registration sucks
Feb 24, 2005, 01:07am EST
I was at a concert earlier tonight and heard a song that I wanted to buy and download after the show. I only wanted the single song and I know it’s not on any of their CDs since I already own them. So after a few searches, I was able to learn that the song I wanted was on a movie soundtrack.
I hopped on over to the iTunes Music Store to buy it, except they didn’t have the album. Next, I tried Napster.com, emusic.com, and walmart.com. On all three of these sites, you have to register an account before you can even see what tracks are available. What the hell? I can’t browse before deciding whether or not I want to buy? Actually, I’m not sure about walmart.com, it wouldn’t let me access the music download store with Firefox or Safari. I don’t care if registration is free or not, it’s a huge hassle either way. [1]
I ended up finding an mp3 on a blog post. I feel a little bad about obtaining an illegal copy, but I wanted immediate gratification and I only wanted a single track. I don’t understand why the online music stores are making it so hard on me.
On a side note, I would have been willing to order a CD with the song on it directly from the record label because I’ve had good experiences with them in the past (they include sampler CD, candy, stickers, and other fun things with orders), but the song was only available on a 7” and I don’t own a turntable.
[1] I have the same gripe with furl and spurl. You can’t browse bookmarks without creating an account and logging in.
Anonymous Coward at Mar 22, 2005, 06:05am EST
The reason why online music stores do not have that album and song is that the owner of that album (the record company or the artist) decided that they can make more money by selling the whole album through regular channels. I am not an expert on this, but this is usually the reason. Also when you don’t find one song in one online store you don’t need to go every other store, since usually they are more or less the same, unless a store has an exclusive deal with the artist, which is a rare case.