[access-uk] My experiences with legal download services

Hi all,

I decided today, since I got a free gift voucher from a friend who has =
an Oxfam magazine, to try out their www.bignoisemusic.com legal download =
service.

On the whole, the website is accessible, with the odd pop up menu at the =
top of the screen, but nothing that can't be got round without using the =
JFW cursor or whatever.

You start by creating an account, and loading the account up with =
credits.  Of course, you can only buy these in packets, and as the free =
gift was only for the =A32 offer, I had to buy some more in order to =
download full albums, which was what I wanted to do.  In the end, I =
decided to buy =A320 worth of credits, because I wanted to see if I =
could download two albums from it, as my sister wanted a live Coldplay =
exclusive.  This gave me just over 2000 credits, the object of this =
probably is to make you go out and buy more credits, because you have =
credits left over from buying a few albums/tracks.  The more credits you =
buy in a package like this, the more you get.  For example, if you buy a =
=A32 credit pack, you get 200 credits, (i.e, 100 credits being =A31).  =
If you buy =A310 worth of credits, you get slightly more than 1000 =
credits.  Of course you can only buy the credits in these packs.  I =
really hate the idea of these credits, as you don't really know where =
you stand, which is what I feel is the intent of this system.

You can either download a track, download an album, or stream a track.  =
You can also stream a 30 second demo of any track on the system.  To =
stream a full track it costs 1 credit, and to download a track it costs =
I think around 100 credits.

You can search either by artist, genre or by a specific track.  You can =
also pick from the exclusives that are listed on the front page.  This =
is all very easy.  Once you get to an album/track listing, you can as I =
said either download the full album, an individual track or stream it.  =
On my 64k ISDN connection, I streamed a 30 second demo of a track, but =
it got streamed at broadband rates (not sure what the quality was), and =
thus it was awful this end.  The streamer isn't grate either, being done =
within IE itself.  I didn't therefor bother any more with the streaming =
capabilities.

I then went to download a full album.  I choose ``Earth Moving'', by =
Mike Oldfield.  I didn't expect much from this album, after all, I had =
been sherking buying it for a long while, because I have some of the =
singles from that period, and they are truly awful.  Lets just say I =
wasn't disapointed with the results.

Anyway, this album cost just over 700 credits, (i.e, =A37), which isn't =
really any cheaper than buying it from Amazon in my view.  I choose to =
download the album in its entirity, and it went away and gave me a =
standard download box.

The surprise here was that it gave me one file to download, with all the =
tracks put into one file, approx 38 mb.  While this doesn't seem to be =
compressed, it was very convenient having it all in the one file like =
this, especially as I am on effectively dialup.  I could go and leave it =
for a while, whilst doing something else, without having to check on =
which tracks have downloaded etc.

On running this file, I got Windows Media Player, which had to be set =
up, as I hadn't used it on this system before, which then extracted the =
.wma files from the archive.  I could then go and play the album in the =
playlist of Windows Media player, but I came out of this and attempted =
to play using Winamp.

The process went ok, except for at the point when I had to enter my user =
details, it threw me out giving me a ``media player not supported'' =
message.

Anyway, back in Media player, I got the same prompts for =
username/password, and it got the license for me fine.  I can now play =
the files, and I get the artwork etc for the CD.  Of course, the usual =
accessability issues with WMP still stand, and I was really annoyed that =
I could not use Winamp.

In order to get these files to MP3, I had to burn them onto CD as WMA =
files converted to an audio CD, then use my MP3 ripper to get them back =
to MP3.  I am really not sure whether I lost any quality in doing this.

I was able to get the files onto my Creative jukebox player, but the =
players have to support DRM (i.e, be ``secure players'', my phone or the =
Bookport not being one of these.  Of course, also, the files are in WMA =
format, so the player must support these.

Looking further at the site, it appears that you also have to be careful =
with the rights that a specific publisher gives you (i.e, I looked at =
another album that I was interested in), but it only said I could keep =
the music tracks for a ``limited period''.  Another album I saw wouldn't =
give me rights to burn onto CD or transfer to an audio player.  The FAQ =
also mentions you may have trouble if you don't back up the Windows =
licenses you are given, some publishers allow the licenses to be =
re-granted if the system goes belly up, some don't.

All in all, it was an interesting experience, but I think I will stick =
to regular CDs after this, even though I am donating to Oxfam while =
feeding my music habbit!!

Andrew.

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