Last week Buy.com tried to take a bite out of Apple’s successful iTunes Music Store by rolling out a low-priced song-download service said to be simple and reliable.
But in an example of the technological trickiness involved in offering users the freedom they desire while giving music labels the protections they demand, early customers have found they can’t transfer the tunes they buy on BuyMusic.com to digital portables.
The Mac-only iTunes has won raves for ease of use, both in burning CDs and transferring songs to Apple’s iPod players. But BuyMusic’s tracks have started out as unplayable, even on portables lent to the press in a promotional blitz.
“We’re working on this,” says Buy.com’s Scott Blum, who says the company will have the glitch fixed today and that customers who have bought tracks will receive an e-mail offering free re-downloads.
The problem: Unlike MP3 music tracks plucked from the Net from pirate sites such as Kazaa, music on BuyMusic is encoded in Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format. The “digital rights management” coding limits what can be done with the files. The files will be recoded to allow for transfers, Blum says.
It’s an early embarrassment for BuyMusic, which rushed to be first to offer song sales without subscription fees to users of Windows PCs. The Net retailer made a splash with a 160-foot-high Times Square billboard featuring a near-naked Tommy Lee. It sells MP3 players by Creative Labs and others.
“It’s unfortunate they had this glitch,” says Creative’s Craig McHugh, adding that many customers have been calling seeking help. “We’ve been really excited about BuyMusic and its potential.”
BuyMusic.com’s tech support staff was of little help when contacted Thursday. An e-mail response read: “We are unable to provide technical assistance after you have downloaded the music … to your primary computer. In addition, we are unable to credit you back for failed or damaged copies once you have successfully downloaded the music.”
Apple has sold 6.5 million songs since April; BuyMusic won’t release figures, but “it’s not millions,” Blum says.
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