Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Is iTunes still the most expensive digital music service? Which iTunes alternative offers the best deal for music lovers? Are digital albums a better deal than CDs? And just how much are you overpaying if you buy by the track instead of by the album? Those are the questions I set out to answer in this, the third installment of my "iTunes alternatives" series. My previous installments were in April 2009 and April 2010, and I had planned to wait until April of next year to revisit this turf. But so much has happened in the digital music space this year that I just couldn't wait. And there will probably be a whole new set of changes to look at by next April anyway."

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Wondering how the likes of Amazon, Napster, Zune, and others stack up against iTunes in terms of pricing, availability, and other factors? Check out Ed Bott's article to find out more. Personally, I buy my MP3s from Amazon.com or HMV Digtial (in Canada) depending on who has the lower price. You?

Well, colour me impressed - HMV, a CD and DVD retail chain store in Canada, has launched an online music store. We had a few of them already, but most were re-branded and based on Puretracks on the back end, and up until recently that meant DRM-laden WMA files. Puretracks has been transitioning over to MP3s, but I find their store cumbersome to use. HMV Digital on the other hand, reminds me a lot of Amazon.com's MP3 store - fast, fluid, and simple. The music is in 320kbps MP3 format, which is excellent, and most tracks are 99 cents with a few in the $1.29 range. Albums are in the $9.99 range, and you don't even have to install a downloader if you don't want to - the albums come down in a single ZIP file. And best of all? They allow you to re-download your purchases up to five times, so if you happen to have a data wipe-out, you can get your music from them again. I'm not sure how deep their catalogue goes, but for new releases, this is where I'm going to be doing my shopping. Nicely done HMV!

"In one of the most ridiculous verdicts I've seen, the jury decided that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the first woman who was charged with copyright infringement and offered to settle but decided to fight the RIAA, is guilty and owes the recording industry 1.92 million dollars, or $80,000 per song."

You all know how I feel about music piracy, but there's something completely ludicrous about the ruling here where the woman now owes 1.92 million dollars to the recording industry. She's not going to pay that amount - the article says the RIAA will settle out of court for much less - but I have to wonder if the numbers had been more reasonable in ther first place, the RIAA would have made their point better. This is essentially about grand-standing, hoping to scare people into not pirating music any longer. Did it work? I don't think so - I haven't seen any information about music piracy rates dropping.

"You kind of knew it wasn't going to last and that this would happen. The day after iTunes put its price increase into effect (some songs for as high as $1.29, some as low as $.69), the other big online music retailers followed suit. Amazon, Wal-Mart, Lala, and Rhapsody, have now raised their prices as well. All but Walmart now list prices for hot selling and new stuff at $1.29 per song. Walmart is at $1.24...Somewhere some music industry execs are smiling and smoking cigars over this."

I don't mean to contradict my friends over at GottaBeMobile.com, but I figured I'd check out Amazon before I posted this story - and in the listing of top-selling MP3s, you have to go down to #24 before you see a track for $1.29. In the top 100 songs, only nine of them are more expensive than 99 cents. I also checked the Zune store, and most songs are still 79 points with a handful being 99 points. So hopefully this isn't as wide-spread as the post over at GottaBeMobile would suggest...I gues over the next few weeks we'll see.

"While overall music sales were up 10 percent in 2008, the year saw a drop not only in CD sales, but in the number of customers actually purchasing music. But according to a new report, the act of music listening is actually on the rise. While digital music purchases remain strong, the numbers show that there is still much more work to be done in the industry's transition to a new, more diverse set of business models. ... One trend that may finally be going mainstream is music streaming services. NPD's report notes that awareness and usage of Pandora doubled year-over-year to 18 percent of Internet users. Social network music streaming is also on the rise, as usage rose from 15 to 19 percent year-over-year. Nearly half of US teens are "engaging with music on social networks" now, so new revenue opportunities like premium account memberships and advertising are following."

http://www.themusiciansite.com

There's no doubt the music industry is in a state of transition, but I wouldn't be surprised if this trend of listening to music through subscription and social networking continues to rise. Personally, I haven't bought a CD in years (I have several vinyl albums, but maybe that's just for the cool factor.) When faced with the option of listening to a fixed album or a constantly evolving music landscape, I choose the latter almost every time. This bodes well for services like Pandora, iLike, and Zune Social as we head towards a generation of music on demand, but do artists want their work to be interchangeable?