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Puretracks Review
- Puretracks is a music download store where tracks are paid for per download at the following costs:
- Individual songs - $0.99
- Albums - $9.99 (average) Album prices vary depending on artist and number of tracks
- Supports Windows and Mac
- E-Singles section lets you browse the latest 'download release only' tracks
- Fully featured web site to download tracks from
- Download MP3s DRM free
- Download WMA files DRM protected
- U.S or Canada only
- Purchase gift certificates
- All tracks encoded at 192
kbps
- Dedicated multilingual support 7 days a week
- Download individual songs for $0.99
- Wishlist feature for tracks you plan to buy
- Music library contains over 1.3 million songs
- Burn MP3s to an unlimited number of CDs
- Copy MP3s to an unlimited number of portable devices
- WMA files will only work with PlaysForSure enabled devices
Puretracks is about as average as it is possible to get. It doesn't particularly excel at anything, but doesn't really do anything that badly either. With an average sized music library, averagely designed website and average prices Puretracks will probably be happy that it's sitting somewhere around the middle of our top 10 list. However, happy would probably be too strong an emotion for Puretracks, lets just say it wouldn't be fussed either way.
At just over 1.3 million tracks Puretracks has a smaller library than some of the major players in our top 10 list so you might not find that obscure artist you are looking for. However, the library contains a lot of mainstream material and seems to be kept up to date with the latest releases. Searching it couldn't be easier either; you can either browse by genre, or search for a particular artist. If you find anything you like you can download it straight away or add it to the handy 'wishlist' attached to your account.
Actually downloading tracks is a bit more time consuming. Unlike some other sites, you have to add tracks to your shopping cart then enter your credit card details each time you buy. It's not as straight forward as the one click purchasing other sites have, but at the same time if you have ever bought anything online you won't have too much trouble with the process. Once you have paid for your tracks you can either follow a link in the confirmation email sent to you or visit the 'order history' section of the site to download the music. The whole process works, but it's a bit of a hassle when you just want to download a couple of tracks.
The site itself is fairly easy to navigate and looks good for the most part. It's not quite as polished as some though, and there were a few bugs we ran into. Not least the fact that the link to the frequently asked questions page was broken. Moreover, the biography information for a lot of the artists we checked out was missing. None of these things were anything too major in themselves, but all together show a lack of attention to detail and carelessness in the site.
Regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM): Puretracks offers downloads in DRM protected WMA format or DRM free MP3 format. Not all tracks are available as MP3s yet, but the library is being constantly updated. This means that with the WMA downloads you are restricted as to how you can use them. Only portable devices that support PlaysForSure technology will play them, and although a lot of devices do, the iPod for one does not. All the tracks, regardless of format, are encoded at 192 kbps, which is decent quality but not as good as some of the bigger sites are now offering.
What about value for money?
Individual tracks are downloaded at $0.99 a time and album prices vary depending on the artist and the number of tracks on the album. These aren't the greatest prices around, but are fairly standard. The only thing lacking is the special offers some sites offer from time to time. There was no evidence of these on the Puretracks web site. Also, Puretracks only offers music downloads - as the name might suggest.
As we may have mentioned once or twice already, Puretracks is distinctly average. It is very much in danger of getting left behind if it doesn't increase its selection of DRM free MP3s and bump up the quality of them. The customer service is good, but some little niggles within the site and a lack of any interesting or novel features perhaps shows a lack of effort invested in the business. Although Puretracks will do the job, if you are after an excellent music download service there are better places to look.
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