HD Tracks UK appears active

It works for me too.

I did have to re-register though, it didn't take the login details that I had for the American site (which I now can't reach due to being redirected).

Press release here:

http://www.theaudiobuzz.com/20...-the-united-kingdom/

Together with Qobuz, these things are like buses :-)

On the German .de site, prices are 20% higher than on Qobuz, combined with the somewhat doubtfull reputation of HDTracks, a no-go for me.

Expensive though . Some of the albums that I have been looking at cost $24.77 on the US site are £24.50 on the UK site .

Also, Deezer for Sonos is launching lossless streaming at a bargain price.

Great to see new options emerging.

Yeah. That sounds about right and was predictable.

I'll just keep buying from HDT USA

Better pricing than Qobuz & the supidity of the $ = £ with HDT.co.uk 

Many more albums available  than HDT.co.uk & Qobuz

IP subdefugue stops the HDT.co.uk redirect

I guess sooner or later competition will get the pricing down to typical CD levels,  hopefully even less considering manufacturing, materials, shipping & warehousing are not required with audio files.   

What's the best IP masking software Mike?

I've used a few Steve & TBH not much to choose between them,  they are mostly simple apps to help with security when you are working on a public wifi hotspot & are all you need for getting "regional restricted" downloads.  A few use a very complex routing around thousands of locations & are overkill for simple IP foolery,  these have a problem with being very slow so the download part goes on a bit.   

At the mo I'm using Easy-Hide-IP,  but have yet to try it with the new HDT to UK divert system in place so not sure how that will work out when I next log in with my UK e-mail & PW.  (& I don't have any albums on my wish list to give it a try)

I'm also working with a buddy in USA & are playing around with ways to work something with a US e-mail address in my name - & he with a UK e-mail address.

You need to use an internet proxy service. I use UK2.net. It effectively creates a tunnel from your router or PC to the remote proxy service in another region that then has a public IP address that is associated with that region such as the US.

There are some free proxy services around, but have poor performance in my experience.

Tried Easy-Hide-IP - went to HDT (USA) no problems (not diverted to UK), opened my US account & downloaded some albums that are not available on HDT.UK & were about 30-40% cheaper than Qobuz

It seems to be one of the better IP security operators with professional install process & registration that gives confidence

They have a large selection of country locations to choose from & either system selectable or user selected actual IP addresses. 

Problem is (like many of them)  very slow www access,  so much so that whilst I would use this for music downloads, I would find it very frustrating if not impossible using it to hide my IP when using a wifi hotspot.  

So I have tried it & thanks but no thanks

Final point is its not easy to uninstall, not impossible, but need to be IT savvy.  

Mike,  just out of interest why would you want to hide your assigned IP address when you are on a wifi hotspot? If you need to use secure comms, just make sure the web service you are talking to uses transport layer security and/or secure sockets (the key symbol on a web browser),  alternatively use a secure VPN into your concentrator that is behind the internet (ie a commercial encrypted web proxy service) . Proxying your IP address doesn't necessarily make your comms any more secure... 

I use proxies here to circumvent geo location based on your regional assigned IP address, effectively usually defined by the ISP being used... and that will apply equally to a public wifi hot spot as to a private internet access.

Simon

Hi Simon, why hide my IP in public wifi hot spots ???

In my case, maybe a touch of paranoia. I don't use hotspots around UK but do frequently when overseas (usually 3-5 trips per year).  I once ended up with a badly compromised laptop that manifested itself after using a hotspot just once during a trip. I'm not sure how or why & I am 99.9% convinced I did not do anything wrong to cause it. That experience took some sorting out & I am not prepared to go that way again,  I was led to believe these IP hide progs can help in this. 

Tell me I am misguided in this respect,  I will take it as good advise.