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Mar. 24th, 2009
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Mar. 24th, 2009 04:08 pmTuesday is new music release day. I don't know why that is, but I can remember that Tower Records used to open at 1 minute after Midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning for about a half hour so that people could rush in and buy newly released music as soon as possible.
These days, Tuesday is the day you're allowed to download new music online. 2-3 weeks ago I picked up the new U2 cd from Amazon.com on the day it released -- they had a special, full album for $3.99. That was a good deal, it's a good cd.
Yesterday I listened to a review of the new cd by The Decembrists, and when I looked it up I realized it wasn't available for download until Tuesday (today). I wondered if Amazon would have it on sale. As it turned out, they were offering the full cd for $8.99 downloaded, or $9.99 to buy the physical cd. This is a concept cd, almost a folk-rock opera really, and it didn't seem like such a good deal saving only $1.00 to buy it online.
My boss at work said that they had it for $3.99 at Lala.com. What's Lala? I had no idea.
This article explains the concept pretty well, but essentially, they're a combination online music trading site / online radio station / online music store. They offer a service whereby you buy and sell or trade cds with other members, and they provide the envelope and stuff and charge a small fee. They also allow you to stream music -- listen to full songs once each, purchase unlimited streaming of a given song for 10 cents, or upload music from your own library and stream it anywhere for free (with the caveat that it has to be music that's in their library, as they are really operating as a kind of web radio station -- they even bought an existing radio station outright in order to do this).
Lastly, they sell DRM-free downloads of mp3's just like Amazon does. They are not a fee-based system like eMusic or Rhapsody, so you only pay for what you decide to download. You don't need to provide a credit card to sign up, but you do to purchase music of course. I was able to use Paypal to buy the cd by the Decembrists for $3.99, so that made me happy. They give you 50 free "credits" for signing up, but these are for "web only" music purchases. Eh, oh well.
Whether they're really a new and innovative business model that's going to change how the music industry works, or whether they can even carve out their own niche in the online music world, I guess remains to be seen. One listen is usually not enough to really convince me that a song is worth downloading, but then, it's much better than a 30 second sampler. But that seems to be their only really big innovation; other than that, they may sometimes have the best deal, or not, and they allow Paypal which Amazon and iTunes do not. Eh, six of one half a dozen of the other really. The online streaming of your music is nice but I don't often listen to music through a web browser.
These days, Tuesday is the day you're allowed to download new music online. 2-3 weeks ago I picked up the new U2 cd from Amazon.com on the day it released -- they had a special, full album for $3.99. That was a good deal, it's a good cd.
Yesterday I listened to a review of the new cd by The Decembrists, and when I looked it up I realized it wasn't available for download until Tuesday (today). I wondered if Amazon would have it on sale. As it turned out, they were offering the full cd for $8.99 downloaded, or $9.99 to buy the physical cd. This is a concept cd, almost a folk-rock opera really, and it didn't seem like such a good deal saving only $1.00 to buy it online.
My boss at work said that they had it for $3.99 at Lala.com. What's Lala? I had no idea.
This article explains the concept pretty well, but essentially, they're a combination online music trading site / online radio station / online music store. They offer a service whereby you buy and sell or trade cds with other members, and they provide the envelope and stuff and charge a small fee. They also allow you to stream music -- listen to full songs once each, purchase unlimited streaming of a given song for 10 cents, or upload music from your own library and stream it anywhere for free (with the caveat that it has to be music that's in their library, as they are really operating as a kind of web radio station -- they even bought an existing radio station outright in order to do this).
Lastly, they sell DRM-free downloads of mp3's just like Amazon does. They are not a fee-based system like eMusic or Rhapsody, so you only pay for what you decide to download. You don't need to provide a credit card to sign up, but you do to purchase music of course. I was able to use Paypal to buy the cd by the Decembrists for $3.99, so that made me happy. They give you 50 free "credits" for signing up, but these are for "web only" music purchases. Eh, oh well.
Whether they're really a new and innovative business model that's going to change how the music industry works, or whether they can even carve out their own niche in the online music world, I guess remains to be seen. One listen is usually not enough to really convince me that a song is worth downloading, but then, it's much better than a 30 second sampler. But that seems to be their only really big innovation; other than that, they may sometimes have the best deal, or not, and they allow Paypal which Amazon and iTunes do not. Eh, six of one half a dozen of the other really. The online streaming of your music is nice but I don't often listen to music through a web browser.
