I LOATHE digital purchases. I hate them. I hate them with a passion. Why? You don't own anything for your money. If you read some of the contracts you need to agree to prior to purchasing anything, you may find that you are meerly renting the material, and you have to delete it from your possession upon the owner's demand. You cannot sell it when you are done with it. You cannot get your money back if there is something wrong with the files or you have been mislead. Typically you deal with a computer when trying to get a refund for the wrong item downloading that you paid good money for. The only reason I can see purchasing any downloadable material is if you cannot order something on-line (as in too young to have a credit card and you spend cash on iTunes cards or Game Point cards) and don't have a retail store near you willing to supply you a special order copy, or even carry the item(s) you are looking for, or even if the item is out of print. If the item is only available as a digital download purchase, it's understandable to spend the money. I admit I have spent cash on some digital singles and even an out of print album on iTunes, and spend a good deal of money on Xbox Live Arcade titles, but those are designed as digital only.
However, finding this sort of thing in physical purchases is something that pisses me right off to the deepest depths of seething rage. At the Edge of Time by Blind Guardian. The two CD edition of the album came with a bonus ticket that includes a digital activation code for the label's website, all as part of an exclusive incentive to buy the non-standard edition of the album. The ticket inside here reads as follows:
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Get free access to exclusive download content (video clips, unreleased tracks, photos and more)
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So you tend to imagine, ok, they couldn't put it on a disc or something, so they offer downloads. Awesome! Well, first of all, this is a great idea in the sense that the band can load new material at any time. Actually, just recently, the band loaded two alternative mixes to the music section of this webpage and giving fans some free material to get them to come back to the album once more. But, the problem with this is that you actually can't download the files, but rather only stream them! Well, that is unless you're not too internet swavy.
When you click on the items you can supposedly download, such as these two newly loaded alternate mix MP3s, it brings you to a page that automatically streams them (for me through a Quicktime player) instead of commencng an automatic download prompt. However, if you look at the address bar, it shows that this page automatically links you to the file. To me, this screams a tactic to keep people from downloading the file, even though the ticket clearly says that you can download the file. Even on the Video part of the screen says you can download them, but instead it just takes you to a page that streams the files.
Now, I'm sure you can download a program that will let you copy and paste the URL from the address bar and automatically start a file transfer (download), or there's probably an easier way to do this, but I looked at this rather irritated and went directly to my computer's Notepad program and whipped up a quick html file to allow me to quickly and easily download the files this ticket promised me I can download. And, unless you have an easier way, here is how to download those files instead of clicking the link to stream it from their website. Note that I run a PC and am not sure how to operate HTML editors or files for a Macintosh.
Open the program Notepad, and then copy and paste the following code
Then, copy and paste the URL address like so for each of the songs:
Save the file with any name you like, but make sure you save it with a .html extension. Then, find the file, wherever you placed it, and open it with your internet browser. The three song titles will appear, and should appear in blue with an underlines. Just right click each one and choose "save file as..." and just save the file, naming it whatever you want, then click ok to start the download. |
By doing this, you will now have downladed the digital files that the authorization ticket in the package itself says you are legally allowed to download and do what you want with! Well, as long as you don't break international copyright laws of course. It takes a little extra effort, but you can in fact do what you're promised. Of course having these songs appear on the second disc when the album dropped in the first place would be nice, but if this is all you have to do to legally obtain the material you physically purchased (note there is no disclaimer that you do not own these files like you would the factory pressed material), I'd be willing to look past my hatred of digital media and accept something like this, especially if the band intense to load bonus material as time goes on until their next effort is released.
If you do not have the ticket anymore, or never purchased this release, don't worry. I fully intend to review these two songs the next chance I get and add them to the review of At the Edge of Time, so stay tuned for that update and to find out what (if anyting) you're missing!
However, with this article, I must include this statement in closing. in NO WAY am I supporting illegal downloads. This is a quick HTML tutorial I posted to help those who bought an edition of At the Edge of Time by Blind Guardian a received a ticket with an activation code with the text mentioned earlier in this article that states you can download all digital bonus material on the website mentioned on that ticket. I also will not include the actual downloadable links, and ask nobody else include them here either, as I consider making those links public a violation of applicable copyright laws considering you gain access to them via purchasing a physical copy of this album. If you want these files, track down this album and buy it legally to follow these steps and add these additional tracks to your collection without violating any laws.
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