Comments on: eMusic: growth vs credibility (Part Two)

By: Francesco

Francesco — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:31:17 +0000

BTW Tim, on the blog topic, I’m still on a mission to buy and therefore complete whole collections of favourite individual artists’/bands’ discographies, for personal historical reference.
I shall continue to buy CDs.

What irks me about RIAA is that they now wish to delegate their own ‘housekeeping’ duties to ISPs. Sucks!

By: Francesco

Francesco — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:58:03 +0000

Note for Jenny, Daphon, indeed all of Mr. Dunlop’s faithful herd.

FWIW. Two sites you music nuts really must visit, as follows:

1. DigitalDreamDoor.com – where I suggest one might then click on the ‘Music Links’ icon in the left column, which will open links to another 130 (approx.) various music/related sites.

2. poparchives.com.au 3. poparchives.com.au/links.php

By: Joel B1

Joel B1 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:05:42 +0000

Happy to pay for music online.
Trouble is sites like JBhifi are so sh*t it’s unbelievable. They say it’s due to DRM.
I bought a Beastie Boys album (yeah, I know “mainstream”) that had 25 tracks on it. JBhifi will only let you download a single track at a time, not the complete album. (which is OK if you’re a teenager just wanting the lasted hit)

It takes me about 2m30s to download a single track by the time the web site resets itself etc. That adds up to about 1hr of click, download, click download, blo*dy click download…

Having paid for the album I went to mininova and P2Ped it down in less than 20m in it’s entirety. One blo*dy click.

BTW I use this site http://www.archive.org/index.php for uncopyrighted/attributable copyright for sound tracks to our films.

By: jeniferclash

jeniferclash — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:50:07 +0000

you know what? part of this problem IS about the money. as a long time emusic subscriber, I have tried out new bands, obscure bands etc. because I was only paying .25 per song. and if I liked the music after listening, I sometimes purchased the cd, or the band’s music in other places like itunes or amazon. I know bands want to make money, but where would any band be without a customer giving them a chance? I would be much more hesitant paying 50 cents per song. also, about the sony addition…emusic often describes its customers as on average being older than customers on other music sites and I am 42. that means I’ve been buying music for over 30 years and like many others who are complaining, ALREADY OWN bruce springsteen and the clash (as I do on vinyl, cassette and cd…). I’m seriously considering an emusic cancellation but probably won’t.

By: user941

user941 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:50:27 +0000

I think it’s also important to note that all above mentioned changes and announcments were made in the “Unofficial” 17 dots blog. As a customer – had I not been paying attention to the blog or the site’s message board, I wouldn’t have heard about any of these changes at all. They didn’t bother to actually directly address their customers with all of this information, even if by sending out a simple Email message.
Also, the whole “if you’re not from the US, EU or UK – you’re out” policy came out as a surprise as well, since again – no official anouncment was given, other than a line in one of the common questions of a FAQ they posted.
As a longtime customer of the service, one of the things that pissed me off most about the whole ordeal is that they don’t seem to care enough to even notify me of any of these radical changes.

By: Matthew Davies

Matthew Davies — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:15:13 +0000

all a bit strange methinks – emusic gets more catalogue and everyone grumbles! The reason I dont use emusic on a regular basis is cos theyre just aint enough on there that i want (and Im no Pop Idol fan either – have been buying and collecting music for 30 years). I sign up for their freebies every couple of years download 50 songs (which are all corkers by the way and not available on iTunes) then leave it at that…theres just not enough on there…I keep expecting to see Country Church on there its that obscure: http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/country_church

By: Jenny Morris

Jenny Morris — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:12:15 +0000

Good summary of the situation Tim. The way you’ve set it out, as a newcomer to emusic, and compared to the prices on itunes, the new prices don’t seem too bad to me. But the PR/marketing aspects of this are appalling – as you and others have pointed out.

This line in your chat with Cathy Nevins stands out for me: “The price change is being made because some of the older plans that our longest-tenured members had simply could not be operated at a loss any longer.” This suggests poor business practices, possibly new management, or pressure arising from the GFC perhaps? They should have been running on a model that allowed them to monitor and phase out plans that were no longer giving them sufficient margins. Perhaps it’s the laid back business style that’s got them into this mess – the same approach to marketing/PR, viz, half-arsed.