A first-hand detailed account of the utter disaster that is Buy.com's new online music service, BuyMusic.com. They are guilty of every "don't do this" technique known to geekdom. Proprietary formats, stupid interface design, non-existent tech support, and of course autoresponse e-mail hell, first cousin to voicemail hell.
This review is mirrored at BlogCritics, but the comments available on the original are well worth reading, too. Add to my list: the company's apparent indifference to copyright issues.
This "service" is getting roasted by the major media (USA Today, WaPo). Look for it to be floating on the surface sometime soon.
Update -- I am going to go out on a limb and reprint one excellent comment from the "scriptygoddess" site first linked above. This guy, I think, has it nailed:
The problems Jennifer is facing are, IMHO, but the first tremors of the quakes of the problems we're going to see once Microsoft has tied your rights to the motherboard with Palladium.
Your rights will expire, you won't be able to treat files the way you want to because you won't have enough rights anymore. The PC will become a vehicle for content companies to push their products to you without you having any control over the files you're using.
This is a really scary prospect. We are nearing the time when the computer will be as functional as a toaster. Expect more content-driven companies without clue 1 about what makes the net tick pushing their stuff onto your hard disk. You will no longer control your computer, Microsoft will control your computer. Has anyone taken the trouble of reading the End User License Agreement of Windows XP SP1 ? That's where we're heading.
Now you still have a choice, when Palladium is in place you will no longer have a choice. Except maybe one choice : nobody can force you to buy a computer that is equipped with that architecture. What will happen though is that you will no longer be able to enjoy "the full experience". "This website requires a Palladium equipped computer. Thank you for your interest in our products".
Don't let it happen, people. It's not a good thing.
Posted by: Rudolph on July 30, 2003 11:16 AM
6:32:24 AM 
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