I must admit that I am very impressed with a some of the songs that were sent to me in the latest MP3Tunes e-mail sampler. Dragonfly by Universal Hall Pass, for one, is suprisingly enjoyable! To quote their Mercury album page…

An album aptly named for it’s ever-morphing musical backdrops with extremely adventurous songwriting, a unique voice, and lyrical content covering truth, coyness, charm, and mythos.

The lead singer’s voice is REALLY interesting. It reminds me a bit of Nelly Furtado, Superchic(k), and Portishead, all at once. Combined with some fairly complex and eclectic arrangements, the songs combine a diverse set of influences and the outcome is a unique, pleasant diversion.

The second tune that I absolutely had to buy was Desert Flower by Amir from his Rumba Gitana album. It is an absolutely gorgeous Spanish guitar number. I am an absolute sucker for the acoustic guitar and always have been. And this song is truly one to be listened to with a tall glass of blueberry tea, with the lights off, gazing into the flickering light of a lone candle. Wow. Peaceful, serene, and beautiful. Quite a nice way to end one’s day.

So, reviews aside, this is the first time that I’ve bought any music from MP3tunes.com, and I did so tonight for a couple of reasons.

First, the music that I mentioned above is REALLY good, and 88 cents per song is pretty cheap–cheaper than Apple’s iTunes store.

Second, I wanted to support the artists who are making said good music.

Third, I really appreciate the philosophy and direction that MP3tunes is going and want to support them in their efforts. They don’t try to limit me as a buyer on what I can do with the music I buy, and this is how it truly should be. The fact that the big record companies haven’t gotten a clue to this yet baffles me. Besides that, the website is nicely done, and it’s dead simple to buy the music you want and download it. Also, they’ve done things the right way and not tried to limit their web interface to Internet Explorer, for example. Nice job, guys.

Fourth, I really like the approach that MP3tunes is taking with the artists they work with. According to their About page, they focus on

High rev-share to artists, with artists keeping almost $6 of every CD sold and almost $.60 for each song. Even the superstar artists don’t command that kind of royalty!

Pretty cool approach! Artists can do a lot better for themselves by this kind of arrangement, one would think, than with the current situation with those big record companies, at least from what I have seen/read/heard.

Now, I had checked out MP3tunes.com before–when they first launched–and quite honestly, I was horribly underimpressed with the selection they had, so I didn’t even think about buying anything. And maybe you had this impression too. But, if you care about freedom with the music you buy, if you care about supporting artists who are doing a good job and willing to let you listen to the music you buy however you want to listen to it, then you should really go check out MP3tunes.com. Look around, listen to some of the free samples, and go buy something. Put your money where your mouth is. =;)