WTF is going on w/ 7Digital, and their slooow download speeds?

Why are their download speeds so unbelievably slow? I purchased a 16-bit FLAC album (a short, 30 minute album) from 7Digital (US) last night and attempted to download. Average download speed was 10 kbps. I speed tested my ISP connection and it was 62 mbps.

After an hour trying to download this album, the connection just timed out. Trying again from the office today and, same thing. It's not a problem from my end. 7Digital's server upload speeds are just abysmal, if not absolutely unworkable. Anybody else had, or having, this issue?

EDIT: Oh, it's a known issue for at least two weeks now, with no reasonable resolution in sight. . . .

My FLAC album won't download?

I had trouble downloading a couple albums last year from 7Digital and they just said, "sorry, we'll give you a refund" - then just deleted the albums from their shop. To this day, they never bothered fixing the problem and haven't put the albums back up in the shop. Is 7Digital a money laundering scheme, because as a digital music retailer and file delivery service they suck pretty bad?

 

I've been lucky, I guess, and I've never had an issue with them. That said, I only use it for FLAC downloads of tracks which aren't available on CD, which thus far has been two singles (one a two-track 7", one a single digital file) and two EPs (one three tracks, one six). I haven't noticed any issue with the download speeds, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat waiting for it to finish downloading either, I was probably creating folders in my library to store the files in.

I have heard a lot of really negative things about the service, though, which is a shame because it's the only one that offers lossless downloads outside of Bandcamp (and what I'm looking for is only on Bandcamp 10% of the time). There's a few other EPs I've been eyeing, and I've been tempted by the hi-res Tom Petty albums since in some cases they're close to half the price of the HD Tracks downloads ($13 vs. $22). I've held off mostly since my spare cash goes primarily towards CDs, but if they're having more problems than usual... I'm not interested in being the guinea pig.

 

After 30 years of collecting CDs (nearly 4,000 of them) now sitting in boxes in a paid storage unit, I just don't have any room for more. I swore off physical media two years ago, but I still want CD quality audio (at least 16bit/44.1). So, sites like 7Digital and Bandcamp have filled the gap. I usually go to 7Digital for my major label stuff, and Bandcamp for my indie stuff. Between the two, I can usually find everything I need.

It's worked out alright so far, but 7Digital has been a sub par pain in the ass for a while now. Breaks my heart there aren't many (any?) other options for legit CD quality digital audio.

 

Yeah, a real shame. Up until recently, the album in my profile picture was unavailable in lossless quality for less than $70, when (and if - BIG if!) the CD came up for sale. I would implore people to buy the MP3 download to support the artist (RIP, Jimmy we miss you) and then send over my CD WAV rips. It's since been added in lossless to 7Digital... well, looks like that doesn't mean much now, considering what thread we're reading...!

 

I downloaded one the other night and it was pretty slow. I came back a few hours later and it was done. Hope they fix this soon. FYI, I use Chrome Download Manager.

 

Trying again at the office, using Chrome Download Manager. Downloading now, and it says the download speed is 0 bits per second, with 99 days left for the download to complete!

Edit: Alright, downloading the individual tracks now, instead of the whole album zip folder. Each track is downloading, but taking roughly five minutes each to download. Absurd. Their upload server speeds are still garbage.

 

There's a bunch of Matt Berry and Flaming Lips singles/EPs that are only available lossless from 7Digital. When I go to buy them I'll keep track of how long they take to download.

 

Heh, an online inquiry about this brought me here. "Honey, I'm home."

Just bought a couple titles at 7d, and they are miserable download speeds. As suggested there, I'm downloading individual tracks, and while you can see some progress, it's taken a day each for two albums.

I'm presuming they've gone to some bargain-basement provider, and we get to pay the penalty.

I suppose the bigger picture is that download services are struggling as much as physical media retailers. The Herd is streaming. The Herd has spoken.

[ insert sheep noises here ]