Really, why don't most companies understand that people will pay good money for ease of use?
I'm trying to buy (yes: to pay money for goods) Muse's latest CD, The Resistance, but after one hour of messing around with different sites I'm close to jumping to mininova or emule and just fucking leeching the album!
First try: official shop @ muse.mu. I thought: perfect! DRM-free MP3 download, just what I want. I enter the credit card details and my address, error: payment failed. So I thought it was because of the address not matching the credit card. I go back, enter my parent's address, but... Netherlands does not appear in the list of countries! Neither prefixed with "The", nor "Holland" and also not "Kingdom of...". Netherlands Antilles does appear in the list, though. So, FAIL.
Next up: amazon.com. I've heard about their MP3 downloading service so I thought I'd check it out. They already have my address and details so buying an album should be 1-click away. And, it turns out the album at Amazon was about $2.50 cheaper than at Play. First obstacle: buying an MP3 album requires installation of a piece of software called Amazon MP3 Downloader, don't ask me why. So I install the stupid program, but when I click the "buy album" button I'm presented with a "Billing address" form. So much for those pre-entered details. I enter my details, again, but get the error: sorry, US only. I go back and enter Amazon's address instead. It goes through! Select payment: selected my credit card: sorry, US only. Doh!
Next: play.com. I've been buying stuff from play.com for about 10 years now. I like the: free shipping to NL, good prices. And: nowadays they have MP3 downloads! Long-story short: sorry, UK only. Long story, because it still let me enter my billing and shipping address.
Desperately, I've checked amazon.cn, but well, Muse translates into Chinese as 美神, which is literally Goddess of Beauty, so guess what kind of products that search term turns up.
So, before I venture into crime I decided to check google.cn. They have a lot of music that you can legally download, encoded at 256Kbps! Unfortunately, Muse's latest album is not yet available for download, although one single of that album can be downloaded, not to mention all their previous albums! Sorry, a link would be useless since it only works from within China.
But I really want this album! Please, God, don't let me install iTunes.. I've resisted all these years.... Update: The iTunes installer is 89MB! WTF!
I followed the Buy link from Muse's Facebook page and a form pop-ups that has Netherlands as an option! Yeey!
Funny: Muse 'plays' on Italian TV and the guys show what they think of lip-syncing: the drummer and the singer switched places (This short clip shows what's wrong with Italian TV. The hostess, the camera angles, the clapping audience...Awful...)
(This short clip shows what's wrong with Italian TV. The hostess, the camera angles, the clapping audience...Awful...)