Audio•Files

It's time to pay the piper

A look at three legal file-sharing alternatives

By Cory Casciato and David Shobe
casciato@mscd.edu  dshobe@mscd.edu

With the Recording Industry Association of America suing anyone they can identify and the Supreme Court coming down firmly on the side of the music companies, what's an eager MP3 junkie to do? Go legit, of course.

The popularity of Napster and its kin prodded a few brave souls to explore the possibilities of digital distribution on a large scale. Today, dozens of competing services offer ways for fans to download music legally.

The iTunes Music Store was the first service to push paid downloads into the mainstream. Apple kept the concept simple and familiar with a straightforward business model. Single tracks sell for $0.99 or whole albums for $10 and up, with no other subscription fees or obligations.

Once tracks are purchased and downloaded, they can be burned to CD, transferred to iPods and copied to a limited number of additional computers. Tracks that are deleted or lost have to be re-purchased at full price. With its excellent selection, ease of use and tight integration with Apple's excellent iTunes music application, the service was an instant success that only now is beginning to face any meaningful competition. Offering exclusive content and constantly adding new features, such as podcasts and audio books, Apple has kept a step ahead of the competition.

Rising from the ashes of Napster's hugely popular and highly illegal sharing service is Napster the fully legal subscription service. Napster offers a different approach than iTunes. Users pay a monthly fee-between $10 and $15-to access the entire Napster library. Under the basic plan, tracks can only be listened to on the host PC with an active subscription. Higher-priced plans allow the transfer of songs to compatible portable music players.

To burn music to a CD or listen to music once the subscription is lapsed, Napster reverts to a very iTunes-like model, selling tracks for .99 and albums for $10 and up. Alternately, users can forego the subscription fees altogether and simply buy tracks as desired.

The combination of near-unlimited access to a huge library of music, the ability to "share" songs and playlists with other subscribers and built-in chat functions makes the new Napster feel a lot like the old Napster-only this time, it costs money.

If paying a dollar per song or renting music doesn't sound appealing, eMusic offers a third alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, eMusic users get a set number of downloads each month. Subscriptions start at $9.95 a month for 40 songs, a cost of .25 per song. Unused downloads do not carry over to the next month, making eMusic best for users that download a lot of music. Still, for the cost of a single album on iTunes, eMusic users get three or four albums worth of music. Additional songs can be purchased as "booster packs." These downloads do not expire and can be used anytime after they've been purchased.

Unlike both iTunes and Napster, not to mention most other services, eMusic does not use any sort of digital rights management. Tracks can be copied to multiple computers, burned to any number of CDs and transferred to any portable MP3 player. They also allow users to download any track they've previously downloaded without it counting against their monthly downloads, a life saver in the case of a hard drive failure.

All three services offer a huge variety of music. The leader is iTunes, with over 2 million songs. Napster offers just over a million and eMusic brings up the rear with 600,000 songs in its library.

Napster and iTunes cover a nice mixture of mainstream, popular music and more obscure selections. The eMusic service focuses on independent artists, making its library more focused.

Setup on all three services is a simple matter of inputting credit card info and selecting the desired options. Napster and iTunes require the use of specific applications. The applications are free, but users who prefer a different music player may find this irritating. By contrast, eMusic works within a browser, like any other Website. An optional toolbar plug-in and download manager extend the functionality of the service.

Each service uses a different format, which can cause some confusion. Napster's files are not compatible with iPods. The files sold on iTunes work only with iPods and iTunes. Only eMusic offers the universally compatible MP3 files. These should work in any application and with any portable music player, including the iPod.

It remains to be seen whether the pay services will put a dent in the tide of illegal downloads, but people who want to download and stay on the right side of the law finally have some options.

	iTunes
Cost	.99 per track. Full albums $10 and up
Selection	More than 2 million tracks, 11,000 audiobooks, 15,000 podcasts. Mainstream and independent artists from all genres.
Format	128k protected AAC (.m4p file extension)
Compatibility	PC and Macintosh computers running iTunes and iPod music players only.
Restrictions on use	Downloaded tracks can be used on five computers, any number of iPods, burned to CD unlimited times. Any given playlist can be burned seven times.
Other Features	iTunes Radio, free Podcasts, shared and celebrity playlists, iTunes exclusives, weekly free downloads.

 

	Napster
Cost	Basic: $9.95/month for unlimited downloads. To Go: $14.95/month for unlimited downloads and transfers to compatible device Lite: .99 per track, $7-15 per album for CD burning rights and permanent ownership.
Selection	Over 1 million tracks. Mainstream and independent artists from all genres.
Format	128k WMA
Compatibility	PC computers running Napster application, Windows Media Player or compatible applications. Compatible portable music players from iRiver, Creative Labs, and more. Not iPod compatible.
Restrictions on use	Downloaded tracks can be listened to and added to playlists on host PC without restrictions. To Go option allows use of downloaded tracks on compatible players. Some tracks are available only for purchase, others only for download. To burn tracks to CD or listen after subscription ends, tracks must be purchased separately.
Other Features	Internet radio, chat, "share" music and play-lists with other Napster subscribers. One week free trial.

 

	eMusic
Cost	$9.99 per month for 40 downloads/month. $14.99 per month for 65 downloads/month $19.95 per month for 90 downloads/month. Booster packs available starting at $4.99 for 10 downloads.
Selection	600,000 tracks. Primarily independent artists from all genres.
Format	VBR MP3 (Average bitrates 180 and up)
Compatibility	PC, Macintosh or any computer that can play MP3 music. Any portable music player that is MP3 compatible (All or nearly all!)
Restrictions on use	No restrictions. Burn them, copy them, transfer them as often as needed.
Other Features	Daily free download and internet radio (with eMusic toolbar). 50 free downloads for new users. 50 free downloads for referring a friend.