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Enthusiast |
Anyone suscribed to emusic prolly got the letter by now, or will when you sign in next, saying they're changing the site and adding a bunch of new stuff. The bands that they're adding are not on indie labels, and because of this, they are hicking the prices of memberships up. So now they tell me I have to pay over 40 bucks a month for the 100 downloads i get, which ive only been paying 25 right now. thats dumb, emusic is made for indipendent music, thats why its cheap. theyre losing buisiness from me ill tell u that much.
___________________ Someone in my dictionarie's up to no good |
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Jedi |
I feel your pain, my friend. I've been venting my spleen on the eMu message boards for a couple of days now.
They fundamentally changed the community that was eMu. My plan went from 100 downloads a month for $.25 a track to 50 downloads at $.40 per track. Because I will be getting half the downloads for much more money, I will be cutting back my purchases and narrowing my horizons. I lose, the indie artists lose, eMusic loses. Before, I would pick up albums that are outside of my comfort zone (like MPP or Skeletal Lamping, for example) because they were dirt cheap and I had the downloads to do so. Now, I'm going to stick with my preferred middle of the road indie-rock/folk/alt country. The ability to download Born to Run, Blonde on Blonde or (**shudder**) Oops I Did It Again was not worth destroying the eMu community of discovery and exploration. It will be sad to see it go. ________________ The record buying public shouldn't be voting. |
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Jedi |
What's wrong with Oops I Did It Again?
I was never on eMusic, so I'm not sure what the problems have been with them changing things up. What exactly has been the general trend? I mean, it's clear that things have gotten more expensive, but what are some of the details and reasons behind these changes? ------------------------------------- Will the fight for our sanity be the fight of our lives? http://www.last.fm/user/crob3888 |
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Jedi |
The big news is not so much the price changes as the message behind the price changes. If eMusic had said that they had to raise prices to keep indie labels from leaving and to attract back labels like Subpop or Anti, I think we would have been okay with it. But, they did this in order to sign a deal with Sony music for their back catalog (anything more than 2 years old). One of my favorite things about eMu is that it has always been a thorn in the side of major labels. But now, they are catering to the major labels and destroying what made eMu great in the first place. eMu had built up a nice community of indie music fans who are passionate about discovering new acts. Because the pricing system was between $.25 and $.30 per download, and they offered plans with huge numbers of downloads, it encouraged people to experiment and download things they never would have. I downloaded some electronic albums and started up a respectable classical and jazz collection because the prices were so low and I had plenty of monthly downloads. Since they have cut my downloads and substantially raised the price, now I am discouraged from experimenting. I'll stick to genres I know I like. It really is a shame. Maybe eMusic needed to raise prices in order to survive. At $.40 per download (along with capping albums at a cost of 12 downloads if they have more than 12 tracks), it is still a bargain. But, it has moved from being a community for those passionate about the discovery of new music to becoming a low-rent iTunes with a fraction of the selection. ________________ The record buying public shouldn't be voting. |
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Jedi |
This is why they are going to fail. They needed to hedgehog, and just keep doing what they did best and not mess with the formula. Now they look like they are trying to be iTunes. And no matter what they might think, they are never going to be able to go up against that monster. ---------------------------- There's an ember in the rafters and it's gonna burn this whole thing down. Shadrach on LastFM |
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Guru |
It's alright, but Britney and Blackout are her twin masterpieces. |
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Guru |
I haven't signed in to emusic in about a week (was waiting for my downloads to refresh), so I didn't hear about a price change. This the third time since I've been a member that they've done that. It may be time for me to cancel.
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Jedi |
I'm with ya there, o&o. ------------------------------------- Will the fight for our sanity be the fight of our lives? http://www.last.fm/user/crob3888 |
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Enthusiast |
exacly fall of troy, the fact that they are raising the prices for the addition of new non indie bands pisses me off so much. and your right they will fail. indie fans would go there for lower prices, but now theyll prolly go elsewhere, or i know i will.....i loved emusic so much too...
___________________ Someone in my dictionarie's up to no good |
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Jedi |
I had once thought about getting an Emusic account, but this is making me think otherwise.
I prefer to buy physical copies, but they are so expensive it's not worth the thrill anymore. So, I've been buying digitally through Amazon and Amiestreet. Amiestreet.com is actually my favorite, but it has a limited selection. But there are lot of things that are talked about on these forums on there, and they are really cheap high-quality digital albums. Their system is really cool. Albums go online there for next to nothing, and then build in price as the album becomes more popular, to a maximum of like 9 dollars or something. But most of the time things are discussed on here well before they are officially released, and I can jump on things right out of the gate for less than 3 dollars. You can also choose to put credit to an account and gain extra money towards downloads. I just wanted to share. Edit: For instance. You can get Parlovr on there for just $2.00 right now. And it's worth ten times that. This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shadrach, ---------------------------- There's an ember in the rafters and it's gonna burn this whole thing down. Shadrach on LastFM |
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Guru |
Dude, at this point, I wouldn't join if I were you. Amazon's MP3 album price is typically 8.99 which isn't bad considering you get a higher-quality file than emusic, who offers VBR (usually at around 180 KBPS). As mentioned above, emusic was great for experimenting with albums you never would have originally (but didn't want to illegally download). These recent price increases have changed that. |
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Guru |
When did they send out this email? I've been a member since... 2005 I think, and they've hiked the price a few times without really justifying it. The first time I remember they sent me a notice BEFORE they changed the prices/downloading tier set up. The last time, they increased my downloads slightly and charged me an extra $5 a month - without any forewarning.
It didn't upset me that they increased the price, so much as there was no notification. Granted they probably have the legal authority to charge whatever the fuck they want from my each month, but it was a pretty disrespectful business practice. This will probably be my last month with emusic. The available selection has been alright for my tastes, but they seem to be in frequent disputes with labels causing some big indie albums to be released late - months or even years late - or not at all. It's a novel set-up but I think their business model of targeting the indie crowd, mostly high school and college age kids who obtain their music through illegal file sharing, wouldn't be enough to sustain them. I now subscribe to Napster (been with them about 6 months) which has the majority of indie selections I would get through emusic anyways. It's a bit frustrating having DRM on my music now, always requiring a subscription to play it, but quiet honestly that suits my (I'm guessing most peoples) listening habits - heavy rotation for a few weeks, months, or what not, but rarely beyond a year or so. ==== What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. |
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Enthusiast |
well, the changes have taken place. and i must say, i hate them. they are the same as itunes now with a smaller selection.
for example the sunset rubdown album cost 12 credits when theres only 8 tracks. and if you liked emusic for the sake of downloading indiviual tracks, thats nearly gone. so dissapointed ___________________ Someone in my dictionarie's up to no good |
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Jedi |
Agreed. What pisses me off the most was that they were extremely deceptive in the way they rolled this out. These keep telling us that this shit sandwich will taste wonderful. First, they trumpeted the value added by giving us the extensive Sony back-catalog, while saying that there would only be a "slight" increase in the cost of plans. Then, we find out that the "slight" increase meant that I was getting my monthly downloads sliced in half while going from $.25 per track to $.40 per track. Then, we were assured time and time again that the album pricing would be a huge benefit to us, because we could download albums over 12 tracks for only 12 downloads. Although many people sought clarification, they would not say whether the album pricing would include albums with less than 12 tracks selling for 12 downloads. Now, I see that most albums I want to download are less than 12 tracks but selling for 12 downloads. I have only seen a couple albums in which the album pricing provides a discount. I will decrease my plan and download less from eMu. Let's face it - $4.80 for Dragonslayer on eMu is still better than $7.99 on iTunes and Amazon. But, I will be downloading far less music and experimenting much less. In fact, if my current plan was in effect last year, I might not have discovered that I actually like Sunset Rubdown. I bought 3 of the Best Buy 100 download cards for $29.99. That should last me for about 6 months. $.30 a track is worse than the $.25 I used to get from my old plan, but it's still better than the $.40 I get under my new plan. Hopefully these changes will bring indie labels that left eMu back. That might make this shit sandwich more palatable. ________________ The record buying public shouldn't be voting. |
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Jedi |
This is a completely different thing, but I was in Best Buy the other day and noticed their digital download gift cards. Like old ladies can go in and buy a hot new album digitally for their grandson by paying for a card covered in the album art, and then giving it to them. Then they use the code to download it from somewhere (iTunes probably). Interesting idea. Except for the fact they were selling these things for 12 dollars each. Who in the world would pay 12 dollars for a short stack of MP3s? I understand that people still have to make money, but the fact that there isn't any real production costs, materials, or a great deal of overhead to produce a digital album, a markup like that is like selling the physical copy for 50 dollars. Not to mention none of the albums they had on cards were even worth purchasing. ---------------------------- There's an ember in the rafters and it's gonna burn this whole thing down. Shadrach on LastFM |
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Enthusiast |
Ya i'm the same way, I get (or got) 100 downlaods a month which let me experiment with all types of music and not make me wanna cry if i find out it sucks. That was the best part of it. Now I only get 50 a month, which I guess is still decent, but not for this 12 download junk. I think Im just gonna go to a local indie record store and start buying used and new cds. A hard copy is always better anyway. ___________________ Someone in my dictionarie's up to no good |
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Know-It-All |
coo, that 12 track thing seems a bit stupid.
I'm in the UK, and they've upped the prices quite a bit (at least twice as much) for new registrants, and don't have the same monthly/annual deals. Luckily I changed to an annual plan a few months ago, and so I still get my 75 downloads per month that I've paid for, but I'm not sure what will happen when I get to the end of my year. The existing monthly costs haven't changed for current UK members, and will only affect them should they stop/restart their membership. Despite the price increase, there's no Sony catalogue for us, although that doesn't bother me. I wonder what will happen at the end of my 12 months- if they charge me the same amount all at once, for the same downloads, then fair enough. But they best not take a big whack from me for fewer downloads and not tell me. hmmmm. If I have to pay more, then it will be something that I would stop having an annual/continuous subscription of, and will just browse and add stuff to my saved-for-later, and then subscribe every other month or so when I have enough stuff I definitely want to try out. Which will be a shame, but a problem for next year. |
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