HMVdigital invigorates music downloads market

The 'top 40 singles @ 40p' offer marks HMV out as a major MP3 provider. But once the offer ends where are the cheapest deals? Nabeelah Jaffer tracks them downYesterday saw the launch of hmvdigital, the high street retailer's online music store which is selling top 40 singles for the eye-catching introductory rate of 40p, less than half the price charged by most major rivals. Unlike HMV's old service, the new store carries a catalogue of 10m songs and will synchronise with iTunes, leading many to bill it as a genuine rival to the Apple behemoth.But with the low-price introductory offer set to expire in "anything from a few days to a few weeks", according to an HMV spokesperson, will it continue to offer the cheapest way to download? We check out some of the competition to find out …Pay as you goMost music download sites work like conventional shopping sites, offering set prices for different tracks and albums. Prices vary considerabely between stores, with retailers such as Amazon offering selected top 40 tracks at discounted rates or for free, while others such as iTunes raise their standard price of 79p to 99p for the most popular singles of the month.While Katy Perry's chart-topper California Gurls costs 40p from hmvdigital, the price is set to rise when the offer ends. This is likely to almost double, as hmvdigital charges 99p for the most popular songs outside the top 40, in line with other big music stores including Tesco Entertainment, iTunes and 7digital. Amazon is slightly cheaper at 89p, but Play.com's 65p price tag means it is the lowest price of the websites we visited.Discounts and price increases often apply only to the latest or most popular releases. Most sites including hmvdigital, Tesco Entertainment, Amazon and 7digital offer older tracks, such as Franz Ferdinand's 2009 single Ulysses, at the same price: 79p. But Play.com offers the marginally cheaper rate of 70p for such tracks.When it comes to albums, however, Tesco Entertainment holds the edge offering the latest Scissor Sisters album Night Work for £5, cheaper than at Play.com (£6.99) and other major retailers (£7.99).For those who want to play music immediately on their MP3 players, Amazon requires you to download extra software in order to synchronise with iTunes or Windows Media Player.James Bott, co-founder of music download comparison website comparedownload.com, says the cheapest site for singles is generally Amazon. "They can go down as far as 29p," he says. "Tesco's albums are also extremely competitive – they go down to about £3.67. The 40p hmvdigital deal is very good, but obviously you can get it cheaper."Subscription servicesServices which offer a certain number of tracks in exchange for a monthly subscription are sometimes better value for money than pay-per-track sites. Emusic.com offers a range of packages starting at £5.99 a month for 12 tracks. This works out at 49p a track, roughly half the price often charged by sites such as iTunes and hmvdigital.But subscription deals are often complicated by their mix of different services. Streaming services, which allow you to listen to tracks online but not download them, generally focus on providing unlimited access to the site's online catalogue with just a few downloads thrown in.Sky Songs offers just five downloadable tracks in exchange for £4.99 a month, but with unlimited streaming access to its 5m-strong song library. Napster's streaming service is similar to Sky's, offering unlimited access to its online catalogue and five downloads for £5 a month.Napster's alternative offer, which focuses on providing MP3 downloads rather than access to streamed songs, has another catch. While £14.95 a month allows you to download as many tunes as you like, these are effectively only rented and will stop working on your computer or MP3 player if you stop subscribing. Buying tracks from Napster to own permanently costs about 79p a song.Off the beaten tracksNiche sites can provide cheap, and often free, access to music from non-mainstream artists.Wolfgang's Vault offers access to an archive of live concert recordings from the past 50 years. Concerts start at $2 with some offered as free downloads each week, and most are in excess of half-an-hour long.Other sites offer free or heavily discounted music downloads from emerging or little-known artists. Jamendo is one of many free and legal peer-to-peer file-sharing services which allow independent artists to promote their music. The Free Music Archive and Epitonic also offer free downloads from mostly indie bands, handpicked by the site editors.Sites like Amie Street allow buyers to directly determine the price of tracks, with demand-based pricing meaning songs can range from being free to costing more than $1 each.Consumer affairsDownloadsMusic industryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds