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

More Brazilian MP3s Than Expected at Russian Site

Based on appearance, my first impression of mp3lava is that I probably wouldn't use it often. 

Given the visual appeal of many mp3 download sites, mp3lava seems quite plain. But after giving it a once over the site does have a few good offerings:

• tracks starting at 15 cents, plus discount options
  
• a good selection of Brasilian artists and CD compilations
  
• rare and hard to find tracks
  

The site's design and layout are sparse. At these low prices one has to be somewhat concerned about the legality of purchases from outside the United States. However, the site's terms and conditions page doesn't t inspire much confidence. Likewise beyond the legalese sidestepping, I still felt a sense of "buyer beware".

My first pleasant surprise happened while I was searching by genre.  I was able to locate several of my favorite and popular Brazilian artists under the "Samba" "House" and "Latin" categories respectively. I'm usually disappointed by the results of this type of search on most websites, but here the results seems crossed referenced with other genres. For example, Carlinhos Brown of Timbalada fame, appeared on my list of Samba artists but was actually listed, incorrectly in my opinion, as a Reggae artists. As a former Reference Librarian, I've always felt cross referencing to be extremely helpful in locating information that can be classified almost anywhere. I wish all music download websites had the insight to include this. The impact it could have on purchasing decisions and the many ways it would improve overall user satisfaction, make it well worth the effort. The built-in Flash player with it's scrubbing feature let's you audition the full track.

When I can find Brazilian Promos, imports, remixes and vinyl tracks on a music download site, I am impressed.  Finding rare tracks in addition to standard single and double CDs are a bonus of using mp3lava. Pricing begins at 15 cents for single tracks up to about $4.00+ for a double CD (approx. 30 tracks). According to the volume plan you sign up for, the price could be even less. Sale pricing on certain tracks is also featured throughout. This pricing structure reminds me of boxmp3 and mp3aim music sites. The way search results were displayed also lead me to believe there may be some relationship between these music download sites.

To test my suspicion I signed on to mp3lava with my boxmp3 account and was greeted by my login name and current balance. I did the same at mp3aim. So, the likely conclusion is company XYZ, located somewhere in Russia, is successfully operating three (or more) mp3 music download sites. This isn't uncommon and doesn't take anything away from the user experience but is worth noting. As I mentioned in another site review, I've had technical issues with boxmp3 and their once responsive tech support seemed to have vanished. Although the pricing is similar among these sties, the catalog of contemporary Brazilian artists can vary.  That's principally one of the reasons why I've stayed with boxmp3.

Some of the surprises I found were the hard to find eletrosamba CD. I had been looking for this CD for sometime and refused to pay import prices from Amazon's music store. Also interesting was the extensive catalog of Imports, Remixes, and Limited Editions for Bebel Gilberto.

Highly recommended is Paula Morelenbaum's Berimbau CD - it's easy to think of her as just another lite vocalist placed before brazilian electronic rhythms, but if you're a rhythm junky like I am, Berimbau has a lot to offer. Standouts are, Tomara, a wonderful swinging groove. Starting with the intro with it's spatial placement of the side snare hits and 70's style keyboards, in your left ear and deep deep bass and atmospheric keyboard coloring.

Seule, is another favorite for it's breezy bossa drum 'n bass-like groove. The fresh interpretations of classics like Consolaçao and Canto de Cassnho with it's blending of 70's Bossa swing and 90's hip-hop scratching, keeps it new.

Demonstrating true vocal versatility, Paula Morelenbaum, although with her husband, Jacques and the renowned Ryuichi Sakamoto, cello and piano, respectively, can also be appreciated on the Jobim tribute albums, Casa and A Day in New York.

DancetracksDigital is Tops in Brazilian Dance Music.

DancetracksDigital.com is one of my favorite music download websites because it features a section specifically devoted to contemporary Brazilian music. 

Given the central theme of my blog, its obvious to see why I feel that way. This is a great place to begin a search for electro samba in its many forms. Of all the music download websites I've ever searched, dancetracksdigital makes it a breeze to find the music I love. Brazilian music isn't the site's only strength, they're actually geared to all forms of dance music. 

Dance, club and house music labels seem to have the most creative CD artwork and DancetracksDigital makes good use of it. I like the fact that they include artist and label bios. Given that so much music is now available primarily online, I miss having linear notes that are bundled with jewel cases. That may be some what "old school" but it makes for a deeper appreciation of the artist and his/her work. However, I've noticed in the past year or so, booklets are available in iTunes with an entire CD purchase. 

DancetracksDigital, like mp3sparks.com offers performance quality encoding, usually at 320 kbps, some older tracks are at 256 kbps. Tracks are compatible with all media players and come without digital rights management (DRM) encoding. The per track pricing is bit steep at $1.89, but I imagine audiophiles and music lovers won't mind paying for quality.

Mp3sparks.com, by contrast, offers a range of bitrates and prices are adjusted accordingly. One makes out much better though by purchasing entire CDs from dancetracksdigital; here pricing is well in line with other leading online music sites, like iTunes, at around $9.99. You can sample 60 seconds of any track by placing it on your playlist with its built-in music player. The site boast almost 2,000 labels and 15,000 artists to choose from. There's a news section, which is essentially a blog,  but it has some very interesting music related events like a building in Detroit that went up in flames that housed a legendary vinyl record shop or the worlds largest record collection that was up for sale. DJ competitions, artist profiles and youTube videos are also available in the news section. 

If you're looking for purchasing suggestions, dancetracksdigital's charts are kind of limited compared to other sites, most noteworthy, mp3sparks. They seem to be based solely on their popularity within the site, as opposed to industry or world-wide activity. Although of limited use for the average music download person, DancetracksDigital offers DJs live ready tracks that can be used in performance. 

Conclusion: 

I've had nothing but a good experience using this site to augment my mp3 iPod and iTunes collection. Unlike some other sites, boxmp3.com comes to mind, I've never encountered any download or encoding errors. The site is very reliable and updated frequently. There are other sites with better pricing options but the selection more than makes up for it. I'm especially excited with dancetracksDigital because I've been able to find several remixes of contemporary Brazilian artists and label samplers that prior to discovering the site, I could only find in the now vanishing brick and mortar mega stores, like Virigin records or Towers records. Does anyone remember them ?

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?

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 ?