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On Crappy Music Download UI

Quite recently, I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about the UI of downloading music. Not just any old downloading, mind. Specifically the scenario where you buy some physical artifact and it gives you a code to go download a digital copy of a record. Mostly this is because I was working with [Leslie](http://sidewithus.com) to build a piece of software that does exactly that. I’m very pleased with the quality of the experience we built, but it’s alarming how bad some can be.

It’s now the norm to get a little card with vinyl purchases to get a download, and depending on the label, the download experience will vary. The URL you go to (whether it’s attributed to the band, or the label), whether you enter one code, two codes, whether you’re forced to enter personal info to get the download, how many times you can download… many subtle variances. Design wise few are fully realized, generally you enter your code in a barebones UI and a zip file comes out the other side. It works, some more cheerfully than others.

This post is about a bad example, Dropcards.

Here’s a service that provides the ‘code redemption and download’ facility to other labels. It’s full of bells and whistles that I guess help make something minimal like this salable, but somewhere along the way, Dropcard’s UI has completely missed its primary function. Here it is:


The UI is a small Adobe Flash widget. The form to enter your access code is tiny, and after you enter it it remains, empty, so you don’t know if you need to enter the code a second time.

Step two presents the following: “All Tomorrow’s Parties has requested that you enter your email address for their”… and then the text ends abruptly.

This has occurred because Flash is a piece of shit. Simple stuff like legible text that overflows properly when the record label’s name is too long is too much to ask. But even accepting that, the copy is poor. It’s is not a request at all, it’s a _requirement_. I cannot access the download unless I complete the form. What’s more, whilst I’d heard of All Tomorrow’s Parties music festivals, I had no idea they were a record label as well. I don’t think that’s a unreasonable lack of knowledge on my part. On first reading, I thought I was being signed up for an unrelated promotion. The amount of text here was constrained by the widget design concept. It needn’t have been.

This UI is also displaying a honking big ‘hazard’ icon. When you’re supposed to be asking nicely for your customer to join your mailing list—which they probably don’t want to do—don’t also imply that they are in error.

So, I’ve joined the ATP mailing list. That’s not so bad. (I assume. Unless the ‘enter your email address for their…’ sentence actually preceded ‘baby enslavement programme’.)

On to the music! Right? Kinda…


What happens now with every other code redemption and download system I’m aware of (including the one I wrote), is that your browser pops up its download manager and downloads a zip file containing the album, perhaps a JPG of the album art or event a PDF copy of the cover booklet (ala iTunes). Dropcard does not do this. Instead, it shows the track listing. And because it’s in Flash, it has a built in media player! How _useful_!

There is no ‘Download All’ button. You have to click ‘Download’ next to every single track. Individually. When you click ‘Download’, the track list goes away. Then you are prompted to choose a download location on your computer.

My web browser (Safari) is configured to download files to my Desktop without prompting. But, because this is _Flash_ we’re using here OH-MY-GOD-WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-A-SYSTEM-PREFERENCE-I-SHOULD-IGNORE-THAT-AND-JUST-ASK-YOU-ANYWAY-TO-BE-SURE-I-MEAN-MAYBE-YOU-CHANGED-YOUR-MIND-OR-MAYBE-IM-TOO-LAZY-AND-STUPID-TO-FIND-OUT-BY-MYSELF. Ahem.

So having chosen to save the the file to my desktop (again), the list of tracks is replaced by a progress panel. If you click on this progress panel, the download is cancelled. There is no way to minimize it to start downloading another track. Not only is there no combined zip file for the album, you have to wait whilst each song downloads before you can click on the next one.

Oh, the only thing that’s been done right in this entire operation? The MP3s are 320kbps. So the downloads are bigger. So the wait between downloads is longer.

Sigh. So, I’ve downloaded all 7 tracks from Tarot Sport. I’m relieved there weren’t more (nice work with the long songs, Fuck Buttons, I thank you.) I add them to iTunes. Are they tagged? Are they fuck. They haven’t even set the _Artist field_, let along included album art. That goes beyond a crap UI, that’s just incredibly lazy. I mean, you’re providing this download as a free bonus, I accept, but only because I’ve already paid you a premium to own the physical copy. Calling something a bonus doesn’t excuse untagged MP3s.

I’ve purchased the record for the artist, not the label. This download is pretty much the label’s only opportunity to address me. It’s a simple app, a really short process between a paid customer and the record label. That requires only very simple input and output. The functionality doesn’t take much, and as such there is lots of room for design, polish and _engagement_.

These download interactions provide a label the chance to do all sorts of positive self-promotion without getting in the way of the customer getting their download. Instead, Dropcard is packed with stupid gimmicks (like inline playback), makes the process more laborious than it needs to be, communicates rudely on behalf of the label and then ships me crappy media.

Flash was the wrong tool for the implementation—it’s badly implemented Flash at that. Dropcards are much worse as a result. But the entire design approach to Dropcard’s system seems ill conceived and out of touch with their primary use case.

I saw the mayor of New York said today, ‘We’re tough. We can do it.’ Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it’s your daughter that’s kidnapped at school by a terrorist?

Rep. John Shadegg (Republican, Arizona). Learned everything he knows about terrorism from 24.

Via [TalkingPointsMemo](http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/shadegg-on-911-trials-what-if-bloombergs-daughter-gets-kidnapped.php)

YouTube goes 1080p… Flash can’t keep up

#YouTube goes 1080p… Flash can’t keep up

Dug Twitter Avatar

#Dug Twitter Avatar

The first worm to infect the Apple iPhone has been discovered spreading “in the wild” in Australia.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Worm attack bites at Apple iPhone

No. It hasn’t. It affects Jailbroken OS3 in some situations. No-one with an off-the-shelf iPhone running Apple’s software is affected. This fact is not mentioned until the third paragraph. I really hate the BBC’s technology coverage sometimes. This is just cheap, fuddy sensationalist linkbait and it’s not OK.

The Berlin Wall, 20 years gone – The Big Picture – Boston.com

As is their way, The Boston Globe has a stunning set of photographs commemorating the fall of the Berlin wall.

(My memory of the event (at the age of 5) was of [Timmy Mallett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timmy_Mallett) explaining it on [Wacaday](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacaday)—I guess it must have been the Autumn half-term break of 1989. I have an unshakable, vivid recollection of him hammering the wall with that giant yellow and pink rubber mallet. YouTube does not have the video.)

Elsewhere, the new Microsoft homepage demonstrates how to use fallback content properly.

Oh, hi Microsoft. It appears that your web is broken.

And now it’s time for ‘That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means’.

#And now it’s time for ‘That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means’.