Writings

Music at My Fingertips

There are a few different online services where you purchase and download music for around $0.99 a track. So far I haven't bitten. I generally like to rip the CD myself and often if I like an artist I may like the other tracks of an album as well. However I recently found a really great use for these services. There are times when it is more convenient to just download the song for a small price and get it right away. I downloaded my firs $.99 song a week or two ago after searching for a recording of a specific piece of music. Now I may find myself using online music services more often.

A long time ago I found a sample recording of Keiko Abe's Marimba d'amore and instantly decided that I would need to perform it one day. Since then I have looked around for a recording because it is the type of piece that is hard to get a feel for by just looking at the sea of black notes on the pages of music. The only recording I could find was only available in Europe, and I couldn't bring myself to pay to have something shipped that far, not to mention the language barrier on the web site it was at. Well a couple weeks ago I went looking once again as I've resolved to practice this piece a lot more this semester. I then discovered that the recording label had started to distribute its music so there seemed a better liklihood that I could obtain the recording I was after. I noticed on its list of distributors a few online music sites. So I decided to check them out. I could have purchased the CD on amazon.com or obtained a single track for much less. Since I really only needed the one track and due to my strict budget, the online music alternative was more appealing.

One peeve that I've always had with such services is that you have to download their software and sign up for their service just to search their song selection. This is part of the reason I never bought into any of these sites. As a consumer, I have no reason to sign up with a given service and install a program on my computer unless I know they have the song(s) that I'm after. I want to be able to search before I download. It seems only a simple and logical request. Well, MSN Music was the exception. I was able to search their entire database through a very simple and easy to use interface. Now, as much as people like to hate MSN, they really have it together with this in my opinion.

The interface is what kept me on the site at first. It was similar to Google in that I could easily find what information I was looking for. There weren't unnecessary graphics that wasted my time. The search function was very visible and very usable. And, as I mentioned before, I was able to search and see what I could get before downloading anything.

So, I decided I would pay MSN Music $0.99 for the one track I wanted rather than around $20 at Amazon.com. Conveniently, I didn't have to really sign up for an account since I already had a Passport (maybe an unfair advantage, but it was nice), although I did have to enter my credit card information which is to be expected. Now, MSN didn't require me to download a separate program which was both kinda' nice yet kinda' annoying at the same time. I have a healthy dislike for Internet Explorer and only use whenever absolutely necessary (Windows Update or web testing). Well, MSN Music requires IE and the use of an ActiveX control. So, I launched IE and installed the activeX control. Admittedly it does work quite well and seems to be thoughtfully implemented. While I personally would rather there be a cross-browser solution, it did work alright.

So I was able to get my recording (after the long download over dialup), and I'm happy. The quality is acceptable at around 160kbps VBR. Of course it is in Windows Media format and subject to certain licensing terms. Although it appears I can burn it and do basic things that I would normally want to do so that shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully it won't turn around to bite me in the future. But for now, this looks promising. Now in the future if it's late at night and I need a recording or something immediately, I now have a nice, relatively quick, easy to use, and affordable means of getting what music I need. worksforme :)