A Solid Call 2.0

Reviewed: Calabash Music : A lot of specialty sites are popping up for digital downloads. I am glad to see this, I like diversity. Calabash Music is just such a site selling World Music downloads. Since I want to get the new Bebel Gilberto album, I thought I'd check them out.

I'm most impressed with the work they put into an artist page like Bebel Gilberto's. It inclused a link to artist's own site, spot-on related artists, link to an NPR feature, looks like custom editorial bio and album description. I like that they have an icon for "most downloaded song" -- popularity data! (BTW what is that icon anyway, a carrot in a beehive? Oh, it's a calabash.) Nice! For never having heard of Calabash, they seem to really have their act together in providing a rich experience that highlights the music. I really want the new Bebel Gilberto album... what better place to get it than here?

...click, click...

One big negative appears to be lack of a price for the whole album -- it's just N-tracks x $0.99. But the intro deal is 20 tracks for $9.99, so I'm all set. (After I signed up, I got billed for $9.99 and 20 song credits appeared right in the header of the site -- very handy and user-friendly.

Other details:
.> http-based downloads
.> save every track individually
.> Unencumbered MP3 @ 128kbps
.> "calabashmusic_com" prepended to each downloaded filename
.> Files ID3 tagged with artist/album/track/# (no album art)

It was a very good experience. It's good to know places like this are around in a pinch.