B uyMusicis (BM) bad press continues to mount. The latest mainstream media outlet to heap on the criticism is The Denver Post. In an article titled "BuyMusic.com: Close, but no Apple," the newspaper says that BM tries very hard to be the iTunes Music Store, but fails in the process. From the article:
The songs sound the same, the end result on your blank CD is the same, but once again Apple gets the packaging right and a new PC-based pretender will be tweaking itself for years in order to catch up.
The BuyMusic.com Internet site was supposed to be the mainstream answer to Appleis acclaimed legal music-downloading service that debuted in the spring. Appleis innovation was simplicity: Pay 99 cents for a song and own it, with no subscriptions and virtually unlimited burn rights.
Not available for Windows- based personal computers until at least January, Appleis iTunes left a wide opening for another industry-sponsored service to gain ground with disgruntled music buyers.
Now that it is up and running, the verdicts on BuyMusic are broadbanding in, and results are mixed. The company gets credit for trying to shore up the cratering legal pop music trade with a massive song library and an easy-pay system. But like the Windows operating system itself years ago, BuyMusic.com arrives as a dumber rip-off of a beautifully executed Apple idea, frustrating users with its ugly graphics, disjointed presentation and clunky download-and-burn process.
The rest of the article goes on in a similar vein, and we recommend it as an interesting read.