Guide to Online Music Services

Back in the "bad old days," getting the recordings you need to properly study music was an expensive proposition. CDs costed close to $20 and you had to hunt them down in a megastore like Tower or wait for your special order to come through.

Online music services are a huge leap forward for students - more and more material is being made available every day, and you are usually allowed to buy only the tracks you need. For the first time ever, virtually any piece, any composer, and any performer are available instantaneously.

I'm hoping we can use the world of online music as part of our class. Every week I'll post links to the music we listen to in class, the music required for homework, and extra tracks for your enrichment. Note that the only thing I definitely want you to obtain is the music for the homework - the rest is all optional. The pieces we are studying will often be recorded by many different performers - I'm just picking one or two version that I think will be well-performed and easy to get, but any recording of the piece will be useful - you don't have to buy the versions I pick. I'll look for tracks on three different download services. Which one you want to use depends on your situation, which I'll explain below:

iTunes

ITunes is the big kid on the block - everybody has heard of it and they sell the vast majority of music online. The advantage of using iTunes would be its very broad catalogue. The disadvantage is that the files come in a restricted Apple format - if your music player is not an IPod the files will not play. (You can get around this restriction, however, by burning the music to CD and then re-"ripping," converting the CD to mp3s. It's a pain in the neck, though.)

Amazon

Amazon's music service is brand new, and it looks like it's going to be better than iTunes. It sells plain, hi-fidelity MP3s for the same price (so there are no annoying use restrictions.) Not all of the record companies have joined in, though.

eMusic

Emusic is an odd little company. Unlike the other two sites described here, eMusic works on a subscription basis - you pay $10 a month and get 30 tracks. (So that's only .33 per track. When you join you'll also get a bunch of free tracks.) They are in mp3 format. However, only the little "independent" labels are represented there, so you may not be able to get your favorite pop songs. If you are a serious music addict who is interested in classical, jazz, world music, etc. etc. eMusic is definitely worth joining.

The downside is that they can be annoying to deal with, on occasion. Their customer service department is ridiculously bad. But, if you are a patient sort they can be the perfect service.