leader among music download sites, mp3sparks has very good and clear cover art. The flash images on the homepage are a big draw. High points for the wide range of audio quality options. Customizing the My Collection, bookmarking and user ratings are all excellent features which create a great user experience. I’ve not had to contact tech support so I cannot comment of their responsiveness. Not withstanding the reliability issue mentioned above, this site has much to offer and is very highly recommended if you tend to browse for music suggestions. There are other sites less expensive but not with comparable features and selection.

Of the features mentioned in this review, which are more important to you when you select a music download website?

Survey Says, 49% of U.S. "tweens" buy music on iTunes

A recent report by the NPD Group called "Kids & Digital Content" surveyed tweens, ages 9 to 14, in the U.S. and uncovered interesting patterns about legal and illegal music downloading. Nearly half of all U.S. kids that engage in legal music downloads are using iTunes. This is certainly good news for Apple which prides itself on ease of use and enhancing the user experience when it comes to their products. The report also suggest more education about obtaining digital rights is needed as opposed to litigation. This could may be achieved by specific products targeted to tweens.   What caught me by surprise is the report estimates that up to 70% of tweens download music in a given month.