Bottom Line: Musicmp3 is a great resource, for when allofmp3 is down or when its days are numbered. It offers a vast decent selection of music and proves it by updating their catalogue with new albums several times a day, even offering new ones before their actual release date. If your are not fussed about multi-format downloading, and only need MP3’s, then you have to give
musicmp3 are go.
Background Info
Musicmp3 is a Russian based music store operating on the same music license as allofmp3 (ROMS), which allows it many other Russian music stores, to sell music at a very reasonable price. With its main visitor source coming from Russia (14.4%), it is still a growing bubble waiting to burst in the western market, as allofmp3 did in its early days.
Music Catalogue.
Its difficult to review a ‘music catalogue’ as with
musicmp3, its catalogue is updated ‘several’ times a day, so I can only examine what they have on offer at the time this review was taken.
Lets take for example a well known band, such as The Beatles.
Musicmp3 has an extraordinary collection of albums (collections, bootlegs, superhits, singles, albums etc...). Each album has specific details on show, for example the Record Label which produced that album at that time. I was also impressed at the way
Musicmp3 offered albums that weren’t yet released anywhere else, while legality about their sources of obtaining their music could certainly be debated here.
Visiting it daily, I found that albums that I was eagerly waiting to be released here, were already for download on
Musicmp3. It seems as if
Musicmp3 both listens to their user requests religiously as well as keep a close eye on the current charts.
You can request music from your control panel, by clicking on the link ‘wish list’.
User Interface
The
Musicmp3 user interface is one that I applaud for its simplicity and clever use of ‘design’ sections. When viewing an album for download, you have all the details you need in front of you; Artist, style, genre, album name etc... While it also makes use of tagging certain links to find other related items (very useful).
One important detail for music format enthusiasts is the bit-rate quality, in fact if you a music format geek, then you are probably already spitting on this reviewing for applauding a music store which only offers MP3’s for download. But if you a normal music collector, who likes to listen withouta fuss on their ipod, then this shouldn’t be a problem for you, (rant ends, continues further down review)
Downloading tracks from an album is very easy, simple check boxes, optional select all button..what more do you want? You can read this guide for downloading all tracks from an album at once, without having to do each one separately.
Everything you need to know is there. One thing to note is that
musicmp3 interface is designed for easy navigation and exploration , in the top right hand corner, it shows the current artists super hits, In the top left hand corner, it shows discography of the current artists and underneath the ‘Superhits’ you have similar artist. All are useful for when your exploring a new artist or wanting to find more music on a current one.
Pricing
Musicmp3’s pricing is very reasonable, cheaper than most competitors. Pricing averages around $0.12 per track, compared to iTunes $0.99 per track, its a price you can’t ignore.
Musicmp3 is currently the 2nd cheapest music store on the net.
Musicmp3 usually gives you a 10% if you purchase a whole album together, a nice little touch when your already scratching your head with amusement at the current lowing pricing.
Audio Formats / Bit rate.
Now this is the section I was slightly dreading to come to, as for me, this is the aspect of the music store which is a down fall for the overall service. A major down fall? No. One that annoys you a little? Yes.
Musicmp3 offers all songs in MP3 format. Fine. But at least offer at a minimum bit rate of 256 kbps. And having some tracks 192 VBR and some 320 CBR and some 192 CBR, it seems a little messy to me, especially if you prefer one over the other. Hey, maybe
musicmp3 is already designing a new multi-format download system, but when their entire music selection is already in MP3 format, i doubt that dream is anywhere near close to popping of its cartoon white cloud and into reality. Again if you are not worried about bitrates and kps, then you can basically skip this section, but seeing as i’ve done the most ranting already, you might as well continue reading
. 99% of
Musicmp3’s catalogue is in 192 kps CBR format, which as I said before, the bit rate is a little too low for my liking as 99% of my music collection is in OGG format. But since it is now the new trend not to offer multi-format songs for download, it is not like your missing out on anything, since not many other shops offer this, (yup, I assuming allofmp3 is dead by the time this review is finished).
When testing the songs I downloaded, I found the quality to be of a decent standard. From the sample of downloads I took, none of them had any type of errors, skipping or sync problems.
None of the audio files come with any type of protection (no DRM) or restrictions. One of the small things to love about eastern European digital music shops
Payment Options.
Musicmp3 offers a wide selection of respectable payment options, sometimes a paypal option might appear out of the blue and you might find yourself rubbing your eyes endlessly to make sure you are seeing is really what you are seeing. Anyway, Paypal (sometimes), visa (sometimes), webmoney, ukash, e-gold, wire transfer and gift code are some of the ways of funding of your account. I suggest you do further research with those payment options to familiarise yourself with the additional fees added when using them. With larger payments,
Musicmp3 offer you a bonus which again is always nice.
When topping up your account, I found replenishment to be instant, depending on what method of payment you choose. No time wasted hanging around here.
Additional Notes
One thing I liked about
musicmp3 that other shops don’t offer is the in-depth and well written reviews they have for some albums. It does show a rare side that
musicmp3 is all about...well enjoying music. It shows they take the time to provide decent information and a professional critique on some albums.
Another little nugget, which can be found on your use control panel is the ‘Download Settings’ tool. This allows you to manipulate the format of the title and extension of the songs you download. For example if you prefer you songs to named in the way of ‘Artist – track name’ or ‘Artists – Album Name – Tack Name’, then this can be achieved with that setting. Very handy I must say. And you can also change the extension...why? Well only reason I could think off, is that if you want to download music in a workplace, where MP3 files are banned from being downloaded, you can do so by changing the extension to ‘doc’ for example, simply download the ‘doc’ file and rename back to mp3 and cha-ching, your done.
Conclusion
musicmp3 is a friendly store I can always turn to when I feel the need to buy music. It is reliable and impresses me with a well revised music catalogue. The prices are very good, but the only thing that bites me in the ass is the format/bit-rate aspect, I won’t whine here, but it something that should have been thought about at the beginning. But then again I suppose it only affects a small minority of customers.
All in all I recommend
musicmp3 for anyone to try and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed
Click here to sign up with
musicmp3 (You get one free download)
91% - Editors Choice
Thanks! -
06-01-2007, 05:49 PM
mpa107 -
06-14-2007, 06:15 AM
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07-19-2008, 07:33 PM
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