same defective track at different download stores

[save0904]

I've just downloaded the new Matthew Shipp album 4D at emusic. Unfortunately I discovered track 14 to be defective due to hiss the whole track trough. I filed a issue report to get back a download credit and went on to download the track at amazonmp3. After downloading I had the same defective track again (the same with itunes). So for me it seems that all these digital download stores use the same source for their digital files. I wouldn't further bother with this issue if the stores would fix the defective track and notify their customers about that. But as I have had several issues with defective tracks that never happened. They not even removed the defective track after confirming that is was defective. What are your experiences with download stores ?

Btw. the sound sample of track 14 at amazonmp3, emusic.com and itunes is also defective.

Edited January 31, 2010 by save

[A Lark Ascending]

Although I've been won over totally by downloading, this is the one issue that continues to irritate me. I think that in their hurry to get things up there is no quality control checking.

E-music and iTunes will both credit you with one track for a defect. But what's the point of one track if you want the whole album?

They also seem to do little to correct the source (or the people with the source do little). I downloaded a Dino Saluzzi album from e-music last June and it had serious issues on several tracks. I was compensated for the album but as far as I know the album has not been repaired. You'd have thought they'd leave a note on the standard page - 'Previous Defect Repaired'.

ECM are actually one of the worst offenders - I've had a few with tiny dropouts.

My other beef is where a track that goes continuously into the next has a couple of seconds of silence at the end, breaking up the flow. 'I set everything to 'gapless' but the silence is part of the track. 'Chandos' classical records suffer from this a lot. I can remedy it by putting the tracks into Total Recorder and shaving off the silence. Solves the problem perfectly but is irritating, especially as you only notice it after you've burnt the CD.

I think this a bit like the early days of CD - a mad rush to get things out with little quality control. In time, when most of the back catalogue is out there and they are only dealing with new releases they will go back to correct all of this. Probably get trumpeted as 'Definitive Remastered Editions' and cost more!

Having said that, the bulk of my downloading from Amazon, iTunes, eMusic and a number of classical sites has been painless.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I bet they'd bloody soon repair it if it was a Beatles track that was duff!

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Wel, I've yet to receive downloads with glue stuck to them!

[BFrank]

I always get a confirmation of reported defects from eMusic, but never any followup. It could take weeks/months for them to fix it and you never know when it's ready.