eMusic goes social

[kosmo vinyl]

How eMusic hopes to keep Its groove
 
 The path-breaking digital music service embraces social networking.
 
 http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/15/technology/emusic.fortune/index.htm?section=money_technology
 
 highlights
 
 Let's say you are a fan of Arcade Fire. You can already read quite a bit about the critically-acclaimed Canadian cult band on its eMusic album pages. Now eMusic will add a wealth of content from the Web 2.0 universe: the band's Wikipedia entry, pictures from Flickr, and videos of Arcade Fire concerts from YouTube. None of this is available on iTunes or the Amazon digital music store.
 
 eMusic will also allow members to share these pages with friends on popular social media sites like Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us and Twitter. "These are the things that we know our customers are already doing with the music they love," says eMusic CEO David Pakman.
 
 And eMusic provides its members with tons of data about its music, some of which is fairly obscure. (Anybody for Slovenia's "Bratko Bibic & The Madleys?") That helps its labels move more songs. Jesse McCann, digital operations manager for Allegro Media Group, a music distribution company in Portland, Ore., says his company makes about the same amount of money selling songs on eMusic as it does on iTunes: "I'd say our eMusic check is about the same as our iTunes check."

[kosmo vinyl]

Parts of me thinks
 
 About Time
 Whatever
 Yet another potential time waster
 More potentially useless recommendations
 
 Honestly the adding of Wiki entries, YouTube is something Lala.com tried a year or so ago and it didn't really set them apart.
 
 It would be nice to be able create a 9:30 forum groups, so we can collectively gather on the source.
 
 Group charts ala last.fm here could be handy as would being able to participate or lurk in genre specific groups. For instance I sure would like to easily be able compare notes with people interested in House and Techno, there is tons of releases here so being able to differentiate between the good, the bad and the ugly would handy.

[kosmo vinyl]

And of course who needs social networking when you've got the ACE records collection to download from. Don't think I'm going to be running out of releases to pick from for awhile. Of course there is part of me that wishes the liner notes to some of those 60s soul collections was available along with the mp3s.

[kosmo vinyl]

and New West is back on board at eMusic, new releases just added with more on their way...

[walkonby]

this thing about music on cds really bugs you doesn't it?

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by walkonby:
  this thing about music on cds really bugs you doesn't it?

well if you saw the stacks of CDs flung all over the concrete mansion you'd know there was no aversion to them what so ever.
 
 i've always seen my eMusic subscription as a supplement to my CD buying.  using it to cheaply test the waters on releases, etc.  i've even on occasion bought the physical cd afterwards.
 
 of late much of my downloads have been of albums not released here and would other size be very expensive to import from the UK.  additionally lots of electronic music tracks other wised only released on vinyl.
 
 i'll still gladly buy an artists CD when i see them live.  
 
 my cd buying in general has tapered off, partly because i already have vast amounts to listen to, so eMusic is slowly becoming my primary source of music at the moment.
 
 as mentioned above, i'm excited about Ace records being added to eMusic as it one of the UK based labels that does a stellar job of anthologizing lesser know 60s soul & r&b artists and labels.  which means i can download them legally at much more attractive price point, then buying them  yes i'm missing out on that labels well research liner notes, but in the end it's all about the music...

[vansmack]

My biggest complaint about eMusic is that my credits don't carryover.
 
 Given their limited selection, I've just grown tired of downloading something simply because I won't be able to use those credits if I don't.
 
 Now that they've raised the price, even though they increased the number of downloads (that I haven't been able to fill anyway), since I still can't carry them over, I finally cancelled my eMusic subscription.
 
 Add all the gimics you want, but if I pay for 40 subscriptions I should be able to use them when I find something I want, not within the time frame they set for me.  Sure, it's $.25 a download, but if you don't use them all or don't like what you downloaded, I end up paying closer to Amazon rates for crap.

[slappy]

Originally posted by vansmack:
 Given their limited selection, I've just grown tired of downloading something simply because I won't be able to use those credits if I don't.
 

Seriously, who wants music from independent labels or hard to find jazz, international, or electronic music?
 
 I keep waiting for Coldplay and the Mamma Mia Soundtrack only to lose my credits.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by slappy:
  Seriously, who wants music from independent labels or hard to find jazz, international, or electronic music?  

You forgot those really hard to find cover/alternate versions of shitty hair band and new wave 80's songs...
 
 I believe that selection there is in the top 10 eMusic choices this week.

[kosmo vinyl]

to be fair that album shows up because of all the people with trial memberships downloading it... for years it was the CCR ablums topping the charts week after week...
 
 and i agree that emusic needs to drop or better label all that remake, tribute, karaoke crap of mainstream artists they insist on providing.  part is due to the eMusic sister company The Orchard acquiring what ever they can get their mitts on cheaply

[slappy]

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by slappy:
  Seriously, who wants music from independent labels or hard to find jazz, international, or electronic music?  

You forgot those really hard to find cover/alternate versions of shitty hair band and new wave 80's songs...
 
 I believe that selection there is in the top 10 eMusic choices this week. [/b]

Here's a little tip, you can ignore the covers of shitty hair bands and just listen to the plethora of other good stuff.
 
 Ya know a shitty 90's actress has a book in the top 10 at Amazon. Doesn't affect my perusing of their site that much.

[kosmo vinyl]

plus it's a sure bet that the top of the chart will be the free daily download and often has what ever is being given away free at the time.

[vansmack]

Thanks for the tip, slappy, but my beef with eMusic is less their selection and more their business model.  Remember, my first sentence that said my biggest problem is my inability to carry over credits?
 
 I'm sure you don't because you're not interested in being constructive.  You're just interested in arguing.
 
 Regardless of their selection, I would keep my subscription if I could carry over my credits.  After all, it took me over 500 downloads and nearly two years as a susbcriber to get to this point.

[slappy]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  Thanks for the tip, slappy, but my beef with eMusic is less their selection and more their business model.  Remember, my first sentence that said my biggest problem is my inability to carry over credits?
 
 I'm sure you don't because you're not interested in being constructive.  You're just interested in arguing.
 
 Regardless of their selection, I would keep my subscription if I could carry over my credits.  After all, it took me over 500 downloads and nearly two years as a susbcriber to get to this point.

I'm not interested in arguing for fun.
 
 If you think they have a 'limited selection' and have to resort to downloading 'crap' on the 40 credit plan. You probably have mainstream taste (nothing wrong with that) and it isn't for you in the first place.
 
 Even if you could carryover you'd just end up bitching you have all the accumulated credits and no selection to choose.
 
 If you want constructive, sure, you were financially wise for ending your subscription.
 If you now really don't have a problem with the selection, using the handy 'Save For Later' folder makes it so you never have a problem using your 40 credits. I'm on the 90 credit a month since they stopped unlimited downloads and still have about 114 albums in 'Save for Later'.
 
 I still believe its ridiculous to slag on a companies financial model because you don't like the product.
 
 The Ya Basta label has also been added with some solid downtempo, latin, bossa beat stuff.

[darjama]

Originally posted by vansmack:
 Regardless of their selection, I would keep my subscription if I could carry over my credits.  After all, it took me over 500 downloads and nearly two years as a susbcriber to get to this point.

I think the only way they make money is if people don't use all their credits. Our band got paid at about $.25 per download from eMusic via TuneCore, which was the cost to the user if they used all their downloads before the prices changed. Not a great business model.