KnobsLeversButtons » Digital world

The music industry moves in mysterious ways. Convenience is the USP

Ronald Pulleman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:47:23 +0000

I am member of eMusic, an online music store that operates by subscription. I my case I have 75 downloads each month. I really love this, since eMusic does not have all music “on stock” and I have to explore, taste, been recommended and listen to music which can be found in the digital recesses, in order to sample new music. Thanks to eMusic my musical horizons have broadened.

But sometimes I am not able to download a particular album, because of where I live. You would think the music industry is globally organised. Not so. Bummer. Bad!

But the next thing was new to me. I was able to download the album “Broken Social Scene”, by “Broken Social Scene” except one song, which was not available for download:

This is very strange. However I could download this one song by going to the single where it was available for download:

I am pretty sure this is not enforced by eMusic, but by the label(s).

I am one of the dinosaurs still paying for my music. But my main criteria is convenience. All those restrictions are hurting paying customers in my opinion. I was close to copying it from someone owning the CD. As a matter of fact I sometimes illegally download albums which are regionally restricted.
Please labels, enter the 21st century. We pretty much got rid of DRM, but regional issues still exist and are causing aggravation and only annoy the paying customers.

I will do my best, but convenience is the USP. Remember that!

Bol.com, all the taste with twice the cafeine. Bol.com test run?

Ronald Pulleman — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:27:43 +0000

Sunday morning 21/9/2008, the new bol.com store was temporarily online.

It is definitely an improvement to the old site. Previously when searching for the band daryllann, there were no results whatsoever. The new site now changes the incorrectly spelled band name to the correct spelling. This means that the site is more forgiving to spelling mistakes. This should help conversion rates. Although….. the album Renko found on Bol.com is not the correct album: Renko…..bol.com still have to sort out some data issues.

Revamped product sections

All product pages are revamped, but especially the games, DVD and music sections look hugely different. The site looks and behaves the same across the different product groups now.

I love the feature that you now can search for children games or hardcore games. Ordering a PEGI 3+ game for a four year old is not what PEGI is about. PEGI rating just sucks™

Shopping basket

The shopping basket and checkout has pretty pictures.
Nice eye candy.

Pretty urls
http://www.bol.com/nl/p/games/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots/1004004006052238/index.html
Bol.com has got rid of all the ugly urls they used to have. SEO to the max.

Payments
Unfortunately the Postbank was experiencing problems which caused problems with my Postbank credit card or iDEAL payments. This killed some of the experience, but this is not something Bol.com can help. It was handled gracefully on the bol.com site. My Visa card had no problems whatsoever… Good… good..

Next steps?
ATG and Endeca transformation almost done. Time for the next phase….

Authorized trash… MacBook Logic Boards.

Ronald Pulleman — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:51:29 +0000

After my MacBook was repaired, because it was defective as described in MacBook kaput, I attached my iPod…. and was greeted by the following dialog:

Some of the items in the iTunes library…not copied… not authorized…???? Ever since the iTMS sells DRM free music I buy a lot of DRM free music (EMI) and I always made it a rule to never buy DRM’ed music….Almost. I made some exceptions: “Getting Things Done” and some children’s music. Thus this was a good reminder why DRM sucks so much. They (briefly) locked me out of music I legitimately bought and owned(?)

So I needed to Authorize Computer.. from iTunes. Hmm I don’t know, sounds a bit techie.

Apple Speaks

It just works.
How much time have you spent troubleshooting your PC? Imagine a computer designed by people who hate to waste time as much as you do. Where all the hardware and software just works, and works well together. Get a Mac and get your life back.

I think this is a different experience.

After I selected authorize, the following dialog popped up:

Ok, but what is this 3 machines thing?
Twice Apple replaced the logic board in my MacBook, so I think there are 2 broken logic boards which are authorized…

Well I read somewhere that when I get to 5, a button appears in iTunes with which I can deauthorize all computers. But that button only appears then. How’s that for context-sensitive menu items?

If this happened to a certain family member, I’m not sure if she knew what to do.

So this just hurts the experience, but more important it just feels not right that they just locked my(!) music from my computer unless I showed them that I am authorized. Compare that with the CD’s in your cabinet which you are not allowed to play, because you moved..and you need to show the receipt again.

Digital Dutch Treasures ride the Long Tail.

Ronald Pulleman — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:40:50 +0000

I have always been a huge fan of the Dutch band Daryll-Ann, which broke up in 2004. I fondly remember their concert in LVC Leiden.

Their albums released on Excelsior are still available and the one album released on Hut is readily available on eBay and 2nd hand Amazon.

However their debut album Renko I found impossible to find on eBay or Amazon. And bol.com does not sell 2nd hand albums (yet).

Until I discovered Fonos….

Fonos

It is a bit embarrassing that I only recently discovered Fonos, since it started in 2003! At Fonos you can order Dutch albums which are not for sale anywhere. They have a catalogue of about 20000 albums. Mostly vinyl. If it is vinyl they digitise the music and the covers and sent you the CD, otherwise they just copy the CD. It is completely legal since they got permission of the labels and Buma/Stemra.

Digital world… Everything available…the Long tail…..(no body though).
Kunt U mij de weg naar Hamelen vertellen meneer? No problem.