Why use a service that controls the use of something you bought when you can go to www.emusic.com and for $15 a month, you can download to your hearts content?
The diversity of music is superior, as is the price.
Or maybe Mac people just like flushing money down the toilet.
Mockingbird - Does emusic have all the songs in high quality format now? And is it really unlimited downloads? If so, I would definitely join.
It really does look like a much better deal than iTunes. My only concern is that emusic is such a good deal, it seems like it might go out of business.
I could be wrong about emusic, but I THINK you have to keep your subscription active or else you can’t play the music (or is that another service?)
Or there is an extra charge to burn CD’s.
Brian
Anamorphic: I stand corrected on the 6-minute thing. I should stop repeating rumors I hear in the schoolyard. 
Emusic: Once you download the mp3s, they’re yours to do whatever with (except give to other people, of course.) There’s no extra charge for burning CDs. It’s unlimited downloads for a flat monthly fee–eMusic tried the pay-per-song and pay-per-album models, but ended up eliminating them eventually.
You can still play the mp3s after you end your subscription. I should know, I let my subscription lapse a couple months ago because I’ve downloaded more music than I can listen to!
The big drawback to eMusic, along with most of these services, is that the mp3s are only 128k.
EMusic has a rather esoteric collection of music, though; you’re not going to find this week’s Top 40 there. It’s perfect if you’re what DoctorJ calls an album person and you happen to like the stuff eMusic has (like jazz). If you’re a song person who wants today’s big hits, you’re probably better with iTunes or one of the other big-label services in the works.
Emusic actually has a lot of the music I already wanted to get. Just the Matador and spinART artists would be more than worth the price. And it says on their site they are upgrading the quality, so it may be better than 128k mp3’s now.
emusic now is encoding at higher bitrates as well as variable bit rates.
And they do have a LOT of current music.
And yes, they have some amazing esoteric music. I went there first because they have Last Of The Red Hot Mommas by Sophie Tucker.
They have a huge catalog of George Carlin(20 albums). Lots and lots of comedy.
And yes… much jazz. Which I have been downloading.
They also have albums that have been out of print. The first Odgen Ensl album… Early comedy records with Moms Mabley and Redd Foxx…
Plus, I have found newer albums by Electronic(Johnny Marr from the Smiths and Bernard Sumner from New Order). And many others.
They are doing most new albums in 160 or 192 it looks like. A few albums are only available as 128, but… they are a minority and I’ve downloaded over 100 albums.
Yes, it is really unlimited.
Once the music is downloaded, it is yours to do with as you please.
Move it from PC to PC.
Burn it to CDs.
You bought it, it is yours.
So far, the only gripe I have against the iTMS is that it lacks the ubiquitous “shopping cart” system of purchasing. I’d really like to be able to see a list of what I’ve selected to buy before I go through the checkout process.
As it is now, I have to click “Buy” for each track, and each is downloaded (and paid for) one at a time. Not only does this cause me to click more than I’d like to, it also makes me wonder what the charge is going to look like on my bill. I’d hate to see this:
Apple iTunes Music Store: Song 1 $0.99
Apple iTunes Music Store: Song 2 $0.99
Apple iTunes Music Store: Song 3 $0.99
Apple iTunes Music Store: Song 4 $0.99
...
I’d much rather see it as one lump sum charge.
Other than that, I’m happy. The selection’s pretty good (though if you ask me, it could use some Queen and anime soundtracks). I’ve listened to a few of the songs I’ve DLed so far, and they sound great.
I checked out emusic.com. It had nothing by two of my favorite composers, Jean Sibelius and Jerry Goldsmith. Well, I take that back. It had one thing by Goldsmith–woo hoo.
So basically, emusic is useless to me. Using it would be like flushing money down the toilet, since it has a piss-poor selection (to me, anyway).
On the other hand, Apple’s Music store has a lot of Sibelius (not everything, but a lot) and a few decent tracks by Goldsmith. (They need to get more Goldsmith, to be sure.)
It has three things by Jerry Goldsmith.
They have a large diverse catalog and don’t put ridiculous restrictions on what you can do with something you bought.
So… imusic… woo hoo.
Three things–oh, I stand corrected. Three things that I don’t really want, that most Goldsmith fans won’t really want–three things that are not conducted by him. The Apple Music Store still needs to get more stuff by him, and they have a better selection, and a better quality selection.
And in my opinion, there’s just no damned excuse to have no Jean Sibelius. I mean, NO Jean Sibelius. What? Not even Finlandia? That’s piss-poor. I don’t care how dandy the other features of emusic.com are, but if they don’t have what I want, they are piss-poor.
Also, I’ve spent $12 so far at the Apple store. I only pay for what I want. I don’t think I’d spend $15 worth of music on emusic.com, even if they didn’t have a piss-poor selection (to me–to me it’s a piss-poor selection).
And I just checked--emusic.com has only one album by Vaughan-Williams, and only a few things by Copland.
That’s just pure sad.
Gripe solved: open up the preferences pane, click on Store, and select the ‘Buy Using Shopping Cart’ button. “Buy Song” buttons now change to “Add Song”, and a Shopping Cart menu is added to the list on the left. iTunes is now perfect for you.
Wow, Yosemitebabe… relax. The Apple music store may well be better for you, but emusic is an incredibly good deal. I didn’t even look very long, but I already saw at least 30 albums that I had been wishing I had already. And I can get ALL 30 of those albums for $15. Plus I can download music just to see if I like it. These things aren’t possible at the Apple store.
Actually, eMusic has four things by Sibelius; Yosemitebabe probably missed them because the global site search doesn’t work so well for classical stuff (you have to use the “search by last name” sidebar on the Classical page.)
One thing to keep in mind about eMusic is that it’s almost all stuff from smaller, independent labels. If you happen to like what those particular labels put out, you’ll be in heaven. If not, you’ll be wondering, “What’s the point?”
Sweet! Thanks, Anamorphic.
I can’t wait til iTunes are available to me. I’ll gladly pay for music. At home on your personal computer listen to song and if you like it download for 25cts. Getting high quality new or old music at your fingertips is worth the time, money and effort.
There was always bootleg music recordings. First Japanese radio with a cassette player/recorder you could “download free music”. I remember in the ice age in old Seattle when if a live concert was sold out you could hear it live on radio. Believe me the tape was rolling.
But the current itunes price is not 25 cents, but one U.S. dollar per song. And I don’t think you can listen to [the whole] song without paying for it first.
I just started playing with it today. You can listen to 30 seconds of full quality music as a sample.
Question: that $.99, does tax get added to that? Every full album I looked at was $9.99. Much cheaper than retail.
If I only buy one song, I assume my credit card is being charged $.99. The credit card companies must love that. Who’s picking up the service charge?