Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
Via Amanda, I learned that online music provider eMusic is not only changing its pricing structure but has also signed a deal with Sony to distribute its back catalogue via the site. This has caused a lot of consternation as evidenced by the number of comments on the issue.
I for one am dismayed. Not because of the predictable and pitiful angst over eMusic losing its indie cred but because the Sony back catalogue will most likely be restricted to US residents only.
What I, and many other users, love about eMusic is that is a treasure trove of hidden gems. All sorts of obscurities and bands you may never have come across normally somehow find a way into your download queue and subsequently onto the iPod. I’m sure the Sony catalogue would also present opportunities to find long lost and forgotten albums
But with the pricing change and likely (though I hope I’m wrong) geographical restrictions, eMusic has lost a customer. Why would I want to pay full price for a restricted service?
There will be other ways and means to find new music but eMusic was for those truly, madly and deeply in love with music. It is now effectively gone and that has made me quite sad.
But thank you eMusic for John Fahey, Steve Earle, Joe Pass, Sol Hoopii and all the Hawaiian cats, Blind Boys of Alabama, Five Horse Johnson and the many other artists and genres that you allowed me to fine and explore.
I least I still have the music.
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5:55 am - June 3rd, 2009
I’m waiting a day or two til passions cool to blog about it myself …
8:09 am - June 4th, 2009
[part of a comment post to amanda]
emusic is starting to get worried. They have begun censoring the comments (800+ and growing) on Mr. CEO’s announcement blog post. They appear to be worried about the conversation moving to twitter, and perhaps exploding in scale in a place they would have no control over whatsoever. What was removed was the previous references to the twitter tag #emusicfail. I saw several over the last few days, but now they are gone. They were caught doing it late 6/3/09 USA-time, as detailed in post #811 (unless they remove it too).
Here’s the link to the comment:
http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-94860
So emusic is showing some signs of concern, even if they don’t bother to respond to the inching-toward-1000 posts. I hope people do what they are most worried about, and take it to twitter with #emusicfail and/or #emusic tags.
Also, there is a facebook group for protest or link posting, called “Keep Sony out of Emusic!!!” It is at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81281012678
11:11 am - June 4th, 2009
How does this effect us old skool hi fidelity CD buyers or .flac downloaders?
heh
11:29 am - June 4th, 2009
You just continue merrily along in lossless codec bliss. As you were.
11:41 am - June 4th, 2009
Apologies Mike as you comment got stuck in the spam trap.
I’m not so much upset that Sony are on board. I’m sure I could find some great albums in their catalogue. It is just how eMusic handled the changes and also have made the service now basically US only.
But the censoring of comments is poor but in line with how eMusic have failed to handle the change (the comment is still there at the moment).
4:04 am - June 6th, 2009
I’m all for the price increase, as long as the artists benefit – I subscribed to eMusic to support the artists. I know illegal downloads are hurting the artists. I’m happy to pay for an affordable download subscription, and I’m looking forward to seeing the expanded selection.
Most of my favorite music has been on independant record labels. Ironically, since subscribing to eMusic, most of my physical CD/LP purchases have been major label releases unavailable from eMusic. I actually prefer the MP3 format, as I’m running out of physical space for my record collection.
I think album pricing is a great policy. I hope it also applies to full-length albums with only a few long tracks, because I feel guilty downloading a full album for 50 cents. I’d also like to see labels like Tzadik back on eMusic.
As a consolation for the higher prices, perhaps they could allow our credits to roll over if we don’t get a chance to use them all up each month? They could also improve your service by replacing flawed tracks, instead of simply removing them!