Drunkenness is good

I went out bowling with some friends earlier tonight. Didn't do that well, but managed to break 100 on a round. Anyway. On my way home, I stopped by the store and picked up a 6 pack of Smirnoff Ice Raspberry Burst, which I finished off fairly quickly.

Smirnoff has this thing going with codes under their caps, so I figured I'd go ahead and enter them and see what I got.

I ended up with two of the three codes I entered getting me download codes for music from emusic.com. Apparently they only let you enter in three codes a day or I would have entered the other three. Anyway.

Turns out emusic.com is getting digital distribution right. No DRM. This means that, unlike other similar services like Rhapsody, if you cancel your subscription, you can still listen to the music you've legally obtained. Unfortunately, the only available format is MP3, but they'll learn sooner or later. I redeemed my codes, and had a look through their library to see which two songs I'd download.

Upon registering an account, they'll try to get you to download their software. They assert the claim that it's free of spyware, and even have Mac OS X and Linux versions (wow, Linux support, I'm amazed). In small text next to the download links they mention that the software is completely optional and that their service can still be used without it, albeit less conveniently: you won't be able to download an entire album with one click. Since I was only there for two tracks, I declined to install it.

After much debate, I ended up downloading Clarence Carter's Strokin' (the Long and Dirty version, for those who care), and Wesley Willis' Fuck You, which was the only one of the Wesley Willis tracks they had whose preview I immediately laughed at upon hearing, probably due to drunken amusement more than anything else. Sadly, they don't have The Bloodhound Gang's A Lap Dance Is So Much Better When The Stripper Is Crying or I would have downloaded that instead.

Most of emusic.com's service is a monthly fee-based service, but my small preview let me see how nice it was. Tomorrow I'll redeem these other three caps and see if I can't get any more downloads.

The verdict: A step in the right direction. Now to get legal Ogg Vorbis and FLAC downloads...

Friday edit: The other three caps gave me three more download codes. Now to figure out what I want...

Much later edit: emusic's glaring problem is that their library is almost devoid of anything mainstream.