tags/businessDavid Bremnerby-nc-sa-2.5
Copyright 2020, David Bremner
https://www.cs.unb.ca/~bremner//tags/business/David Bremnerikiwiki2009-08-08T13:14:39ZA music download service that doesn't suck (mostly)https://www.cs.unb.ca/~bremner//blog/posts/isongcard/
<a href="../../whyCC/">by-nc-sa-2.5</a>
Copyright 2020, David Bremner
2009-08-08T13:14:39Z2009-08-08T12:16:00Z
<p>So last night I did something I didn't think I would do, I bought an
downloadable album in MP3 format. Usually I prefer to buy <a href="http://www.zunior.com/">lossless
FLAC</a>, but after a good show I tend to be in
an acquisitive mood. The <a href="http://www.jonepworth.com/">band</a> was using
<a href="http://www.isongcard.com">isongcard.com</a>. The gimick is you give your
money to the band at the show and the give you a card with a code on
it that allows you to download the album. I can see the attraction
from the band's point of view: you actually make the sales, rather
than a vague possibility that someone might go to your site later, and
you don't have to carry crates of CDs around with you. From a
consumer point of view, it is not quite as satisfying as carting off a
CD, but maybe I am in the last generation that feels that way.</p>
<p>At first I thought this might have something to do with itunes, which
discouraged me because I have to borrow a computer (ok, borrow it from
my wife, downstairs, but still) in order to run Windows, to run
itunes. But when I saw the self printed cards with hand-printed 16
digit pin numbers, I thought there might be hope. And indeed, it turns
out to be quite
<a href="http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/">any-browser</a>/any-OS-friendly. I
downloaded the songs using <a href="http://www.arora-browser.org">arora</a>, and
they are ready to go. I have only two complaints (aside from the FLAC
thing).</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I had to download each song individually. Some kind of archive (say
zip) would have been preferable.</p></li>
<li><p>The songs didn't have any tags.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>So overall, kudos to isongcard (and good luck fending off Apple's
lawyers about your name).</p>