MSN Promotion, Buy One Song, Get Five Free!

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://music.msn.com/' target='_blank'>http://music.msn.com/</a><br /><br /></div>MSN is offering a special incentive right now to its customers; Buy one song, get five more...FREE! 8O Whether you're a fan of WMA format or not, this really is a heck of a good deal. <br /><br />Further details..<br /><br /><i>Here's how it works: The first time you buy a song between April 30, 2005 and July 10, 2005, your 5-song reward will be automatically credited to your account. Then, the next 5 songs you choose will be free. It's that simple. You can download your free songs immediately. To check the number of free downloads remaining, look in the upper right corner of each page once you sign in to MSN Music. You'll have until September 30, 2005 to redeem your free songs.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/msn_promo.gif" />

[Felix Torres]

I tried it this week; I was looking for a hard-to-find cd and they not only had it, it was:
a- encoded at 256Kbps WMA
b- half the price of any online rare cd vendor carrying the album

The thing works so smooth its scary; I configured it to confirm buys cause otherwise I'd drop a thousand bucks in an hour. One click-buying and me are not a good fit. (Over in amazon I keep stuff in the cart for weeks; if I still want it after the cooling-off period, I'll pull the trigger.) ;-)

The files came down faster than it takes to say it, and fully integrated into my library as well as showing up in the purchased music branch of the tree. I was impressed.

I've sampled Walmart and Buy.com and browsed Napter and itunes; MSN music is the scariest. Clean and efficient. And at 256Kbps for the two cds I ended up buying for the price of one the quality of the burns are indistinguishable (to me) from the uncompressed audio.

I just wish they had a subscription service...

[mcsouth]

It's funny - I got an email in my account this morning about this promotion, but they have had it running at the MSN Music site for well over a week or more now. I stubbled across this deal a while back, and have already burned through my 5 freebies ( :oops: ). MSN Music is the first online music store that I have used, and I must admit that it works pretty slick, at least from what I've seen. Most of the music that I've purchased has only been 160 kbps, not the 256 that Felix mentions, but that is still as good or better than most of the other services, so I can't really see any reason to go elsewhere. Besides, I need to have something to do with my MS Passport! :lol:

[Felix Torres]

Most of the music that I've purchased has only been 160 kbps, not the 256 that Felix mentions, but that is still as good or better than most of the other services, so I can't really see any reason to go elsewhere.

Actually, while the full cds were 256kbps, I picked up two instrumental singles as freebies and those were 160kbps *vbr*.
So the quality is definitely better than most of the competitors.

Along a similar line, Buymusic.com is offering a lot of content in your choice of 128 or 256Kbps...
I'm thinking its a trend.
I'd still prefer lossless downloads but 256WMA is close enough for my ears...

[Kent Pribbernow]

It's funny - I got an email in my account this morning about this promotion, but they have had it running at the MSN Music site for well over a week or more now.

That's exactly how I found out about it. Nice of MSN to takes its sweet time notifying me! :evil:

My only problem is that I don't have a portable device (media player or otherwise) that can handle WMA. I suppose I could listen to them on my PC, but that's no fun. I did have an Axim X50v, but sold it recently. So it looks like I'm SOL. :(

[Jason Dunn]

Once again I curse MSN for not having MSN Music available in Canada. Bastards! :evil:

[Jason Dunn]

My only problem is that I don't have a portable device (media player or otherwise) that can handle WMA.

If you get songs that are 160 kbps VBR, I'm willing to bet you can burn those to a CD, re-rip at 128 kbps AAC and hardly notice any difference...burn and rip, the best DRM solution there is. :D

[Kent Pribbernow]

If you get songs that are 160 kbps VBR, I'm willing to bet you can burn those to a CD, re-rip at 128 kbps AAC and hardly notice any difference...burn and rip, the best DRM solution there is. :D

Yeah, I thought of that already. I just hate the hassle of playing the switcheroo game with audio conversions, burning, ripping, ect. Real pain the arse. Grrr...I should never have sold my Axim! http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/017.gif