Zain Create have an offer for limited time, if you register before the 1st of april you’ll get KD 5.100 (thats 5 kds and a 100 fils) of credit to download songs off their music store. I went ahead an registered, it was an easy process and I got the promotional 5KDs credited to my Zain Create account. You should all register, there is no need to miss out on this one time deal.
Anyway, I looked around the site, then wanted to download something to try the service out. I went to the top 10 list and found that Fadhel Shaker’s new album is in the #1 spot (Not just that, He is #1 in the top songs, albums, and artists list!) so I went with Fadhel’s new album. I bought the album (10 tracks, each track costs 300fils. You can’t buy the whole album as of now, but it says in the FAQs section that the option will be available soon. It better be). I bought the album and am now listening to 2 of the songs.. the download rate is between 10kbps and 35kbps (I’m using ego 7.2).
I’m listening to Jowa Al Roh right now and the quality is superb. the song is 4:27 long, in MP3 format, 6.2MB, 192 Kbit/s. Obviously good quality. and comes with an ID3 tag with the picture of the album’s cover.
The whole site is very well designed and is easy to use. I love it.. but there is room for improvement. Hear me out if you have a say in this project:
1- I need to be able to tell which song is already downloaded. Like for example as I was downloading Fadhel’s songs, I lost track. There needs to be a sign or a label on the song which has been downloaded so i don’t download it again by mistake.
2- The lack of Mac software is not acceptable.
3- The song sampling is very fast, which I appreciate a lot, but sometimes the play button doesn’t work and I have to refresh a few times before I can start sampling the song.
4- I should be able to download the whole album as a package, coz it was a hassle downloading each track separately. I know it’s coming.. but still, it should be available from the start imo.
5- It says that once I download a song, I should receive an sms immediately, and yet, I downloaded 10 songs, wrote this post and still not a single sms.
I think the service is very good and that Zain did a great job with this whole thing.
Visit Zain Create and get the offer before it expires.
Update:
I was sent an email by Zain replying to the 5 points I wrote above. Here is their reply:
1-Noted will work on it you can check your downloads on my create section .
2- Noted will communicate your request if doable.
3- This is related to your browser
4- working on it,, coming soon along with video clips , ringtones & wallpapers .. & non Rotana songs …
5- This is due to the free promotion once you consume your 5 KD , you will get a chargable sms once you purchase a song ( charging is via sms for free songs no sms is sent only a box stating your free purchase ).
Finally , try out the streamed channels of Rotana( Audio & TV ) as well on the website & try to download the mobile application from web its compatible with Nokia & Sony Ericson symbian mobiles ,,, blackberry soon ….
Thanks Alia
So there is no catch?!
Not too interested in it! 🙂
I have my own music that I enjoy!
I think It’s a very nice service and It’s about time that we have a legal place to buy Arabic music, since the ones on iTunes are old and not up to date ..
The problem is that it’s expensive .. an original CD from Rotana costs 1.5 KD while downloading 10 songs from Zain Create costs 3KD !!
I think it’s a great start. But there’re several problems (or potential ones) I noticed from my fist visit:
1. It only contains the new songs and I seem to be out of touch with the music scene that I’m only looking for the older ones. Which brings me to point 2.
2. It only contains Rotana albums. I know it’s not their problem, but I wish that it was run by an independent company so that it would not be exclusive to Rotana singers.
3. As one of the gentlemen commented before me, the songs cost 300 Fils. It’s not much, but compared to the price of the CD, it is expensive. But on the other hand, usually there’re only a couple of good songs in an album so you’ll be paying only 600 Fils instead of wasting 1.5KD.
4. Why didn’t they use Flash like 99.9% of the web instead of using Microsoft Silverlight?!?!
I only hope that with time, the above can be remedied.
I think it’s a fantastic idea. It’s good to finally have somewhere to download arabic music legally!! My question, is it in English?!
I’m sick of every website I find being in arabic, don’t they realise English people start to adjust to the sounds of non english music lol…. I for one have arabic music playing on my itunes more than english.