Finally, someone gets it right
I read an item on Jason Kottke's blog yesterday about a record label, Warp Records, starting to sell MP3s of their artists direct to consumers from their store, Bleep. For some reason that name tickled my memory. When I went to have a look, I recognized it as the home of LFO. I had seen a video of the song "Freak" by LFO and had wanted to buy the CD but at the time it was only available as an import from the UK, too expensive for "not-sure-I'm-gonna-like-the-whole-CD" music. But now the whole album was available for 9.99$US.
Now, you will say this is the same as iTunes, no? Wrong.
First of all, here you get high quality Variable Bit Rate MP3s.
Secondly, they well sell to anyone anywhere in the world with a credit card or paypal account.
Thirdly, but most importantly, there is no DRM.
From the FAQ: "Bleep music has no DRM or copy protection built in. We believe that most people like to be treated as customers and not potential criminals"." From the EULA "You shall be authorized to store as unlimited copies of the Product on any media, provided that these copies are for personal non-commercial use only."..."You shall be entitled to export, burn or copy Products solely for personal, noncommercial use."
I downloaded LFO's Sheath album, the procedure went rather well although their webdesign is no to my tastes. Just had one little glitch when paying with paypal, an image did not load on the payment page so I had to click on it but other than that the process was smooth.
And the music, well, it's half and half. Some I like at first listen, some I am still getting used to. To be fair, "ambient techno fusion" is not the kind of music I usually listen to. "Freak" is still a great track, check out the video here (click play on the bottom left).
I read an item on Jason Kottke's blog yesterday about a record label, Warp Records, starting to sell MP3s of their artists direct to consumers from their store, Bleep. For some reason that name tickled my memory. When I went to have a look, I recognized it as the home of LFO. I had seen a video of the song "Freak" by LFO and had wanted to buy the CD but at the time it was only available as an import from the UK, too expensive for "not-sure-I'm-gonna-like-the-whole-CD" music. But now the whole album was available for 9.99$US.
Now, you will say this is the same as iTunes, no? Wrong.
First of all, here you get high quality Variable Bit Rate MP3s.
Secondly, they well sell to anyone anywhere in the world with a credit card or paypal account.
Thirdly, but most importantly, there is no DRM.
From the FAQ: "Bleep music has no DRM or copy protection built in. We believe that most people like to be treated as customers and not potential criminals"." From the EULA "You shall be authorized to store as unlimited copies of the Product on any media, provided that these copies are for personal non-commercial use only."..."You shall be entitled to export, burn or copy Products solely for personal, noncommercial use."
I downloaded LFO's Sheath album, the procedure went rather well although their webdesign is no to my tastes. Just had one little glitch when paying with paypal, an image did not load on the payment page so I had to click on it but other than that the process was smooth.
And the music, well, it's half and half. Some I like at first listen, some I am still getting used to. To be fair, "ambient techno fusion" is not the kind of music I usually listen to. "Freak" is still a great track, check out the video here (click play on the bottom left).
