My Media Mirror

Note: This is one of Trigami paid-mediated entry. ( More information )

Operate online music services, music as a download version, are enjoying increasing popularity. Gradually, the classical CD is increasingly relegated to the background. The digital distribution is already going to the after sales surpass CD sales.

However, there are also in the field of legal downloads of music things, restrict the user and thus interfere with the enjoyment of music. In this context, especially the concept of DRM - become very important - which stands for Digital Rights Management. Many operators of download portals - and especially the record labels - wanted to prevent the unlimited distribution of their music.

But the trend is now back in the direction of free music - an interesting approach followed in this respect the provider Akuma . If Akuma is an online platform on which you currently can select some 600,000 songs to download. As big record companies generally still have a hard time with the release of their music, delivers fresh produce from Akuma mainly smaller independent labels, the sign of the times and the potential of online distribution have been detected. But this offer, the song starts at 0.80 euros and 4.49 euros from albums or CD singles offers from 1,99 € is not the only feature that distinguishes Akuma from another provider.

In addition to a planned increase to one million songs in the near future and the commitment to the MP3 format can Akuma to appeal to a wide audience. Gone are the days that had to match those of the MP3 player to the format of the music. Bit rates from 192 kbit / s to 320 kbit / s are very neat and allow for a pleasant listening experience.

But the biggest potential lies in its interactive facilities Akuma to users. Because in addition to the function can be downloaded on portal tagged Akuma (tags are also used by Last.fm taken over), music heard, reviewed, rated, and commented on. Virtually all of the features of a functioning online community can be offered. Even a promotional music video service has been integrated under the name akumaTV.

In the following I would like to take up the offer a bit more closely:

The idea of ​​linking one of Akuma download service with an active community, I think very well. Thus one has to keep the potential users on the own pages and during its contact with the "main manor - the music - to maintain. Also, the scope of the offered tracks should be enough to attract many interested users on the web page. Here is an overview of the main characteristics of the community:

• Only MP3 files in the range
• Lots of music beyond the charts
• Fully compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows
• Compatible with all MP3 players
• Music recommendation based integrated by Last.fm

The community offers all the features that it takes to successfully sell music. Unfortunately, the design does not meet these requirements the side for me. Especially in times of Web 2.0 design appears to me worthy. The light green background is pale, the logo provides little surprising. In addition, the navigation and other functional elements are rather inconspicuous.

In my opinion the following points should be improved to the community even more vibrant:

The categorization of the genre should be conspicuously designed. Only black text on a green background is boring. The same goes for the tag cloud. These should be conspicuous. Maybe you could here - like other Web 2.0 sites usual - working with white backgrounds and Ajax technology.

In addition, the music player in my opinion to inconspicuous. Here, too, should be based more on references such as Last.fm or Pandorra. In addition, disturbing the large depth of the page to scroll to the man "several meters" is in order to evaluate some music to comment on or tag.

Great functions, however, provide the ability to create their own cover is directly on Akuma . There you can also generate the same then its track lists and automatically print out.

In my opinion Akuma has a lot of potential: Even though some things to improve on the design still provides all of Akuma also have to increase user success. These songs are in MP3 quality good, a good song-based and interactive elements to keep the users on the site and provide an additional function.

Akuma is a product of H ² media factory GmbH , based in Bonn. From the same company is the technology online magazine www.netzwelt.de .