Musical focus: Not content with being the leading digital platform for all strands of electronica, in recent months it has also embraced leftfield rock and has subsequently grown an extensive and proud catalogue of quality releases.
Key acts on platform: Danger Mouse, Bjork and Aphex Twin.
Format of tracks: Standard MP3 files (compatible with all computers, iPods and MP3 players) in 320kbps quality.
Length of track previews: Complete track. Bleep.com allows you to listen to full tracks for free prior to purchase. Simply click play again once the player has stopped after initial 30 second clip and it will continue on to the end of the song.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No. Bleep.com believes that people like to be “treated as customers and not potential criminals - DRM is easily circumvented and just puts obstacles in the way of enjoying music”. They subsequently do not build-in DRM to their files. This enables you to forward tracks downloaded from Bleep.com onto your friends for free. Which is nice if you like that kind of thing.
Standard price of single track: £0.99
Installation of proprietary software? No. You don’t need to install any software to begin to downloading tracks. Downloads can be bought direct from the site.
Video downloads? No.
Other: Few extras are available at the present time.
General overview: A solid and impressive download platform that is slowly establishing itself as a key player in the British downloading field.
Musical focus: One of dance music’s few downloading platform.
Key acts on platform: Inland Knights, Freak Commission.
Format of tracks: MP3
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No.
Standard price of single track: £0.85
Installation of proprietary software? No.
Video downloads? No
Other: Guest top tens, genre sections, news and masses of dance-focused information are at your fingertips.
General overview: Informed, enthusiastic and chic, Click Groove’s reputation as the platform at the forefront of dance music downloading is thoroughly deserved. Only Ministry Of Sound stands above it.
Musical focus: eMusic is the world’s largest retailer of independent music and the world’s second largest digital music etailer overall - second only to the ubiquitous iTunes.
Key acts on platform: eMusic targets and direct-markets to consumers who are interested in music outside the commercial mainstream, dramatically expanding the sale of catalogue typically known as "the long tail." These are the likes of Black Flag, Johnny Cash etc etc
Format of tracks: Mp3
Length of track previews: 30 secs
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No
Standard price of single track: As mentioned below, eMusic is a subscription-based service, allowing members to download tracks for substantially less than they would pay with other download services. Various pricing plans allow customers to pay a bottom line price of 22p per track. Which is really rather nice, isn’t it? The 3 eMusic pricing plans are as follows… eMusic Basic - 40 song downloads per month (£8.99 per month) / eMusic Plus - 65 song downloads per month (£11.99 per month) / eMusic Premium - 90 song downloads per month (£14.99 per month).
Installation of proprietary software? To add your purchased downloads to your Mp3 player you’ll have to download the eMusic Download Manager software which is free and relatively easy to use.
Video downloads? Not yet. Focus at the moment is on overhauling iTunes dominance of digital music track downloads in UK so all their efforts are concentrated into this medium for the time being.
Other: eMusic is a subscription-based service that prides itself on allowing consumers to own, not rent their music. eMusic is apparently the largest service to sell tracks in the popular MP3 format - and thus one of the few digital music platforms that is compatible with all digital music devices, including the iPod. As a platform it also allows eMusic subscribers to explore their ‘friends’ and ‘neighbours’ playlists and monitor their downloading habits; which is actually more fun (and less weird) than it sounds. There’s also the possibility to download an eMusic toolbar for your Windows Explorer.
General overview: One of the few true competitors (alongside Wippit) to iTunes dominance of the UK market (with regards to independent label releases). Their catalogue of independent labels is hugely competitive and perhaps more in-tune to current listening standards than the Apple network. Their subscription service also seriously undercuts all of their rivals on price. A fantastic and expanding network.
Musical focus: A broad catalogue of artists that mirrors the appeal of its high street sister store.
Key acts on platform: Coldplay, Oasis, Madonna
Format of tracks: WMA (thus not iPod compatible)
Length of track previews: 30 seconds
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes
Standard price of single track: prices begin at £0.79
Installation of proprietary software? If you wish to sign up for HMV Unlimited - the HMV subscription service - then you will need to download their HMV Digital Player. If not then you can simply buy single tracks from the HMV Digital Store without installing any proprietary software.
Video downloads? Not at the present time.
Other: There are two options open to you. The first is HMV Unlimited - a monthly subscription service that allows you to download as many tracks as you like for £14.99. However as with all of these large platforms there’s inevitably a catch; these tracks are copy protected and thus are unable to be burnt onto a compact disk. Your second option is to use the standard HMV digital store on a pay-as-you-go basis. If you’re a large monthly consumer of music this is obviously a more expensive route to the HMV Unlimited (but less restricted).
General overview: Attempts to mirror the stranglehold they have on the High Street have been fruitless and despite the big-branding and international corporate muscle, HMV Digital remains a rather small and underused platform.
Musical focus: Blanket coverage across every imaginable genre. Something in the region of 2 million songs are available, giving you a phenomenal platform to hunt out every imaginable downloading need.
Key acts on platform: Madonna, U2, Mariah Carey.
Format of tracks: AAC format. These are tethered to use on Apple-created technology only. (iPods/ Motorola iPod phones etc)
Length of track previews: 30 Seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes. Once you’ve downloaded tracks from iTunes you are prevented from forwarding anywhere. It can be hugely restrictive.
Standard price of single track: £0.79
Installation of proprietary software? Yes. The store is free to download for MAC and Windows users and takes about 15 minutes to fully procure.
Video downloads? Yes. Browse, preview and download over 1,000 music videos (and growing by the day). Costs are from £1.89 (UK) / €2.49 (Ireland). To view videos one of the two new 30GB and 60GB model iPods are required.
Other: 25, 000 podcasts and 12, 000 audio books are also available. The store also has the capability of doubling up as a jukebox with a multitude of functions (i.e. create your own playlist, share your tastes through iMix, introduce parental functions and the list goes on).
General Overview: The market leader. A big, uncompromising downloading beast that plays relentlessly by its own rules. But competition is growing and there are signs that Apple’s and iTunes’ dominance is on the wane.
Musical focus: Priding itself on bringing you ‘the best in commercial and cutting edge dance music from the world’s best producers and labels’. Float your boat?
Key acts/labels/channels on platform: Euphoria, Hed Kandi, Housexy
Format of tracks: Mp3 (thus compatible with iPods)
Length of track previews: 1 minute
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No, they say “use the music any way you want: you’re in control… put it on your MP3 player, burn it to CD, load it into your phone - but remember, don’t share it, it’s cheap enough and if you recommend us to one of your friends, we’ll give you a free download as soon as they make their first purchase!”.
Standard price of single track: Between £0.99 and £1.25
Installation of proprietary software? No
Video downloads? No and unlikely to change.
Other: An impressive recommendation system analyses your listening habits and recommends tailored new music. Tracks are available in mixed and unmixed formats, whilst the store also plans to soon offer the ability for platform users to create their own unique mix. They have also (understandably given the ubiquity of the MoS brand in dance circles) cornered the market on huge dance exclusives.
General overview: Dance music downloading remains in its infancy. However with Ministry of Sound investing money in unique mixer software (see above) and appealing to it’s already huge database to embrace digital technology then it can only be a matter of time that it becomes a cornerstone (and subsequent invigorator) of the dance music scene.
Music focus: Huge coverage across all genres that is closing in on chief competitor iTunes.
Key acts on platform: Oasis, Eminem, Beyonce.
Format of tracks: WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Length of track previews: 30 seconds with Napster light/ full length with monthly subscription packages.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes. Once you’ve downloaded tracks from Napster you are prevented from forwarding anywhere. As discussed above it can be hugely restrictive.
Standard price of single track: £0.79 where applicable
Installation of proprietary software? Yes. No matter what option you chose (there are three types of Napster Membership open to you - see below for further details) you will need to download some standalone software to access. This is free and available from the official Napster site.
Video downloads? Not yet but expect capability updates soon.
Other: There are three types of Napster membership plans open to you; 1/ Napster Light - Your bog-standard music store that gives you access to purchase a multitude of single or album tracks. 2/ Standard Napster Membership - For a set fee of £9.95 a month this package lets you listen to over 1 million songs as often as you want direct from the store. You are also able to download a limited amount of music to listen to offline (although these can not be transferred to your compatible MP3 player AND once your Napster subscription expires you will lose ALL of these songs). 3/ Napster To Go - As with Standard Napster Membership but for a monthly charge of £14.95 you will be able to upload any track from the immense Napster catalogue to your compatible MP3 player (although once again if you cancel your Napster subscription you will lose ALL of these songs). The Napster store also gives you the opportunity to join communities, listen to and download exclusive live recordings and allow you to create your own customised radio station.
General Overview: After a huge advertising spend in 2006 Napster has established itself second only to iTunes in the battle of the download platforms. But it is closing in fast. That said - and as appealing as the 2 main subscription packages may sound in principle - users do tend to find themselves merely using Napster as a simple jukebox and rarely bothering to download tracks (which kind of defeats the purpose if you ask us). This has already begun to play against it and has subsequently seen its smaller competitors (i.e. Wippit) eating into its market share.
Members: Mycokemusic/ MSN/ Freeserve/ Tiscali/ Virgin Digital
Musical focus: Chart-focused on the whole, although attempts at crossing into niche genres are common and wholly unnecessary.
Key acts on platform: Girls Aloud, Sugarbabes, Robbie Williams.
Format of tracks: WMA
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes.
Standard price of single track: £0.99
Installation of proprietary software? No, each download platform affiliated with the OD2 network allows files to be bought direct from their sites.
Video downloads? No and unlikely to change.
Other: Extra services are limited and technical support is non-existent.
General overview: Once at the forefront of British downloading the OD2 network has thankfully been shifted backward in recent years - overtaken by less fussy and more personalised platforms. This perception of OD2 seems unlikely to change as the network appears unable to adapt to an increasingly competitive and agile marketplace.
Music focus: Like its popular parent review site Playlouder Downloads offers a mixed and varied musical bag. Indie specific as a rule; if you’re looking for downloads of obscure lo-fi white labels then this is your best bet.
Key acts on platform: Clearlake, Royksopp, Brave Captain
Format of tracks: Standard MP3 files (compatible with all computers, iPods and MP3 players).
Length of track previews: 30 second clips
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No.
Standard price of single track? £0.99
Installation of proprietary software: No. Much like Tune Tribe and Bleep.com you don’t need to install any software to begin to downloading tracks. Downloads can be bought direct from the site.
Video downloads? No, and unlikely to change.
Other: Few extras are available although you can easily search for reviews of your chosen tracks on the parent playlouder.com; which can help with the old decision making process no end.
General overview: A small and tidy platform targeted towards a niche market of leftfield rock fans (the kind you’d normally find scuttling around dusty record shops on Saturday afternoons) this is the ideal ‘no frills’ download experience.
Musical focus: The recently launched digital arm of the infamous London record shop; subsequently it’s an extensive cavern of leftfield rock, electronica and beyond.
Key acts on platform: Pull Tiger Tail, Bromheads Jacket, I Was A Cub Scout
Format of tracks: Mp3
Length of track previews: 30 seconds
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? No. They say “We've been selling music for the last 30 years to people the same as us - music lovers. Needless to say, we treat all our customers the same, whether they buy a 7" single from our London stores, order a CD album from our mail-order website, or download a track from here, our digital store. If we imposed DRM, then it would be like policing every customer that walks out of our stores, not allowing them to enjoy the music at their own discretion. We strongly feel that this is wrong.”
Standard price of single track: £.0.99
Installation of proprietary software? No, not at all.
Video downloads? No, and unlikely to change until the medium becomes ubiquitous.
Other: The Rough Trade Digital Shop has been thoughtfully set-up to mirror the layout and feel of an authentic Rough Trade shop. The site is subsequently broken into 3 separate sections; The Counter - where shop recommendations go (updated weekly), The Wall - where releases of limited availability appear. As the site stats “The Wall aims to replicate the wall display of releases we have in our Talbot Road store. Items here tend to have limited availability, such as a limited pressing of a 7" single, a 12" promo and so forth. Needless to say, items on The Wall are often limited by either quantity (e.g. only 500 exclusive downloads) or period of availability (e.g. only being sold for 2 days). Limited items are clearly displayed with remaining quantities/period left. If an item isn't limited, it's simply a record that people are talking about” and The Racks - where standard releases are stored. They also plan to start adding new features to the platform from innovative gift solutions, in-store gig streaming and right up to a digital music club.
General overview: Drawing much from the impressive reputation of their high-street London stores Rough Trade Digital is a platform with a difference; priding itself on limited edition digital runs and embracing obscure off-kilter artists from around the globe they look likely to quickly establish themselves as the platform de jour of your digital music connoisseur.
Partner sites: Amnesty International, Metro Tunes, Drowned In Sound and many more.
Musical focus: A different kind of platform in so much as the chief aim of 7 Digital is to syndicate its huge catalogue of music out through third-party partner sites. This set-up allows each partner site to tailor their catalogue to their readership and sell digital downloads from only relevant acts. As it’s flagship website states “7 Digital provide a music and video download solution for over 300 clients. 7 Digital enable digital media commerce on behalf of record labels, broadcast and retail partners”.
Key acts on platform: This is entirely dependent on the editorial profile of each partner site.
Format of tracks: Mp3, AAC and WMA (the later of which are not iPod compatible)
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes.
Standard price of single track: £0.77
Installation of proprietary software? No.
Video downloads? Yes. 7 Digital are at the forefront of video downloading (although these are WMV files and therefore not iPod compatible).
Other: Recommend and news features are pretty much all you’re going to get outside of the standard download catalogue.
General overview: Used by countless websites (see Drowned In Sound’s digital store), record labels (Island) and bands (Coldplay) to add the opportunity to sell digital downloads onto their website. An unfussy and minimalist download platform that is growing steadily.
Musical focus: Concerned solely with the musical mainstream.
Key acts on platform: Take That, Justin Timberlake, Girls Aloud.
Format of tracks: WMA (not iPod compatible)
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes.
Standard price of single track: £0.79
Installation of proprietary software? No.
Video downloads? Not at the present time, but any progression in this field would be embraced by Tesco and seen as an opportunity for them to command greater share of the entire download market.
Other: The opportunity to earn club card points as you download music offers something a little different to the other platforms.
General overview: A big, bold and positive addition to the download marketplace the Tesco platform is free from jargon, cheap and extremely easy to navigate. A relatively small catalogue but coupled with daily features (Top 10 songs from adverts, the 5 best All Saints songs etc) and a focus on simplicity and it does its job extremely well.
Musical focus: With ‘your independent download specialists’ as their tagline you can pretty much sense what ball park TT are choosing to swing bat in. Mostly devoted to the ‘alternative’ genres - indie, punk, hardcore, electronica - this nonetheless doesn’t stop them gamely featuring such rock/ pop heavy weights as The Strokes, Madonna, Coldplay and Gorillaz.
Key acts on platform: Um, don’t you listen? Sheesh. The Strokes, Madonna, Coldplay and Gorillaz
Format of tracks: MP3 and WMA.
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes, (when stipulated by the artists’ record label) but it’s a decidedly less oppressive set-up to that found at iTunes, Napster or the like. WMA files downloaded from TuneTribe are limited to 7 burns and 5 devices. A happy compromise to the market-leader's dictatorial approach.
Standard price of single track: Between £0.79 and £0.89.
Installation of proprietary software? Nope. All tracks can be downloaded direct off the official site.
Video downloads? Not at the moment, although Tunetribe carries a reputation as a forward-thinking platform so will be eager to hop on the video bandwagon once it begins to gather pace.
Other: A whole range of forums, download-related news, indie exclusives, label focuses and much much more. There’s also a record label on the go too.
General overview: A superb, independent platform. One of the best around.
Musical focus: What started off as a niche indie retailer has slowly morphed into one of the biggest - and most active - download platforms on the web.
Key acts on platform: The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, Thom Yorke
Format of tracks: MP3 and WMA (the later of which are not iPod compatible)
Length of track previews: 30 seconds.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes.
Standard price of single track: £0.99 but can go as low as £0.29
Installation of proprietary software? No.
Video downloads? Not at the current time, but they do have an extensive movie download platform that allows you to download full-length feature films for between £7.99 and £19.99.
Other: Wippit offers two ways to use their platform. The first is their Unlimited Downloads package which offers monthly subscribers (a hugely competitive £4.99 a month or £50 a year) that allows you to download a stack of music from Wippit’s catalogue (but not the entire catalogue) for free each month, whilst the second is your standard pay-as-you-go purchase plan. Wippit also offer the opportunity to download mobile phone ringtones and purchase all manner of band merchandise (t-shirts, posters etc) from their ‘Gear’ channel.
General overview: The true champion of independent download platforms Wippit is pretty much faultless. A huge catalogue of artists, the offer of MP3 and WMA files and an easily navigable site layout have allowed it to position itself as the third most visited digital download platform behind Napster and iTunes.
Musical focus: Entirely pop based. If it hasn’t made the top 40 or been introduced by some nauseatingly cocky z-list celeb on Popworld you’ve got no chance.
Key acts on platform: Sugarbabes, The Pussycat Dolls, Robbie Williams
Format of tracks: WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Length of track previews: No previews available.
DRM (Digital Rights Management - which prevents unlimited circulation of tracks)/ Copy Protection? Yes. Once you’ve downloaded tracks from Woolworths you are prevented from forwarding anywhere. Like Napster and iTunes it can be hugely restrictive.
Standard price of single track: £0.59.
Installation of proprietary software? No. Simply go direct to the site to begin downloading.
Video downloads? No, and unlikely to be incorporated into the platform until they become more commonplace.
Other: The epitome of the ‘no frills’ experience.
General overview: A cheap and cheerful platform for chart pop fans.
