Cheaper downloads – legally!

I’ve spent a fruitful half-hour playing with the new mp3-download, price-comparison website TuneChecker.com.

Before you rush off and try it, I have to advise that the website might not work in some countries. But it definitely does work in the UK!

It was only a year ago when Amazon announced their serious challenge to iTunes’ stranglehold of the download market.

The big challenge that Amazon presented wasn’t just as a widely-recognised brand offering a competing download service, it was that Amazon delivered a double-whammy to the iTunes stronghold:

•    DRM-free mp3 downloads vs iTunes’ entirely DRM-restricted catalogue, and
•    Consistently cheaper downloads than iTunes

Up until the point where Amazon launched its download service, it was widely acknowledged that iTunes owned the lion’s share of the download market. Play.com had brought their download function out in February 2008, but they – like HMV – had failed to break in to the big time. Other download services were seen as little more than ‘fringe’ providers.

For me – and maybe for you too – the market got confusing. There were just too many places to go for downloads and yes, we’re a lazy species, so it was simply easier for us to just go to iTunes every time, wasn’t it?

Maybe it was, then.

But now there is an alternative that is not only *as easy* as just going to iTunes, it could well save loads of money.

This is where TuneChecker.com comes in.

Launched by the man who seems to have the mantle of ‘UK’s money-saving guru’, Martin Lewis, TuneChecker.com offers visitors to the website a simple search facility that lists the cheapest downloads available.

It’s that simple.

At the moment TuneChecker.com searches against iTunes, Amazon, Play, 7digital, HMV, we7, Tesco, Orange and Tunetribe, but Martin Lewis tells us that his new website is seeking to add SkySongs and Juno to their searches.

What are the upsides of using TuneChecker.com?

First of all, usability:
I found the TuneChecker.com website easy to understand, simple to navigate and very intuitive. At first glance the webpage seemed a little cluttered, but the designers have made the FAQ pleasingly obvious and, frankly, if the Search box and the ‘Go’ button were any bigger they’d fall out of my laptop and crush my legs.

Secondly, service:
It is undeniable that TuneChecker.com delivers a value-added, price-comparison website. Just why would you want to pay 7digital £1.19 for Leona Lewis’ ‘Better In Time’ when you can buy the same track from tunetribe for £0.49?

Do you know how I found those prices out?

TuneChecker.com, my friend.

And what are the downsides  of using TuneChecker.com?

Despite the obvious – and pleasing – money-saving aspect, using the service exposes two issues, and no, they are not issues with the TuneChecker.com website.

Firstly accounts:
To enable users like you and me to click on the cheapest link *and buy* that track or album we’ve been coveting for the last couple of weeks, we need to have a user account with the download provider.

So if the cheapest is Tesco, you will need to have (or need to set up) a Tesco account. And if the cheapest is Play… well, you know where this is going.

The good news is that setting up an account with each of these download providers is a once-only pain in the bum.

Once you’ve got your accounts set up you can just do the normal click/remember thing that all web-browsers are capable of doing and hey presto! Off you go.

Secondly, mixed-functionality:
Although the ‘click and pass through’ from TuneChecker.com outwards to the downloader website is neat and simple, it does highlight how ‘clunky’ some download-providers websites are.

But look at it this way, TuneChecker.com is free, it directs us to the cheapest downloads on the market and it is ridiculously simple to use.

What’s not to like?

_________________________

Like this article?

Then why not subscribe to This Reality Podcast? You can download it to your computer, iPhone, iPod or portable mp3 player and listen to this weekly music and chat show wherever and whenever you want.

Just click here to add it to your iTunes and take it with you; better than radio, no matter how you look at it!