Review by: Museekster
The success of Allofmp3 has brought more Russian music services.
MP3Sugar is one of
first to follow this example.
Like Allofmp3, MP3Sugar has signed agreements with the Russian copyright
organization ROMS. This entitles this service to legally offer music by all
artists and from all labels.
Files are delivered in 192 kbps MP3. There is no copy protection. You can do whatever you want with the music files. Burn audio CDs, transfer music to your portable mp3player; no limits!
Catalogue
Most files are offered in MP3 format with a 192kbps bitrate, though we did
find a few exceptions. The sound quality
is excellent. Filenames are like, 04_-_This_Is_A_Song.mp3. Not quite the way we
like them but ID3 tags are properly filled so automated renaming with a tag
editor should do the trick.
MP3Sugar offers a nice interface and delivers a comprehensive catalog that
includes albums from all major artists.
Browsing the catalogue is not very user-friendly but the search feature is
excellent.
Price
All songs cost $.18, albums are paid per track ($.18.) To be able to download you have to pay
in advance by buying download credit for $19,95 or $34,95.
A $34,95 payment will give you a bonus of $10 download credit and you can get
even more free credit by recommending the service to your friends.
Take the
site tour to learn more.
Legality
Many question the legality of the Russian services. Lengthy discussions on this subject can be found all over the Internet. The bottom line is that the Russian services are probably legal under current Russian law. Using these services from outside Russia could be legal as well. More information can be found on this page.
Pros
- low pricing;
- fixed prices;
- high download speeds;
- no DRM copy protections;
- good catalogue with all major artists;
- compatible with all portable players;
- clean and easy to use interface
Cons
- MP3 only;
- No download manager;
- Files are not properly named;
- Browsing the catalogue is not user-friendly;
Conclusion
MP3Sugar is a yet another good resource for music. The service does not have
advanced features like Allofmp3, but the clean and simple interface and the low
prices will appeal to many user.
Downloading is fast but you have to download every single file separately using
the "Right click -> Save target as" method. For downloading whole albums we
advise to use a download manager. If you like clean filenames you will need a
renaming tool.