HDTracks: Has the pay with PayPal loophole finally been closed?

I've bought a couple of albums from HDTracks this week, using PayPal. Just click the PayPal icon before proceeding to the credit card payment screen.

John, 

That's what I normally do, but wouldn't even let me get that far this time.

Steeve

hmmm..seem to have been able to get around it again now for one album anyway - will try the other one again once this one has downloaded.

Is it maybe a specific Record Label that has insisted on domestic only sales from HD tracks.?

Maybe you could try a different label and see if the problem still occurs (you can cancel the order if you don't really want the music you are using for the test).

regards

geoff

Yes Geoff. Was just trying that. Seems it works fine for some titles but not for others. Unfortunately, doesn't seem to work for most of the ones I want! :-(

I'm sure this has changed though. Just to try and confirm this, have tried to download something I had previously downloaded and it now won't let me, so I think they must have tightened things up.

Problem albums I have identified are : Chronicle (CCR), Innervisions (Stevie Wonder), Let It Bleed and Some Girls (Rolling Stones), Tea for the Tillerman (Cat Stevens). 

Managed to download a Sharon Jones album ok and will let me do Machine Head as well though decided against that one.

Ho hum, so much for hi-res...

Just seen a similar thread on the Linn forum so seems I'm right. These new restrictions seem to affect most of the most popular titles. :-(

try putting a us zip code in

Oh dear thats bad news. I downloaded 'Innervisions' a couple of weeks ago for example.

Bummer

Geoff

I have just purchased and downloading from HDtracks via Paypal (Kate Bush). Still working here - and I am in the UK.

You might want to try going via a proxy server if you are still having problems, ie it will make your IP address appear from a US address range if you use a US Proxy.

Update: I went via freeproxy in Canada and I could add items into my basket that otherwise I couldn't do when going directly from the UK. I could invoke the HDTrack Manager from the proxy session, but it was still downloading KateBush that is not limited. I don't know whether the HDTrack Manager is affected by this.. I'll have to wait to buy another North Amercia only Album..

Simon

Rich46, it's your IP address that it checks, not your actual address,

Maze, couldn't agree more. 

Simon, can you explain how one would use Freeproxy (without getting too technical!) to get around this? Thanks Steeve 

Steeve, yes if you put free proxy servers into Google, you will see lots of references. Try one based in the US or Canada. Effectively they act as a relay. If you send a request by them, it gets onward forwarded using a new source IP address based in the geographic location of the proxy. I tried helpmehide.com based in Canada and it appeared to work- at least loading restricted items into the basket.

Simplistically the vast majority of IP addresses are divided up across the globe, and so when you  initiate your web request the web server can tell where in the world you are coming from. It's called GeoLocation in web terminology. All web requests have a source and destination IP address ( it's quite a hot topic in my professional work right now)

Simon

hmmm....thanks Simon. I tried a couple and whilst they allowed the load into the basket, they didn't seem to be able to cope with payment via PayPal. All seems far too much trouble at the moment.

Of course, the SSL encryption of Paypal won't  traverse the proxy server... Dohhhhh. Is the basket stored between sessions? Ie load with a proxy, and then try and pay by a direct web connection... I agree it's all getting clunky.

Simon

Maybe get a friend in the US to buy, then download from them?  Still clunky though, and probably breaks so many laws you'd be extradited to the US for terrorism...

Also, a further word of warning...........going through a proxy appears to trigger a security issue within Paypal. You account will be limited and you will have to go through a re-verification process!

They seem to have turned on geolocation on the search results as well now - if i search for 'stones' it correctly returns The Rolling Stones as the artist, but the album listing shows 'record not available'. If I search on Google and jump directly to the correct landing page I see the albums, but can't add them to my basket. Bugger... should have downloaded more while I had the chance.

If that is indeed correct, I would call for HD Tracks to finally open a EU download site.

Best wishes,

Peter

Peter,

An EU site would be great of course. Not sure where the legal issues are exactly. If, as it would appear, it's a record label issue, is it dependent on their agreement and out of HD Tracks' hands?  

Does anyone understand the situation? Why would a label not want to sell more product? I fear there is so much in life that I don't understand and never will....

Geolocation by IP at hdtracks.com has been active for surfers from Germany for some weeks now. Now they seem to cover UK as well.

IP restrictions obviously are based on entire labels, i.e. you can either buy any album from a label or none.

Restricted labels seem to be: Deutsche Grammophon, Verve, Mercury Living Presence, Island Records and some others. When you click on such a label you get "coming soon" and it's also hidden from the page with all labels. There are still labels that are not restricted, e.g. Chesky as hdtrack's "house label"  and many smaller labels.

Very annoying. One might think we are trying to buy drugs, weapons or other illegal stuff. Surfing via proxy is not really an option: Dead slow, insecure and Paypal makes problems too (as noted by Steeve).

I don't blame hdtracks for this, they wouldn't mind the extra cash. The idea obviously comes from the content mafia^H^H^H^H^H owners.

KR,

Jochen

I tested it with The Rolling Stones. No problems ... here in ... eh ... Denmark, that's a city in Western Autralia, if you have to ask.

So the Geolocation Star Wars Umbrella designed to protect us from ourselves isn't covering the far-away countries outside of the USA mainland.

I wonder what the dis-united EU, Putin USSR and Red China will say to this infamous resucitation of The Cold War?

Best wishes,

Peter

Surely if British people aren't allowed to download British artists in HD, then our culture is being suppressed and our Human Rights are being infringed?  I smell a legal case...

No, this is the UK, your human rights can only be violated if you're a crook or terrorist and someone tries to punish you. Still perhaps trying to buy music by a UK artist is now a crime.

Just says record unavailable

Glad I haven't sold my CDS3 to finance a NDS yet