[Hirs Ute]

Things in Europe may be looking up, well slightly at least

Whilst still somewhat expensive, Jersey based Play.com, who are well known to UK consumers for offering competitively priced DVDs, CDs, Video games and electronic hardware, are now offering DRM free tracks at between £0.65 & £0.70 with a discount for buying the whole album.

It's not clear what either their encoding or pricing policy is. For example:

Adele '19' is available encoded at 192 Constant. The track "Chasing Pavements" is 3:30 long and costs £0.65, whilst the shorter "Cold shoulder" is priced at £0.70. Track prices drop to £0.58 for buying the whole album.

Hot Chip's newest album "Made in The Dark" is available at 320 Constant with all tracks priced at £0.70. If the whole album is bought then the track price drops to £0.54.

Play.com states that all downloads available are fully licensed by the copyright holders.

Not perfect but a massive step in the right direction

[solaris]

Originally Posted by Hirs Ute

Things in Europe may be looking up, well slightly at least

Whilst still somewhat expensive, Jersey based Play.com, who are well known to UK consumers for offering competitively priced DVDs, CDs, Video games and electronic hardware, are now offering DRM free tracks at between £0.65 & £0.70 with a discount for buying the whole album.

It's not clear what either their encoding or pricing policy is. For example:

Adele '19' is available encoded at 192 Constant. The track "Chasing Pavements" is 3:30 long and costs £0.65, whilst the shorter "Cold shoulder" is priced at £0.70. Track prices drop to £0.58 for buying the whole album.

Hot Chip's newest album "Made in The Dark" is available at 320 Constant with all tracks priced at £0.70. If the whole album is bought then the track price drops to £0.54.

Play.com states that all downloads available are fully licensed by the copyright holders.

Not perfect but a massive step in the right direction

Then we can merely hope that no artists in the furure make more than approximately 10 tracks per album or else these downloadable tracks will be more expensive than buying the same artist's brand new CD on for instance: www.Music-Wow.com or www.BangCD.com

But you are absolutely right. It sure is a step in the right direction

[solaris]

They are rather expensive - but at least the bit rate's fine (see attachment)



And in this particular case their taste is impeccable too

[solaris]

But the download section of Play.com is worthless unless you are British (see attachment)





Will these guys NEVER learn?

[solaris]

I will test if this is as easily circumvented as the Amazon counterpart

[Hirs Ute]

Originally Posted by solaris

I will test if this is as easily circumvented as the Amazon counterpart

I would be interested to know if you can circumvent it - I guess it's probably not too difficult. I guess the licences have been issued on a UK basis and as long as Play.com aren't seen to be aiding and abetting people from outside the UK downloading then they probably don't care so much