At this time last year, I wrote an article about classical music download sites. Since then, a number of new sites is coming along, and others have made changes to adapt to the demands of the market. One of these sites, eClassical, has undergone a major rejuvenation cure and has launched a single price system.
One of the problems in the sale of digital music is find a way to price elements enough. It is generally by song or album, which is the way to the iTunes store, and most other sites to calculate prices. eClassical, prices on the other hand, his music by duration.
Since you cannot justify a "song" for many classical music eClassical tracks and albums by the second sale prices. .2 Cents per second for MP3 and FLACs files and 3 cents per second to 24-bit (high definition) FLACs eClassical price strategy means that most of the albums are cheaper than elsewhere, but the price of each album differs depending on its length.
Buyers won't have to pay the same for an album of 40 minutes ($4.80) as a disk of 70 minutes ($8.40) and are less expensive than the same music sold on the iTunes store. For example, the latest in a series of Masaaki Suzuki Bach cantatas on eClassical is $7.98, compared to $9.99 on the iTunes store, or $8.99 on Amazon.com. And eClassical sell you files FLAC - audio files without any apparent loss in Apple Lossless, but not playable native mode via iTunes - for the same price.
Swedish eClassical has only a handful of labels at the moment, Bis Records and Hänssler Classic, two well known indie labels, but it would be good to see more join the site and to adopt this method of pricing.
[Kirk McElhearn is a main contributor to Macworld.]
Update at 12 H 26 Pacific at correct prices per second for cents.2 (MP3 / FLAC) and 0.3 cents (24-bit FLAC).
No comments:
Post a Comment