Introduction Models Pricing Catalog Genre DRM Software Trial Period Conclusion

Trial Period

The Pay as you go services do not have any trial period. Ofcourse, you could always download a few songs and try the services out cheaply enough. The subscription services usually have a free trial period, normally 7 or 14 days, in which to try the service. For eg. eMusic lets you try the service for 14 days in which you can download 50 tracks. These tracks are yours to keep even if you cancel the service. That is quite a good deal in itself !

Other subscription services which basically let you listen to the tracks, let you try out the service for free for seven or fourteen days. You can sample the catalog, listen to the songs for quality of encoding and decide whether you want to pay $10 or so every month for such a service.

Conclusion

It is still early days for ICM download services. There are lots of problems with the catalog and data modelling that need to be sorted out. But the pioneers among you would want to try out the services.

eMusic happens to be the best in terms of price and also offers MP3 encoded tracks instead of protected tracks that other services offer. iTunes is the worst in terms of price for longer tracks, inspite of having one of the best interfaces. There is not much of a difference among other service providers.

My guess is that less than 5% of ICM music that is available in CD or Cassette form is now available for download. The new India centric service of CrimsonBay is the most promising service, but is yet to include ICM in the catalog.

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