Flipkart Flyte MP3 downloads are available for just one year?


Flipkart has been selling music online in India for almost a year now. The company offer DRM free MP3 files that can be downloaded on your computer or mobile devices.

A member of the India Broadband Forum mailed Flipkart support asking about the validity of their 1 year celebratory offer which is giving away 100 music albums for free every day for 10 days.

Here is the most interesting part of the mail response. Flipkart Support say that MP3s are available for download for a period of one year from the date of purchase.

Flipkart Flyte MP3 downloads are available for just one year?

  • http://twitter.com/PratikJain4 Pratik Jain

    It could be, that by “available”, they mean that the mp3 file will be available in the person’s flyte mp3 library, available to download at any point of time within one year from the date of purchase.. Otherwise I don’t see how are they going to know whether the person has kept the mp3 file in any of his devices beyond the 1 year period..

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      I am not sure how people are ok with one year download availability for media they are paying for. This might be a digital product, but it is something you are paying for.

      Compare this with Amazon. They are offering free MP3 downloads of music that people purchased on CDs 10 years ago.

      If this is the official position of Flipkart Flyte regarding MP3 files, I am going to give my business to Apple iTunes.

      At least they do not kill access to my music files after one year. And I do not have to struggle downloading my files from their servers.

      Flipkart’s MP3 Library page is a disaster. Alphabetically sorted, right now I can only reach the alphabet F. No songs after it are accessible.

  • Shubham

    What exactly are you paying for, when you buy a digital product? The product in question, or the seller’s ability to make that product available to you forever? The former is just like buying a physical product - you lose it (lose your laptop/hard disk), you lose the product. To get it again, you can’t go back to the seller and demand it again saying you paid for it once. Yes, of course, in the real world, it takes money and effort to make the product again in physical form - in digital world, it doesn’t.

    But, in the digital world, it takes money and effort to make anything available for perpetuity. Amazon’s cloud storage is one such service. If Flipkart was to add an extra service for cloud storage (not just the library) at an extra fee (over and above the cost of mp3), that perhaps makes sense. But, if you want perpetual ability to access your collection online at Rs.5 per song, I’m not sure if someone like Flipkart is ready for that.

    I download the songs - from Flipkart or iTunes (from iPod/iPhone to my PC) and have my own multiple storage systems - helps in case I lose one copy.

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Well. There are two things that bother me.

      Flyte is one year old this month and I am only hearing about this 1 year policy now. And that too from an email response to another user. I am yet to receive a response to my own support queries. On email and on social channels.

      I went through the FAQs on Flipkart website: http://www.flipkart.com/s/mp3help Could not locate this ‘policy’. I could have missed it though. Please confirm.

      They really need to make it clear.

      My biggest problem right now is that their MP3 Library page is useless. I cannot even access my current tracks completely. It stops loading tracks after a while.

      I download songs. I keep them on my computer. I also keep a copy on Google Music and Google Drive. But right now, I am not even able to access songs that are IN my library right now to download them.

      -

      As for the cloud. Flipkart already offers cloud storage for your mobile devices. You can download songs on the move to listen to them on the move. They do not have to keep my library separately on some extra storage. As long as they have the rights to that music, they can make it available to me.

      Amazon Cloud Player does the same. They do not keep individual copies for individual users as long as they have a copy of the song with them from the label. Even Google Music and Apple iTunes match the songs and make available their own copies.

      I would understand their limitation in case their deal with a music label has expired. From what I see, they are not really highlighting this limitation on their website or mobile apps.

  • http://itwofs.com/beastoftraal/ Karthik Srinivasan

    Hi Sushubh, I’m Karthik and I handle corporate communications at Flipkart.

    This information is incorrect. Flyte library does not have an expiry date of 1 year. It is not in our T&C and we apologize for this erroneous communication.

    Karthik

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Hello Karthik

      I hope you get this response. You probably know about the changed policy for the Flyte anniversary offer by now.

      I am fine with the change.

      The problem for me is that your backend is pretty restrictive. I cannot really access my entire MP3 library right now.

      In fact, if sorted alphabetically, I can only reach till C. I have been sending tweets, and messages on Google+ since yesterday. But yet to get a response.

      I am not sure if I am the only person facing this problem. But this has been the case with me since the day one of the offer. I just cannot download the music that is already in my library because I cannot access it at all.

      Kindly forward this query to the technical team and ask them to make the necessary changes. A screenshot can be accessed here that shows that MP3 library just stops loading new tracks after a couple of scroll downs.

      http://broadbandforum.in/flipkart/86737-flipkart-flyte-anniversary-offer-turning/#post719660