Competition is clicking in music

Downloading music from major record companies on the Internet is nothing new, but now you can do it without being a criminal.

Currently there are two major, sanctioned online retailers that offer hundreds of thousands of songs or even whole symphonies for download to home computers, for pay. Unlike feeble, early attempts online by the big record companies, these new services -- Buymusic.com and the iTunes Music Store -- offer a large selection without monthly service fees.

They aim to not just battle music downloading -- which has been done illegally by an estimated 60 million U.S. computer users -- but also cash in on it.

We put them to the test by searching on each for the same 30 music selections, including top pop hits such as Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” and longtime favorites such as the Eagles’ “New Kid in Town.”

We also looked for popular choices in country, rap, Latin, house, hard rock, oldies and classical music, plus some music that is labeled “alternative,” such as Fountains of Wayne’s “Bright Future in Sales.”

Finally, we threw in a couple of rarities, such as an accordion rendition of “It’s a Small World,” as played by a former star of the Lawrence Welk orchestra. (It was not available -- you can decide if that’s a good or bad thing.)

The tests were done on the two online music sellers that debuted this year, as well as a third, smaller shop: Liquid.com.

Buymusic.com and Liquid. com can be used on Windows-based computers, while iTunes is accessed with Internet software only available for Macintosh computers.

Officials at Apple Computer, which operates the iTunes store, say they will have a Windows version set to go online by the end of the year.

Because Buymusic.com and iTunes have agreements with all the major music companies, the songs offered on them are much the same. The big difference is what you can do with the music once it’s in your computer. In general, the iTunes shop places far fewer restrictions on burning it onto CDs, downloading it to portable music players and transferring it to other computers.

Liquid.com, from the Liquid Audio company, offers selections from some majors and independent labels that Buymusic.com and iTunes don’t have. But Liquid.com’s site is undergoing badly needed renovation.

“I’d be the first to admit that the customer experience is not what it should be,” said Ole Obermann, who was appointed Monday as the site’s general manger. “We are working on it.”

(For results of how many of our selections were found -- including costs and restrictions -- see the accompanying chart.)

Buymusic.com, iTunes and Liquid.com aim to steer online music downloaders away from the free file-sharing services pioneered by Napster. That service was closed in 2001 by the federal courts, but there are still plenty of networks where individuals can trade music files at no cost.

The sanctioned shops don’t yet offer anywhere near the wide range of music that can be obtained from illegal networks. But for those who want to buy legally, the online retailers have hundreds of thousands of selections that can be downloaded for fees ranging from about 80 cents to $1.50. The shops differ from existing subscription music services, such as Pressplay and MusicNow, in that they don’t charge a monthly fee.

The major retailers Buymusic.com and iTunes work generally well, with some glitches and annoyances. As for Liquid.com, it’s too early to know what the buyer experience will be after renovations.

The buying process on Buymusic.com is clunky, requiring several steps, while on iTunes -- where purchases can be made with a couple of clicks -- the search engine is somewhat quirky.

Do a search on “Creed,” a hard-rock band, on iTunes and it turns up several songs by veteran crooner Johnny Mathis. An Apple spokeswoman said the glitch is perhaps caused by the word “creed” popping up on the Mathis albums’ liner notes.

In fact, there are no songs by Creed on any of the big online music shops. But there aren’t any songs by the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or numerous other legendary bands, either.

Indeed, the biggest problem faced by the online shops, apart from the fact that their chief competitors are the unauthorized free networks, is that there are huge gaps in their stock. This is due in part to the cumbersome process of obtaining the rights from labels, songwriters and, in the case of top acts such as the Rolling Stones, the artists.

Some of the top current recordings on the Billboard charts -- including the No. 1 country single, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” performed by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, and the Timo Maas remix of Tori Amos’ “Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas,” a dance-club hit -- are not available from the shops.

There are gaps in oldies too. Elvis Presley’s cover version of “Rip It Up” can be found, but the explosive, original performance by Little Richard cannot.

Classical music is pretty much a disaster on the online shops. Selection is poor and the segmentation of the music causes problems.

For example, Buymusic.com and iTunes offer Vivaldi’s Gloria in D as recorded by the Choir of King’s College in England. The work is divided into 11 sections, ranging in length from 49 seconds to 4 minutes and 38 seconds. All are offered at 99 cents apiece, as if they were separate songs. So the work costs $10.89, which is pretty steep for a piece that lasts less than a half hour.

Another problem is compatibility. Buymusic.com’s and Liquid.com’s selections work only on relatively new portable players that unlock songs in Microsoft’s secure format. And downloads from the iTunes store work only on Apple’s iPod.

Troubles aside, when the online shops have a recording you want, they provide almost instant gratification. Plus, it’s often nice to buy just a song you fancy instead of an entire CD.

And even though the retailers’ chief competitors offer a greater range of selections for free, Americans have shown a willingness to pay for music. Buymusic.com, which started July 22, isn’t disclosing financial figures. However, iTunes has seen more than 6.5 million selections downloaded since its April debut.

And none of them were accordion renditions of “It’s a Small World.”

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The lowdown on downloads

To test the extent of offerings on sanctioned online music shops, the same 30 pieces of music were sought on each. Less than half were found. Apple’s iTunes store allows unlimited transfers to portable music players and burns to CDs for all its selections. Usage rules at Buymusic.com and Liquid.com are in general more restrictive and vary greatly.

*--* Artist Piece Buymusic iTunes Liquid Beyonce “Crazy in Love” $1.14 99 n/a Counting Crows “Big Yellow Taxi” n/a n/a 99 Miles Davis “Time After Time” 1.14 99 n/a Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf” 99 99 n/a Eagles “New Kid in Town” n/a 99 n/a Merle Haggard “Mama Tried” 1.14 99 n/a King’s College Vivaldi’s Gloria in D 10.89 10.89 n/a Choir Annie Lennox “Walking on Broken 99 99 n/a Glass” Lil Jon “Get Low” n/a n/a Free Luther Vandross “She Won’t Talk to Me” 1.14 99 n/a Tom Waits “Downtown Train” 99 99 99 Dinah Washington “Look to the Rainbow” 99 99 99 The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again” 99 99 n/a

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Music not found on the three services: Tori Amos, “Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas (Timo Maas Remix)”; the Beatles, “Paperback Writer”; Creed, “My Sacrifice”; Celia Cruz, “Te Busco”; Myron Floren, “It’s a Small World”; Fountains of Wayne, “Bright Future in Sales”; Indigo Girls, “Midnight Train to Georgia”; Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”; Led Zeppelin, “Kashmir”; Little Richard, “Rip It Up”; Martina McBride, “This One’s for the Girls”; Ricky Martin, “Jaleo”; Orchestra of St. Luke’s, “Shaker Loops”; Public Enemy, “911 Is a Joke”; Radiohead, “There There”; Seattle Symphony Orchestra, “Lincoln Portrait”; Rufus Wainwright, “April Fools”