EMusic - C/D

It's got weird stuff. And the artists who produce weird stuff aren't making much money anyway.

The fact it's the one place you can go to get a few important deleted titles (for instance, Peter Laughner's "Take The Guitar Player For A Ride" and the Sleepers' stuff as reissued on tim/kerr) makes it arguably classic.

I mean, "Take The Guitar Player..." is classic. At the very least one should go, sign up for your trial membership, and download the Laughner before cancelling...

i haven't really looked at it since.

also, back in the day (2000, we're talkin') the quality of the MP3s was sort of dodgy. I did get a Nomad for buying $50 worth of music the one time I used it, and that rocked.

Artists getting paid for downloads vs. not. Seems bogus coming from emusic's mouth. What advantage does emusic provide so that I won't just use slsk? Certainly it's the idea that the tracks are "legal," but truthfully I only feel bad using slsk because the artists aren't getting paid. And especially "the artists who produce weird stuff [who] aren't making much money anyway."

it's worth it just for the fact that you can get most of the Rather Interesting back catalogue, and Senor Coconut gets paid a royalty for each track. they've also got great drum and bass comps (reinforced and certificate 18), old daniel wang material, old ken ishii material, experimental audio research, etc.

i have to admit, though, that i just used the free trial to get the stuff above (and the artists still got paid).

i found a few deleted 20th century 'classical' titles that i was unable to buy anywhere on the web anymore and so that was good -- but searching for more similarly unique stuff by the same composers didn't go anywhere (in that case they had a sampling of titles from the clasical label Koch, leaving me wanting more)

so it seemed they had something of everything, but then just something, ie just xyz on label q, just some of the obscure stuff -- admittedly stuff i've not seen available anywhere else -- so not much depth for any given artist, more 'lost tapes from 1975' type stuff -- stuff you might not have known existed

I've downloaded mostly hard-to-find stuff, and stuff where I know the artists aren't getting shit anyway -- ferinstance, I got the entire CCR catalogue, since Saul Zaentz still ownz that shit and John Fogerty's still getting screwed over it. However, the artists who produce weird stuff who aren't getting paid anyway seem to be making a least a little bit here. They would make nothing if I downloaded from Soulseek, checked out from the library, or bought a used compact disc. They're making precious little even when we buy new CDs. I feel no guilt.

- Faster downloads, about 10 - 100 times faster for me.
- Songs are reliably named and tagged.
- Search function doesn't completely suck.
- Yazoo, Ethiopiques, JSP, Riverside, Milestone, etc.

I use Soulseek a lot more, but I'm glad there's both.

Suddenly this morning, I see where EMusic's new arrivals list is just page after page of back catalog from what must be a new label signing, Beggars Banquet & "Beggars Group": 4AD, Too Pure, XL, Mantra, Wijja, etc.

I think I'll start with those Velocette singles...

I think it's best for people who have really broad tastes and like a lot of international musics and blues, country, whatever.

not sure if it'll work, but it might be worth a shot

-- instantaneous access to the extended classical canon in serviceable-to-great recordings due to inclusion of Naxos catalogue;
-- cheap opportunity for upgrading some vinyl stuff I have to digital (eg from 4AD); since I already have the artwork etc I don't feel I'm missing out on much compared to buying CDs;
-- fun of randomly trying something unknown for very little cost.

I'd appreciate a higher-volume account option than the current max of 90 tracks for $20 a month, though (ie EMUSIC CAN YOU HEAR ME I WANT TO GIVE YOU MORE MONEY).

Haha yes that is a bit dim. Talking of classical, this means e.g. that symphonies are usually dirt cheap, opera less so.

Hm maybe one should write a program that scoured the catalogue and found the best bargains from the track lengths... ;)

I started to make a list of the "few" finds that made me happy to be a member, before it became a huge list and I had to void my whole argument.

Not enough downloads, I agree, but I love it.

And SO VERY GLAD they don't pro-rate songs or pieces by length.

! We're sorry. This album is unavailable for download in your country at this time. Please check back later.

These preclude classic status.

google site:emusic.com inurl:album 15..80-0..59-listen

change the 15 to whatever you want the minimum length in minutes to be.

If you burn the albums to CD, you always have a stack of CDs with stuff you haven't heard on it waiting for you!

Heh, I downloaded John Cage's Empty Words (part III) from eMusic - two tracks, 74 minutes each.

They also have some live albums that I haven't seen elsewhere (search for "Schubas" and "Casbah" for starters.)

I wish I could pay more for higher quality, or that the downloads were higher quality; it irks me to know that someday, like with my cassettes and my vinyl and my early CDs, that I'll probably upgrade a lot of what I picked up on eMusic because the bitrate is noticeable.

Nothing personal to Doug or Philip (two writers whose work I admire and like a lot) but I still do not find eMusic to be a community type of place for me where I want to spend time doing anything but downloading. There's a lot of quality writing and some of the lists are really great, but I can't seem to make eMusic a daily stop in my surfing. It's not a destination for me in that sense and I'm not sure why.

Also, the exclusive live stuff is a nice touch and I wish there was more of that (like the exclusive titles that the CIMS gets.)

This was my download strategy:

1. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (all tracks)
I've heard and liked the singles, I've skimmed through the rest at a listening station in some record store. I think it's a really good album, but before buying it I've wanted to spend some time listening to it straight through to be sure I separate my own impressions from the hype that surrounded it. [Conclusion: I'll buy the CD as soon as I can find it used.]

2. [remembering the notion, expressed in this thread, that it's good to download LONG tracks]
Eliane Radigue, Trilogie de la mort -- three hour-long tracks, beautiful drone-y electronic sounds, the smartest decision I made in this whole process

3. [spontaneously deciding to hunt down some individual tracks where I'm not interested in buying the whole album]
Annie - several tracks off Anniemal
Ladytron - several tracks off 604 and Light & Magic
Armand Van Helden - "U Don't Know Me" and "Flowerz"

4. [spontaneously deciding it's about time I finally checked out Derek Bailey]
Derek Bailey - Improvisations (all tracks)

5. [remembering I've been curious about Robert Rich but put off by all the New Age hoo-haw]
Robert Rich - Below Zero (all tracks)
still haven't listened to it

6. [remembering that ever since the recent Imogen Heap thread, I've been trying to find Todd Rundgren's "Pretending to Care," off the mid-80s album _A Capella_]
They don't have it, but they have a cover of it by a band called The Unherd.

That's 50 tracks, and I've unsubscribed. Part of the challenge is that I'm just not a music downloader, so anything I *really* want, I want on CD. The eMusic process was all about remembering things I *sort of* want.

rhaps usually covers my nostalgic needs... you know, when some friend goes, "dude krokus!" i can actually give krokus a listen and leave it at that without spending much more than a few cents i suppose. etc etc. old hip hop records i never bought but have radio taped mixes of, etc etc.

one by one, emusic has steadily brought lot's and lot's of "want list" labels onboard. i never thought i'd see tzadik come, but here they are. or dischord. touch and go! shit, those dudes charge out the wazoo for their records at the store, but here they are! emusic has really become kind of a paradise for back catalog siftings. i keep hoping drag city will come, but they seem pretty stiff on such things. (do they do itunes even? i'm too lazy to fire up itunes right now.)

as far as i'm concerned, services like emusic are saints for kicking DRM to the curb and letting us be honest fans. (for now anyway. legislation always pending in one form or another.)

m.

Certainly far from having everything I want, but I've already downloaded tons of stuff I've been fiending for for a while.

Also great to have for making my wedding mixes.

It sucks for a lot of comedy albums though since they have lots of short tracks. Your monthly 40 song quota can be filled with 2 albums.

I really want to write for these guys. There are so many bitchin' compilations that are unsung on their site.

Having said that there are still lots of interesting things to download and at £8 or so for 65 tracks a month, it's well worth it.

This is the most frustrating thing about the site. You can now buy additional slightly-more-expensive 'booster packs' when your 90 downloads have been used up, but you're only allowed 5 or so of these per month. I'd spend twice as much on emusic than I do already if only they allowed me to!

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/emusic.ars

The Ryko catalog is still up, even though Warners is buying in to their distro channels, so maybe more majors will test the waters a eMusic.

If I'm remembering correctly, eMusic used to have some Impulse jazz (Alice Coltrane was Impulse? They used to have her.) but lost it right before they switched over to their current pricing plan.

i do wish they'd spell my last album right, rather than making "fahrenheit 69" into "fahrenh eit 69"

hopefully they'll get the new one right.

question - if you guys like the free emusic track, do you download the rest of the album?

Also, although I don't like the non-rollover, it is part of what makes them a bit Quirky rather than Totally Streamlined, which I kinda like. The per-track rather than per-time cost is another example. (Though it means my quizgeek desire for The National Anthems of the World will go unfulfilled on that particular site.)

I really want to write for these guys. There are so many bitchin' compilations that are unsung on their site.

-- Forksclovetofu

Ooh such as? Account replenishes in five days...

("You've got your dick on backwards"????)

The holes and treasures in their collection reproduce the act of searching through a giagatic used record store better than anything else online. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I lived accross the street from Jerry's Records. My eMusic subscription feels like wandering over there- I don't know what I'm going to pick up, but I'm probably going to learn about something I never heard of before.

FYI "You've got your dick on backwards" is a parody of the Sonics "you've got your head on backwards." which kinda paved the way for our upcoming "blowfly's punk rock party" (due in september) though when we cut "...backwards" we never imagined doing a whole record like that.

as far as hip hop on emusic -- all the rhymesayers stuff is on there, as is most of the def jux stuff and the coup via epitaph. obviously, there aren't many major label artists on emusic - so the hip hop is kinda sparse.

i dled about 100 mp3s over the past two months - the majority were 192, though a few were VBR that averaged around that. i think some of the indian soundtrack stuff was 160.

http://www.emusic.com/help/technical.html#q11

It's unlikely you will hear any difference from the cd version.

The business model probably works fine for labels like Folkways where you're largely dealing with reissues of old stuff, much of it by dead artists or people who don't expect to see much money anyway. Some of their releases are probably going to sell 10x as much on emusic as they would on something like iTunes.

[eMusic's]entire approach to labels is this idea of "found" money. As if you'd just be leaving it on the street if you didn't sign on. But the reality is that between iTunes and the ever growing crop of indie niche digital sites (Other Music, Boomkat, Juno, etc, with Wax Poetics and Turntable Lab following), you do have options. Good options really. The kind of options that pay you a respectable percentage of the sale. eMusic is finding out the hard way that their business model is again broke, as more and more labels are deciding pull out. They aren't the only game in town anymore, and Darwinian law still prevails:
Adapt or perish.

I read a very interesting article about China, where piracy is quite rampant. They were saying that musicians there pretty much have come to accept that selling the music itself is a no-profit option. They do try, of course, but at the same time, they recognize that the true profit to be had is in a) live sales aka concerts b) related concert items like t-shirts etc. and c) building a brand name e.g. commercial endorsements, spin-off media etc. So basically, the actual music track is a freebie that you use to build your fanbase so you can sell them other stuff, be it more merchandise (books, magazines) or some sort of 'experience' (concerts, shows etc.) Interesting business model, I think.

In my opinion, the problem is that we are really, in this day and age, in a customer-driven market. Those who want to survive and profit have to cater to the customer. If the customer does not want to spend 99 cents a track, they will not and you won't sell to them unless you offer something else they do want, at a price they want. It doesn't mean they are wrong and you are right, or they are evil and you must punish them or legislate them into doing what you want. It means that if you want their money, you have to sell them what they want at a price they want.

An analogy I often use with the students I teach, when we talk about it is this: let's say you are a bakery and you are known for your carrot muffins. You open your new store and you find that everyone there wants to buy chovolate chip muffins. You have two options. 1) Spend allt his time, money and effort trying to convince them that they need to be buying carrot muffins instead or b) spend that same time and money investing in the infrastructure that will allow you to make chocolate chip muffins. Sell them these and rake in the dough. The meainstream music industry is clinging to an outmoded business model. If they want to keep having profits, they need to get with the times.

We don't live in China where people will work hard for nothing, so that analogy is pointless.

Florida apparently just passed a law that severely hampers the buying and selling of used CDs. The law states that stores have to wait 30 days before reselling the CDs. (via BB, via AT)

“No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a Florida apparently just passed a law that severely hampers the buying and selling of used CDs. The law states that stores have to wait 30 days before reselling the CDs. (via BB, via AT)

“No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a $10,000 bond for the ‘right’ to treat their customers like criminals.”

This would pretty much suck. Except for a few choice new releases, the used bin at my work is pretty much the only way I buy albums any more.0,000 bond for the ‘right’ to treat their customers like criminals.”

This would pretty much suck. Except for a few choice new releases, the used bin at my work is pretty much the only way I buy albums any more.

the thing with illegal downloading is that an entire generation is growing up now with basically no other alternative

bit of an update on this... I had a chat with a "digital music professional" who told me that the sort of math contained in this thread, while technically correct, does not accurately reflect the sort of business model being used by eMusic. He likened it to the "Gym Membership" model, where essentially they sign you up and pray like hell that you never use their gym.

So, the gross numbers are all correct, but the hope is that the labels will net just a bit more because not everyone (including me!) remembers to use up their 40 DLs every month.

The net for labels and artists IS still quite low regardless.

Right - they basically divvy up a pool of subscription money based on downloads, so it's not a solid per-track fee.

In any case, bad deal for labels/artists or not, I think it's one situation where the market can work things out. No one is forcing any artist or label to be on eMusic, and if the deal is unfair, they can renegotiate or leave. As long as a label puts their stuff on the site, I'm going to assume they're ok with the compensation.

yeah, exactly...

xpost - Why do you do that, Nick? I thought it was only sad older guys like me who grew up fetishizing the physical that need to buy CD copies of stuff they download and like.

Man, eMusic has been seriously crashing Safari the last few days. I know I have an older version of the browser, but the site used to load perfectly. Dud.

Heh, I was going to bump this to say something. Just noticed the problem yesterday-- can't access their site on Safari at all. It's been going on for days?

Yeah. Loads fine in Firefox, but instant crash on Safari 1.3.2. I wonder if newer versions of Safari are working ok.

hey guys -- there is a bug w/ 1.3 and we (emu) are working on it. thx for yr patience.

Thanks, Y.

Gracias big Y.

The new Safari is MUCH BETTER and my eMusic works fine with it.

I really recommend the new Safari, it's worth the upgrade or whatever you have to do if you are a user of a previous version.

Mine was working so poorly before and I thought it was because I hacked into it and changed it so that it will remember my entire "history" for 99 years. But now that i am on the new version, it runs way better than Firefox, which I have grown to really hate. HTH, FWIW, YMMV, ETC

Ah, thanks Y. It would be most awesome if you're able to work out the bugs--I can't upgrade my Safari without buying a whole new Mac OS, which might not run on my faithful clamshell iBook anyway.

In any case, bad deal for labels/artists or not, I think it's one situation where the market can work things out. No one is forcing any artist or label to be on eMusic, and if the deal is unfair, they can renegotiate or leave. As long as a label puts their stuff on the site, I'm going to assume they're ok with the compensation.

perhaps someone has said this somewhere upthread -- i'm too lazy to read -- but it's a demonstrably better deal for artists and labels, dollars- and cents-wise, than bittorrent, megaupload and other free avenues, which is what this is competing with.

I think that's a good point cuz and I don't think that's been mentioned yet.

My computer is really old too btw... It is a G4 tho. Also, I think Tiger only comes as a DVD, so if you only have a CD-ROM drive you might have to install in some sort of makeshift manner. Feel free to msg me for some mac talk, anyone...

dumb question (but my googling/looking at their website for a few mins didn't answer it): is it really priced per track, with no concession for albums? so this cd would cost over $20? or am i missing something?

http://www.emusic.com/album/Paul-Hillier-Theatre-of-Voices-Stockhausen-Stimmung-MP3-Download/11077559.html

You're right. It's an eMusic quirk. On the other hand, you can download full albums with just a few very long tracks for far less than on, say, Amazon or iTunes. At a minimum, it balances out.

wow, that seems extraordinary - i would have signed up, but i think most of the albums i'm interested in (all classical) would be way more expensive than buying them on CD, which sucks.

I keep promising myself to get into what I understand is a deep catalogue of good classical stuff on eMusic. If you're interested in that, there are a few places to investigate: this thread from the eMusic message boards and this 'Dozens' list.

Thanks - those links are more encouraging! Maybe I'll give it a go.

Toby, here's one more: Nereffid's Guide to eMusic Classical. Once you look into it, I'd be interested in hearing what you think is the best classical pieces on eMusic. I'd like to download some of this genre, but with so many versions by so many performers, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaffe (although the sites I've linked will help in this regard).

toby: but i think most of the albums i'm interested in (all classical) would be way more expensive than buying them on CD, which sucks.

I find it a very good deal for classical, but then I guess I mainly use it for "classical" classical -- symphonies, sonatas etc rather than works like this Stockhausen one, or for that matter opera (I've found the same opera can have wildly varying prices in different recordings, since it's all down to how the record company have divided the tracks -- as Daniel said, it's an emusic quirk).

Daniel: I'd be interested in hearing what you think is the best classical pieces on eMusic. I'd like to download some of this genre, but with so many versions by so many performers, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaffe

Well, as for the works themselves, with labels such as Naxos, they more or less have the entire repertoire and then some, so "best classical pieces on eMusic" is similar to "best classical pieces period". (Among the exceptions are things that are still in copyright etc, since these may not be workable for budget labels.)

Things are obviously complicated quite a lot if you're looking for particular or just "the best" recordings of a given work -- but if you just want to get familiar with a work (or venture into the lesser-known repertoire for fun or research), I've found it a fantastic resource. (I am at this very moment listening to -- of all things -- a concerto for two clarinets and orchestra from 1802 by Franz Krommer, downloaded for under a buck just because I randomly read something about him yesterday.) The Naxos recordings (to mention them again) may not give you the crème-de-la-crème or talk-of-the-town versions of any given (overplayed) piece, but in general they range from just rather good & serviceable to excellent.

To clarify/amplify end of previous post abt Naxos: focus there is on the works, rather than on performers; this is somewhat in opposition to what majors tend to do*: bring out The Great Works yet again in another version by the star(let) of the year, no doubt influenced by the massive success of "star power" that has been demonstrated by the pop world these last fifty years.

*) I am oversimplifying, of course.

waht's wrong wi/emusic? last two nights it just gives me error messages. i have 11 downloads that are gonna expire in 2 day, but the site won't give me access to anything.

I was surprised to see that a bunch of Rolling Stones stuff has been made available:

http://www.emusic.com/artist/The-Rolling-Stones-MP3-Download/11661667.html

We're sorry. The albums by this artist are unavailable for download in your country (United Kingdom) at this time.

Yeah, The Rolling Stones discs on eMusic are available in the U.S., but not the U.K. I've never been much of a Rolling Stones fan, but this run of discs that just hit eMusic (Aftermath up to but not including Sticky Fingers) is pretty good. Also, eMusic just got 25 David Murray discs from the DIW label that are otherwise unavailable (this is, apparently, a big deal for some jazz fans). And eMusic is getting the Kompakt label soon, too.

i'm a little unimpressed by the fact i've not had a response to an e-mail i sent a week ago complaining about duff MP3s (which i actually managed to fix myself by converting them to AAC). other than that, i heart emusic.

(in fact: e-mail is wrong. it was using the form on their website specifically designed for reporting defective tracks. all i have is an automated reply. still. hey ho.)

You're 100% right. They're Customer Service Dep't isn't good about responding to email. It's one of my few criticisms of the service. But if you call them, they're very responsive, polite and professional. Not sure if the problem you're raising is something they'll address over the phone, but maybe.

ach: it doesn't matter, 'cos i had an idea about how to fix it straight after i got in touch, and -- woah! -- it worked. if there'd been an easy way to reply to the e-mail/send another comment using the ID number they gave me/whatever, i'd have done so; there wasn't, so i didn't.

ultimately: it's only an issue if a) anyone happens to be downloading "the unutterable" by the fall; b) the problem isn't unique to that album. and, as problems go, it wasn't all that serious.

but still ... :)

I hear you. For such a good, responsive company, I don't know what's up with eMusic's slow-response to email inquiries and problems.

From a Napster press release a few months ago:

Napster is the first music subscription service featuring major label content to offer 100% of its catalog in the MP3 format for download sales.

Is this true? I thought eMusic was 100% DRM-free mp3s. (This is for work, but I can't find the answer anywhere else.)

emusic doesn't have major label content, tho'

anybody have any tips for finding stuff on eMusic? I just subscribed for the first time a couple weeks ago, and the charts seem kinda useless to me so I never know what's on there unless I think to search for a specific artist.

emusic doesn't have major label content, tho'

Good point. I skimmed over that part.

tips for finding stuff on eMusic?

Find an artist you like, then look through the member-created playlists associated with the page. Put in Burial, for instance, and you'll get links to a whole bunch of deeper dubstep'ish stuff to sample. There's a lot of hidden gems on the site. Pickup stuff as soon as you're sure about it: labels fall off the site all the time. Also, the 17dots.com blog, by eMusic staffers, has a lot of good alerts for new arrivals. I really get something close to the crate-digging experience on eMusic, which I can't say about any other online music resource.

yeah i like just browsing the different categories, the various "dozen" lists, etc. i've downloaded a lot of stuff just on a whim, some of it great. i agree that it's the closest thing online to a good, quirky record store (or the closest legal thing, anyway).

the roir free sampler they have up right now is pretty decent, tho i have a fair bit of it already.

when I'm browsing I usually start with one of the "dozens" and then go from there on the albums' pages. The search engine is pretty sweet for finding remixes since it will look for an artists' name in individual song titles

Anybody have any tips for finding stuff on eMusic?

I usually check New and Noteworthy and Dozens and then I browse categories or labels by editor's picks if I don't have a specific artist or album I want.

There's pretty much always some Riverside/Fantasy jazz record or Folkways record worth having when I run out of other ideas.

Noticed the Load Records catalog is up. Not sure if that's new. Not sure if that's exciting.

i'll tell you what's exciting is the new nels cline album, which everybody should get right now.

^^

emusic also has the album his brother Alex Cline released the same day, which is not as good but still worth a look.

I was thinking of doing a rolling 2009 emusic thread, should I make a new one or just use this?

Hey mister, I could use a rolling thread.

yes please rolling thread

Can't argue with 35 free downloads, no strings attached (assuming you remember to cancel your account within a week)

The genre tags on their dls are pretty o_0 though. Apparently Amadou et Miriam are reggae, while Funkadelic and Debbie Deb are both hip-hop.

A ton of "world" albums on eMusic are mistagged as "reggae."

what's the bitrate on eMusic these days? I can't find anything on the site and I think it was something like 128 last time I used it (c. 2001). but Chilly Gonzales has released six or so hours of his Guinness World Record 24-hour piano concert digitally and I'm v keen to check it out (and finally buy something where the royalties might make it to him, after Kitty-Yo).

alternatively, anyone got better things to say about Amazon, 7Digital, Deezer, AOL, Starzik or We7, who also seem to be "stocking" the "albums"?

it's a higher VBR now, 192 i think?

i've bought a lot of stuff from 7digital, no quality issues, and they have the gonzales stuff at 320k CBR, though they are more expensive than emusic.

You won't find major label material besides Sony/CBS etc., but if it carries the independent labels you follow (in my case Warp, 4AD/Beggar's Banquet, and a few others), the costs per download are lower than elsewhere and a subscription makes sense. Everytime I think of cancelling I find at least 5+ albums to queue up.

I like lala.com a good deal. They've got an unusual first streaming play = free/unlimited streaming play = $0.10/download = $0.89 pricing scheme, but no subscriptions, and are licensing a good deal of major label (and others like ECM) material. Also, you can load your music collection to their server cloud to facilitate copyright violation prosecution so that you can play any of your collection on any net connected computer. Something like 180 GB on their network is now devoted to my music which didn't match previous users'.

anyway k1t unless you are currently a subscriber it is academic as they are no longer accepting new regs from australians

fuc that noize :(

will have a look at 7Digital later, ta - I remember finding their sign-up too frustrating to bother for some exclusive track a year or two ago, but for a whole bunch at 320k I'll grit my teeth harder

lala looks like a rip-off of last.fm, which is so attractive.

eMusic always has higher bitrates than 192 - most things are VBR. Occasionally you'll see things at 256 kbps, but for the most part they're high.

emusic.com/lovefilm lets you download fifty tracks for free.

its handy if you want to build your william basinski collection as many of his albums are one "track".

Just got an email from them saying the entire Hendrix catalog goes up on Jan. 1.

has anyone else experienced emusic crashing when trying to download something in firefox on a mac?

No but I have deliberately avoided upgrading the eMusic DL Manager bcuz I'm afraid of stuff like that...

noticed that supermarkets here have emusic cards for sale for £10. i think it works out as twice as expensive as a subscription but without the subscription hassle (or the need for a credit card, which is where i fail)

actually, the prepaid cards are 20 for £10 which is ok compared to 24 for £9.99 subscription

they also do cards for 100 downloads for about £30 (and 50 for £21) but apparently these higher denominations are thin on the ground.

eMusic is now having a sale on its "Booster Packs." Fifty credits for $20.00, which basically cranks out to .40 a song.

Cool, thanks for the tip. I'll bite on that.

I was going to, but then I spotted this 7Digital sale. So many good MP3 albums for $2.00. I think the downloading process is a pain.

So I forgot that my account refreshes on the 26th or thereabouts, rather than the end/beginning of the month, and thus got ROBBED of $5.01 (was hemming and hawing on how to spend it since seemingly every album I wanted was $5.89 or $5.99. Totally fed up with this horseshit plus the relatively low bit rates and wanted to cancel my account. Short story long, they offered me a free month to stay. I took it, but am so cancelling after that.

yeah i've been on the $6.49/month plan for the last few months just as kind of a minimum involvement thing to see whether i want to stay in the long-term and increase my subscription again at some point, and it's really frustrating that pretty much every time i'm interested in a new album it's $6.99 (or it's even higher, which is frustrating in a different way because at that point i can usually get it cheaper on Amazon mp3). last month i kept delaying using it my downloads hoping that something new would come along with a lower price and then i forgot to go ahead and just download something older and cheaper before the new month rolled over.

so they've taken away record label name and release date from the new releases page

was there a point to doing this? uh i mean congrats on fucking it up for new bands i only discover through knowing the label name, wtg

i can't imagine the hassle having that info there was causing, i am sorry for your lots

cockmunchers

That really sucks. I browse classical new releases primarily where label is v v v important.

it looks like it's only gone when the cover art is thumbnailed (my default view). so not the end of the world but still hell of annoying

Found a good classical label (Radioservis, seeming to specialize in Polish and Hungarian stuff) whose album price is $4.40. Good to know about for those end of month situations. Has anyone noticed any other labels (of whatever genre) at this price?

The 61-track Homage a Nesuhi is a great comp of Atlantic Jazz for $5.99

Oh, good tip! There are a few such 2fer deals on there-- the Rhino Larry Levan comp is (or was) the price of one disc, as is Daniel Barenboim's killer 2cd of the Schumann symphonies. Some others I'm not remembering.

Now that the dust has settled on eMusic's new pricing structure, are there many people still using it? And if so are you satisfied with it? I let my account lapse about a year ago when I a little cash-strapped, but am thinking of signing back up. Is it worth it?

I'm still in but mostly just to irritate them.
My "grandfathered" account = Price: £6.39 (every 30 days) Bonus: £10.41 (every 30 days) Total Credit: £16.80 (every 30 days)

argh why do i keep forgetting to cancel my membership

at this point i basically keep my minimum membership partly as an excuse to look at eMusic's new releases slate every few weeks, which tends to be much easier to navigate than iTunes etc.

still cheaper than the alternatives for me

Same here.

i'm still grandfathered in at 22¢/track

still cheaper than the alternatives for me

― pitch defect (electricsound), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:13 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

i haven't done a lot of side-by-side comparison pricing but in my experience Amazon MP3 tends to have whatever new album i want for less than eMusic is selling it for

I got grandfathered in too - I use it, mainly for stuff I want to be able to listen to on my ipod while I'm running or sleeping. Sometimes I think it's a waste, but I always enjoy choosing my music and it is cheaper/easier to manage than alternatives. I don't like the switch from downloads to cash, though. It makes me feel way more likely to cancel.

amazon is not available to non-US residents

my alternative is 7digital, which occasionally is cheaper but not as a rule

oh right, forgot where you live -- still, though, i would like to give a shout out to Amazon MP3 for anyone who cares, they're pretty good!

Amazon has some stuff that emusic doesn't, they had a lot of seventies glam and bubblegum type stuff I like, but the navigation is atrocious. Emusic is definitely worth keeping if you're a big music fan. I'm glad they expanded actually!

amazon is not available to non-US residents

It's available in the UK.
But, more to the point, when are they going to stop with this 'region' shit?

when are they going to stop with this 'region' shit?

yeah i am fucking sick of it. australia gets fucked in the ass with this stuff all the time because we don't have any competitive local alternatives, either in range or price. itunes is more expensive than buying a cd.

I'm grandfathered but still deeply fucking aggravated after another month of missing my refresh date and losing out on $7 or $8. It is so obnoxious that they don't send a reminder email, which would be so insanely easy for them to do.

FYI - I attempted to cancel and they said "please don't leave - have a month for free and stick around," so I'm waiting for my refresh date to if it's that easy.

Since they're dicks who can't be bothered to send a reminder email or respond to inquiries about why they don't do that, I'll let everyone know how the free month plays out because you can all probably get one.

can you not just set an outlook reminder to yourself?

(other reminder applications are available)

i'm still grandfathered in at 22¢/track

the thing that really pissed me off was that i was in at 22 cents/track, but they kept diluting me down until it was 3 to 4 times that. the extent of my "grandfathering" ended up being like one track per month over current rates. more of an insult to injury thing, but srsly- fuck off emusic. i can buy at similar rates without a subscription.

can you not just set an outlook reminder to yourself?

I guess so, but - and I am willing to accept that this might be misguided - I kind of feel like the burden shouldn't necessarily be on me in this type of scenario.

i kinda agree. it'd be easy enough and nice of them. but sometimes you've gotta help yourself (and it is benefitting you, for not much effort)

(my 3g dongle quota is similar, a 30 day cycle. but i've done nothing about it. they DO actually text me when it's near the end but i never get them as i don't use their clunky windows client)

Well, you've all pretty well answered my question. Not going to resubscribe.

Just put my account on hold after 6 years (will probably drop it for good, but wanted to make sure)and signed up with MOG for mobile.

most of you probably know this (some of you probably wrote editorial pieces in connection with it), but for everyone else, emi and its subsidiaries -- e.g., blue note, mute -- arrived en masse this morning at emusic.

Unless, of course you are in the EU, UK or Canada...

Irritated. I have $4.62 and everything I want is > $5.
Is there a way to search for price points? I hate this system. This is totally making me want to cancel this dumb account and be done with it.

iirc you can search by number of tracks, which might help

Yeah, I tried that but it was like wading through a deep field of muck. I could just get a couple of tracks from an album I want, then fill in the blanks later, I guess but geez. I don't like their browsing setup at all if they are going to hold to this $ model.

You tried searching by number of tracks and genre? Also, I think that you can search through just the albums that have the 'deal' flag.

Number of tracks and genre at the same time, I mean.

once i get down to below the price of most full albums, i usually wait until the day before my refresh, buy the tracks i can afford, and then come back the next day to finish the album. although now that i type it out, that sounds kind of ridiculous and hoop-jumpy, and of course it doesn't help if i buy a lot at the beginning of the month and then have to wait and wait for the refresh.

Think I'm going to cancel and go back to used CD's once I move and actually have room for a CD library again. Too many albums I want are $6+

so emusic canada now has one kanye album and one lady gaga album. talk about a slow rollout of a major.

Might not be quite to your taste and maybe the pricing works out different in the US, but here are some good artists to check that often have just a few tracks per album. All ambient, experimental and um, modern classical stuff:

Robert Ashley
Steve Roach
Nurse With Wound
Klaus Schulze
Walter Marchetti
Rhys Chatham
Gavin Bryars
Oren Ambarchi
William Basinski
Black Swan
Tony Conrad
Taylor Deupree
Irr.App.(Ext.)
Charlemagne Palestine
Eliane Radigue
Yellow Swans

Great list, and I already have some of those bases covered (NWW, Schulze, Basinski) but the others are good reminders. You read my mind!

The only prob seems to be that what used to be a good deal album has turned into a $5.99 album, and most of these (at least the ones I just looked at) are $5.99 now. I mean, that is not a lot of cash, and I would pay it, but I have $4.62 credit. So...do I get booster pack and just spend more than I planned on spending? Maybe. Do I plan out what I'm going to download next time so that I have *just* the right balance of credit and albums? Unlikely, knowing me.

The hoop jumping is greatly outweighing my enjoyment of 2.5 albums per month at this point.

That's too bad, lots of the albums by the guys on that list only cost about a pound here.

Arrrgh....I was so busy this week that I didn't finish downloading last months downloads...I lost thirty god damned dollars! They should send you an automated e-mail every month to remind you!

that kind of programming costs $$$$$$$$$

It wouldn't cost them anything. They do that very deliberately. That's why I quit - for the record, you can go to cancel your account and the'll give you one month free to stay on. I did that, then quit as soo as I had spent those credits. They're dicks.

pretty much every monthly subscription service works this way. i was in my u-haul storage space two days over and i had to pay for an entire month. i wanted to burn the fucking building down.

i was being facetious--that's one reason i quit them too

the change in the system is an insidious money-sucker too, because before you always had a number of 'songs' on your account that you could use up, now that the account balance is measured in dollars and cents, there's always going to be some odd remainder that you won't find a song of that amount to purchase, so when the month rolls over that's basically money you get no benefit all from having given to them.

no. "loose change" -- less than enough to download a final song in a given month -- rolls over to the next month.

even then, if i have sixty cents left to spend, it won't roll over, because i could potentially find some .49 song to download. so then it becomes a matter of hunting around for a song that falls within this magical price-point, or else losing the money. it's tedious.

you're right. but it was the same way with the old credit system (if you had a stray credit or two left at the end of a billing cycle, those credits didn't roll-over to the new billing cycle; instead, you lost them).

yeah, but a credit was a credit -- you grabbed a song and went on your way. usually i'd get one or two songs off an album that i intended to complete during the next pay period. this new business of hunting for an appropriately priced single at the end of every pay period was what finally annoyed me enough to put my account on hold (that and the appearance of US spotify).

no. "loose change" -- less than enough to download a final song in a given month -- rolls over to the next month.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, August 20, 2011 10:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

really? good to know, i thought it didn't!

but reddening otm, it's still another reason the site sucks now compared to the old days

Just cancelled for good. I basically spent three weeks trying to reduce my account level and got no help from customer service. Every time I'd try to drop to a lower plan I'd get a glitch. Luckily the cancel function did not glitch. Was barely worth it anymore anyway -- near CD price for low-quality mp3.

I have an eMusic question. How do the royalties work with the labels in this type of situation: eMusic has just put the new Sacred Bones reissue of the Eraserhead soundtrack up for £1.28. It's retailing for about £40 on vinyl. I'm sure this was some kind of automated thing, because it's only technically a four track album (similarly, the reissue of Sleep's Dopesmoker was put up for 84p as a single song).

Am I boning the labels or bands if I jump on those possible mistakes, or will they get the same cut no matter what?

I have read (in an old interview with one of the emusic honchos) that the labels always get paid more for tracks over 6 minutes. No idea about comparing it with LP sales.

I want an emusic this-or-that thread.

Ie, should I go ahead and buy the new Gudrun Gut, Wildlife for the unusually high $9.48 of credit, or should I wait til November 6 to see if Andy Stott's Luxury Problems will get a timely emusic release.

Not a rhetorical question.

the psychology of buying on itunes is v different than the psychology of buying on emusic. with itunes i think, "do i really, really want this? can an album with a lead song called zed the mythical goat possibly be worth $9.99?" with emusic i think, "eh, they've already taken my X dollars this month; might as well download this."

anyone know what's the typical price of an album for an emusic subscriber these days? to non-subscribers (who can now buy a la carte), the emusic and itunes prices are mostly equal.

I just don't see the benefit of this service vs. $10/month for Spotify Premium

do they have anything spotify doesn't?

it's a function of my age, really. i have an attachment to owning, not just "renting" (streaming), music. purely personal preference.

typical price of an album for an emusic subscriber these days

6.99

in other news, since the motherfucking orchard swallowed up ioda, the amount of actually good music available to me on emusic has diminished to microscopic levels

they still have bruno mars.

the entire catalogue.

oooooooooh

for me it's a portability issue. i can't put spotify on my ipod and that's what I listen to the most because i like to listen to music while walking/running/moving from a to b. if i had to drain my phone battery i'd be stingy about listening to stuff and that would be stupid. better to just have mp3s. also they're MINE.

Also if the label decides they don't wanna be on emusic (or spotify) any more, I still have the music.

the psychology of buying on itunes is v different than the psychology of buying on emusic. with itunes i think, "do i really, really want this? can an album with a lead song called zed the mythical goat possibly be worth $9.99?" with emusic i think, "eh, they've already taken my X dollars this month; might as well download this."

otm. i cancelled my emusic subscription a few years ago because i was basically just downloading only remotely interesting stuff in order to use up my monthly amount. it was this contest every month to use it up before I forgot about it and lost the money. i almost never buy music on itunes. maybe like 2 albums in the past 6 years. lots of people give itunes giftcards though so i've certainly used those.

i basically use spotify now, primarily to check out new stuff that i eventually will buy in physical format if i really like it.

do they have anything spotify doesn't?

Yes, definitely - ECM and ReR and also some dance oriented things like Hessle Audio and Hemlock are a few labels that spring to my mind. Also some labels put things up on eMusic on day of release but you might have to wait a couple of months until it's on Spotify (e.g. RVNG)

my main problem with spotify as an alternative to downloading is that i can't take it anywhere! just thinking about that makes me wonder if my walkman still works.

Well, you can pay $10/month for premium and then you get it to mobile devices, and you can set certain albums to play in "offline" mode which is kind of like a temporary download. Of course this is limited by the space you have on your phone or mobile device (a problem for me since mine tends to be full of baby videos at all times).

it also requires carrying my phone at all times and using its battery for something that is not related to the phone so what do i do if i binge on spotify and can't make/receive a phone call?!
i'm a super ambulant person and also paranoid about batteries dying so spotify on my phone just isn't really an option for me
i'm ok with emusic for now! why do i keep talking about this?!

Accidentally found this on emusic today, it's under 6 bucks:

http://o.scdn.co/300/c43c2b8375e245a80b7c23227b9c63018f043357

100 mambo-craze-era songs by a great, weird roster: Henry Mancini, Johnny Burnette, June Carter, Eydie Gorme, Ivory Joe Hunter, Sophia Loren, Lavern Baker, Huey Piano Smith, Ruth Brown, Hank Snow, and on and on.

I was just thinking about eMusic yesterday—I just upgraded a bunch of old 128 CBR mp3s from eMusic through iTunes Match. I'm glad it's still around.

what's the fifth song on that comp?

Ha. There is a version of that, though not the original. (But there are a few others by Perez Prado.)

"As a result, beginning today, we will be exiting the mainstream music business and offering exclusively independent music."

in full support here

Wait what?

(My monthly credits reup tomorrow...)

in full support here

― outback bumfuc (electricsound), Friday, September 26, 2014

wish i had a better idea of what this announcement meant, or what the catalog will look like tomorrow. no major-indies, plus loss of major labels, leaves micro-label and self-released (which was already onsite).

i haven't been an emu member for years now. but if the service again looks like it did in 2010, i might reconsider.

So many of my Saved albums are classical things on labels like bis, Harmonia mundi, aeon, and bridge, and I assume those are indie enough to still be there in the morning.

Bummer to lose sony and warner though.

as a grandfathered non-US type i expect the catalogue will look entirely unchanged to me.

it is probably a bit much to dream that Orchard-distroed labels will return but hope springs eternal

I'm sure they were margin squeezed on the major label releases (eg 0.89 / track at eMusic vs. 0.99 at Amz vs. 1.29 at iTunes).

I haven't forgotten the reason tracks are 0.89 vs the earlier 0.49 is so eMusic could woo the majors.

There's so much "meh" on my saved list I'm sorely tempted to drop.

still plenty of major label stuff on the site - anybody know anything deeper about what's going on here?

It changed today. Universal is gone, warner is gone. Sony still there, though! Maybe they have the best terms. I seem to recall they were the first major emusic got...

All the large indie classical labels I checked for are still there.

Universal is gone

So ironically the new U2 album has been taken down from emusic?

ironically?

Canceled my membership over the weekend. Found an album that got my balance down to zero (Horace Silver's The Cape Verdean Blues, for $4.74) and which is doubtless gone now - Blue Note being part of Universal/EMI.

Oh man- all the Blue Note is gone?! That sucks. At least I grabbed a bunch of the Silvers while they were available. Are they actually adding any new indies or just removing the major labels? My "Saved" list went from about 35 to 10. I may have to consider cancelling if they don't follow through on bringing in new labels to replace the majors.

It still annoys me that you can't carry your balance over from month to month. I have probably lost over $200 in credits because of that.

there is a split (albeit an unauthorized one) of MARS and Furious Pig on emusic!

Merge is now on eMusic in the UK for indie rock fans

How much of that is Furious Pig?

wow, it's still going

Never mind, it's on Spotify, Merge and HMV digital as well!

Anyone else noticed that a lot of new releases have been slow to appear on the site since the change to a Friday release day?

I don't suppose they offer FLAC yet.

No. Recently upgraded to 320kbps MP3 for new additions.

My "Save for Later" list has eroded down to its smallest in 6 years membership (now: ~20 albums). Too many missing indie labels, and I'm more comfortable supporting artists through Bandcamp. Every booster credit sale just hastens my departure.

Bought by yet another company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/business/media/triplay-to-acquire-emusic-a-pioneering-digital-music-service.html?_r=0

i think they finally are letting you carry over your unused account balance? like, as of a few months ago? or am I just imagining things

Good grief.

I'm still hanging in! Independent classical & experimental labels is enough to soak my monthly credits up.

Independent classical & experimental labels is enough to soak my monthly credits up.

Same here, but I tend to do things like not feel like "buying" anything for a month and a half, and then wanting to get a bunch of stuff, and end up getting booster packs, and resenting the fact that the credits didn't carry over.

I buy boosters whenever there's a sale on them

The intention to "roll eMusic into the MyMusicCloud service" doesn't sound initially too promising for my continued membership, but shall wait and see.

http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/emusic-acquired-by-cloud-computing-firm-triplay/063193

i think they finally are letting you carry over your unused account balance? like, as of a few months ago? or am I just imagining things

This has not been the case with my account

I'm not sure what "roll eMusic into the MyMusicCloud service" means, but I'm hoping it means that basically nothing changes, except that if you want to, you can stream your purchases through the cloud (in addition to just playing the MP3s you still get to keep).

That is my hope. I'm just a pessimist who expects something different to happen.

Yeah... No files that come live on my computer forever, no deal.

Streaming is live and works flawlessly; redownloads are coming. There's a 2x booster pack sale on right now.

I should probably test it out again right before saying that -- there's some server problems today.

do you work there? just curious

no, just a long time member

There have been a lot of billing issues as they've tried to upgrade that side of their systems after the takeover. Having said that the streaming has worked perfectly on the couple of occasions I've tried it and from what I can see the new owner is taking customer support and site functionality more seriously than their predecessors.

it would be great if it didn't keep automatically downloading the installer exe file every time i buy something

anyone still using eMusic?
they've just redesigned the website and seem to have changed business model as well but I still have a 10year-old subscription that allows me download a certain amount of mp3's for a couple of bucks every month. So they still do that too for the moment.
But their catalogue is terrible. Loads of labels are simply not involved, I get that. But even for the labels that are on the site you just have to wait if a particular release will show up. Just some examples: new Sorority Noise album. Every other release on the label is on there and even some recent SN singles but not the album (actually, it wás at some point but now it disappeared again). Also: Toitoitoi. On Ghost Box. Label is available on the site. Record is out. It's on Spotify and 7Digital. But not on eMusic.
This is not new buy the way. I've got a folder in gmail of me e-mailing labels asking when a particular record will be on eMusic and them answering back, hm, it should be on there, let me check with the distributor.
The last few years I've been finding it harder and harder to spend my credits each month.

i'm still using it. It's always been great for classical music and continues to be. I don't get much rock/pop stuff there anymore though it continues to be my way of buying new Robyn Hitchcock and Fall releases (though yes the last Fall one took a looong time to show up on eMu. Between new releases on classical and film score labels and archival/reissue electronic and kraut/kosmische type stuff I don't have a problem using up my 24 bucks a month.

I'm not clear yet on how the new model is different other than the site redesign.

I'm amazed that emusic still exists. Used to love them. It's like finding out that there's a big market for 78s. In all seriousness, I got an astounding amount of great music from this service. A billion years ago.

I was over the moon in 2002 when eMusic began hosting all the old Daniel Johnston tapes, just weeks after me getting into him and thinking I'd have to order all these import cassettes

My wishlist slowly shrinked with all the dropped labels until I gave up on my grandfathered (+bonus credits) account in 2015. Feel better about supporting artists through bandcamp, too.

I'm amazed that emusic still exists. Used to love them. It's like finding out that there's a big market for 78s. In all seriousness, I got an astounding amount of great music from this service. A billion years ago.

― dlp9001, Friday, May 12, 2017 1:49 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ooh owned

It's clear that they've been barely keeping the site ticking over since they decided to switch their backend to 7digital and putting all their effort into the new site.
It looked from the beta test that a lot of content that should have been on the site for months (new releases from Sub Pop as one example) would appear after the switch over.
Then the launch happened and labels like Sub Pop, Warp, Bella Union suddenly have no or very little in the catalogue. There's been no real explanation as to why this stuff hasn't appeared in the new live site but also no fanfare of new and returning labels. As a UK user it's very nice to see nearly 400 records turn up from Domino after years away.
There are a lot of disgruntled older users out there and I don't really see why anyone new would want to join up but I'm hopeful that once they sort their content issues out it will continue to be more than worth the money I pay for it.

I've been a member since 2008. I've come close to cancelling a few times, what with the constant turnover in labels, sometimes it takes a while to find things you want. I just went there today and saw they've completely redone the site and it looks like half my wishlist has vanished - victims of label turnover I guess. It was great when you could get Blue Note jazz records from the '60s and major-label stuff. I almost cancelled after that disappeared, but then I found enough independent-label metal to keep me going. Now, I get most of that from Bandcamp, which has much better selection, so I'm not sure if I'll stick with eMusic much longer.

Looks like they've added a bunch of avant-jazz labels: HatHut, ESP, Tzadik. I may have to start listening to that kind of stuff again.

Anyone want to help me with some Tzadik recommendations? I basically stopped paying attention around 2000.

Every time I see this thread bumped I expect a link to a news article saying they've finally folded.

hmm, I've been disappointed by recent Tzadik albums I've tried. Anything written by or featuring Zorn in the last 15 years seems to be an aimless mess.

I like these from after 2000:

Kayo Dot, Choirs of the Eye, 2003
Wadada Leo Smith, Lake Biwa, 2004
the Scott Johnson reissue, John Somebody
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Mayim Rabim, 2006

I don't have any interest in the no-wave improvisational klezmer punk side of the label, but I have dipped into their New Music offerings. IIRC, I liked:

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters, Sound Characters vol. 2
Alvin Curran - Animal Behavior, Theme Park, Lost Marbles, Shofar Rags
Arnold Dreyblatt - Animal Magnetism, Who's Who In Central & East Europe 1933
Annie Gosfield - Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires, Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites, Almost Truths And Open Deceptions
Lukas Ligeti - Mystery System, Afrikan Machinery
Lois Vierk - River Beneath the River
The Cracow Klezmer Band - Balan: Book of Angels Vol.5, Remembrance

The latter group could be described as Penderecki does klezmer, and may get me into the genre yet.

last month I got every single Haydn Symphony from here for like $6.99 ...

The Morton Feldman Patterns in a Chromatic Field on tzadik is fantastic.

Also, emusic has reverted to certain albums which are one long track being priced super cheap. I just got two Feldman chamber music albums on Bridge Records for like a buck each.

Now chasing the cryptocurrency craze.