Introduction Models Pricing Catalog Genre DRM Software Trial Period Conclusion

Introduction

In the aftermath of the rise and fall of Napster, several legal music download sites have sprung up, giving music shoppers an alternate distribution path. While they are yet a make a dent to the traditional music distribution method, the more tech savvy consumer now has a real choice.

Unfortunately, this is not true when it comes to our favorites Genre, Indian Classical Music (ICM). The early market leader, iTMS, when it started had just a handful of ICM tracks neatly tucked away in World/Reggae genre.

Things have started to lookup now, with Saregama (the erstwhile RPG music / HMV), which has the bulk of ICM music, getting serious about music download services. The result is a large number of tracks that have been released for download from various download services - Apple's iTunes Music Store, Microsoft's MSN Music, Real Network's Rhapsody, Yahoo's Music Match, the new Napster and eMusic. While the bulk of the music is popular music in the form of Film music from Hindi and other languages, there are a substantial number of Classical tracks to get us interested.

A new entrant into the market, CrimsonBay, is solely for Indian Music and looks most promising. Right now they are in Beta and are only selling popular music but they plan to introduce Classical music in the coming months. I will review their service once that happens.

Models - Pay as you go & Subscription

Music download services generally have two models. Pay As You Go model popularized by iTMS and subscription model used by eMusic, Rhapsody and now the new Napster. In the Pay As You Go model, consumers buy individual tracks, albums whenever they want, in whatever quantity they want, paying for what they have bought. Usually the tracks are priced at 99 cents (in the US).

In the Subscription model, consumers are allowed to listen to whatever tracks they want. They would either download and listen or just listen by streaming them over the internet. Consumers never own the songs. Usually, companies using the subscription model, also let you own individual tracks (i.e. burn them onto CDs) by paying a fixed amount (like 79 cents) in addition to the subscription service.

eMusic.com has a slightly different subscription model. In this, the consumer will subscribe and pay a monthly fee, for which she is allowed to download a certain number of songs a month. All the tracks are in MP3 format, instead of the usual DRM encumbered format other services use. For eg. for a fee of $9.99 a month, you can download 40 tracks, which turns out to be just 25 cents a track. They have other options as well, where for higher monthly fees one can download larger number of tracks.

       Pricing - Pg 2