Digital Music: Other Stores

There are tons of music downloads services out there, so obviously I can’t try them all. However, here’s a few more that have caught my eye.

7 Digital / Indiestore

7 Digital is a digital music store operating out of the UK. I’ve only just come across them, but they definitely seem like one to watch. For starters, most of their content is available in multiple formats including WMA and FLAC, as well as high and low quality versions of MP3 and AAC. Once you buy a song, it is kept in your ‘locker’, which can be accessed from anywhere, and downloaded in any of the available formats. It’s good to see this sort of flexibility in a market characterised by restrictions.

The range at the 7digital store is a mix of mainstream and ‘mainstream indie’ and while it doesn’t compare to iTunes, it’s decent. This range is expanded by the inclusion of the Indiestore, which is attached to the regular store and is a place where smaller artists can upload and sell their material. This is still in its early stages and I didn’t really see any artists I recognised, but hopefully it will grow and it’s good to see them doing it.

I bought a single with this service and it was ridiculously easy. The inclusion Paypal made payment simple and whole process was nice and straightforward. Seeing as I haven’t used it more, I can’t really offer a detailed opinion, but on first glance, it seems worth a try.

BigPond

Telstra’s BigPond service is as close as we have to a complete entertainment solution in Australia. On top of your mobile phone and broadband, you can now get music, videos and games. However, this is hardly anything to get excited about. While they do have a large range, it’s nothing you can’t find elsewhere and unfortunately it’s all sold as protected WMAs. I can only really recommend it to existing BigPond customers (who get discounts), but in truth, I think you’d be better off bypassing Telstra all together.

CD Baby

CD Baby is an online store doing great things for independent artists wanting to sell their own music. Many of the albums are now available as MP3s

Amazon

Amazon have put a lot of time and money into taking on iTunes with their MP3 store and on first glance it seems pretty impressive. Unfortunately it’s only available to US customers so I guess we’ll have to wait.

Next: Music Discovery