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Do online music stores share the same back-end database?

2009-08-07This post is over 2 years old and may now be out of date

(2 minute read)

A couple of days ago I bought the classic track Amen UK - Passion (Paul Masterson Radio Edit) from [TescoDigital](http://www.tescodigital.com/Store/Pages/SearchResults2.aspx?searchexpression=Amen UK&searchtype=AllProducts) - Tesco's online music store. I purchased it, downloaded it and then loaded it into Winamp. What came out of my speakers sounded totally different to [what I was expecting](http://www.last.fm/music/Amen UK/_/Passion (Paul Masterson Radio Edit)). So I went back to Tesco's webpage and previewed the track, thinking that it might just have been a downloading error in their system. Turns out the preview track sounds exactly the same as what I had been given in the download, and therefore also wrong. I immediately fired off an email to their customer support team regarding the matter and am still awaiting a reply.

Today I decided to have a go at getting this song again and through Google found my way to Play.com, who are offering it for 70p (cheaper than Tesco's and most other sites from what I can tell). I was about to pay just now when I remembered the painful lesson from the other day. So I backed up to the song page and previewed the track. To my great surprise the preview track is exactly the same as the one Tesco have for this song. Both Tesco's and Play.com have it wrong! But how can that be? Clearly they're both serving tracks from the same back-end provider. I'll wait and see whether Tesco will refund me, if they get back to me at all that is.

By the way, if you want to know what this song should really sound like and why you should get it too, you can check it out on [Last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/Amen UK/_/Passion (Paul Masterson Radio Edit)) and YouTube

[Update: August 17th]: still no reply from Tescos :(

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