The report found downloading tracks from the nine sites relatively simple, with the exception of BigPond. Despite following BigPond’s steps, CHOICE could not download and play two of the three songs that were paid for. It took four weeks and four calls to Bigpond support before all the test songs were successfully downloaded and played.

CHOICE is calling for online music stores to follow the iTunes store in introducing compatible file formats that don't "lock music sites to music players". It would like to see all online music stores providing Digital Rights Management information alongside other details, such as price and format, so consumers can easily and simply check usage restrictions. Only ninemsn and Sanity Digital provide DRM information for each track in a window linked to the download page.

The report found a single track from Australian online music stores costs between $1.20 (Sound Foundation) and $1.89 (ninemsn).

RIGHT OF REPLY: BigPond Music responds to canning from CHOICE magazine 

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