Finally someone has gotten their game on in the music download industry in SA. I present to you Rhythm Records, an online music store focusing on South African Music.
Their music downloads are not DRMed – use it as you choose – and use your conscience. The variety is small but growing. So far there is a lot of Chris Chameleon, a bit of Fokofpolisiekar, and a number of other good artists – I haven’t yet had a chance to explore the entire catalogue.
So here’s the real killer – R6 a track. Download as often as you need to. R3 of every sale goes directly to the artist. You also get a chance to download any 30 second preview of any song. If you prefer, you can purchase the CD for delivery too.
You can’t beat that deal. (Although I think more money should go to the artist)
There are still a couple of issues – this is a new site:
1) Transactions seem to be converted to British pounds – the site is tied in with Paypal – not ideal, but not bad – there will be a slight surcharge on the credit card for the foreign transaction.
2) It seems you are restricted to downloading one track at a time – so it could end up a lengthy process to get an entire album.
3) No cover artwork is available yet.
4) There are two further security issues with the site, one of them being the SSL security certificate not matching the site name – not a comforting thought. I’m not willing to discuss the other one at this stage – we will see how Rhythm Records responds to the email I am sending them and then take appropriate action.
So go check it out. It’s the best SA music store to date.
Update:
One other issue:
The filenames for the downloads are simply the artist name – so you have to rename each downloaded file. 🙁
Update 2:
I received the following fantastic response from Petrus Theron at Rhythm Records:
Hi Shaun
I have solved the Firefox naming issue when downloading MP3s from Rhythm Records’ website. MP3s’ full file names appear now.
It seems Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox each handle standard HTTP content headers a little differently.
You might want to update the issues mentioned in your review.
Thanks for bringing this incompatibility up. Your comments are appreciated.
That rocks! Thanks guys.
Tags: rhythmrecords, music, mp3, download, sales, SouthAfricanRockMusic, SouthAfricaMusic, CDOnlineMusic