The Great "Cheapest Legal Music Downloads" Hunt.

beancounter_2 · 26 August 2005 at 3:20PM

Woolworths downloads are curently 59p per track and £5.99 per album

loafer_2 · 27 August 2005 at 5:41AM

What about yahoo's unlimited service $6 ~£3.10 a month and yo get unlimited downloads.

http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/

Yahoo wins for the 100% legal bunch, no?

onzey · 27 August 2005 at 7:57AM

Isn't yahoo only available in US?

Mr._Micawber_2 · 27 August 2005 at 12:13PM

ghbradshaw wrote:

Woolworths downloads are 59p each, and they have a good selection too!

https://www.woolworths.co.uk

I've found that Tiscali Music is the next cheapest UK legal site to Woolworths, normally 69p per a track:

http://sib1.od2.com/common/Framework.aspx?shid=012B002E

But this bank holiday weekend all tracks are 49p each.

marylynnt · 28 August 2005 at 11:18PM

Here is a link for free downloads but maybe obscure artists.
http://www.soundclick.com/

GibsonSt19 · 29 August 2005 at 9:44AM

Also guys and gals, found out recently that Napster have started accepting Paypal as payment, so you can (and I've tried it) purchase music from Napster.com at US rates (which are cheaper than in the UK).

It will ask if you're sure you want to buy from the US (as you have to have a valid US credit card), but you're then able to select Paypal.

koru · 29 August 2005 at 9:58AM

loafer wrote:

What about yahoo's unlimited service $6 ~£3.10 a month and yo get unlimited downloads.

http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/

Yahoo wins for the 100% legal bunch, no?

The Yahoo service is interesting. As already posted, it is US only, but maybe it indicates a deal we may see in the UK at some stage (just as iTunes took a while to get to the UK). I assume you are going to need a US credit card to subscribe, so few of us are going to be able to fake being US resident.

But, let's assume they offer the same deal in the UK. They are offering unlimited downloads, for a monthly subscription, but if you cancel the subscription you lose all your downloads. So, you are locked in. You are basically renting your music library at $60 per year. That's less than £30, and I guess most of us spend more than that on new music each year (even the new CD champion, https://www.BangCD.com, are £6.99 per CD, so that would buy you only 4 CDs), so maybe the subscription model isn't bad. My big concern would be that they would raise the subscription, and you either have to fork out or lose all your music.

The other big problem is that most of us will be using an iPod as our portable mp3 player, as they command a huge share of the market. So yahoo would be virtually useless, as the subscription downloads are in WMA format, which I don't think is iPod compatible. It sounds like you can pay 79 cents per track to get a version you can burn to CD or, presumably, convert to mp3 format for your iPod. Although that is cheaper than 99 cents on iTunes, you have got the subscription on top of that. You would have to buy about 30 albums (300 tracks) per year to make savings equal to the subscription fee, which is quite a lot.

If you are one of the few people who use one of the few compatible players, then it seems quite a good deal.

koru · 29 August 2005 at 10:02AM

GibsonSt19 wrote:

Also guys and gals, found out recently that Napster have started accepting Paypal as payment, so you can (and I've tried it) purchase music from Napster.com at US rates (which are cheaper than in the UK).

It will ask if you're sure you want to buy from the US (as you have to have a valid US credit card), but you're then able to select Paypal.

Good spot! Kudos to you. I wonder if that would work on yahoo?

I am surprised they can't detect where you are, from your IP address or something. But I guess you could be an American on holiday, so maybe they can't differentiate that way.

The_Demon_Barber · 29 August 2005 at 11:26PM

I've checked up on the Play Louder offering and it's now outlined on their website - http://www.playlouder.com/news/+playlouder-msp-i/

It's £27 a month for your broadband and apparently unlimited downloads from the Sony BMG catalogue and all the main indie labels.

Probably a few more quid than most of us would like, but if it catches on, I can see the other majors clamberin aboard.

And - best of all - it's a legal solution to the problem!

koru · 30 August 2005 at 9:02AM

Playlouder is quite a smart move. Although they claim it costs the same as BT Broadband, we on this site know that you can pay quite a lot less than BT - up to £10 less. So, rather than selling at £10 less, they are bundling in "free" music downloads, which may attract a lot of customers.

But the same customers might be better to buy broadband using Martin's recommendations, at £18 pm, then buy Napster at £10 per month, which will give them "free downloads" from a wider range of music.

I don't mean to criticise, though. It is better than paying £27 to BT, then an extra £10 to Napster, and I guess that is the audience they are aiming at. I could see the likes of AOL and Tiscali offering similar deals in future.

The Great "Cheapest Legal Music Downloads" Hunt.

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