MusicNet casts for subscribers, but holes still remain

[America Online] MusicNet offers a What’s New category offering information on recent additions.

By DAVE GUSSOW
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 17, 2003

America Online's latest effort in online music services shows improvement, but the price and content aren't right yet.

The Righteous Brothers and AC/DC made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. But you can't listen to them on the MusicNet subscription service on America Online.

Fans of the Clash, the Police and Elvis Costello, also new Hall of Famers, can relish their songs online.

Online music subscription services, such as the AOL version of MusicNet that made its debut last month, remain a hit or miss experience. But the record industry's latest efforts are a vast improvement over the initial offerings in late 2001.

The song selection has more than tripled to about 250,000 for most services, though it still has gaps in singers and songs that will irritate aficionados. Some services allow users to burn CDs or transfer downloaded songs to portable music players, though it can cost more than going to a store and buying a CD.

MusicNet likely will not satisfy people who made the filesharing Napster such a hit a few years ago. The record industry successfully sued and shut down Napster, but its fans simply moved to other sites such as Kazaa and Morpheus to download their music for free.

What users of such sites see as a "right," to enjoy their favorite music for free, the record industry defines as theft, pure and simple.

But even as it fights the free sites in the courts, the industry is looking for the right formula to cash in on the popularity of online music.

Patience paid off for AOL, which did not pick up the first version of MusicNet, which was created by a group of major music labels. It was plagued by too many technical glitches and too many restrictions on the music, including not allowing users to burn CDs or transfer songs to portable music players.

The version that AOL introduced last month is easy to use and gives users more flexibility in how they can enjoy the music. And the fact that AOL is offering it gives it a substantial marketing platform, though it works best with a high-speed Internet connection and AOL subscribers are still overwhelmingly dialup users.

To start, users download the software from AOL (keyword: MusicNet) and choose from three price plans:

$3.95 a month to listen to 20 songs "streamed" from the service and 20 to be saved for repeat listening through the AOL software (not stored on the user's hard drive);

$8.95 for unlimited streaming and downloading;

$17.95 for unlimited streaming and downloading, plus 10 songs that can be burned to a CD.

This is on top of the monthly fee users pay their AOL service.

To compare, MusicNet initially charged $9.95 for 100 streams and 100 downloads. (AOL also is offering a free 30-day trial for streaming and downloading, but not burning.)

The service has an easy and effective search function by artist, song, album or music style. Unlike version 1 of MusicNet, it works. And the Help function is useful this time around.

For downloaded songs, users can set up personalized playlists. While a song is playing, a small picture of the album and the song title are shown onscreen.

Subscribers will not find all their favorite singers on the service, even though MusicNet, and rival services such as Pressplay, have signed deals with all five major record labels.

Faith Hill songs are available, but the only tunes from husband Tim McGraw are a couple of duets with her. Teen sensation Avril Lavigne is not aboard, but big Grammy winner Norah Jones is. Bob Dylan has only nine songs (and only three that can be burned). Forget about the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

However, the service has a What's New category and has been adding songs and artists almost daily during our test, including Bruce Springsteen, Eminem and a new Fleetwood Mac song (Peacekeeper) from an upcoming album.

Burning a CD proved easy. My son chose 10 songs from groups such as the Used, put them in the order he wanted and clicked burn. When finished, he took the disc to his room, put it in his stereo and listened to it.

Ten songs a month is going to be a problem. It's simply not enough, and MusicNet doesn't give subscribers the option of adding tracks at, say, $1 a song. In addition, not all songs from all artists can be burned (the list shows a Yes or No in the Burn column).

So if you wanted to burn a full album, say with 15 tracks, it would take almost two months' worth of your $17.95 subscription. You can buy most CDs for less than $15 at a store.

Pressplay (www.pressplay.com) is more flexible on burning: It offers additional packages of $5.95 for five songs, $9.95 for 10, and $18.95 for 20. You can buy the added songs any time you want without changing your regular subscription.

So, is MusicNet worth it? For that, I turned to my music-loving teenage son and a friend. Both said no.

My friend is willing to pay as much as $1 a song to download and burn, but he cares nothing for online streaming. So he would count his entire $17.95 MusicNet subscription as the price for downloading 10 songs, or almost $1.80 a song. My son thinks $17.95 is too steep, particularly for teenagers.

Despite the clear improvement over the initial MusicNet service, I think AOL's offering is still too expensive. (Come to think of it, I think CDs are overpriced as well.) In addition, if I want to listen to streaming music, the Radio AOL service that's included in my monthly fee for America Online is very good and gives me choice of genre, if not specific artists.

A final note to AOL: Initially, I signed up online for the free 30-day trial of MusicNet. When I decided to give the CD burning a try, however, I couldn't upgrade the account online. I had to call. (AOL also accepts regular mail and faxes.)

When I called, I found out that the service couldn't be fully activated until the start of my next billing cycle, several days away.

This is the Internet generation, AOL. It doesn't want to wait. And you shouldn't make it.

-- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.

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