Music without monopoly (comparing digital music online stores in the US and Russia)

The fact is that digital content, especially audio tracks, is still in an unenviable position in our country. Majors believe that Russia is a more or less promising and fast-growing market, sellers say that their estimates are not entirely correct (“record labels declare millions of content sales, giving out“ annual sales ”payments of a fixed annual subscription fee for their catalog”) and the end user still tries to download music if not for free, then in bulk for a very small fee (without thinking that it is still pirated). I already wrote about all the vicissitudes of their relationship in CNews at the end of January , however, the reason for today's topic will be somewhat different.

Journalist Ed Bott, who analyzes Microsoft's “flights” on ZDNet, published, in my opinion, quite interesting material comparing six major alternative iTunes Music Store audio content sites in the United States . Amazon MP3, Zune Marketplace, Rhapsody, eMusic are in sight. The author drew attention not only to the cost of the tracks, the available formats for download, but also the quality of the services themselves from the point of view of the consumer (usability, restoration of purchases, etc.).

General conclusions are as follows:
1. for the price Lala service is recognized as the best.
2. Zune Marketplace is the most convenient, but only for those who use Windows (since software installation is required).
3. If you do not use iTunes Music Store to download music, you can safely save from 10 to 26% of the cost of the track.
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It is interesting that, by and large, Western journalists really have something to compare with. Yesterday in the "Magic PC" appeared material about the Russian counterparts iTunes . With great difficulty, there were four sites (I did not consider UCG content, as well as various communities, including, as I saw somewhere, open source music).