Say it isn’t so, eMusic
How could you do this to me, eMusic? I feel so betrayed.
For those still downloading their music from iTunes, eMusic is a subscription online music site that’s been around since 1998.
Lured by the free downloads the site promised me, I joined almost three years ago in August 2006, and have been exuberantly happy since, downloading music from the likes of Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, M. Ward, Sufjan Stevens and hundreds others.
Happy, that was, until last night. But I’ll get to that later.
When I joined eMusic, I signed up for a plan that gave me 40 downloads a month for only $9.99 — a little less than a quarter a song. eMusic could offer their tunes for so cheap because they only carried select labels, and nothing from the four major labels — Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal.
I was fine with this; I liked it better that way. Most of the great music being made today is not on major labels, and besides, it forced me to dig deeper to find treasures I might not have.
Not to mention the fact that eMusic carries artists like Anathallo, Cat Power, My Morning Jacket, Patty Griffin and Spoon. Who needs the majors?
So, everything was running along smoothly between eMusic and me up until about a year ago when the site announced it would be raising prices and lowering the amount of downloads. Fortunately, I was grandfathered in, and because they were raising the cost of my plan from $9.99 to $11.99, they were going to give me an extra 10 downloads a month, raising my total to 50.
So, I spent another blissful year with eMusic, picking up some of the great older albums the site offers — stuff from Credence, Nick Lowe and The Kinks.
But that all changed last night. Yes, finally back to last night.
I log on, thinking I’ll maybe download the new album from Grizzly Bear or White Rabbits. Unfortunately, what I find is a notice emblazoned across the top of the page about a major new announcement.
Turns out, eMusic is acquiring back catalog music from the Sony Music Group — fine, that’s not really why I signed up for the site, but whatever. What’s not fine is the price change — I still have to pay $11.99 a month, but my downloads are being cut from 50 to 30, effectively almost doubling what I am paying now.
I wish there was an option to retain my old plan, and opt out of the new Sony music, but alas, eMusic doesn’t seem to be in the bargaining mood. It doesn’t sound like I’m the only one feeling a little miffed — a blog post by eMusic’s CEO Danny Stein about the changes has received almost 1500 comments from subscribers, most of them saying they’re canceling their subscriptions.
I can’t blame them. As much as it pains me to do so, I’ll probably follow suit.
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I gotta say that an increase from 22.2¢ per download to damn close to 40¢ per download is a very steep price increase. I understand eMusic has to be a viable business etc. but I’ll bet that at most I’ll want about 3 tracks a year from the newly available labels.
Truth is, for years those labels have ignored my musical interests. Why should I now be expected to pay a whole lot more so that their releases can be available on eMusic? It’s not like you can’t find their releases in many other places, real world and online. Why should I support their desires to fatten their bottom line on recordings that they’ve mostly made their investment back on many times over.
I valued eMusic for the opportunity to check out, at very low cost, a lot of new recordings that generally are hard to find in the physical world. I really don’t give a fuck about being able to download The Clash or Sex Pistols via eMusic. They’re hardly what I’d call cutting edge music any longer. No one who’s opinion I respect would think that they were significant today in any way other than historical. Much as I like the music, they’ve become basically little more than consumerist fodder for those who haven’t kept up with the times.
I think that this new strategy is kissing the asses of the fat shits that are only concerned about money, not music; the same fat shits who damn near wrecked their business through their unfettered greed. It’s a serious stumble for eMusic in my opinion.
Obviously, the value I derived from the low-cost ability to audition a lot of music has now been chucked out the window. I can only hope that sufficient attention continues to be paid to the wide range of music that does interest me; the music made by musicians for those involved with music, not just product. If the availability or profile of worthwhile music is diminished with this change it will truly be a sad day for eMusic.