Mp3 Sparks Can Read My Mind

Mp3 Sparks

So I've been upset ever since AllofMp3 went offline. The University of Richmond signed up with Ruckus, but it was a poor substitute. Thanks once again to the BBC though, I found Mp3 Sparks. During the time AllofMp3 was offline, the owners set up another site, Mp3 Sparks, which is basically the same thing. I was planning to wait for AllofMp3 to go back online, but the first time I visited Mp3 Sparks, they had an ad for the New Pornographers album, the second time I visited, they had an ad for the new Josh Ritter album. Both are albums I really wanted, so I went ahead and signed up. As I was downloading them, I saw an ad for the new Rilo Kiley album that I didn't even know was out yet.

So what makes Mp3 Sparks and AllofMp3 so good?
1) Songs only cost a few cents
2) Price is based on the length of the album, no more overpaying for short albums
3) What to save money? You can download lower quality song files
4) You can download songs in a wide variety of formats

What was terrible about Ruckus?
1) Entire secure apparently based on the idea that everyone had Windows Media 12
2) I was able to find a way to get around the security, because I don't Windows Media 12, in only a few minutes. Good for me, but bad for them
3) Only students are supposed to be able to get the free tracks, but all that's needed to get a student account is a .edu e-mail account. So even though I'm no longer a student, I can still use it and even sign up a friend as I have two .edu accounts
4) Couldn't download tracks that had an apostrophe in the title
5) To download tracks, I had to download some terrible, ad-filled program that could not be fully minimized
6) Even if I downloaded the whole album, the tracks would be listed alphabetically and not how they appeared on the album. Not a problem for most albums, but matters for a few
7) If the download was interrupted, the track had to be deleted and redownloaded

Kind of makes me wonder how a business of questionable legality can perform much better, both for itself and its customers, than a fully legal one.