I’ve been a member of EMusic for about six years now, but I will be quitting January 2010. They have recently decided to TRIPLE the price of their subscription, even for existing members.
This is really disappointing because they were the only place to buy music legally at even close to a reasonable cost. I discovered tons of great records and bands I never would have heard of otherwise.
I know EMusic was popular with lots of folks on the Dope, are you quitting? Do you think it’s worth getting raped in the interest of a few more major label acts?
I guess I’ll be taking my $200 a year and buying more used CDs and vinyl. Or does anyone have any other recommended sites for legal MP3s at a reasonable cost?
$200 a year is a bit much but it breaks down to $3.85/week
No one likes to feel like they’re being taken advantage of, but I’d ask myself, do you get $3.85 worth of enjoyment? If so keep it. Maybe give something else up. Try buying some generic food that will say you $3.85 and use the savings for your music.
I realize your point isn’t the money, it’s the feeling you’ve been a loyal customer and you feel like they are gauging you after you’ve been so good.
But if you feel you need to quit, fine, you can always rejoin it.
If you’re looking for sites, don’t forget to Google around for sites in Europe and Australia. You may be able to find things over there.
Since the OP seems to make it clear he wants legal music, I’d stay away from sites in Iran, China, Russia or Romania, as these countries are known for piracy. And while you are paying, the artists aren’t seeing anything of it.
How much music do you buy? Do you buy less than 4 songs a week? If so, Amazon.com would be cheaper. They sell high-quality MP3s for $.89-.99 per song (cheaper if you buy an album I believe). Totally DRM-free too so once you’ve got them you can do whatever you want with them.
Amazon is not cheaper by a long shot. They are just as ridiculous as iTunes. Right now I get 90 songs a month for about $17 a month, or about $0.20 per song. This is pretty reasonable to me being that there is no actual CD, no artwork, you are only getting a moderate bitrate, etc.
Keep in mind that this is not Michael Jackson or Britney Spears, it’s mostly obscure independent punk, jazz etc. for which there is relatively little demand. Sure, it makes sense to sell the new popular hip-hop song for a dollar because that is what the market will pay. Emusic (was) different
It’s (almost certainly) because of their deal to carry Sony’s music. This adds a whole lot of more popular artists - and more things like “album only” song purchases where you have to blow 12 or so song credits just to get one very popular single. I used to have a 50 songs per month for $5 deal, now at the end of the month they’re going to convert my account to 24 songs a month for $12. If I wanted 50 I’d have to pay $20.79 per month. Sorry eMusic guys, there were many months where I didn’t get any music or I’d get random stuff that I never listened to again, but for $5 that was no big deal for me. Now I have to pay more attention to what I get, and I don’t think it’ll be worth a subscription for me.
I just quit. I had an eMusic account for a few years. At first, the deal was something like $9.00 for 40 tracks per month, and they accumulated if you didn’t use them up. Then they started zeroing the account if you didn’t use your 40 tracks up by the end of the month. Then they announced various price increases.
But the big problem for me was simply lack of material. At first, I found tons of stuff in the back catalog. That kept me using up credits fairly regularly, but even then at one point I had close to 200 credits in my account. But slowly, I collected all the stuff I was interested in, and started picking up new material by just surfing recommendations and such. But frankly, there was so much music I wanted that wasn’t available on eMusic that I started to get frustrated. Then when they started zeroing the credits each month, I’d find myself realizing I had one day left to buy 40 songs or lose the credits, so I’d go and buy stuff on a whim, then find out I didn’t like it.
Eventually, it all just became too much of a hassle. I loved the service from the standpoint that it provided straight MP3’s with no DRM and the interface made it easy to download songs, but the lack of content and the increases in price and such eventually made it just more trouble than it was worth.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, I just don’t understand why they decided to raise prices across the board. It’s like going into a Ford dealer and them telling you that since they started selling Aston Martins, now the Focus you want to buy costs $50,000.
