LEGAL MUSIC DOWNLOADS, AS EASY AS 1-2-3

Reprinted from Renfrew-Collingwood News,
June/July 2004 Edition

Exactly one year ago in an article (see June 2003 Edition), we visited the topic of: how peer to peer (p2p) file sharing technology worked and why it was difficult to stop individuals from using this technology to “illegally” share music (MP3) files. Since that time, a high level federal court has ruled that “downloading” music files are not illegal under the current Canadian copyright laws and that only “uploading” files are considered illegal. So, if your conscience is still bugging you and you feel for all those “poor multimillion dollar” pop-princes and princesses, there are a couple legal alternatives that have, recently, cropped up for Canadian consumers.

HOW IT WORKS

All music download services work exactly the same way. All you need is a valid credit card and you are “off to the races”. After completing the simply account registration process, consumers are given the choice of purchasing and downloading entire albums and individual tracks of music or subscribing to aservice. Once you have finish downloading the music files, you can choose to: (a) copy it to a CD; (b) listen to it on your home stereo; (c) listen to it on your computer; (d) take all your music with you by transferring the files to a portable digital music player called an MP3 player. Some services give the consumer the opportunity to buy the actual album and have it shipped directly to your house. The only minor downside to purchasing music this way is that most services do not yet offer any music lyrics or album cover art if you elect to download your music.

Most of the services that are offered either by Telus or Bell (Sympatico® Music Store) and Future Shop’s Bonfire Service, are all powered by Toronto based Puretracks.com. Puretracks.com is the first Canadian company to offer digital music downloads to Canadian consumers. All the consumers of the aforementioned services basically have the same access to the Puretracks’ music archives and services.

On Puretracks.com, consumers can:

• search music, individually, by album title, artist, track title, and music categories.
• access “exclusive” tracks that are only available on the Puretracks.com.
• preview each song for 30 seconds.
• purchase gift certificates and send them to their friends, and family members via e-mail.

All downloads from this service are in Microsoft’s proprietary WMA (Windows Media Audio) file format, so you will have to have Windows Media Player 10 installed on your computer and a portable music player capable of playing WMA files in order to listen to your tunes.

Beginning on June 12^th, 2004, Future Shop’s Bonfire music download service will give their customers the same access to all the songs and albums on Puretracks.com, plus the opportunity to purchase prepaid cards in various denominations at their stores for purchase of music and the ability to download songs in alternate file formats (MP3), that today’s portable digital music players support.

Puretracks.com, of course, is not the only player in town. Recently, Napster Canada decided to enter the Canadian market. Napster offers three types of services: Napster, Napster to-go, and Napster Light.

Napster:

• costs $9.95/month.
• gives users access to over 700,000 music tracks.
• offers 50 commerical-free radio stations.
• allows users to play music on stereo (click here for more info), multiple computers, including laptops.
• has a library of exclusive tracks and music recommendations.
• allows users to view other Napster user playlists.
• includes all Napster Light features (see below).

Napster Light:

• offers access to over 700,000 music tracks.
• allows users to purchase individual tracks ($1.19) of music or album ($9.95 and up).
• allows users to burn their playlists to CD or transfer to a wide range of MP3 players.

Napster to-go:

• is a subscription service that costs $14.95/month.
• offers all the features of Napster and Napster Light (see above).
• works only on Windows XP computers with Windows Media Player 10.
• allows users to transfer unlimited tracks of music on the go to select MP3 players and mobile phones.
• allows music lovers to play their music in their cars via cassette adapter, direct connection or FM transmitter.

Subscribers must be aware that as soon as you stop subscribing, you will lose access to songs that you have not yet purchased.

By the end of the year, Apple Computer Canada will debut their heavily anticipated music download service called iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Music Store has been around in the USA and in Europe for the past couple of years and is regarded as the current market leader.iTunes Music Store offers:

• exclusive music tracks.
• album cover art.
• $9.99 per album, or $.99 per track.
• full integration with the best application for organizing music – iTunes.
• gift certificates and allowance accounts are available.
• Flexible usage rights. For details, you can click here.
• “One-click” purchasing.

The only negative is that the music you have purchased can only be transfered to an Apple iPod (MP3) device. So, if you have an MP3 player from another manufacturer, you are outta of luck!

The “bottom line” is that music downloading services probably will not replace your local music store; but, can be practical in many ways. The services can be a convenience for those who need music in digital form and do not want to mess around with trying to convert their old CDs, LPs, cassettes, and vinyl records. Some of these download services have very flexible usage rights, meaning that you can edit the music into new compilations or soundtracks into your home movies and school/business presentations with the help of your computer.

Before you begin to download your favourite tunes from the net, you must be aware of couple of things:

1. Know thy portable music player. There are many portable music players on the market that play digital music. Digital music comes in all different file formats, such as: MP3, WMA, AAC, and not every player on the market will play all the different formats. So, make sure that your music player can actually play the individual file formats offered by your download service. Most of today’s players will play MP3 and WMA files.
2. Know the music service you are using. The music download sites fall into two categories: Subscription and á la carté. Subscription services allow individuals to have access to their library of songs for a monthly fee. Individuals can listen to the music as often as they want on their computers, but do not own the actual music. The moment you stop paying your monthly subscription, you lose access to the music. The á la carté type service allows individuals to download and buy the individual songs that the user wants to own.
3. Before you enter your credit card information, make sure you read up on the terms of use of the service, this typically will tell you your digital rights to the music. Digital rights depict to the individual (the user): whether or not they own the music, how many computers can have access to the music, how many times you can write it to a CD, etc.

Got any questions, comments, complaints, suggestions etc. e-mail me by clicking here or at: gb.technobytes@gmail.com, anytime.

See you soon,

~ GeekBoy