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HMV takes on mighty iTunes with 40p promo

Probably better than last effort

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HMV has a new music download site and lots of offers to tempt punters away from iTunes.

The UK music retailer kicks off hmvdigital today by selling any song in the top 40 for 40p a pop. Chart albums are retailing for as little as £4.99.

The service has some 10 million DRM-free MP3 songs in its catalogue - and users can download previous purchases. At time of writing, it is unclear if overseas customers can use the service - although Canadians have their own version at hmvdigital.ca.

Apple's iTunes is unlikely to be quaking in its boots just yet. But HMV's service marks a step up on its previous effort in 2005, which only worked with Windows Media Player, astonishingly enough.

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Rubbish!

Why should I pay the record megabiz pennies for a high quality DRM-free downloadable track, just like we've all been asking for for years, when I can download a dodgy copy for FREE?!

I'm telling you, until they provide perfect quality (analogue, not digital) 5.1 songs covering the entire back catalogue of every obscure unsigned band that has ever lived as a free instant download - no, scratch that, I want the ACTUAL BAND in my living room on demand - I'm not paying them a penny!

HMV are DOOMED until they realise their business model is broken, and they can only survive by handing out free CDs of Linux and open-sourcing their stores.

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Streaming....

you can choose your tracks you want, and get the streaming without any problems whilst driving? On the beach in Spain? Up a mountain in Wales? Ummm.... bet a £5 MP3 player works in those locations.....

And, as for streaming HD video... epic fail unless you think those of us that don't live next door to a BT exchange and get nowhere near 2 meg, let alone 20meg, download speeds, will happily wait 3 weeks for a film to download.

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And yet . . .

. . . it still suffers the same problem as iTunes.

After a quick scan through half a dozen or so titles (albums, not tracks), it was always cheaper to buy the CD rather than pay for the tracks via download. The only exception was the Feeder album Renegades, which is the same price as a CD as download.

Why buy an inferior version for more money ??

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