Alternative to the iTunes Store
As an avid iPod and Mac user, the most obvious choice for buying music would be the iTunes Store - now the world’s most popular music destination online. However, I recently gave up with the iTunes Store; there are plenty of other alternatives out there offering more reasonable prices and higher bitrate tracks - with no DRM.
7Digital is the site I’m now trying. Its library is almost as comprehensive as iTunes’, but the quality of tracks is much better. I can get 320kbps DRM-free MP3s from 7Digital, for the same price as a 128kbps DRM AAC track from Apple’s iTunes Store.
There are really no advantages to buying from iTunes - the only minor one I can think of is that it’s all integrated into one piece of software. Apple don’t even let you download the song more than once - unless you contact them and plead for them to allow you to download it again. With 7Digital, and many other music stores, you can simply visit your downloads “locker” and download it again - as many times as you want - forever.
For me, PayPal is an extremely important feature. I don’t have a credit card, and therefore rely on PayPal for all my payments. iTunes in the UK does not support PayPal, 7Digital does.
The iTunes Store has improved since it startred. Apple now offer DRM-free AAC tracks at 256kbps - but their selection is limited, and the price is 10p extra. Obviously, iTunes is still the only place to buy music videos and TV shows that I can think of.
The message of this blog post is: You don’t have to stick with iTunes. There are plenty of other alternatives out there - some better, some worse. I highly recommend 7Digital for those in the UK and Europe.
Of course, you don’t have to buy music; if you feel like being a pirate, head over to the dozens of BitTorrent trackers or warez sites.