Music shopping online

November 21, 2007 | In Music | No Comments

As I continue my adoption of MP3, AAC and my iPod as my primary way of getting to and listening to music, it has become a lot easier to find new music and indulge in some old favorites. For a while now I’ve been using the iTunes story quiet happily. For the most part the good people at Apple have given me a good experience at a relatively reasonable price.

The problem with iTunes is, the majority of the content there is copy protected. Not cool. I like the idea that my music can go with me even if I (God forbid) leave the iPod behind and go to something like the Zune. Not going to happen, but anything is possible I guess.

For the last few weeks I’ve been exploring some alternatives that work with iTunes and my iPod without having to deal with the iTunes Store. First up is the new Amazon.com offering. A nifty service linked right into Amazon.com. Through it I have been able to get the latest Barenaked Ladies albums at a reasonable price ($7.99 compared to the $9.99 iTunes price). Oh did I mention it’s all unprotected standard MP3? Yeah, it is, it’s awesome.

Of course there is eMusic too. The other service I have jumped on. For $15 a month I get to download 50 tracks a month. Awesome! Well, it’s all indie stuff for the most part, which means a limited selection but I’m amazed what I’ve found. Here is a list of just a few things I’ve downloaded to date. . .

• New Dashboard Confessional, plus some older tracks
• First Elbow album
• John Wolfington’s second album
• Classic Promise Ring material
• The Gomez album from last year
• The 88′s latest

I’ve also found stuff from Motion City Soundtrack, Pedro the Lion, Badly Drawn Boy, Super Furry Animals, Hey Mercedes and others that I plan on downloading over the next few months.

At any rate, the online music world has really opened up over the last few months for me, and it’s making my iPod all excited.