Stores I check before iTunes

Now that iTunes tossed the music DRM I no longer have a problem buying from them. Well, except for the price. Even before they jacked up the prices on some tracks to $1.29 and broke the ten dollar album barrier I never really liked their album pricing.

That’s right. There are cheaper places than iTunes to legally buy and download music. Here they are listed in order of which I check when looking to buy.

Aime Street

Two things make these guys unique: they price based on the demand for the album and song separately (with price caps), and they let you earn credit with the recommendation system. Yes, there are free songs too. Tracks are capped at 99 cents, albums are capped at $9.99.

The majority of the albums I’ve bought have been in the five dollar range, plus or minus two dollars.

Once you buy a track you’re allowed to lay down a REC (short for reccomendation.) Every time you top up your account you get a few reccomendation points. Once you lay down a REC you give a short review. Then the price of the track at the time you put your REC is recorded. When the price goes up you can cash out your RECs. If the price was originally free, you cash out for the difference. If the price wasn’t free, you get half the difference.

It’s a novel system and rewards finding new talent or indulging in the long tail.

Pros:

• No monthly fee.
• Cheap! Often cheaper than eMusic and far cheaper than iTunes.
• Great for discovering new music.
• Allows you to stream your music collection via flash.
• Allows you to download as a zip file with no download manager required.
• Long samples before you buy. Usually between a minute to a minute and a half, unlike the usual 30 second sample.

Cons:

• I have a hard time finding artists I already knew. Only about one in ten of what I was looking for was available.

eMusic

Most of my digital collection has come from eMusic now. Excluding audiobooks I’ve currently got 397 tracks and I paid about forty cents each. eMusic works on a subscription model and, unfortunately, does not let you carry over track credits from one month to the next. When you don’t use all of your tracks in one month you’ve subsidized someone else’s purchases.

The majority of the albums I’ve bought are twelve tracks, so about $4.80 each.

If you use emusic then be sure to use every credit at the end of the month. The day before I refresh I usually buy either a bunch of singles or a half album, and the day of the refresh I buy the rest of the album. Inconvenient but I want to get my money’s worth.

If you have a credit card than you may as well sign up to eMusic for the free trail to get 25 tracks and one audiobook.

Pros:

• Cheap! Lowest price subscription works out to $0.40 per track.
• Also sells audiobooks cheaper than Audible.

Cons:

• Monthly fee
• No rollover of credits from month to month, unlike Audible
• You can waste credits if you click “buy album” and it happens to include a bunch of dead air 30 second tracks used for padding before a hidden track.

Puretracks

These guys are a Canadian company. You can buy gift cards with cash at many gas stations and electronics stores so no credit card is required. They have the same pricing as iTunes, 99 cents per track and albums that are about $9.99. If your music is likely to be in a bargain bin you’re better off raiding the local HMV.

For music that the price of the CD is higher, I’d buy off Puretracks over iTunes solely because they allow you to download in MP3 format. My portable doesn’t support AAC and I’d rather avoid transcoding from one lossy format to another.

Pros:

• Wider selection
• No credit card required
• Available in MP3 format as well as WMA

Cons:

• No cheaper than iTunes
• CDs that go on special at HMV or Best Buy wind up being cheaper than Puretracks

And that’s my order of stores that I cruise before buying. I’ll even buy from Aime Street on impulse because, well, if a few samples sound good then I’m willing to plunk down three bucks for an album that has a few RECs on it.

Some of my American readers might be asking “Where’s Amazon MP3?” It’s not on the list because as a Canadian I can’t buy from there.^[0]

I hope this list helps some fellow music buyers. Please leave a comment if you have more stores to suggest!^[1]

^[0] Without generating a fake address and buying gift certificates off ebay, or using a prepaid credit card with a fake American address, or otherwise committing fraud.
^[1] Magnatune is a label, they don’t count.

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