3 Digital Music Services in Review

In this article I will give my views on three paid digital music services- why I like them, and how they could be better. The services in review here are eMusic, Lala.com, and Amie Street.

Common threads and differences

There are three things that these three services have in common which I believe makes them stand out: 1) no DRM! 2) they're cheaper than iTunes, 3) they have great selections of both known and unknown artists. Another nice thing about these services is that they all deliver music in MP3 format (at better quality than iTunes), so you can play your downloads in any MP3-compatible program or device.

All three of these services use a different business model (details will be discussed below), and only eMusic requires a subscription or special download tool. They all require that you sign up for a user account before downloading anything.

eMusic

This is probably the most well-known of the three services discussed here. The price-per-track cost varies depending on the plan you choose- the Basic plan (30 downloads per month at $11.99) comes to around $0.40 per track, and the per-track cost decreases as you move up to higher-priced plans. They also offer "booster packs" in various sizes should you decide you want more downloads one month, though the per-track cost is higher for these. Though they only carry music from independent labels and artists, the selection is excellent. "Independent" in this case refers to the fact that they don't carry anything from the major labels, not that they deal only in unsigned bands. You can listen to short demo clips of tracks before you buy, and once you purchase a track, you may download it as many times as you wish, or listen to it online.

Why I like it: As I mentioned above, it's a great deal. It's recommendation system is probably my favorite of these three services, giving you similar artists, user reviews, and related user playlists.

How it could be better: It would be nice to have at least limited full-length listening of some sort, considering that you pay a monthly fee. I guess that's the price of such low cost per track. The download program is also a little offputting- it's basically a custom browser and can be a little klunky, but it does the job.

Lala.com

Relatively new to the scene, this is perhaps my new favorite. They have a wide selection of music, including many major-label releases (and are adding more all the time), and thus probably come the closest to actually replacing iTunes. They have a unique approach, in that you can listen to any song in it's entirety once from their website, after that you can pay $0.10 to listen to it online as much as you want, or $0.89 to download it (and have unlimited online listening). Discounts are given for full-album purchases (for both downloads and "Web Albums", as they call the unlimited online listenining purchases).

Why I like it: Great selection. The "one free listen" deal is pretty cool too. No subscription or special downloading tool required.

How it could be better: I must say, I'm having a hard time coming up with anything to put here. Perhaps lossless downloads for a slightly higher fee- but none of the other services discussed here offer that option either, and personally, if I really want lossless, I'll buy the CD.

Amie Street

Seems like a strange name for a music site, but maybe I'm missing something. These folks are also taking a unique approach to the business, it works like this: when music is first made available on the site, it's free or "very cheap" (their words). As a song is downloaded/purchased more times, the price increases. The idea is to get you to check out new, less popular music. The price per track is capped at $0.98. They also have a fancy recommendation system that allows you to earn credit towards purchases- as a song you recommend gains popularity (and thus increases in price), you earn credit based on it's price increase. Of course, this works best if you recommend music that is very cheap early on, and then becomes immensely popular.

Why I like it: Obviously, it can be a great place to get a hold of less popular stuff for a great price. Again, no special download tool or subscription. It's an especially good source for music from emerging and unsigned artists, as they have a program whereby anyone can upload their music.

How it could be better: Of the three services reviewed here, this one had the worst selection in my experience- it depends what you're looking for, you may have better luck.

Summary

Though they don't offer the best price, Lala.com comes in as my favorite for selection and convenience. That said, I've had an eMusic subscription for over a year now, and haven't come close to running out of stuff to download. All three of these services offer search functions you can use to check out the selection before signing up, so have a look around and see which one (or more) works for you.