ScatterTunes sells digital albums with a visual twist
After downloading the software and two of the Hendrix V-Albums, I'm surprisingly impressed with the format. The sound quality is as good as MP3 gets (320Kbps), and the extra content is worthwhile if you're a fan. I particularly liked the accompanying video for "Electric Ladyland," in which producer Eddie Kramer talked about recording the 15-minute epic "Voodoo Child."The ScatterTunes software could still use a bit of work, though. The ScatterTunes download actually installs two separate applications--the ScatterTunes Player and the V-Album app. Player is a very simple digital media player--you can import songs from anywhere on your hard drive, including iTunes, and there's an integrated link to the ScatterTunes store, where you can buy single song or full album downloads. But it's pretty lame compared with iTunes or any other modern media player--there's no playlist function, no device transfer, you can't delete selections, and it shows very little metadata about each track. The Player also has spaces for links to blogs and various social-networking features, but most of these are under construction.The V-Album app, used only for playing V-Albums, seems like an unnecessary add-on. Why not just let users play V-Albums in the main app? But it does promise a couple of interesting features in the future. I'm interested in the "V-Albums Creations" tab, which will enable users to import their own photos and songs into a pre-existing V-Album.My verdict: if you're a fan of a particular artist with a V-Album release, the format is compelling enough and the price reasonable enough to make downloading ScatterTunes worthwhile. But I would immediately import the MP3s into iTunes--which it offers to do as you install the V-Album--and use the ScatterTunes software only for playing the V-Albums themselves. Of course, Apple has its own interactive format, iTunes LP, but hasn't done much with it since introducing it in September. ScatterTunes will have to scramble to get more V-Album exclusives and quickly add new features to be competitive.
