Review of Magnatune Store

[John Buckman]

My thoughts on all this:

> (1) If a download is stopped for some reason, there is no way to  
> restart it
> within Amarok.  Perhaps Amarok crashed or you needed to stop for  
> some other
> reason. To continue the download, you have to go to the link  
> provided in the
> confirmation e-mail with a web browser.  It would be nice to just  
> resume from
> within Amarok.

Agreed.

> (3) Amarok doesn't know about albums I have already purchased.  It  
> would be
> nice if Amarok kept track of albums that I have purchased, that the  
> buy
> button could become a re-download button, or maybe just offer to re- 
> download
> if I attempt to buy it again.

Yes, and that would allow re-downloading too, or downloading in  
alternative formats later on.

> (6) It is my opinion that more information about how the  
> transaction will be
> completed, i.e secure connection, you will receive an e-mail with
> instructions, etc. before the program asks for credit card  
> information.
> Also, to make the transaction more secure, Magnatune should consider
> requiring the 3 digit security code on the back of most cards (I am  
> pretty
> certain all Mastercard and VISA have this now).  In addition to  
> making the
> transaction more secure from a customer service point of view, I  
> believe the
> banks offer lower processing rates when this code is used because  
> there are
> fewer fraudulent transactions, and therefore less cost for them.   
> This might
> make it less scary for people buying for the first time.

Yes, actually the CVV would be a good idea.   If Amarok adds &cvv=###  
to the URL, I can support it, no problem.  I also agree that  
explaining that it'll be https, email backup


> (7) Album art cannot be easily retrieved.

Every album has these files in the same directory as the music:
cover.jpg (300dpi)
cover_200.jpg (200 pixels wide) (and some other sizes are available too)
artwork.pdf (300dpi, often multipage)

Amarok could certainly download those as well.

> I purchased the album Egg by a band
> called Zilla.  To try and re-create the crash described in (2), I  
> aborted the
> download within Amarok.  To finish downloading the album, I used  
> the link
> provided in the confirmation e-mail and downloaded the flac zip  
> file.  There
> was no album art included in the zip file.  So I don't know if that  
> downloads
> automatically if the download is completed within Amarok.  If it  
> does, great,
> but obviously the Amazon lookup does not work for these artists and  
> if I want
> to have album art show in the context browser for purchased tracks,  
> I must go
> to the magnatune site and download it manually.
>
> Anyway, I know some of these are nit-picky, and if you made it this  
> far I
> salute you, but I think they would contribute some overall polish.

Good idea, thanks!

One thing I was suggested, is a "paypal" link in the purchase  
process, since 1/3rd of the web site purchases on magnatune are  
paypal, and if ref=amarok is in the url, then the 10% referral fee  
will still work.

Some stats on sales so far:

In 6 days:
40 albums sold through Amarok
$318.00 gross sales
Average "how much do you want to pay for the music " is $7.95

-john