does it work on a Mac?

Yes - I'm on an iMac running Tiger 10.4.8 and Safari. Works fine - it's just an MP3, so you can play it through iTunes.

I've stated before, you have to add a special character to your password when you login to 3121 (such as !@#$%^&*). So, "password*" would work.

And I don't see any DRM embedded into this MP3 at all - kinda like the original NPGMC downloads in that regard.

Yup, works fine on Macs... and you can't add DRM to mp3 files so that's all good. Rather surprising for Prince, though.

jtfolden said:

You can't? I wasn't sure. Thanks!

Se7en said:

Nope. That's why none of the major online stores (well I guess iTunes is the only big store, everything else is pretty small) use mp3 as the default format. Most record labels require them to use something that can be 'protected'.

It's just a straight-up mp3 file encoded at 192 kbps. It'll play on any digital player in the world, including your Mac.

I guess you can consider it paying a "premium" for a non-protected file (more than double what members of the NPGMC paid for DRM protected downloads at the musicology store), but worth it on so many levels for the consumer (no hassles) and for Prince (no trying to manage a store with rights-protected files and paying a support team to be in place for all the questions/problems with DRM files).

I'll gladly pay more for music files free of DRM, especially if they're exclusive like "Guitar" is (for now, anyway, not on an album or available anywhere else). My only suggestion for improvement would be to offer a 256 kbps download as well.

Doozer said:

For $1.99, I'd expect a WAV or AIFF file . . . MP3s should never be more than 99 cents. But I do agree with you, anything under 256kbps is not what I consider "high quality". But it's better than nothing, right?!

Se7en said:

Definitely -- I don't know why they wouldn't offer a higher quality mp3 file (file size wouldn't be all that different -- maybe 6 mb rather than 4 or whatever the file size is now), but I'll take a 192 kbps mp3 over a stinking drm windows media file any day.