umusic.ie sucks and The Blizzards too
I got my student pack the other day. Along with the usual bits and pieces was a credit card sized piece of plastic with umusic.ie emblazoned on the front and on the back a list of tour dates for a rather crap (IMHO) band called The Blizzards.
I’m notoriously choosey when it comes to music but the back of this card had a ‘unique code’ no less. It prompted me to visit umusic.ie and enter my promotional code to download my free download of The Blizzards single “Buy it or sell it.”
Free Download the card screamed! Well I can hardly turn that down can I? Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought? I might learn to love the song given some time.
Well Imagine my surprise when I visited that site and was asked to register and to choose a method of payment, (Maestro, Credit Card, Paypal etc.) All that before I got to enter my ultra exclusive, one of a kind, once in a lifetime special offer code!
Things got slightly worse when an ActiveX Microsoft DRM control couldn’t run. Given that I wasn’t using a Microsoft operating system and not using t Internet/Internot Explorer might have something to do with it but by now my curiosity was piqued.
I used my Windows PC and followed all the steps only to discover my “Free Download” was going to cost me 99c and I would really have to install that DRM control and register! And if that wasn’t bad enough I would have to provide a method of payment before I could even download my “free” song.
Avoid umusic.ie at all costs.
Of course umusic.ie is only a pseudonym for Universal Music so being forced to pay for something that is advertised as free would hardly come as a surprise.
A free song for only 99c? Next thing you know we will be forced to pay for water. No.. Wait!
So. If you recently got a student pack then you can ignore almost all the crap in it. I got the ‘Male’ edition so I have a nice pen, a teeny sampler of Clearsil, Sure deodourant and a two pack of Durex Condoms bundled with a rather intriguingly titled “2 Play Feel Lubricant Sachets” whatever the hell they are!
Too late for me with that kind of stuff I’m afriad but for all the rest of the new students enjoy the condoms and lubricants. Just stay the hell away from umusic.ie.
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Similar to the MyCokeMusic crap that was on recently, where you had to have an iTunes account to avail of your ‘prize’. I had to register using a credit card to find out my download wasn’t even there!
The pack sounds a bit stereotypical – that all students are spotty and sex mad! (although they probably wouldn’t be far off!)
Aaron
It’s they way they try to lure you in with the promise that something is free that annoys me though.
And of course all that DRM crap!
These paid music sites were never any good
and looks like they never will be.
Limewire’s yer only man for me, but I didn’t say that because I never download illegally. *smirk*
I had some trouble with this also. But if you click the ‘Enter Voucher’ button, it works grand. Not a great remix though. I’ve heard the original on Phantom and it’s far better.
K8 – I’m a bit wary of file sharing as my internet conntction has a fixed IP address so that when I connect to any site it appears as mail.sweetnam.eu ! I have to be careful about doing anything dodgy on line as it will be simple to trace me
Maria – Thanks for the comment! I was guessing that it would probably be a remix or a song that didn’t make the album. I might actually buy the album instead.
Like these t-shirts:
“Free Tibet ! (with purchase of a country of equal or lesser value)”
@ Frob – Ha!