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APRIL 22, 2003
By Jane Black Web Music Gets Its Act Together Pay-to-play digital music services aren't perfect, but they're improving. Here's how our Net music maven rates the best -- and the rest
"You're holding me down, turning me round, filling me up with your rules. I've got to admit it's getting better. A little better, all the time." Some restrictions still exist today. You can't download Getting Better All the Time -- or any other Beatles tune for that matter -- on any of the legitimate services because Michael Jackson, who owns the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog, refuses to grant license rights (see BW Online, 4/22/03, "Digital Music: Still Scores Left to Settle"). However, things clearly are getting better all the time. Most services now have access to the catalog of the Big Five labels -- Universal Music (V ), Sony Music (SNE ), Warner Music (AOL ), BMG, and EMI, which together account for 80% of recorded music (sans Beatles). Most services offer unlimited streaming and "tethered downloads," which means you can download a song to your hard drive, but you can't burn it to a CD or a portable player. REAL SERVICE. All the services -- except AOL MusicNet -- have excellent search engines for recommending similar music, as well as programmed radio stations that help music lovers discover new artists. It's features like these that distinguish the sites as real services, not just free-for-all music swap shops like the seminal Napster. As the services continue to lure more labels, artists, and publishers to make their music available online, the value-added features become, well, more valuable. In fact, if you really love music, it may be time to think about trying out a subscription service. Here's a rundown of four legal subscription services -- MusicMatch, Full Audio, AOL MusicNet, and PressPlay -- that have recently launched new and improved versions. MusicMatch MX Key features: Premium radio, unlimited streaming Price: $6.95 per month Throughout its six-year history, MusicMatch's strategy has been to never overpromise. That's still true with its latest subscription service, MusicMatch MX Platinum. MusicMatch MX offers four ways to listen to music. First, it has preprogrammed radio stations covering all the major genres -- alternative rock, R&B, jazz, country -- as well as some intriguing choices such as world beat and French hits. Second, you can also program your own radio station by mixing and matching the stations and indicating how much of each type of music you would like to hear. In about three minutes, I created a "weekend" station with a "lot" of jazz, "some" alternative rock, a "little" world beat, and (don't laugh) a few French hits. The third service is ArtistMatch, probably one of the best music discovery tools on the Net. Plug in an artist -- say singer/songwriter Sarah McLaughlin -- and MusicMatch will create a station that includes her music as well as 82 other artists with a similar sound, including Tori Amos, Dido, and Natalie Merchant. MusicMatch even has recommendations for bands not in its catalog. The music of one of my favorite Brit bands, Badly Drawn Boy, is not available on any digital service. But rather than leave me unsatisfied, MusicMatch was able to play me a mix of similar artists that met my hunger to hear a slow, melodious ballad. Finally, MusicMatch offers Artist-on-Demand, a tool that lets you choose to hear music by one performer. You can't pick a specific song, but you can skip past ones you may not like, rewind those you do, and replay them. It's not truly "on demand," but it's darn close. Given the state of digital music today, MusicMatch is a great product at a great price. Unlike its competitors, MusicMatch doesn't offer downloads or burning. And while that can be limiting, it also means that you don't have to pay attention to the complex rules and myriad exceptions that plague more ambitious services, such as MusicNet and PressPlay. That's one reason MusicMatch is the most popular pay service on the Web, with 140,000 paying subscribers. FullAudio's Music Now Key features: Premium radio; unlimited streaming and tethered downloads; plus à la carte permanent, burnable downloads Price: $9.95 per month; 99 cents per permanent download FullAudio's newest release, available through Internet service providers Earthlink (ELINK ) and Charter Communications (CHTR ), aims to beat MusicMatch at its own game. This service highlights premium radio and offers users the option to download tracks they like. It's a worthy goal, but it doesn't quite hit the right note. The radio offering is broad, though none of the stations fits my personal taste. The "Lounge" music station had too much electronica. Alternative rock sometimes sounded like heavy metal. And each station has a D.J. intro to "brand" it. One of the reasons I'd pay for music is so that I don't ever have to hear a D.J. again. Finding individual songs to download and plug into playlists is difficult. On top of that, the service is sluggish and crashed my PC several times during testing. Without an artist's name, I ended up browsing endless alphabetical lists, often listening to a new artist before I found one I was looking for. Maybe that's meant to count as music discovery, but it's not good enough to lure file traders from free services. MusicNow does have several great features that the other services lack. For one, it offers TrackPacks -- a CD's worth of songs that the service recommends based on your listening habits. When I searched for Ella Fitzgerald, I had the choice of either listening to one of her albums or the "Cole Porter Love Songs" TrackPack with songs performed by Diana Krall, Lena Horn, and Frank Sinatra. In one click, I downloaded all 10 tracks instantly and had an hour's worth of music. MusicNow also creates "auto-playlists" based on the music in your collection, so you can instantly hear the tracks you play most often or the ones you've downloaded and haven't yet had time to listen to. These features allow you to sit back and enjoy your music, rather than spending hours organizing it at your PC.
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