I came across this company whilst doing a search for digital music catalog providers. I do not have any direct experience with them but they do seem to offer the full range of services you would require to build a music store. I would put them in the same category as MusicNet & Loudeye (perhaps MoonTaxi aka PureTracks) but with the added bonus of a ‘viral marketing’ component.
They have a system that allows users to forward playlists to friends via email, IM, etc. The recipient hears 30s samples of each song and is offer the opportunity to purchase the song. When a song is purchased the originator of the playlist receives a 10% credit toward a new track download.
However, I would be a bit skeptical of their catalog. Their website claims ‘over a million tracks available for download’ however several press releases, albeit some over a year old, mention numbers in the 200-500,000 range. They have published deals with a few of the big indie aggregators (Orchard, IODA, CD Baby) but there are many, many more; it would be good to know with whom they have deals in place.
Also, all descriptions of their service describe ‘permanent download’ rights such as burning to CD (limit of 10 burns), transfers to portable devices (max of 3 devices) and playing on other PCs (max of 5). There is no mention of subscription based licensing being supported.
Lastly, they are have a store presence on eBay which is currently listed as eBay’s largest store. It seems that eBay measures ‘largest’ by number of active listings under that store. If PassAlong has the over 1M tracks it claims it’s no surprise that they are eBay’s largest.
