Buymusic.com Sells Music Like Sausage (Weekend Music Rant Part MCXIV)

In: business models|music|user experience

26 Oct 2003

Do a couple searches on Buymusic.com and it’s obvious they don’t care about music at all. From spelling mistakes (for instance "Anne Peebles" — it’s Ann) to the underlying assumption that the track is the core product, this is an amateurish effort from a web delivery perspective, and an insult to the music lover.
A few things Buymusic.com needs to do to begin to be able to be taken seriously:

Group (not just sort) results by album and lose the obsession with singles.

Learn the difference between a composer and an interpret.

Stop inflating their numbers with tracks extracted from compilations and start selling real albums, not the evil repurposed scourge majors are so much in love with.

Sell at least a million tracks, not 200,000.
Here’s a small test I did. I checked the availability of the albums I listened to between yesterday and today:

Jeff Aubry et al. – Bluegrass ’98: no

Chris Duarte – Tailspin Headwhack: no

Ann Peebles – I Can’t Stand the Rain: no

D’gary – Mbo Loza: no

Guillaume de Machaut – Messe de Notre Dame (Ensemble Gilles Binchois): no

Keziah Jones – Black Orpheus: no

Curtis Counce – You Get More Bounce: no

Alpha Yaya Diallo – The Message: no

Aretha Franklin – Aretha in Paris

Steve Oliver – First View: no

Spyro Gyra – Morning Dance: no

Natacha Atlas – Something Dangerous: no

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Buymusic.com Sells Music Like Sausage (Weekend Music Rant Part MCXIV)

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