As will have been obvious if you read these pages, we've been strong supporters of Met Player: I've written various editorials items about them and we've had a commercial relationship (recently expired) whereby we show their listings.
On Sunday evening, however, I did come across a big "caveat emptor". I bought a download of I Pagliacci (the one coupled with Il Tabarro). Everything appeared smooth until I hit the download button, whereupon the Apple spinning wheel of doom appeared, with nothing else. After trying various things in the troubleshooting guide and wasting a frustrating half hour, I gave up.
It turns out, according to the customer service people at the Met, that not all of the content is available outside the US and Canada. Unfortunately, whoever designed the site didn't think to give an error message either at point of purchase or at point of download - all you get is the spinning wheel of doom.
They did refund my money, but I strongly suggest that if you're not in the US or Canada, you check the relevant page on their site before purchase:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/news_flash.aspx?id=13258
There were only five titles listed when I checked just now, but enough to be seriously annoying if you've picked one of them.
11th October 2011
