Puretracks
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- The correct title of this article is Puretracks. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
| Opened: | October 14, 2003 (Canada)
October 13, 2004 (USA) |
|---|---|
| Pricing: |  CAN: $ .79-$1.19 CAD (Single) $7.99-$11.99 CAD (Album)
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| Platforms: | Microsoft Windows |
| Format: | WMA and MP3s |
| Catalogue: | 1,300,000+ |
| Preview: | 30 seconds |
| Protocol: | Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://) |
| Availability: | Canada, USA |
| Website: | www.puretracks.com |
Puretracks is a Canadian online music store, which launched officially on October 14, 2003. Owned by Moontaxi Inc., the service currently offers over 1,300,000 songs mainly from Canadian music distributors and others, as well. The store is also customized to various retail outlet's needs, and re-branded, though with the same selection. One such re-brand is Future Shop's (Best Buy Inc) Bonfire service. Most whole albums cost between $7.99 and $11.99 CAD and single songs are $ .79 CAD and up. It is available to Canadians and Americans (as of October 13, 2004) The music in the store is sold at 192 kbit/s WMA and MP3 files.
Puretracks offers a service similar to Apple's iTunes Music Store.
As of February 20, 2007, Puretracks is offering some portions of its collection in MP3 format without DRM. [http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/02/21/tech-puretracksdrmfreemp3-20070221.html
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[edit] DRM
Puretracks offers the majority of it's music in the WMA protected audio format. Puretracks has started to offer a selected portion of it's collection in the unprotected MP3 for the same price protected tracks. [1]
[edit] Mac Controversy
The Puretracks website appears to explicitly reject browsers that identify themselves as operating from an Apple Computer. This is not for any technical reason but appears to be retaliatory. [1]. Mac users who attempt to visit the site with an undisguised browser (i.e. Safari) receive a rejection page.
There have been alternate suggestions that this refusal of Macs is a precautionary measure and stems from Puretrack's use of outdated ActiveX technology which will not function on Macs. In this case, the Mac rejection is designed to avoid misleading users into thinking they can purchase and download songs. [2]
[edit] Deceptive Advertising
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This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. |
All the songs on Puretracks are presently crippled with Windows Media Player "PlaysForSure" DRM, they are in the process of offering many of their songs from independent labels (including major Canadian labels such as Nettwerk) to users in the form of MP3s, but this, according to their own claims will only be around 50,000 songs, about 3.8% of their catalog . These MP3s will only be available to Canadian consumers, not US customers and these are not even available now.
None of the advertising and press releases mentions this fact. In fact they claim to offer the music "DRM free" as MP3s. This is not true. These advertising tactics are not just unclear, they're deceptive, clearly intended to draw in customers to another "me-too" music download site in the hopes of getting their foot in the door.
Mac users need not apply and the highly restrictive DRM placed on these files makes it problematic even for Windows users as indicated in this article below.
Puretracks strikes out: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2543
