If like me your conscience and honest nature does not allow you to simply download (AKA steal) MP3’s from the various music sharing sites then I think it would be reasonable to share some of the digital purchasing options available to you. I am not going to include any kind of music delivery that tries to apply DRM or hardware lock in of any kind.

CD -  The safe route, if not the most cost effective, is to simply purchase the CD and rip the contents of said CD at the desired bit rate.

iTunes (MP3 Catalogue – approx 10 million) – I have written about this before so I will be brief. MP3 downloads are usually $1.29, however, they are including premium price tag for higher average bit rates and the better artists.

Napster (MP3 Catalogue – approx 6 million) – You get 1, 3 or 12 month subscription at $5 per month, in exchange you get 5 MP3s a month and unlimited streaming of all music to your preferred PC browser.

Zune Marketplace (MP3 Catalogue – approx 5 million) – The MP3 selection is growing rapidly (More than 90% are MP3). The Zune Pass (@ $14.99 per month) provides lease ownership of millions of DRM tracks but you get to keep any 10 tracks, which also includes MP3s. Now If you happen to purchase DRM tracks from the Zune Marketplace check the DRM properties of the track inside the Zune software (right click on the track and click properties). Most DRM tracks can be burned to CD and you can simply turn and around and rip them to MP3.

eMusic (MP3 Catalogue – approx 6 million) – Provides another subscription based service where $11.99 per month gets you 24 track downloads per month. Price per track varies between $0.40 and $0.6 depending on the plan you opt for. This is the best price point of all the the options. However, the selection while large does not include some of the more popular artists. If you are looking to develop a Jazz collection this is the place to go.

Amazon MP3 (MP3 Catalogue – approx 2 million) – Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99, however, Amazon have a variety of ways to purchase MP3s at a cheap rate. Most of these deals revolve around the purchase of less than stellar albums for as little as $5. This is balanced against also listing some MP3’s at a premium cost of $1.99.

Rhapsody (MP3 Catalogue – approx 5 million) – $12.99 a month gets you unlimited streaming from any PC and any browser and MP3 prices seem to vary based on the popularity of the tracks.

Plenty of choices … if you are actually still buying music.

I thought the recent announcement from Apple and EMI was really interesting. Apparently there will be more DRM free music available directly from iTunes. There is a catch, however, it looks like there will be a premium added to the price of the music ($1.29). Of course you can elect to purchase the DRM version of the music, which will be lower quality, at the regular price of 99 cents.

Tracks that you may have already purchased with DRM could be ‘upgraded’ to DRM less MP3’s for 30 cents. It has also been rumored that older less popular tracks will be available for less than standard 99 cent.

In keeping with this new found musical hierarchy I wanted to suggest several pricing bands the music companies should consider ;)

* I quote from Rocky III –  "You fight great, but I'm a great fighter." - Apollo

I was checking out some Podcasts at the Zune Marketplace, when I realized that I seemed to be missing all the Videocasts from the Ricky Gervais Podcast. Upon further investigation I noticed that the Zune Player seems to get confused when handling feeds with mixed content (audio and video), even though RSS specifications clearly indicate that this is feasible.

I must admit after seeing the latest line up from iPod it really took the wind out of my Zune sails. As if the iPod Touch was not enough, the WiFi features contained there in are exactly what was missing from Social aspect of the Zune. You can walk into a participating Starbucks and download new music, you can also surf the web ... did I not mention this in a wish list several moons ago.

The Zune had WiFi features when it was released, and never capitalized on it. The down side of the touch is that I only see them in 8Gb and 16Gb version. The amount of music and videos that I want to watch makes this a real issue.

The iPod classic, I believe, remains the true flag ship and with the next versions at 80Gb and 160Gb it is clear that the bar has been raised significantly. They have also adopted the Cover Flow (display album covers) mechanism that made the iPhone look so cool on the TV commercials. Even more impressive is the proposed 40 hours of playback ... I am going to have to see that.

The iPod 80GB and 160GB classic versions retail at $249.99 and $349.99 respectively. I am sure the new Zune retail price of $200 is in direct response to iPod's highly competitive pricing. If the rumor mill is true then the next Zune update will allow music downloads wirelessly, the rumor came out of engadget.com and they are far from reliable. There is also supposed to be a new line of Zune toys but again rumors along with photo editing is cheap, especially on the Internet.

Still, I remain hopeful!

The Zune device is a little bigger than its iPod Video equivalent and I am told this is due to the fact that it has 'The Social' element, someone thought that wireless file sharing was a cool way to share music in a legal and limited way (3 plays for 3 Days). I love the concept but I would like to see it expanded to a much more public forum (I have had my Zune for a month and not shared anything).

For example if I am in my local Best Buy or Circuit City and a new artist has music samples they want me to here this seems to be a convenient forum for getting the music out to devices in the store. These stores have headphones littered all over where I can listen to new music in store. Surely this is the next logical step. There seems to be a lot of untapped potential here.

Also, why oh why does the Zune software not have any notion of RSS! I am forced to go get an unrelated aggregator to gather my podcast's and then go back to the Zune device to detect changes in my library and then sync the device ... too many steps! Help me out here! Allow the Zune software to be RSS aware.

ASIDE: I tried using Rss Bandit and the thing crashed constantly. After uninstalling it left artifacts in the right click menu! I was not happy. Needless to say I have gone back to FeedReader, I will also make a donation to that cause at my earliest convenience.

The Zune Marketplace is nothing compared to the iTunes, however, I have been able to download free music files from new artist, with little or no DRM restrictions from Zune Marketplace. This seems to be a trend that Microsoft is officially supporting. They are insisting on more specific content than the artist would provide to MTV, but that appears to be a reasonable exchange.

I like the idea of musicians making there music available for free via the web. If I like what I hear I will buy the album! Some people seem to believe that doing this kind of things is equivalent to killing the cash cow. I simply do not agree giving away digital music is like giving the cash cow ample reason to come in to the barn and the decide to stay!

"You only live once." - James Brown

This is hilarious, a little biased toward the Zune but it is funny!

I blogged almost a year ago about wanting my music collection available in my home, car and office and only got part way there until this weekend when I purchased the Belkin Tune Cast II Mobile FM Transmitter. Unfortunately I was having all kinds of problems selecting a FM channel that wood give me clear reception. I had the tuner taped, cocked and pushed into every conceivable part of my car before quitting.

Coincidently a couple of mainstream blogger's Travis and Scott were having similar problems and discovered a web site that gives list of radio stations by zip code. In addition to the radio stations you can find out which frequencies are free to be used by your own miniature FM Transmitters. Based on the list below I had selected a channel from the 'Third Best' list. Who knew?!

"If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I am not sure of the sales figures for the Zune so far this week. I for one was poised to purchase and ready to get the new device. However, the recent information that I have received regarding the application of a new DRM system has made me pause.

It appears that the new Zune will not honor the DRM of any of Microsoft's previous PlayforSure suitors (the playforsure irony is killing me). So you would think that MSN music is exempt. No! apparently the two dozen songs that I purchased from MSN music are useless on the new Zune! Seriously someone is not thinking things through! It appears MSN music, Play4Sure and Zune are never going to meet at a common ground. So if you were crazy enough to purchase music from MSN you will have to burn a CD and rip the music into an  unprotected format. DRM, you have got to love it! Well this should spell then end of MSN and Playforsure.

Thankfully most of my music was ripped from CD in an unprotected format (WMA and MP3) in Windows Media Player so I can convert these files into the Zune experience. In order to remain flexible I will have to buy CDs and rip my music. That way if Microsoft decide to update the DRM standard again it will not worry me! DRM, you have got to love it!

I am still tempted to move forward, the WiFi features are terrific and the share and play features are tempting for an avid musician like myself. The idea of sharing my music with anyone in my vicinity and being able to permit them to play that song for a limited time is genius! iPod will need to respond but not quickly ... they should revel in being the 900lb gorilla.

This is a quote from the Zune site that first got me hooked!

Picture this: You're walking down the street. Or you're in a room with a . Or at a concert. Or at the airport. Or on the bus (you get the picture) and then you whip out your Zune and see all these other Zune devices around that you can choose from. Zap! You’re connected to your best friend and send the new song your band recorded in the garage last weekend. Another friend gets the hilarious podcast your kid brother made at school, plus that song you just downloaded from the Zune Marketplace and can’t get out of your head. And hey, lookee here, your friend wants to send you something that you might like and buy, too.

Best of all, the song you sent isn’t just a 30-second preview­—it’s the whole song! Your friend can sample the song up to three times in three days, flag it on their device and then, if they like it, they can buy it later from Zune Marketplace. It's all connected.

bunch of friends

 

"I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something." - Mitch Hedberg

Zune is out I am very excited about it, unfortunately I committed $100 to a 1 Gig Sandia c140 MP3 player just a few weeks ago. I knew I should have waited I just could not resist.

Zune allows you to share songs temporarily with friends so that they can try them out. Great concept! I would pay for every song on every CD that I have ever borrowed as long as it was easy to try and decide.

ps. The Sandia makes a strange clicking sound when you skip tracks, which is really noticeable. Apparently this is a known problem to which there is no solution.

pps. Microsoft took a really different approach to the marketing of Zune, no one knew what it was at first, but I think it paid off. I still think there is no chance of knocking iPods from the top spot, though, the potential to connect Xbox 360, Media Center and regular PCs is too much to bear.