iMusicSearch - Review
Site Information
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URL | www.iMusicSearch.com | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliated sites | AllCoolMusic.com, musicinc.cc | ||
| Owner | IMusicSearch.com PO Box 1569 GT, Ground Floor Harbour Centre George Town, Grand Cayman B.W.I. CAYMAN ISLANDS |
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| McAfee SiteAdvisor Analysis | Our analysis indicates that this site may be trying to sell you something which is normally available elsewhere for free. |
Pricing
Lifetime Access $34.95. 2 Years Unlimited Access - $0.94/Month (= pay $22.56 up-front). 1 Year Access - $1.49/Month (= pay $17.88 up-front). Movie upgrade package $14.95.
Refunds
The FAQ says: If unsatisfied, for any reason, you can cancel your membership within 30 days for a full refund.
What are you promised?
Once you become a member you are supposed to get the following for free: Largest Selection of Music Downloads - All Your Favorite Artists Guaranteed, No Download Fees, No Per Song or Monthly Fees, No Pop-Up Ads or Spyware, Unlimited Friendly Technical Support
Comments: How can they promise no spyware or adware when you’re connecting to a P2P network? And “all your favorite artists guaranteed” also seems dicey for a P2P network.
What are you really paying for?
- The fee assessed by iMusicSearch.com entitles You to access the location, evaluation, and or recommendation of software products available from the web site and for the installation and technical support provided. All software recommendations refer to software that is available without charge to individuals at large for specific purposes. The service makes no download speed performance guarantees or the availability of specific files for download on the peer to peer network.
- None of the fee entitles You, as a Purchaser to any ownership, licensing rights or recourse with regard to use of the software other than those rights offered by the software owners or licensees.
- Purchasing a membership in iMusicSearch.com does not give you license to download or upload copyright material. Sharing copyrighted material without the permission to do so is illegal.
Not much to add here. It is clear that you are not paying for any copyrighted material. No part of the fee that you pay to become a member ever goes to artists or copyright owners.
Privacy
There are a couple of sections in the privacy policy that are vague:
- Use and Disclosure of Data - Disclosure shall be limited to only to those that iMusicSearch.com is compelled to disclose to.
- Access to Internet User data that identifies the Internet User’s name and/or e-mail addresses is limited to designated iMusicSearch.com employees who require such access in order to perform their jobs and to an Advertiser or Publisher that provided such information.
Is paying $1,000 “compelling” enough for them to disclose user information? Also, advertisers and Publishers are poorly defined in the privacy policy. Who are they and under what circumstances do they get access to your user information?
The Terms of Use is much clearer:
- iMusicSearch is a direct marketer that delivers email messages to its subscribers. All information voluntarily provided to iMusicSearch by a registrant may be used to support our marketing partner’s data services business. These services include the provision of personally identifiable data to marketing companies, advertising agencies, data compilers, data companies, and, to the extent permitted by law, individual reference, email marketers and look-up service programs. Such information may be used by such companies to provide users via email with information on products and services that may be of interest to them.
Other Observations
The address of the owner is the office of Cayman Management Ltd. a company specializing in registering and managing offshore companies.
The Terms of Use include a “Class Action Waiver” prohibiting you from participating in a class action suit against the company. We’re not lawyers so we can’t say if this is legally binding, but it is rather suspect that they feel compelled to protect themselves against this…
The site prominently displays a ZDNet Editor’s Choice logo. When you click on this graphic you would expect to be linked to an article on ZDNet, but not in this case. In fact there is no trace of iMusicSearch on ZDNet.
Summary
This is a scam. iMusicSearch.com will happily take your money so that they can recommend free software which you can use to connect to a P2P network. Note that you do not need to be a iMusicSearch member to connect to this P2P network.
P2P networks contain a lot of files, including viruses, adware and copyrighted material. As iMusicSearch points out in their terms of use, it is illegal do download copyrighted material, and paying iMusicSearch does not give you any license to download copyrighted material.
If you are looking to download commercial music, iMusicSearch is not the answer. There are many reputable music services available where you can pay per month or per song. For example, Yahoo! Music Unlimited will give you unlimited access to their 2 million song library for $5.99/month. It’s not $1.49 per month, but Yahoo! has only legal licensed music content, and you don’t have to wade through tons bad files to find your favorite music.