Review by: Jevgenijs Cernihovics www.indatext.com
Why we are not evil
Magnatune is a rare music service that lets music lovers award their favorite artists. Yes, the main idea behind the service is that you give your beloved performer 50% of what you pay at magnatune.com website. And you can select amount of your award starting from €4 ($5) and up to €14 ($18), which is considered "Generous".

Catalogue

Magnatune.com maintains direct contracts with artists, and this also brings difference to the market, full of greedy intermediaries. There is no that much to download from magnatune.com , one can call this service a specialty website, because it specializes on several distinct genres: classical, jazz, electronica, new age, metal and punk rock, rock and pop music, and ethnic.

There is no copy protection on files downloaded from magnatune.com service. You can select between getting music by download or by ordering CD. The bright side of the service - is that you can always re-download music you have bought once. There is no time-limit for re-download. For example, recently reviewed mp3ninja.com service offers only 30-days for re-download of purchased music.
Because of virtual abscence of download restrictions, there are no big labels on magnatune.com. This website offers independent music directly from artists.

Audio quality of downloads from magnatune is very nice. You can preview hifi or lofi versions in your favorite streaming player.

There are 5 major formats available to buyers:

You can download individual songs as either 128k MP3s or WAV files. And you can order CD. Abundance of format choices also makes magnatune.com unique.

Pros
Cons
Conclusion

For lovers of original quality and rare music, magnatune.com is a perfect choice. It cannot compete iTunes or others with its narrow selection of artists, but it offers great service for those who like music magnatune.com has on its servers.

Jevgenijs Cernihovics www.indatext.com