I've been tossing around the idea of subscribing to eMusic but the website doesn't appear to have a tour or anything, just a trial subscription that I can cancel at any time. Before signing up for that, what are thoughts from Obnerites on eMusic? I went back through some old threads about it and it looks like a couple of you found some value in it.

I know there are a couple of albums on there I'd like to have but once I get passed those, I'm not sure what's on there.

A couple of questions:

1. How does it work? When an album is made available, will it always be available or only for a limited time?

2. Is there a similar site that's better than eMusic?

There are a couple of different plans. I'm on the 90 song downloads at $19.99 per month plan. Albums remain forever, unless licensing rights are lost.

No, this is definitely the best site. Me, jagged and paladisiac are all satisfied Obnish customers of eMusic.

1. I think it stays on there unless the label or whatever decides to pull it off or something.

2. Not that I know of.

It's a good service. Do it. Somewhere there's a link to where you can get 125 free songs as part of your trial. You should search for that. I did it a little while ago.

Thanks, Drinky. I found that link here:

http://www.emusic.com/promo/viewerscircle/index.html?fref=200000

why am I always forgotten?

I'm on the 40 downloads per month using the subscription, which saves 20% so I only pay $8 on the average. I think that is plenty for me, but sometimes I want more. I also make sure I get the free track of the day, everyday.

A) "couple of albums on there..." -- They've actually added a ton of labels early last year and now consistently provide new indie releases when they come out. Like Calexico, Essex Green, Neko Case, Atmosphere, New Pornographers, live Pixies, etc. They also have expanded other formats, most notably their early jazz and r&b catalogue, featuing a lot of miles davis, john coltrane, ray, dizzie gillespie, etc. If you haven't already, you should search for a bunch of indie-type of artists that you're interested in that you've wanted to check out but didn't before. (Maybe you didn't want to plunk down $8 used for something you might end up "meh" on.) For about 23 cents a track, why not try stuff out?

1a) "how does it work?" -- You pay $10, $15, or $20 bucks a month for a certain fixed amount of song downloads a month. ($20 bucks = 90 songs.) This monthly subscription refreshes every 30 days. That's about it -except- YOU HAVE TO USE IT OR YOU LOSE IT. That part sucks, but i'm usually burnt out of my month's-worth within 3 weeks. If you blow through the 90 songs quickly, you can always buy booster packs. Booster packs are additional song-packs you can buy. ($15 buys 50 songs, i think.) These never expire, so you can hold onto these for a while if you want, let's say if you need a couple extra tracks above 90 to buy a whole album...

1b) "when an album is made available..." -- ...it is available until it is not. There are some albums that come to emusic and eventually disappear due to some contractural crap i'm not privy to. This is a pain if your queue of albums you want just keeps growing over time. i'm in that boat though and have rarely been burned. There are no restrictions in burning these downloaded albums to cd/dvd -r, so i recommend backing all these downloads up, just in case. For the most part though, the albums stick. And once you bought an album/song, you can always redownload it for free (just in case you deleted it from your hard-drive, or something).

2. "Is there a similar site that's better than emusic?" -- From what i know of itunes, they are more expensive for lower quality mp3s. (Emusic always records at high-quality VBR.) There are other sites with varying degrees of legality and catalogue, but emusic trumps all those i've found in both categories. Plus they have their little community which has sometimes clued me in on albums i somehow missed via the day's new music list.

The cool thing about emusic compared to itunes is that you can search through emusic's catalogue BEFORE you sign up, so you can see just how much/little stuff they have that you'd like before doing so. (i suggest going through each genre's most-downloaded and editor's picks for a quicker search.)

The second cool thing is they have a freebie trial (50 songs i think) if you just wanna test it out. That way, if you don't like the interface or think the catalogue sucks, or don't have time in a month to download music, then you can cancel.

as for obners that use it, i think timmyjoe can be added to FT's list. if you care at all about artist's being compensated (as opposed to just mining slsk or blogs or tor.rent) then this is the place 2b.

I swear I was going to mention you, but then I started second-guessing whether or not you were actually on eMusic. Shouldn't you be forensic-ing some facades or something?

np: Jimi Hendrix - "Day Tripper"

I'm home with the boy. He was up all night with an ear infection. Doctors appointment in an hour. (and I start my new job on the 24th )

I think Paladasiac works for eMusic, although he failed to mention they have a bunch of good comedy stuff too. That is what I have been into lately.

He forgot me too. I'm on the 65/month plan.

i actually had a spat with 'em recently. as detailed in another thread, i have credit card debt that aint goin away. to help alleviate the burden, i switched from current credit mastercard to a new visa with 0% balance transfer for 15 months (or something like that) with the intent to cancel that old credit card. so i switched my emusic account from old mastercard to my -old- visa credit/debit bank card. since i used that card before on a freebie, they charged me. i eventually raised a week-ish long stink & they gave me my $ back.

there are problems like that now'n'then. a few albums disappear. once i downloaded the "freebie" and when i downloaded it again as part of a whole-album download, they charged me for that song. once i accidentally downloaded an ep already contained fully on a previously-downloaded b-sides comp (i think that was belle and sebastian). in all these cases, i contacted customer support and they gave me my downloads back. i'm sure they're running out of patience with me by now, but whatever.

ironically, in my last email to them concerning the credit card, i kind of alluded they should hire me as much as i advocate the site.

Give it a try, if only for a month. I dig the search filters and stuff; I've stumbled across some great music that I never would've found in a store. You can spend a whole lot of time surfing through there from one connection to another. And after you download once, you can go back and download it again free if you lose your files at home. The selection gets better and better.

I do the yearly subscription, which works out to about 1200 songs (with the 125 free) and I pay under $200 for the year. So, between 90-125 albums at around $2 per.

Every once in a while, I also sign up for a new account with a new CC (or use Discover - they have a random number generator that allows you to shop online safely) and get my 125 free and go ahead and buy another month of 90. 215 for $20, as opposed to their booster packs with is 50 for 14.99.

You guys are really convincing. I'll probably sign up when I get home tonight. I assume you can burn these songs onto CD if you so desire? I listen to music most often in the car so that would be an important feature for me. Still, for the price of two CDs every month (about or below average for me) I get about 7 or 8 albums worth of songs. Not too shabby.

paladisiac, do they take referals? If so, you totally deserve some free downloads for the endorsement you give the place.

Yes you can.

Another tip is that since the pricing is per song, make sure if you have any interest in jazz you check out their selections. Lots of albums are 2-4 songs each giving you a super cheap way of either checking out some jazz you may not be that familiar with or rapidly expanding your collection.

Same is true for alot of Afrobeat although their offerings are much smaller.

thanx. check your pm

Yeah, whenever I do the emusic thing I try to find albums that are just a few really long tracks. Jazz is generally a good bet as is a lot of experimental and ambient stuff. I got this one Fennesz collab from there that is just one 20 min. track. It's pretty nice, too.

they've recently added some godspeed you black emperor albums... "skinny fists" = 4 downloads < $1

No problem. I'll try to sign up when I get home tonight.

i subscribe too. 40 dls/month. i really like it and have found some great stuff. one drawback is you really have to watch when your downloads expire. sometimes i forget and then *poof* they're gone.

FYI, with the referral you each only get 50, I think, but with that promotin you can get 125 just for yourself. (I'm not trying to screw ya paladasiac.)

The burning is cool because you can burn the songs as many times as you want. (Unlike Napster which only lets you burn once, I think)

I also like the "Listen to this album" feature that easily lets you sample 30 seconds of each song before you buy it.

Yeah, I figured this but why not spread the wealth? Paladisiac gave me a ton of information about the site to help me make the decision. Not that others weren't helpful too...

He forgot me, too, and I've been there longer than most of you suckers. :P

how long? i've been in officially since august 2003 back when it was all-you-can-eat.

summer 2001, although I forgot the password for that account and my current one only dates back to January '02

Damn, I am thinking about this as well...maybe you people should demand commissions from emusic.