Mp3 Music | All DRM-free MP3 Music You Can Download For 30 Days Except It’s Likely A Scam
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There are a lot of cool music-related startups and companies the Bay Area – Gracenote, MOG, IODA, Lala, Iris Distribution, etc… Too many to name really and it’s hard to stand out.
But there is one mysterious company that stood out very quickly.
” Zaptunes.com . Your ONLY source to FREE and UNLIMITED music download!”
It begins with a tantalizing offer of download as much free unprotected music that you take in 30 days. Further, it’s about downloading music from the major labels. In their site, they have links to music by Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire. They also claimed that they have legal downloads of the Beatles and AC/DC which I thought was strange since I know know for a fact the Beatles and AC/DC’s catalogs are not available for digital downloads.
Now I know that web sites occasionally have typo errors on their sites but the grammar and the typos on Zaptune’s site are over the top. Their press release is also full of errors. I’ll leave it to you to read what’s on their site.
They claimed to have raised $5M from angels they could not reveal. I can appreciate that because I know many people value their privacy. But you would want to know who is behind the company asking for your credit card. They list John Stewart as CEO, Ronald Hems as CTO and a Jessica Mayers as CIO. None of the persons listed could be corroborated with a Google Search. There is a Ronald Hems of Hems Rubbish Removal named in a civil lawsuit.
ZapTunes said it will charge $25 per month for unlimited downloads. The company said it would offer free downloads until 10,000 members have signed up.
“We have negotiated with the top label companies to let us offer unlimited downloads to our members in exchange for a loyalty management (sic),” the site says.
Zaptunes requires members to supply credit card information up front. A note on the site says, “This is a requirement set by most of the label companies we are working with. They just want us to have a credit card number on file for every member that signs up, in case if they want to start charging for downloads in future.”
Their terms of use is a joke. Sorry but there is no other way to say it. If you gave them your credit card, the joke is on you.
ZapTunes.com does not provide any downloads from its servers. ZapTunes.com just enables its members to find free or paid music available on the Internet. The Artists/Tracks displayed on the home page and other parts of the website are for promotional purposes only and may not be available for free or paid download.
ZapTunes.com has a database of websites that offer free and legal music downloads. Whenever a registered members looks for a song, ZapTunes searches for that song in the database, and if it finds a website offering a legal download of that song, it is displayed it to the user. If not, then ZapTunes looks for that song on Amazon, iTunes and various other paid to download websites, and displays the user their options.
Translation is Zaptunes does a Google search for music tracks and connects you to the download of the track but if they can’t find it, you can go to iTunes and buy it. Their terms of use totally contradict what they claimed in their press release .
What happened to free and unlimited?
One more thing they have a “trusted seal logo” from Web Guard. They do not link to anything and I dare you to find a Web Guard on the Internet that performs the job of both Verisign AND Better Business Bureau all together.
If someone really gave this company $5M, then we have a fine specimen of a bridge for sale called the Dumbarton Bridge for a mere $1M which includes lifetime ability to take tolls from passing alien ships.
According to HypeBot, Zaptunes claims to have a deal in place with “Sony Music” — interestingly, they didn’t specify Sony/ATV publishing, co-owned by the Michael Jackson family trust — which controls part of the Lennon/McCartney Beatles catalog. But then a Zaptunes rep said he couldn’t go into further detail of the licensing agreement.
OK… buyer beware. If it’s too good to be true, it most probably is.
By the way, here is the link to the FBI’s pages to prevent Internet and credit card fraud.
Posted By: Yobie Benjamin ( Email ) August 31 2010 at 07:19 PM
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