I ditched iTunes for music purchases years ago, and while I prefer to buy songs either from Amazon MP3 Downloads (DRM-free and high quality) or the artists themselves, I still enjoy grabbing the occasional track or album from one of several Russian MP3 sites. They may be of dubious legality, depending on who you ask, but they have stuff you just can’t find here in the U.S. and they’re a goldmine for someone like me who has some odd musical tastes. And it’s dirt cheap, besides.
So the other day I was pleasantly surprised to get the following email from one of the sites I frequent (I won’t say which):
from: *******.Ru
to: Dear customer
date: Sun, Aug 31, 2008
subject: Account replenishmentDear customer!
Your account has been replenished with 10.00 USD
It is bonus from *******.
Best regards,
*******.ru
Well, isn’t that nice! $10 just for remaining a customer. When was the last time iTunes did that?
On a side note, I don’t use these sites without a bit of caution–utilizing my credit card’s “virtual account numbers” is a must, just in case. But the tradeoff is a wealth of music that I simply can’t get anywhere else, either because of availability (out of print) or astronomical import prices.