Internet Music: Who's Minding the Store?

Downloading tunes may give you an earache 

I was in a music store last week, trying to decide whether to take the band Cake home with me. I liked the album cover (a silhouette of a brown pig). A 30-second sample of a song sounded promising (loud drumbeat). And a quick scan of the lyrics confirmed that they really said what I thought they said.

Was I ready to buy? In a typical music store, the answer would be no, because at that point the extremely loud, harsh music blaring over the store's sound system would remind me that I was about to pay at least $12 for a CD, only to get it home and discover that I like only one song.

But this time, I was in an online music store, called Liquid Audio (www.liquidaudio.com), which knew what I wanted. For $2.99, I could download a permanent copy of the single I sampled, "You Turn the Screws," to my hard drive. Then I could use the Liquid Music Player, a free software application, to play the song on my computer. Or I could copy the music to my laptop and play it on the train. Or buy a CD burner and copy it to a CD.

Of course, there were still drawbacks. Although mainstream music has embraced the Liquid Audio format because it prevents illegal copies, the site still has a limited inventory, with only 50,000 titles. And if you hit a snag with the point-and-click download method, you will learn very quickly that the site offers very little in the way of customer service.

After I put Cake into my shopping cart, I added two more songs (at $1.99 each). My total: $6.97.

A GHOST IN THE MACHINE?

Next, I watched as my new cable modem downloaded 99 percent of the songs in seconds. (With my old 56K dialup modem, downloading a song could take up to 10 minutes.)

Then tragedy struck. The process stalled. Who knew why? I returned to the site for help, armed with my transaction identification number.

Too bad for me. The Liquid Audio site has no toll-free phone number and no way to check a transaction's status. My only option was a bare-bones Help file, which suggested sending an e-mail to the online support staff. Dutifully, but annoyed, I sent the e-mail. While I waited for a response, I managed to download two of the three songs I ordered. Meanwhile, I found myself muttering: "It's only $6.97. It's only $6.97."

Five hours later, I received a reply assuring me that my credit card would not be charged until the downloading was complete. But the site's software believed that I had completed the download. About that time, communications from "support" ceased. After I enlisted a Liquid Audio spokeswoman to negotiate on my behalf, I finally got my third song.

But customers should not have to recruit Henry Kissinger to get satisfaction. I won't go back until customer service improves. I want to buy my Cake and eat it, too.