eMusic has the Power

I've been using eMusic for at least a year now. It's been one of my top five regulary accessed msuci sites. Didn't think I would like a subscription service having cut my teeth on iTunes many moons ago. 

So what changed my mind? Quite simply the content, i seem to find tracks, compilations and CDs that I haven't been able to find anywhere else.  I'm a Motown, R&B child by nature, but over the past 15 years electronica, in a it's forms, has been a dominate force in my digital collection. Brasilsian electronica in particular is at the top of my list and eMusic seems to satisfy.

About six months ago they changed the pricing plans, again. Can't say I was very happy about that. Their policy of "use it or lose it" bites though and I've fought it twice via customer service. But I can say they are pretty responsive. I don't like paying for something up front and being forced to use it in 30 days or else. But now I make it a ritual to use the site often to get around this.


Other important features: 

Profiles & Friends 

Booster Packs 

Saved Items (Think of it as your wish list) 

Lists (Collections you create to share) 

Reviews and Ratings 

YouTube link 

Flicker link 

Charts 

eDownloader (separate app for downloading and sharing) 

It's worth checking out! 

Enjoy, Bahia97

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.

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?

Mp3aim, Considerable Brazil Music Download Selection

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 ?