If PC Pro was a school report, then the digital music industry would be hiding it at the bottom of its school bag, because the computer magazine isn't too complimentary about the UK download sector in its latest issue, out this week. In a review of all things digital music it claims that British music fans are being asked to pay too much for tracks, that music is often poorly encoded and that the limitations on what people can do with the tracks they buy are "strict to the point of draconian"
None of the magazine's criticisms of the download space are all that new - with codec incompatibility and inconsistencies between
US and UK pricing the main concern - though it is interesting to see all the various problems and concerns documented in one place. And with that special kind of vitriol computer geeks are great at - at one point they accuse the record labels and download platforms of being "greedy, paranoid and treating customers with contempt".
Summarising his magazine's key findings, PC Pro's Nick Ross told reporters:
"What people don't understand is that when they buy an iPod or other digital music player, they're being tied into a system. Many of our readers have already been caught out, buying tracks but being unable to play them on their player".
On price point he continues: "A song bought in the USA on iTunes or Napster costs 79 cents but in the UK costs 79 pence
- ridiculous when the exchange rate is almost $2 to £1".
Having reviewed all the key download platforms across the world the magazine picks out an American independent and a controversial
Russian service as the best of the bunch. On US indie site http://www.audiolunchbox.com
Ross says: "Its prices are reasonable, as you can buy in
US dollars, there's no restriction on what you can do with the music, and it's high quality encoding too".
The
Russian services commended in the magazine is http://www.allofmp3.com, which has been criticised by the major record companies for its questionable royalty arrangements. Ross does admit that
"the royalties it pays are miniscule making it little better than illegal file swapping", but adds that it isn't really price point that makes this service stand out. He reckons www.allofmp3.com stands out because it "sells a huge variety of music, in the format and quality of your choice," adding that, "where the illegal Napster pioneered the world of online music delivery, allofmp3.com is pioneering the business model that big business should follow".
On hardware, the magazine picks out the Rio Carbon as its favourite
MP3 Player. Ross: "Its miniscule dimensions, svelte looks and sublime ergonomics help it stand out against 22 competitors including the brand new 2nd generation iPod mini and brand new
30GB iPod photo. Although we highly-rate the new iPods, we once again have to warn our readers about buying them. Whether they know it or not, most computer users will have music libraries consisting of WMA files (the default type used by Windows) and these simply won't work with iPods".