to eMusic or not to eMusic Review

A recent review of eMusic from a friend of mine. Enjoy and make decisions for yourself.

Ahhh. eMusic (this is gonna be a long response)

So, I was a member of eMusic for like 4 years. But I recently cancelled. They had a great selection of music (mostly indie, which is what I listen to anyway) and a few major label stuff here or there. They had this great system where say for example, you pay 20 bucks you get 50 downloads a month. So, 50 tracks. Doesn't matter which band, just 50 tracks all across the board.

Well, in November they changed. They acquired a ton ton ton of major label stuff. Which I don't want to be hater on major stuff, because this addition does include motown and other classics, but at the same time I felt eMusic was straying from it's core values. (even though they said in their emails, don't worry, we still are the same company, bla bla bla). Along with the giant catalog additions, they raised their prices a bit and also how they structure their music plans. So now, instead of an easy $20/50 tracks, it's $20 for $20 worth of music. Each track has a different price and it varies based on the label.

I ended up canceling my membership because I found the new system too confusing. Ahhh, how we hate change. Ultimately though, e-musc is still way way cheaper than iTunes (I laugh at people when they say stuff like "I got this from iTunes") and cheaper than amazon mp3.

So, I'm at a crossroads with them. I use to recommend them to everyone I knew...but now I feel like they are veering off their 'indie' path into something more corporate. But, on the other hand they still seem to be the best digital service out there, and I can't seem to find something that offers such a wide range of music at such a low cost.