The idea is that mp3 downloads start out free. As more people download a song (proving its value), its price goes up topping out eventually at 98 cents. There’s already a bunch of stuff there from the major indies. And a bunch of high-quality stuff it seems is still free at the moment (you better hurry). The thing that got me excited at first blush was the recommendation system. If you recommend, or rec (the term they use), a free song that ends up getting popular, you get credit to purchase songs. AmieStreet is hoping to build a strong community around this recommendation system
So I sign up thinking I’m going to find a bunch of free stuff, make a bunch of recommendations, eventually earn some cred, and use that cred to buy more songs. Not so fast, Danny.
1) There is a free song download limit of 80 songs within an 8 hour period. This makes sense since we all know some dedicated people would download every free song, pushing them out of the free category, and effectively ruining the experience of discovering free music on the site for everyone else. Chances are the dope 81st song I wanted to download won’t be available 8 hours from now.
2) I can only recommend songs I’ve acquired through AmieStreet. This apparently prevents people from recommending every free song to try to build up some mega-cred even if they can’t download more than 80 in 8 hours.
3) So you downloaded 80 free songs. You want to recommend them all of course. Well, recs ain’t free. You either have to give AmieStreet money or your friends’ email addresses to buy recs. They give you one to start out with. Hell, they just gave you 80 free songs, right? I didn’t fully understand the concept at first that the recommendations were limited, so I was surprised after using my one that I wasn’t able to recommend any more songs– bummer. So what’s the point of keeping me from recommending songs I didn’t get at AmieStreet if I have to buy recs? Silly.
