Buy.com's answer to Apple's music store - Buymusic.com - Update with review!

[Paulson]

I use sound forge.. but that's not easily available or free.

audacity probably does it

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: Paulson
I'd buy them and just convert them to mp3.... no quality loss because I'd be using the file and then transfering it into wave, and then finally into mp3.. so technically I don't think there'd be that much of a loss..

I'm happy though, this will be a good new way to download music legally..

Isn't the whole point behind DRM that you CAN'T convert them to a rights-less format such as MP3?

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Paulson
I'd buy them and just convert them to mp3.... no quality loss because I'd be using the file and then transfering it into wave, and then finally into mp3.. so technically I don't think there'd be that much of a loss..

I'm happy though, this will be a good new way to download music legally..

How do you plan on doing that? There's a reason they added the DRM stuff.

Anyway, this site is a lot less straightforward than iTunes. The license terms and prices vary per song. That oculd get confusing really easily.

 

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Paulson
I'd buy them and just convert them to mp3.... no quality loss because I'd be using the file and then transfering it into wave, and then finally into mp3.. so technically I don't think there'd be that much of a loss..

I'm happy though, this will be a good new way to download music legally..

How do you plan on doing that? There's a reason they added the DRM stuff.

Anyway, this site is a lot less straightforward than iTunes. The license terms and prices vary per song. That oculd get confusing really easily.

Definitely - keeping track of the number of times you've downloaded and burned each song is lterally impossible. It's counterintuitive - once you buy the song, it should be YOURS TO KEEP. Jesus - how hard is that for the industry to understand?

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I think this is a HUGE step in the right direction for music lovers. I am not sure if I will download any songs from this site however, becuase they place limits on the amount of times you can download the song, and on the number of times you can burn it to CD.

I'd be so nervous about accidentally deleting the file that I'm hesitant to purchase any music. Although, I guess if I converted it right to MP3, I'd have the same quality and zero limitations.

What programs are available to do this?

I think pretty much any downloadable music store is going to impose such limits now. With itunes, can you burn as much as you'd like?

As far as converting to mp3, you could burn it to a CD, the rip it off to MP3. That's probably what I'll end up doing, I burn most of my mp3s to cd's anyway for use in my car cd changer. If they work in Winamp without a problem, then I'll probably just burn a hard copy as a backup and be done with it.

Edit: from what I can tell by reading the Help files on the site, WMP will tell you the number of downloads/burns left for each song, keeping track of it for you.

 

[rpc64]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I think this is a HUGE step in the right direction for music lovers. I am not sure if I will download any songs from this site however, becuase they place limits on the amount of times you can download the song, and on the number of times you can burn it to CD.

I can understand download limits, but burning limits?!? That really sucks.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Paulson
I'd buy them and just convert them to mp3.... no quality loss because I'd be using the file and then transfering it into wave, and then finally into mp3.. so technically I don't think there'd be that much of a loss..

I'm happy though, this will be a good new way to download music legally..

um, no, you'd have big quality losses

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: MrBond
With itunes, can you burn as much as you'd like?

Yes.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: MrBond

I was always under the impression that 128kbs wma was about a 256kbs mp3 file. I encode songs to 64kbs wma to cram more on my ppc storage card and they sound at about as good as a 128kbs mp3.

i think its closer to 192 mp3.

i'd still prefer at least a 160 wma.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: MrBond
With itunes, can you burn as much as you'd like?

Yes.

OK, from what I was reading, the limits are set by the studios, NOT the site.

I've never been to apple's music store, but don't they have music from Warner Music artists? Why do they decide unlimited burns for apple customers and only 3 for PC users?

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: MrBond
With itunes, can you burn as much as you'd like?

Yes.

OK, from what I was reading, the limits are set by the studios, NOT the site.

I've never been to apple's music store, but don't they have music from Warner Music artists? Why do they decide unlimited burns for apple customers and only 3 for PC users?

On Apple's iTunes Music Store:

No albums from Linkin Park, RHCP or Madonna. (not that that is a BAD thing 😀)

Plenty from Less Than Jake, Tom Petty and almost everything REM has ever done..

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: MrBond
With itunes, can you burn as much as you'd like?

Yes.

OK, from what I was reading, the limits are set by the studios, NOT the site.

I've never been to apple's music store, but don't they have music from Warner Music artists? Why do they decide unlimited burns for apple customers and only 3 for PC users?

Doesn't really matter to me who sets the limits. But, the iTunes store has Some (not all) of warner music's artists. I jsut went and checked about half a dozen bands from warner music's site. About half of the ones I checked were on iTunes

 

[prontospyder]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I think this is a HUGE step in the right direction for music lovers. I am not sure if I will download any songs from this site however, becuase they place limits on the amount of times you can download the song, and on the number of times you can burn it to CD.

I'd be so nervous about accidentally deleting the file that I'm hesitant to purchase any music. Although, I guess if I converted it right to MP3, I'd have the same quality and zero limitations.

What programs are available to do this?

I'm gonna try dbPowerAMP tonight and try to convert the downloaded track from WMA to OGG VORBIS.

 

[SSP]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Originally posted by: rpc64
Why the heck aren't they using mp3s? This sounds cool and is a step in the right direction but don't you think they would be more successful using mp3s?

There's no copy protection on mp3s.

I was always under the impression that 128kbs wma was about a 256kbs mp3 file. I encode songs to 64kbs wma to cram more on my ppc storage card and they sound at about as good as a 128kbs mp3.

As far as pricing, I only looked at one album (Tom Petty - The Last DJ), the cNet article had songs at $0.79/ea while for that album they were $0.89/ea or $7.95 for the whole thing. There's not much "popular" music out right now that I'm interested in at the moment.

I'll try converting it and such when I get some time tonight, if I could download as a WMA then convert to an mp3 so winamp can play it, it might be actually worth it.

Winamp plays WMA. You dont need to convert them to MP3 just to play it there.

 

[MrBond]

OK, just bought a song. Ozzy Osborne - Crazy Train. $0.99 out the door. I actually own this CD (or owned) but it got lost in one of my many moving trips.

Sound quality is pretty good so far, but then I'm no quality-snob.

The order process was pretty simple. Made an account, checked out, clicked the "download" button and the song was on my drive quickly. Their server is pretty fast for me, I averaged ~175k/sec downloading it.

WMA is associated with Winamp on my box, I click play, and IE launches and tells me it needs a licence. I log back into the Buymusic.com site, it gives me the licence, but I get the same result in winamp. I fire up WMP, open the file, and it tells me it needs to update it's DRM stuff. The update is FAST, almost instant, and within 5 seconds I get "Allll aboooarrrddddd!!!!" blasting out the speakers.

Song selection is decent, not great. Couldn't find any Trapt songs.

Tonight after work I'll experiment some more with converting it and such. In the mean time my lunch break is almost over 🙂

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I think this is a HUGE step in the right direction for music lovers. I am not sure if I will download any songs from this site however, becuase they place limits on the amount of times you can download the song, and on the number of times you can burn it to CD.

I'd be so nervous about accidentally deleting the file that I'm hesitant to purchase any music. Although, I guess if I converted it right to MP3, I'd have the same quality and zero limitations.

What programs are available to do this?

I agree that this is a huge step...but not all that I am looking for. You do realize that converting it to MP3 is breaking the licensing agreement that you are "signing" by purchasing any music from that site. So, if you convert, then you are breaking the law just the same.

Personally, I would like to be able to download as many times as I want, and copy it to my mp3 player or a CD whenever I want. I would gladly pay the $0.99 a song for that to remain legal...and would happily not share my music.

 

[BatmanNate]

Hell no. MP3, 192k True stereo at least if you want people to pay for it. Jesus what is wrong with these guys.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate
Hell no. MP3, 192k True stereo at least if you want people to pay for it. Jesus what is wrong with these guys.

Please read the thread.

 

[LiekOMG]

As great as all these music downloads might be, i still find them overly expensive, restrictive, and lacking in quality. I can usually find used CD's in the $4-8 range either in local stores or on Amazon.com. The CD's are cheaper, higher quality, and I can do whatever the heck i want with them. So I might have to stand up and do some walking to get the CD's. In my eyes, thats a good thing 🙂

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: DOACleric
As great as all these music downloads might be, i still find them overly expensive, restrictive, and lacking in quality. I can usually find used CD's in the $4-8 range either in local stores or on Amazon.com. The CD's are cheaper, higher quality, and I can do whatever the heck i want with them. So I might have to stand up and do some walking to get the CD's. In my eyes, thats a good thing 🙂

I feel the same way...I usually use half.com, though. 🙂

 

[Go3iverson]

There's one limit in iTunes, you can't burn a playlist more than 10 times, you have to change it after that. I've never run into it and I don't know what qualifies as a "change". For all I know, you could just rename the playlist or copy the songs to a new one and that's it. I haven't burned more than 10 copies of any one of them so far!

Besides for that, it's unlimited CD burns and up to 3 simultaneously authorized computers at a time can play the AAC files. Yes, you can crack it by burning it to CD and then ripping it into AAC or MP3.

🙂

 

[Keego]

no Green Day :disgust:

 

[yukichigai]

If WMP 9 wasn't full of bloatware that makes it impossible to run while I'm playing my games this might be cool.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: SSP
Winamp plays WMA. You dont need to convert them to MP3 just to play it there.

The thing about the version of WMA being used is that they're using the v.9 audio codec, and v.9 DRM. While Winamp can play WMAs, including v.9 encoded content, Winamp is not DRM-aware, and can not play DRM'd content. The same thing goes for basically any other piece of software or device; only WMP9 can handle the v.9 DRM, and is the only thing that can play it. The only reason you can even burn it or upload it to a portable is because WMP9 can read the DRM and count that against burns and portable transfers, and the only reason it's allowed in an insecure form on a portable is because the only approved portables are those that won't let you get the music back. The only way to listen to the song on a normal device is to burn it, then rip it in an "open" format, although you suffer a double-encoding penelty(the WMA encode, then the MP3 encode), which causes some additional quality loss.

Whatever you do with these files though, be careful. Apple's files list who the buyer was, and these WMAs probably do too. Additionally, it's not out of the realm of possibility that when you burn a CD, it's being watermarked at the same time, so that it can also be tracked. A re-encode tends to break watermarks because of the data loss, but in the mean time, until someone does a full analysis, make sure not to share the WMA files(albeit people wouldn't even be able to play them without the licence), and don't share CD's; the risk of being tracked back to the original purchaser is very real, and the consequences very tough.

 

[merlocka]

I just dl a song, burnt to CD, and ripped to mp3 with LAME. It sounds OK, but my dumb@ss wasn't thinking and picked a bad song (bad original recording) to judge quality with.

It sounds about as I expect it, I own the original recording.

If there doesn't end up being any weird watermark crap or anything like that I may acutally use this to buy albums.