Was getting tired of having to run the iTunes app from Windows (spend 99% of my time on Linux), but I wanted DRM-free music of a (at least slightly) better quality format than MP3.

But then, it was ridiculous. Each time I'd hear a song I liked, I'd put the info in a file to "purchase and download next time I boot on Windows", except that I now had 50 songs in my backlog.

So I searched again and found 7digital yesterday and all I can say is, awesome!

- Most songs are at least M4a and many are FLAC
- Music selection is almost comparable to iTunes (ie, not just Indie stuff)
- THEY HAVE A BLOODY BROWSER STORE.

Can't understand why Apple didn't bother with a browser store before to support any random third party platform. Guess selling Macs was their primary business and selling music their secondary business used to attract more Mac customers.

Well, take your Mac Apple and... Now, you won't even be getting my music money you greedy imperialistic...

I finally found a store whose priority is selling music.

Ok, my rant is over. I feel liberated. Move along, nothing to see here :P.

I think Apple is in the business of alienating its general customerbase. It seems like their only desire is to sell stuff to the biggest fanboys, what with all of their proprietary hardware and the removal of the headphone jack in the newest Iphone :P

Tell me more about 7digital, I am curious. Does it sell DRM-free music?
I like Magnatune, but I haven't sign-up yet. It is a bit expensive.

I checked 7digital in the past, but it was quite expensive.
Also, it still had a lot of geo restrictions and other limitations.
I need a fully DRM-free store for music*..

*(for old classics, not just for indie)

I've heard there is a limit how many times you can download your tracks on 7digital... can't find anything, though. Or is it on Google? It doesn't matter to me as I back everything up so I don't need to re-download, but it is something worth thinking about.

Now, personally I do use 7digital and Google Play's music store (depends on the price, same idea) to get my music

Yeah, their music is downloaded like GOG games are and tied to your account.

However, they warn that when a contract with a label forces them to remove songs from the store, they may get removed from your account, so I'd definitely be very diligent about backing the stuff up (ie, download everything and keep a redundant copy). I wouldn't say very expensive. Their M4A/MP3 are in the 0.80-1.10$ range which is the same as iTunes.

From what I've seen so far, the price for their FLAC format varies. In one instance, it was actually cheaper for Flac than Mp3/M4a (don't ask me why). In most instances, it was about 0.20-0.30$ more expensive for the Flac version and in 2-3 instances, it was 1$ more.

Not sure about geo restrictions in terms of what you can purchase, but given that the store directed me to the Canada portal, I would say most likely. Not sure about limits on downloads. As I backup everything and only re-download when the initial download is corrupted, I'm unlikely to find out. Does Google Play sell only MP3 or do they offer better quality formats also?

Ah, that's another thing I hate.
If I paid for some digital content in the past, that must remain permanently in my account. End of story.
I can't lose songs just because labels changed their mind at some point.

I agree with your statement.

In this case, because I backup my music and because music is not subject to potential updates the way games are, it doesn't annoy me as much, but obviously, if you account could act as a permanent backup, it would be better. That much is lost.

I guess its a kind of half-jerk reaction from labels who haven't fully internalized that once you have downloaded a DRM-free copy of the song, their ability to revoke your access is severely limited. The best they can hope for is that you lose your backup somehow.

Have you tried bandcamp yet? ;)

Nice, thanks for the suggestion. According to Defective by Design they sell DRM-free music:
"7Digital sells music in a variety of DRM-free formats."

Source: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/audio

I couldn't find any info which suggested that complying with DRM would be required to listen to, or stream, bought music, also I don't find anything on arbitrary download limitations, either.

Midoryu

Edited 1 minute later:
Also. like Wurzelkraft suggested, Bandcamp is cool, too. Never had trouble with them.

7DIGITAL EUROPE / EU STORE CLOSURE

Terrible news... although I much preferred the store back when I could simply make all my purchases in the original UK version (as opposed to the EU one with its limited catalogue) now I won't be able to buy anything at all. And for a long time this has been my go-to site for all my digital music purchases...

I wonder what the reasons are. Also why would they have separate sites for every region/country. It's so stupid. No wonder that in some countries piracy rates are still in the 90% range.

Me too.

It sure is - nothing good ever came from doing that...

I strongly dislike their use of the term 'music locker' as it reeks of DRM but I guess that's intentional as I won't have online access to any of my purchased music once the EU store has closed.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Brexit. So far I've been unable to find any insightful news on the subject of the store closure - any news whatsoever, actually. The internet is strangely silent on the matter.

WTF? I didn't know that 7digital closed its EU online store.. O_o