volume #4 issue #01
Who's Really in Charge Here?
This topic is one I am compelled to write about, in the hopes that my experience can be a
valuable aid to anyone else who attempts to make waves by blowing the boat out of the water rather than by rocking it. I
am not interested in illegal solutions to very legal problems here. I am trying my best communicate my displeasure with
Digital Music Services in general, which as you will find out are more of a disservice than anything worth putting time,
and more importantly money, into effectively. I don't do this sort of thing to change the world, and I will probably not
effect the flow of money and music. I know that much already, and can't really hope to make any kind of difference when
it comes down to it. I don't want to do that, but I do want to share what I went through if only to demonstrate the
arrogance of the untamed industry. Take what I write with a grain of salt, it is tainted with the bitterness of
frustration, the sourness of wasted efforts, and burning, peppery heat of failure.
I was first introduced to the world of Digital Music Services, the legal way to acquire music online these days, when
my family replaced our old computer with one running Windows XP. Preinstalled was the Napster client, so I went out and
picked up one of their prepay cards, just to humor that part of me that was curious about what Napster had become. The
cards are available almost everywhere now, but I still recommend getting them at RadioShack, or Big K. Anyway, I went
through the set-up, got an account established, and was underwhelmed by the poor, in fact nonexistent, selections of
Japanese Pop Music. I did a little digging, and found a "Music Request" form in their Customer Support area of the client
software. Seeing no harm in requesting the music I am interested in hearing, I filled out the form. Faithfully checking
the Napster site periodically, I did not see any indication that anything was being done, so I began a process of
requesting songs every time I checked and saw now results, it got to be a regular thing. I did send some feedback once
or twice about the glowing absence of the genre in their listing, but that went unanswered as well.
I thought very little of the oversight, until I actually went through the whole library of genres that Napster carries, and
what I found was interesting. At least Five sub genres that fall under the General Pop category are international, but
none are Japanese Pop. I will let those facts speak for themselves, and not say what I want to about that. Being fed up with unfulfilled requests, I decided to
launch a renewed feedback assault(you will understand why I use that term in a moment) to see if I could bump even just a
little bit of interest up in attempting to resolve the issue. Since Napster makes it clear in their on site help
documentation that they do not respond to feedback submissions, I did not expect to get a reply, even after I stated my
intentions of "taking my money elsewhere." I must have struck the right chord with them, because I did get an answer.
The solution Napster offered was to call them via their toll free number(which they clearly state in their online help
is only for subscription members which I was never, and never will be). I didn't accept that, and pursued the matter
further via email. To get to the point, Napster went out of their way to insult my intelligence as a consumer by telling
me to use the Music Request form, and other little bits of information that I already knew from researching their onsite
help documents. They also provided the obligatory "rights and royalties" routine to try and cover their being too lazy
to even try contacting the artists, record labels, and/or whoever else "has a stake in the songs".
Ruling Napster out as a potential for continued Online Music Purchasing, I did a little research, and found out several
other services were beginning to offer a prepay card option as an alternative to Credit Cards. I was able to rule out a
long list of services due to the Credit requirement, since I don't have, and can't get a credit card. Starting at the top
of my list, I started asking each one a single simple question, "Does your service carry Japanese Pop Music?"
Each one returned the same results, parroting the same source about "rights and royalties" almost to the letter. Besides
that, no one seemed to know what I was talking about. One indicated that the service he worked for did in fact have a
"General Pop" category in its music library, to which I responded with my Napster stats(they have at least 11 "pop"
categories if not more, 5 of which are non US music), ans long story short, had to rule that service out as a potential
candidate for the replacement of Napster. I had to try another one, the last on my very short list whom I could contact
via email or web form to pose my question. That one went horridly as well, the representative had no clue what I was
asking, and tried to gloss over what I asked, again, with information I already knew from reading onsite help
documentation.
There is only one other Digital Music Service that I have to hear from at the time of this posting. I'm handling it
through First Class mail, after trying to locate an onsite question/feedback form and finding nothing remotely helpful.
I have little doubt that this reply will be any different than the others I've seen to date, but I hold off on any
speculation until I see that same "rights and royalties" speech that I could quite possibly quote in my sleep I have seen
it that many times in the past week.
Now I fully understand the "rights and royalties" aspect of the whole Digital Music Service industry, but it seems to me
that what is supposed to be an underlying saftey net has become an excuse for the Service providers to not go out of their
way to acquire certain music. It's legalized discrimination of a sort.
Here's my list of "Don't waste your time or money" Music Services, again I only approached those services I could clearly
determine had a prepay card option available.
Napster - Having used it, I can say it's user interface was intimidating(and still is), the automation of
song request and feedback forms alienates the user who may want to communicate with a live body, and the selection of
music is deplorable if your looking for not so mainstream songs. Their Prepay cards are widely available now.
MusicNow - Ciruit City carries their prepay cards, I think $10.00 and $20.00 denominations. Does not carry
Japanese Pop music. You have to have either a prepay card or credit card to even set up a user account to browse their
library, and they are not clear about that during the registration process. It means money has to be wasted on the
chance that you might find something of interest on their site. I also had to repeat my question of "Do you carry
Japanese Pop Music?" for it to be answered without the sales pitch "set up a user account and look for yourself."
Musicmatch - Also preinstalled on the computer, does not require money to set up a user account or browse the
library. Does not carry Japanese Pop Music. Download cards are available at "participating" Target and 7-11 convenience
stores.
iTunes - Prepay cards are supposed to be available at Target stores. I have not heard from anyone within the
company yet on whether or not the iTunes Music Store carries Japanese Pop Music, but if the trend so far is accurate, they
do not carry it.
All told, the Digital Revolution, which is supposed to make thing easier on us, the consumers, is a load of garbage when it
comes to Digital Music. I don't have the means to shop online, nor can I get the means to do it(I have terrible credit).
I guess I'm royally screwed(pardon my course English) until something better comes along. I have about 14 pages of wasted
time and effort, and though there has been no blood yet, quite a bit of sweat and a few tears went into this exercise in
futility.
C'est la Vie
Anime Dreams
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