RutunesDigital Music, Computers, Internet…

With iTunes being the market leader in digital music shops and loved by many, it goes without saying that iTunes has its fair amount of critics. With its high price structure, stubborn software functionality and presumptuous product design, people cannot justify paying a high price for music bundled with restrictions.

So many digital music shoppers are turning to other sources, specifically Russian and eastern European based online digital music shops. Countries such as Russian And Ukraine have copyright laws that are not updated to cover digital media, allowing many digital shops a foundation for selling music at ridiculously low prices without any restrictions. It’s a strong consumer demand that Apple chooses ignores as long as it continues to print money and maintain a dominant share of the market.

But it won’t be long till many of these European shops gain more exposure and attract more users. Inevitably it was also get unfavourable legal attention from western countries. If the growth trend continues, three speculative outcomes are likely to happen.
1. Music industry representative organisations will take legal action and eventually a case will follow through in stating the legality of these shops. Even after all the commotion and media hype of allofmp3.com, still no jurisdiction has simply stated whether these music digital shops are legal.
2. These shops continue to operate, while American and other western countries continue to bully credit card companies, e.g. Visa (an American company) into banning transactions on these shops.
3. An unlikely outcome, but most favourable among everyone, Other drm-free music shops gain enough market share to scare Apple into making changes. Apple is will be forced to listen to what the consumer wants and drop their controlling ways, changing their business model to compete with eastern European music shops.

So just how good, or bad are these Eastern-European music shops? Here is a small list of the cheapest digital music shops on the internet.

1. Legalsounds.com
Price per Track: $0.09
Catalogue: n/a
Other Shops of Similar Price: none

2. Iomoio.com
Price per Track: $0.10
Catalogue: 900,000+ songs
Other Shops of Similar Price: none

3. Soundsbox.com
Price per Track: $0.14
Catalogue: n/a
Other Shops of Similar Price: Millisong.com

4. Lavamus.com
Price per Track: $0.15
Catalogue: 2,500,000+ Songs
Other Shops of Similar Price: MusicMP3.ru, MP3VA.com, MP3.ua

5. MP3sale.ru
Price per Track: $0.16
Catalogue: 1,900,000+ songs
Other Shops of Similar Price: none

# iTunes Music Store
Price per Track - $0.99
Catalogue - 8,000,000+ songs

With the parallel growth of gadget connectivity and web technology, it is now more possible than ever to stream your music over the Internet, in many different ways, all according to how you want it done. I’ve come up with a list of popular guides and apps for people who either want full control over their media and playlists or if they want to be able to stream music the easiest way.

Web server:
If you don’t like having your computer always on to access your music, then a webserver would be ideal. There are plenty of discounted webhosts offering plentry of storage/bandwith (dreamhost, 0.5TB hd, 2TB bw), so it wont rob your bank and with a little tech knowledge, you can set up your very own private music media server.
[Wired How-to-Wiki]

Stream music with Simplify Media + Winamp or iTunes
Without the need to upload and download files, ‘Simplify Media’ makes it easy to stream music on Internet. Simplify Media integrates with iTunes, Winamp, Banshee and Rhythmbox and runs on Mac, Windows and Linux computers, as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is ideal for the people who are used to iTunes or Winamp and want to stream music the easy way.
[Simplify Media]

Stream media with Orb
Orb is a very robust tool, that turns your computer into a heavy media server, so there is no need to upload all your media to a new server or computer. Teamed with a powerful internet connection you can share all you media easily (even your tv card) and is made extremely easer with their well designed interfaced.
[Orb] via [Lifehacker]

Stream music with Subsonic
Subsonic imitates the interface of a media player making it very easy to use. Supporting mostly all music formats and being open source it can be an audiophille’s dream. It also caters to mobile users, who want to access their music without the well designed iPhone internet surfing ability.
[Subsonic]