More of the good stuff
eMusic’s customers are rabid, smart and adventurous consumers of music. For 10 years, we’ve been proud to help you explore the best music from independent labels throughout the world and present it with the curatorial excellence that you value. We’ve worked hard to create a corner music store experience where you can get knowledgeable recommendations on the latest releases as well as dig through the stacks to find hidden gems you didn’t know about.
Today, we want to let our U.S. subscribers know that soon we’ll be adding even more of the music you want from the catalogues of labels like Arista, Columbia, Epic and RCA – that means artists including the Strokes, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and The Clash to name a few. True to eMusic’s standards, we’ll put this body of work in the right context with helpful insight and recommendations from our expert editorial staff with a pronounced emphasis on the places where the legends and our favorite indie artists intersect.
The addition of these bold-face names doesn’t change our mission. eMusic will always be an alternative to mass market digital music stores — a deeper, richer music shopping experience. Over the past year, we’ve added a host of new features to re-create the experience of the corner music store using the technological advantages of the web to supplement our tried and true human touch.
As you already know, musical context today doesn’t exclusively come from an LP cover or liner notes, but rather from many sources throughout the web. eMusic album and artists pages give you the ability to form a deeper understanding of artists you’re interested in by checking out reviews written by the eMusic community of members, writers and editors, as well as related content on sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr.
We also know that word-of-mouth doesn’t only happen in your local record store anymore; it happens when people introduce their friends to their favorite artists by sharing their experiences throughout a range of social networking sites, so we’ve made it easy to do so by integrating those links on our site.
Finally, we’ve added a powerful new recommendation engine that functions like your friendly music store clerk, absorbing your preferences with every action you take and offering recommendations tailored to your personal tastes.
We’re excited to bring all of these advantages together to help you discover and, in some cases, rediscover, this amazing music.
Independent labels and artists will continue to be eMusic’s core. But now more than ever, the distinction between indie and mainstream music simply does not matter – people love all sorts of music and our goal is to present all of it in a way that creates a community not only of music buyers, but of music lovers.
We do have a question though for our customers. We’ve been requested to carry major label titles for years, but we always have gone back and forth on whether it would change the fabric of eMusic. We don’t think it makes sense to exclude great artists simply because their label partner is one of four specific companies. We look to some of our favorite music — The Sex Pistols, The Clash — and we certainly never think to ourselves “Major Label.” What do you think? Do “major” and “indie” mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon?
Danny Stein
eMusic CEO and Chairman
Wow, Danny, that’s HUGE Fucking news. Good/Bad reactions are both occurring to me. But i keep coming to this: It is the independent feel that matters, and you are correct that there are many independent minded musicians on the Majors, either because needed to survive in this business, because they got into the Majors and their “classic albums” were contracted, or even because when they originally produced the record for a label, it wasn’t owned by the big guy but they came in and bought the label and with it the rights to their albums.
What I don’t want to see happen, and what I fear might happen, is Willy Nilly acceptance of any record or label. It would be a crying shame – maybe even catastrophic to eMusic and it’s die-hard customers – if the charts were suddenly taken over by the latest Brittany Spears shit-song or any of the cry-baby pretend-a-punk that floods our radios and makes us run to our MP3 players for the great stuff we’ve gotten from eMusic in the past 10 years (a little under six for me personally).
But, even our favorite hole-in-the-wall record store carried pop-40 (I’m refusing to call it top cause it ain’t
) That said from your announcement, it seems as though it’s more the classic stuff that we love that you be getting, and stuff like The Streets, M.I.A.’s Kala album, and The Decemberists’ breakthrough “Hazards of Love”, whom are currently unavailable on eMusic in certain countries because of the distribution deals they have in those countries.
Just make sure that what happened to our favorite record stores doesn’t happen to you. That you don’t become Tower Records where previously one could walk into there and find that great hidden Frank Zappa Concert Bootleg that he’d release in a small number secretly as to not alert his Label but now you walk in and all that you can find is 1001 copies of Usher’s latest forgotten in five months Platinum single.
Don’t become the radio stick to your guns and I’m sure there’s so much more to say, besides congratulations. . . but I’ll let others: Frank Hecker, Daniel ESQ, SaraDevil, Ptolemyclark and the 17
other regulars say what I couldn’t think to say.
Again, I must say that though it seems slightly painful, this is GOOD news after all.
This is terrific news. As long as eMusic keeps its focus by concentrating its promotion on indie labels and the spirit of discovery of new music, I’m all for it!
Cool!
The Sex Pistols and The Clash don’t mean major to me, because they were not ‘majorly’ played on the radio when they were released. You’d only hear them on college radio. Mainstream and indie seem better descriptors.
Times have changed. Labels don’t really matter so much to me, except when I try to buy something online, and it’s not available in my country. I find much more of my music online than the radio of past years. I never even paid attention to labels until I joined eMusic and learned about all the distribution nonsense going on.
This will change the fabric of eMusic.
So are Anti and Rykodisc coming back?
To Nergal, it seems there is already willy-nilly acceptance of any label. There are SO many covers, karaoke, etc. But I do get your point about pop-40.
Since Nergal seemed to care what I had to say, I’ll drop a few comments…
First, I’m assuming that what’s going to happen is that at least one major label (apparently Sony, given the mention of Arista, Epic, Columbia, and RCA) has decided to release at least some back-catalog material to eMusic under eMusic’s existing pricing structure — basically what eMusic managements has apparently been urging them to do for ages.
If so, this I think is pretty much of an unalloyed good thing. It gives eMusic subscribers better access to the important works of past musical eras, makes eMusic more attractive to potential subscribers, and if successful may persuade other major labels to do likewise.
To Danny Stein’s point about “major” vs. “indie”: In the past the record labels now aggregated under the term “major” were in fact where the most important innovations in popular music were happening (as Bob Lefsetz never tires of reminding us). I think that including products from some of those labels in the overall eMusic offering is perfectly consistent with eMusic’s current position as “the internet’s corner music store”, especially if eMusic is going to pull out all the stops on providing context and recommendation. (Which I expect will happen — to the extent that this is an experiment, eMusic has every motivation to make it successful.)
I think the major downside (to the extent that there is a downside) is that people will be very mistrustful of having a repeat of the Rolling Stone fiasco. That apparently wasn’t eMusic’s fault, but if Stringsteen or whoever decides that they don’t like their music being “cheapened” by sold at eMusic prices and is successful in getting it pulled, then that’s going to leave a pretty sour taste in the mouths of eMusic subscribers.
I am not happy about higher prices, though. Yeah, I know, big surprise.
It’s mostly industry jargon. There’s a difference between being signed to a major label, and being mass marketed to that large demographic of casual music fans. What I want to see from eMusic is the continuing fascination with music, and the focus on the discovery as well as the price plan that allows that to happen.
I think there’s a lot of stuff signed or distributed by the majors that I would love to have access to on a service like eMusic.
Can we get some clarification on what is meant by ‘US Subscribers’? Do you mean anyone who is using the US eMusic (as distinct from the UK eMusic for example), or do you mean only users who are physically located in the US (leading to the “Not available in your country” message for those of us who have the US version of eMusic, but who aren’t located in the US).
If it is the latter, are there any attempts being made to resolve this issue for users not in the US, or are we going to have to wear the resultant price increase but without any improvement to our service?
“Do ‘major’ and ‘indie’ mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon? ”
Yeah, although I recognize that the differences I see between the terms may mean more in terms of my self-identification than in terms of my music preferences. I’m not sure how I feel about all this yet. I mean, I love a lot of music released on the majors, but there is a crate-diggers music store experience I get from eMusic which I worry will be lost amid major-label titles, and major-label marketing. If you can keep the editorial content at current levels (i.e., top-notch), keep emphasizing emerging and/or underappreciated acts and genres (e.g., dubstep; nu-noise; early 20th-century blues; small jazz labels) and continue to honestly separate the wheat from the chaff, I guess I’ll welcome the change.
I do have a few questions. First, when does all this become effective? When, for instance, will we see the new titles appear, and will they appear in large batches, or trickle-in piecemeal over time? Second, does this mean that the major-labels’ newest and most popular titles will appear here, or is what we’ll receive more of the majors’ smaller-selling back-catalogues (I’d actually be quite satisfied if this were the case, BTW)? Third, what does this mean in terms of eMusic’s subscription prices? Fourth, it’s very reassuring to me to read this, but how do you intend to ensure that “[i]ndependent labels and artists will continue to be eMusic’s core”? For instance, will you keep the core of editors and writers that you have now, who make the eMusic experience so enjoyable?
Major and Indie used to mean a lot more than they do today. My favorite indie stores sell both major and Indie records and i buy both. I’ve never understood the thought process behind “now that they are on a major label, they’e sold out.” Good music is good music, it just gets exposed to more people on a major.
As long as e music keeps its editorial focus on all sorts of music and bring us the best music, whether it’s Indie or Major. I fully support them and am very excited. (when is the Mile davis Columbia stuff coming?)
My only concern is that prices will rise, numbers of credits will fall for everyone who uses the US version, even if we can’t download the major stuff in our countries. If I’m grandfathered, that’s OK for me but I wouldn’t like to see new Australian subscribers subsidize Americans to download Billy Joel, if we can’t get it too. I guess we just await more detail.
I’m not worried it will infringe on the crate digging aspect, as long as there is still the editorial input, user lists and ability to browse via label.
I think this is great news, eMusic should strive to carry as diverse a selection as possible.
Just don’t only recommend/feature/etc the major stuff and it will be fine. Not that I think that will happen
However if prices go up I may change my mind!
Don’t mess with the formula too much. Give Sony Music their own label page like you do for Naxos. And have your critics find the overlooked and out of print nuggets among the catalog that deserve a wider audience. But please guys, don’t turn it into the Columbia Record Club. If your main screen overdoes the promotion of old Sony product, I will be bummed.
And regarding the price increases, why don’t we wait to see how the catalog sells? Are their many members who want to buy ‘The Stranger’ or ‘Born To Run’ for the tenth time?
We all remember how the major labels told us to stop buying LP’s when CD’s came out and then told us to re-purchase those same titles when remastered versions were available. It will be too much deja vu for me if Sony, Warners and Universal Music use eMusic as their shill for MP3′s.
I’m Happy that emusic will now reach a much wider audience & will probably expand. I talk up the site a lot & while I haven’t yet collected any free downloads ( he guy forgot to enter my email address) I’ve personally been quite Content with the Collection. My only Sour Note ( if you can call it that) is that subscribers should be able to buy Booster Packs to fill out their collections at a Good price point. I took Heavy Advantage of the ChristmasHaunakaKwanzaa deal: 50 downloads for $14.99 it is my belief that putting Value into the hands of your subscribers will only increase both the Loyalty & the Bottom Line. That’s My 2 cents
I watched the Top New Albums carefully when the Rolling Stones arrived, and I was struck by how little the rest of the list changed. Sure, you expect Let It Bleed and Beggar’s Banquet to show up high on the list, but they didn’t push Frightened Rabbit off the list. The same month that I downloaded Beggars, Bleed and Majesty’s, I downloaded Andrew Bird, Bats, John Ralston, Alias and Aloha – all of which I discovered on emusic — plus some nifty things from major acts who just happened to be on labels available here: The Notwist, Underworld and Moby.
Of course, I have 90/month. If I only had 30 that month, I might have spent 29 on the 3 Stones records — I just assumed they’d be gone fast.
But as Danny et al point out, Sonic Youth was no less indie on Gefen than they will be on Matador, even if they were eventually exasperated by label meddling. Has anybody been more independent for longer than Dylan?
Which sent me to my boys at Newbury Comics, a Boston mini-chain (24 area stores), to look at their charts. Yes, Dylan, Tori Amos, Depeche Mode, Eminem and Green Day (all at least moderately indie), but also emu artists like Passion Pit (my favorite recent download), Conor Oberst, Iron & Wine, Steve Earle, Fischerspooner, Method Man/Redman, and Dane Cook.
The difference there is that one CD = one vote. I assume that individual tracks contribute to an album’s placement on emu lists? So with more than the Stones to sprinkle in the top list, I could see things getting skewed fast.
Here’s my bottom line, though. I’ve been meaning to replace my vinyl copy of “The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle,” but it won’t push Black Moth Super Rainbow off my list, a group Jayson pointed me to here at 17 Dots.
Call me naive, but I believe in my heart of hearts that the same folks who’ve shined so many lights into so many dark corners here, in front-page features, in newsletters are going to keep doing it. I expect to see some front page features on the new stuff — I WANT to see what emu reviewers have to say to put these major artists in context, like we did with the Stones, ELP, Death Row, Motley Crue — but I can’t imagine that Bon Iver or Viva Voce front-page features will go away, or be pushed any further down in the rotation.
Heck, this might have the side benefit of the Bjork feature having the records of hers that I really want to download.
Assuming that you guys will update some of those.
A note on that: seriously, time to polish up a hub of hubs. We need more than ever to find our own ways to corners of light that you’ve already provided.
Last note: even if they’ve bungled, or done it for the most cynical reasons, majors have used their biggest acts to subsidize the money-losers that comprise the bulk of their rosters. I’m looking at this the same way. Anything that the majors do to enable emu to survive is a good thing in my book.
Hearing news like this actually reminds me of all the things I love best about emusic in general, and 17 dots in particular. Joe’s still going to get his clock cleaned at non-mainstream shows, Yancey’s still going to roll his eyes at releases he’s only heard over a cubicle wall, and the Yankees still suck. That last one’s not a truth I discovered at emusic, but it’s another example of a truth that doesn’t change even if Britney Spears fills the slot vacated by Taylor Swift.
Long live emu. Long live 17 dots.
I’ve got no problem with emusic adding any record label in the world. What is a problem, from my point of view, is the message that the cost to me will be very close to twice what it has been. Having been a member since 2005, I’m on a 65/month at $15 plan. Now I will get 37/month for that same price, I’m told.
Maybe it makes sense, in the aggregate, to drive away people like me.
If there were things that I was dying to get from Sony’s back catalog for $5 per record, I would stay. But there aren’t. So, will be saying goodbye when the plan goes into effect.
…and Canada (hopefully) ???
Major v. Indie definitely does matter to me, and I can sum up why in 4 letters: RIAA. I do not like the RIAA and the way it has attempted to control digital distribution of music in ways that seem, to me at least, like private prosecution of criminal law. I do not understand the motivation or even the ethics of major private lawsuits against customers and technology providers. I do not support the lobby that seeks to constantly extend copyright protection so that it begins to seem as if nothing new will ever enter the public domain.
Don’t get me wrong; I understand the value and importance of intellectual property protection. But the ultimate goal should be to enhance and encourage creativity, which to me means making sure artists get paid, NOT making sure label execs continue to line their pockets.
The copyright clause of the Constitution says: “To Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for LIMITED TIMES to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”
Now patents for medicine for example last for 7 years, but the RIAA labels control things for something like the Artists life plus 75 years, but it’s also perennially extended so that it’s essentially permanently locked up not “limited time” like the constitution called for. And then to make things worse, the RIAA goes after any perceived violator with extreme prejudice, and often wins, not on the merits, but because the individual defendant can’t afford to fight it.
I agree with a lot of the people here that there is a lot of good music on major labels, and I do buy some music from major labels, but I like to very carefully control the amount of my money that goes to the majors.
That doesn’t mean I’m about to cancel my subscription; even if prices raise, this will still probably be the cheapest source of legal music around, and at the end of the day that’s why I’m here. I just think it’s maybe a little disapointing.
The thing that Radiohead showed by releasing their own album, and that emusic showed with its Select program was that labels could be made irrelevant by cutting out the middle-man and having music sold directly by artists and distributors. emusic select put the music-lover back in the drivers seat of music distribution, instead of the money maker. That’s why when the first selects dropped I said something like “emusic is the future of the music industry.” Now, honestly, I’m not sure.
I guess at the end of the day if you keep emphasizing the things that make you different then it will continue to be an interesting and different company. And if you settle for being the cheapest MP3 seller, well then you’ll just be the cheapest.
This is great news. In my opinion, more music is always better.
One caveat:the pricing structure needs to remain the same. The worst thing that can happen is that EMusic becomes, even in part, just another Rhapsody or, worse yet, another iTunes.
Having been an early subscriber, and being grandfathered in with a really great plan, I am seriously annoyed that I’m now getting 20 less downloads/mo at a higher cost. Seriously – what is that? If I wanted big(ger) labels at a higher price, would I be *here*?
This is amazing news! I agree that including major label music does not conflict with eMusic’s mission of being an alternative digital music store, so long as the pricing and editorial structure remain largely intact.
My hope for the future is the eMusic uses these major label releases to also steer customers towards smaller label releases via a sophisticated product recommendation engine. Cross-selling can be amazing when done well — look at Netflix!
“Today, we want to let our U.S. subscribers know that soon we’ll be adding even more of the music you want from the catalogues of labels like Arista, Columbia, Epic and RCA”
Well, just as long as the U.S. customers are looked after, that’s what matters, right?
It seems to me that a shift towards “igger” acts has to result in another rise in prices. And I get that, and I wouldn’t mind, except that it seems more and more that I’m paying higher prices for bands like these that aren’t even available outside the U.S. The new passion pit album, the new jarvis album… Nope, sorry, no available in your country. I bet if pasion pit’s label said U.S. subscriber’s couldn’t have the latest album eMusic would get them to change their minds right away.
Are the grandfathered plans permanent? I realize there’s no guarantees, but this isn’t just a transition phase with more pricing changes contemplated for long-term subscribers, is that right?
I’m wishy washy. I love that Sony is adding their back-catalogs, but it comes at the loss of my 90 downloads per month. I would have been happier if there were more options for those of us who should have been grandfathered.
As a 3 year member of eMusic and a loud advocate, I’m happy they’ve gained a major label and a deeper catalog, but I wish they would have been nicer to us older users who stood by eMusic during the lean times and forced our friends and family to sign up.
Congrats, eMusic, I still love you, but I don’t think that my 90/month for $20 plan and my friend’s 75/month for $20 plan should be equal after this. I don’t think it’s fair that my tenure with your site (as shown with extra downloads) is now null.
This might be childish, but I feel a bit betrayed, eMusic.
Is there some way a subscriber could stick with their old plan and not have access to any of the Sony material? i.e. a cheaper (subscribers could stay with their current plan) “Indie” eMusic account vs. an account with access to all the Indie and the new Sony stuff based on the new pricing model? Each subscriber could pick what they want, and, to be fair, once you pick Sony, there is no going back (so you can’t collect all the Sony stuff and revert back.) Those who want access to the new catalog would pay a bit more to have access to it. Those who think eMusic is much cooler without Sony can continue to support the Indie labels they care about without a cost increase.
Otherwise, I’m really disappointed at the pricing model change. Where was there any consideration of your loyal subscribers? You didn’t even include us in any sort of discussion on this matter. I don’t think this is a step in the right direction.
I was looking forward to being a loyal subscriber for years to come, but now I’m seriously considering canceling my account.
I have been very pleased with the current collection, and feel it is a shame that prices are going to increase so that we can add major labels. These major label albums should cost more downloads rather than jacking up everybody’s prices so a some people can download Justin Timberlake. We had a great thing going e-music, but I am not sure if our relationship will weather this price increase.
The only reason I have been a subscriber for as long as I have is because of the great deal. To go from 65 downloads a month to 37 for the same cost is unacceptable. I will also be canceling my account when this change goes into effect.
It’s been great Emusic. I’ll be sad to see you go, but I wish you the best with all your new clients.
@megan – While I agree that the non-U.S. subscribers are getting shafted with this deal, you’ve got to be kidding with your comments about the regional availability of other labels. Guess what – there’s tons of awesome music on eMusic that is not available for U.S. subscribers.
@Daniel, Esq. – Nope. I’ve already seen that once my annual subscription is up for renewal it will drop from 90 d/ls to 35. Actually, it will drop to 0 since I’ll be canceling…
As some have said, I’m not too happy about this. If I wanted major labels, there are plenty of places where I can get those titles. I come here for excellent value and excellent music. I’ve been on the site for 8 years, and have gone through all of the different programs– all you can eat to monthly, and all of the different iterations of labels and artists. Now in order to have the option of DL Michael Jackson or Alice in Chains have to pay 2x what I am paying now and getting fewer downloads a month. I know I am the kind of customer a company is willing to get rid of in order to expand, but it is still a real bummer.
So the “exciting news” is that I lose 40 tracks per month just for the ability to access a lot of music that I either already have or have any number of other ways to access? Hmm. Call me crazy, but I don’t find that exciting. Forget the “indie mission,” which is all well and good, but I fail to see how alienating (and losing) your long-time subscribers (who are the core of your success and, as such, gave emusic the ability to engage in this expansion at all) makes good business sense. Perhaps the increase in new subscribers will make up for the loss of the old guard. If so, more power to you.
All good things must come to an end, I suppose, and so it is that I will cancel my subscription once the new pricing goes into effect. Seriously, I’m losing 44% of my package- clearly you didn’t expect to keep customers like me. Grandfathers of emusic, unite!
With the upcoming changes to emusic, my cost per track will more than double. To help make it potentially worth it for me, two big changes are needed: (1) higher bit rates on all tracks! At least the new ones. (2) better search functionality.
The emusic pricing structure has allowed me to be musically adventurous, but once it changes I will have to be more conservative with my credits. This will limit emusic’s value as a way for new artists to get heard. Also, it strikes me as strange that bands on “indie” labels (who are focused on quality, but lack the name recognition) will price the same as “major” acts (where there is a marketing machine in place, and teenagers can often convince their parents to buy them that week’s hot album.) Amazon and itunes do a nice job with the majors – why sacrifice emusic’s niche by meeting the majors halfway on price?
I’m thrilled with more music to choose from. Not so thrilled with the 33% price increase, but I understand it. I’ll see what July brings and decide from there if I’ll continue my subscription.
I’d just like to second the comments made in posts 25-29. This is a very unfortunate change.
I’ve been with eMusic since ’04 and was able to retain my 90 dls for $19.99 when they changed their pricing structure a few months ago. Now, I lose it all. Grrrr!
This junk discussion about indie vs. major is just a screen of the real issue here. eMusic had to raise it’s prices to allow major labels to sell it’s music here. I never buy music based upon whether it’s featured on a major or minor label. It just so happens that the vast majority of the music I’m interested in appears on indie labels. I really like that the music I’m most interested in is available here for a drastically reduced price. When major labels are involved, the price goes up. If I stick with this site, I’m sure I’ll be happy to pay only $5 for a major label album, but it really sticks in my craw that I now have to pay the same amount for an indie album that I used to get for around $2-$3. After I typed that, i realized that I’d been living in a fantasy world for many years. eMusic was too good to be true.
You better believe this changes eMusic. it will now be a cheaper alternative to Amazon and iTunes, rather than a MUCH cheaper alternative to Amazon and iTunes. Boo eMusic, Boo!!!!
Post 31 nails it!
Thanks for cutting my downloads in half, and effectively upping the price, emusic.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. And for major label stuff that I can get elsewhere? Even more stupid. Adios to your service.
I’m completely stoked to see emusic expand it’s catalogue, and at this point in the game i think the distinction between indie and major is becoming more and more irrelevant. So, yay to new music!
However, while i understand that the subscription plans much change to accommodate the new catalogue, as four-year customer, it’s pretty infuriating to lose 28 downloads per month to keep my current price, or increase my plan by $5 a month and still have 15 less downloads per month.
again, i totally get that the prices have to change, but this drastic reduction in downloads feels like a lack of value to a loyal, long-time customer.
I just canceled my membership.
I was receiving 100 tracks / month for $24.99. I would now be receiving 50 tracks / month for $19.99.
I really like eMusic in that it gives a great home for mostly independent and lesser known music. The price and selection could not be matched on any other legal service. To essentially double the cost of the service for the “benefit” of having additional mainstream tracks available is an issue for me. Considering I personally would still only be downloading non-mainstream music I would be receiving no benefit for the increased cost.
I sincerely hope that others who feel the same as I do will vote in the only meaningful way they can…cancel your memberships and eMusic will see the error in their ways.
I’m very disappointed with this news. Great! Now I will get access to old music I either have or don’t want, and you will double my subscription price. As you close the gap on price point between eMusic and other non-subscription sites, it makes less and less sense for me to stay on and take chances with new music.
The advantage for subscription for me on this site is this: I can download the albums I’m really interested in for a great price…. but then use whatever downloads I have left at the end of the month to take a chance on some new music or a new band. If I can’t get the premium price.. I might as well only buy the music I am interested in ala carte, without worrying about a use-it-or-lose-it subscription. I think by increasing prices you will drive customers away from willingness to discover new bands and negatively impact smaller labels. In addition, if more subscribers start joining to mine the Sony catalog, smaller labels and bands will be less prominent on the site. I think this is bad for the indie-music customer and indie music labels and bands.
I would second a call being able to maintain current subscriptions and prices, and be denied access to the Sony catalog. Not sure if that is possible, but it would make the difference between cancelling or continuing my plan.
Whatever. This stinks. I go from 50 to 30 DLs a month? Total garbage. Who cares about Sony stuff. If I promise not to DL any of their stuff can I have my credits back?
I promise not to DL any of their stuff. Ever. Pinky Swear.
Chalk me up as another longtime subscriber who is not happy with this. I’m not interested in Sony/BMG and certainly not if it’s doubling my cost as I’m grandfathered in on an annual plan. I’ve stuck with you all through some big labels going and many other changes but I think this is it. I’ll be around until October, which will give me a chance to feel the “new” eMusic out, I guess. But I just don’t know if I’ll still be here, especially if Spotify comes to the US by then*.
*Sidenote: all you EU people whining about US this and US that: well, you guys get access to Spotify. I signed up for an account on vacation and got hooked. I’d gladly trade whatever you think you’re getting shortchanged on at eMusic for Spotify’s “stream anything you want at excellent quality for free.”
Boo, hiss. So sad that what had been a prime outlet for less bankrolled music-makers to reach far-flung ears has sold out, and those of us who had found refuge here from mega-media will now be obliged to pay subsidy to the major labels or, canceling our subscriptions, forsake the lesser labels that drew us here.
Instead of diluting the value of our subscriptions to broaden your new revenue streams, why not differentiate, costing your pricier labels at double dings against our monthly allotment, but dinging us as usual on your signature catalog, preserving your rates, and not alienating us adverse to big-industry bullying?
“This junk discussion about indie vs. major is just a screen of the real issue here. eMusic had to raise it’s prices to allow major labels to sell it’s music here.”
Indeed!!! BREEEEE What the hell is going on?????????? Major vs. indie label means nothing to me. I do not care. I do care, however, that adding a handful of labels results in the loss of 44% of my monthly downloads. On top of that we’re patronized by the 25 song booster pack, ostensibly given in “celebration.” In celebration of what, emusic’s sudden possession of a subpar service?? Seriously, what were you guys thinking?
“So the ‘exciting news’ is that I lose 40 tracks per month just for the ability to access a lot of music that I either already have or have any number of other ways to access? Hmm. Call me crazy, but I don’t find that exciting. Forget the ‘indie mission,’ which is all well and good, but I fail to see how alienating (and losing) your long-time subscribers (who are the core of your success and, as such, gave emusic the ability to engage in this expansion at all) makes good business sense.”
I think this sucks. I lose 13 downloads so people can download stuff like Springsteen which they can get on a hundred other sites. I am on this site becouase of the independent artists. You may say no, but i bet the number of independent artists added will shrink now that you will be adding major label stuff. I think i should be able to keep my 50 independent artist downloads and just be prohibited from downloading your additional major label artists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on the one hand, i do sometimes find it frustrating not being able to find an artist or track from an artist on emusic simply b/c they are part of a major label. just b/c artists from an indie background becomes a part of a major label does not mean they are in the same league as Kelly Clarkson.
on the other hand, i don’t think the minor frustration i have warrants any kind of strong desire to see major labels introduced to eMusic, especially at the cost of my downloads. my downloads on eMusic far outweigh my downloads on any other site that happen to also include major labels.
furthermore, i’m worried that the introduction to these major labels will start to overshadow the selections of legitimately great indie music. i like the diversity of artists featured on the main page from a variety of labels. but i’m afraid that the army of artists from each of these major labels will be the only ones featured, not that they are of a lesser quality than indie label artists but i like the diversity eMusic displays.
bottom line concern: major labels inadvertently pushing indie labels to the side at the cost of eMusic subscribers
Okay, I’m a little less rah-rah now that I see that my 90 tracks/month goes down to 35!!! An annual plan with the same name as my current one jumps from 18-ish cents/track to 42-ish cents.
Still a bargain, and I’ll still subscribe, but I’d have been happier with an indie-only plan priced somewhere in the middle.
Very, very upset that prices went up. I lost HALF of my credits each month so that a few big name artists could be included? I am here to find new underexposed artists, not pay more to help you attract customers with big names. Where’s that account-cancel button…
Alicia Keys is so underrepped in the music that she needs to be on emusic? Pearl Jam? BILLY JOEL for christmas sakes?! Are you kidding me?
This stuff available EVERYWHERE ELSE BY THE METRIC TON. You’re darn tootin’ theres a difference between Major Label and Independent Artists and smaller more undergorund acts. The difference is that I have heard all that Major label stuff before. We all have. Since I joined in 2005 Emusic has been a music discovery service above all. It broadens the musical pallete in a world of regional Narrowcasting and diluted “alternative” rock radio.
garbage.
I have been a subscriber for years with a grandfathered plan. I always appreciated being shielded by price increases with my old plan. Now I’m offered a plan with fewer downloads for the same price. Everyone has said it already– I can get these tracks elsewhere if I want them. Why not just make those tracks optional and let me keep my plan?
Oh wow. This is a huge shame.
I’m new to eMusic. For the past several months it has been a cost-effective and enjoyable way for me to explore sounds I might not otherwise try. The (what I consider significant) change in price structure alters that significantly. I will get my 100 downloads in June and then, unfortunately, leave the service.
The “indie” v. “major” label question strikes me, as it has others, as a red herring. Are you really asking if your previous (reported) business model was based on… a fallacy? On jargon?
I’d be willing to bet your strategy has been—all along—to entice the big names. And now your efforts are bearing fruit. The other “big labels” will see the competitive advantage of joining as well. Prices will go up again.
Well, best wishes. I will keep an eye out for the group that comes in to fill your current niche.
michaelben
Prices Being raised, Subscriptions majorly altered. Emusic Breaks up tracks that on the album or other sites that are considered to be 1 track in to 2 or 3 thus paying more credits, Damaged tracks, my albums that are supposed to be Gap less/Seamless have pauses with in each track. It its for these reasons. So they are adding major labels who cares?? Higher prices, albums not like the originals, and breaking tracks up to charge more…Whats the reason to Stay. None. Canceling Immediately. What a MAJOR let Down Emusic..Now you are no better than the rest.
“Janine Allen on Jun 1st, 2009 said:
This might be childish, but I feel a bit betrayed, eMusic.
Is there some way a subscriber could stick with their old plan and not have access to any of the Sony material? i.e. a cheaper (subscribers could stay with their current plan) “Indie” eMusic account vs. an account with access to all the Indie and the new Sony stuff based on the new pricing model? …
Otherwise, I’m really disappointed at the pricing model change. Where was there any consideration of your loyal subscribers? You didn’t even include us in any sort of discussion on this matter. I don’t think this is a step in the right direction.
I was looking forward to being a loyal subscriber for years to come, but now I’m seriously considering canceling my account.”
This goes for me, too. I’m here for the indie stuff, and the pricing has allowed me to try out music I wouldn’t have necessarily tried before. Now I get news that my downloads are being cut in half, but I’ll be paying the same price? I could have lived with some reduction, but a 50% cut? I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to feel good about that, or think they’re still getting a great deal.
Shouldn’t this post really be titled “Less of the good stuff”?
Before I saw this would raise prices/cut downloads I thought it might be okay as long as it doesn’t affect the coverage of indie bands, as long as it doesn’t affect the amount of indie albums added after the arrival of the majors. But with the changing of the pricing/downloads this is starting to give me deja vu of the XM Sirius merger. I was an XM subscriber and I always listened to the punk station Fungus or the indie station XMU. Fungus was replaced by 24/7 AC/DC and XMU was still there, but it was different. I cancelled that subscription and am seriously considering cancelling this one as well once the change takes effect. It’s a shame things have to change like that, I’ve been a fan of eMusic for awhile now.
great you are adding new music but very bad timing on the pricing — seems like the wrong economic climate to offer less for more. personally, i’m not so interested in the major label stuff — very happy with what you have here as it is — maybe you should consider two pricing tracks rather than penalize long-time customers w/ higher pricing. my favorite thing about emusic is that the reasonable price allows me to experiment with what i buy — and this experimental/explorative spirit is what makes emusic unique and excellent.
I’m sure this is great news for eMusic itself as they stand to make a lot of money. So good for eMusic, but a mainstream catalog is not why I subscribe to this site. The cost to value ratio just fell off for me. Now that eMusic is turning into iTunes, does anybody know what the next eMusic is?
More? More of the good stuff? I’m with JD on this… from where I’m sitting I’m getting 40% LESS of the good stuff.
Count me with Janine Allen and Darren, and the others who are considering canceling their subscription because of these shenanigans. I love emusic because I love all sorts of music, and the great price allowed me to try out things that I couldn’t afford to buy. Now you jack up the price for music i’m not interested in ‘discovering’. No thank you.
And you think this won’t change the community and nature of emusic? Think again.
List me also as someone absolutely furious about the price change with no carry over of past plans. I usually download full albums, so the 12 track limit for album downloads is something of a benefit, but it’ll save me on average 4 downloads per month- nothing close losing over 55% of the value of my 75/mo plan.
Fortunately, my contract is two years long, so you can’t fuck me over until 2011. Maybe you’ll have come to your senses by then. If you haven’t, and other music services haven’t doubled in price, I’ll drop you. The inconvenience of a strict per-month schedule is acceptable in light of the prices I’m paying now, but insufficient vs. Amazon MP3 once you try to pull that shit on pricing.
This is a price increase for me of 130% per track. My yearly subscription ends next month; it will be very, very difficult to renew.
I can see a more moderate increase for those with grandfathered plans, but 130%? For back catalog? I don’t see how I can justify it in this economy.
Been a subscriber for 4 years and have been happy about the selection up to now — but now my $19.99/month will get me only 50 downloads rather than 75. Wow… so excited about that. Let me tell you. So excited that I’ll be canceling my subscription.
I don’t give a hoot about getting the Sony back catalog — I’m here mostly for the indie stuff. I guess I’ll be spending that $19.99/month elsewhere as of July. LaLa is a pretty good site with a better interface and a better business model anyway.
EMU: If this is the way you choose to treat long-standing customers (with lame press releases that basically say “Great News! You now get less for more!), then I am outta here.
Like JD said above, in what bizarre world is this more of the good stuff? From where I’m sitting it’s 40% LESS of the good stuff.
Count me among those that are seriously considering canceling my subscription because of these shenanigans. I’ve been a member for 4 years because i love discovering new music that the great pricing affords me the freedom to try out. Now you’re jacking up the price for music that I’m not interested in ‘discovering’. No thank you.
And you think this won’t change the nature of emusic? Now that you’ve alienated the real fans that have stuck around all this time, your customers will be the whiny people that post on the messageboard about not finding good music. Well good luck with that… i suppose their money is just the same as the rest of ours. And that’s what’s important right… the money?
Not excited about my downloads going from 90 a month to 35!!!! Long time subscribers should be offered a better deal.
I’m so disappointed. I have subscribed to eMusic for almost 5 years, and now I’m getting my monthly downloads chopped from 65 to 37. I don’t care about adding majors in the slightest. This is horrible news for consumers in a time when other industries are slashing prices to promote spending.
Please surprise your disenchanted long-time users by offering an alternative pricing plan.
Count me “against,” emusic. Liking some of the names you’re flaunting with the Sony deal, but not enough to cool my disappointment that you have said goodbye to your grandfathers. This is, as others have said, unacceptable.
Very disappointed in your pricing plan changes. Most of the time I don’t want/need the things that the Sony collection will bring to eMusic. Will consider canceling my long-term subscription over this.
Count me as another who’s not pleased.
Can you give us the option to subscribe at the old rates without access to the new “good stuff” that many of us really don’t care about?
And to think I just became a “fan” of eMusic on facebook. I’ve had an account since 2006 (so I’ve been getting 90 downloads for $20, and will now get 50 downloads for $20? — granted, I’ve downloaded plenty of crap and have deleted a bunch of my downloads — but this time I’ll be deleting my subscription… If I wanted iTunes, I’d be on iTunes. I guess I’m left with Russian sites that charge only 5-6 rubles a song.
Danny,
Great news on the offering front, and great news no doubt to you and the other eMusic owners, but…. it’s a bit disingenuous as you lay this out for us to ignore the business side of thing from the user experience. Although you pose it that way, the question here isn’t really an interesting philosophical discussion about Major vs Indie… what this is REALLY about is that eMusic is changing for economic reasons (which are perfectly defensible, don’t get me wrong) and especially about your longstanding users being forced to pay much, much more for the kinds of music — whether Major or Indie — they love eMusic for.
Like so many of your longstanding fans, I’ve adopted a two-tier policy for acquiring music — relying on eMusic for the more interesting/obscure/indie stuff I crave and occasionally buying major-label stuff from iT or Amazon MP3. So my needs were already perfectly served. I don’t know that putting everything in the same soup is in my (or the vast majority of your other hard-core fans’) best interests.
So I would’ve liked in your open letter more of an acknowledgement that you really understand your customer — the one who’s been keeping your lights on — and especially that these people might be less than thrilled to know that their eMusic habit is now involuntarily going to cost a whole lot more, just so that you can make more money by carrying the likes of MIchael Jackson and Brooose.
Like I said, it’s a perfectly defensible (and maybe, the only sane) business decision. But please respect our intelligence a little more and don’t position it as “isn’t it great you’ll be able to buy Sony music now?”. I suspect that if you polled your base, you will find that most of us would prefer to keep things the way they are. And besides, we already HAVE all the Clash music, etc. — that’s not why we bought into our annual subscription plans.
Love eMusic anyway. Good job on that. But please be more honest in your communications. You are not a telephone company trying to sugar-coat a rate increase with self-congratulatory asides. You are an essential music company that probably hundreds of thousands of people have an emotional bond with — an envious position, but one which should not be taken for granted.
I have to pay twice as much for my downloads now so that people can download the f$%$ing dixie chicks?!! This is pure and utter shite. Your catalog was just fine. If there was anything you didn’t have that I needed I could search it out elsewhere. Stupid idea!
I agree with the general sentiment that this stinks. Yes, the indie vs. mainstream thing is a little silly, but then again, that’s how you’ve always marketed your service. And that’s what people signed up for. I think Mike put it best when he talked about using leftover downloads to discover new music. That’s really why I’ve always felt a real emotional attachment and brand loyalty to eMusic. And that attachment is very valuable. It’s why I never considered canceling despite routinely not using up all my downloads. In stark contrast, I’ve stopped going to most major record stores and iTunes even though I never pay for anything they don’t give me. I stopped because they’ve done nothing to inspire my loyalty through a combination value and niche recommendations. The drastic price increase, which seems to come in response to demands from a major label endangers the brand you’ve actively worked hard to build. I understand that this will make you more of “player” in the download industry. Good luck with that. I assume you ran the numbers to determine exactly how many customers you will lose vs. how many you will gain with more major label music. Let’s hope for your company’s sake that you’re projections were right (lord knows Taylor Hicks never waned in popularity while her album was available for download). But the way this was handled and the new pricing options definitely weakens the brand and pushes your service closer to any other store.
I’ve been with emusic for years and this new plan will practically cut my music downloads in half. I will give it one month on the new plan to see if any major Christian artists that I like are now on here. If they are not, I’m outta here!
This is awful. As a longtime subscriber of the 90 dl/month plan, I always appreciated the grandfathering of old plans when price increases and plan changes occurred. Now I am looking at a 227% increase per track if I stay with the new default plan with only about 1/3 as many downloads.
Frankly, I don’t care that you are adding major label back catalogs. I already own most of that music and now my ability to sample new and interesting bands will be significantly compromised. Make your money off of new subscribers who will join because of the expanded content, but don’t penalize long time subscribers who benefited from and loved eMusic in it’s current incarnation. It would be great to see a modified approach to this overhaul with some degree of grandfathering still intact.
I don’t think I can justify paying these new rates for expanded content that doesn’t interest me. Congrats, you guys just became junior iTunes. Now searches and top lists will be dominated by people who listen to more mainstream and boring music as well, so good luck getting your features and search functionalities to work for users such as myself.
This is horrible news. I’ve been a subscriber for 5 years, but it looks like that will be ending in July. It was good while it lasted, emusic. What a letdown.
Let’s see.. current plan 50 tracks @ $11.99/month = $0.24/track … new plan 30 tracks @ $14.99/month = $0.50/track. You’re doubling what I pay to use eMusic, and in return I get the privilege of having to filter through what your new pals in Big Music want my to buy to find the stuff that I want to buy. Thanks – it seems that the expanded catalog isn’t the only bit of “mainstream” going on here.
1. Leave the current rates and charge more for the Sony Product so Bruce gets his royalties.
2. Have “rollover” songs that don’t expire. How many songs have I lost since 2003?
3. OFFER FLAC!! Everyone here will wake up one day and want all the audio quality the artists and producers strived for in the studio. I have purchased many albums/cds after downloading them from eMusic or other sites in mp3 format. Boomkat.com
4. FREE Unlimited all you can eat was the first subscription I had (Yes, those days were too good to be true!) Then I went to 300 songs for $50, now I’m at 50 songs for $11.99 up from $9.99 (I threatened to cancel back then), now I will go to 30 songs for $11.99.
I will never go to the $20.79 plan as I’d rather put that money to good use and shop at Other Music or Amazon for a real 14,000 bit cd
5. THE GOOD: downloading the 24 song albums for 12 credits. I’ve been asking for this for a very long time. Now maybe I’ll clear out my saved pile (slowly!!)
5. Cut some Euro Deals so we have access to more and usually newer music. It’s obviously too late for Sony, but when you cut the next deals, have them include their world wide catalog. I want everything from Brazil or Germany available too.
6. Keep your own ediorial, content policy. Don’t push something only the suits like.
I couldn’t read every post, but keep the guides going and make it easier to get to your Editors, so I can see each of their columns and follow what they write.
Also… please re-write your eMusic Remote software (Mac 1.0.0.2) so I can choose where my music is on my hard drive, and so I can SEE where it is within the program or be able to command-R on a song to take me to it. I don’t synch!!
Good Night and Good Luck!!
Be Bop
NYC
Horrible news! To add 200,000 tracks and double the price is not what I was looking for when I joined. I prepaid for two years to get the best price, and not only do you get to use my money, but you then change the plan. I feel duped! I will not renew.
Well, guess it was too good to be true. I’ve stuck around for a couple years now, and this is the end.
I kept increasing my plan to take advantage of the great music I discovered on emusic. Now my plan costs the same, but with half the downloads. No thanks.
I’m with someone above me: I’ll keep a lookout for the next emusic.
Ugh. So I lose nearly 30 tracks a month in my plan, yet have to pay the same amount – and the only bonus is having access to a bunch of back catalog stuff I either never cared about (30 year old Springsteen releases? Billie Joel? Dixie Chicks???) or already have (as do probably the majority of your subscribers – i.e. The Clash, Modest Mouse). I’d gladly pay a bit extra if it meant you were paying the current artists you offer a bit more – or if it brought Drag City back. For this, though – not very happy about it. These artists don’t need my money, my support or the exposure. Disappointed.
This news is so disappointing, current subscribers should definately be offered a better deal. I wrote up an article about the new eMusic plans on LEGENDmag.net (a national independent lifestyle magazine).
http://LEGENDmag.net/thelegendonline/2009/06/01/emusic-adopts-major-labels-kills-indie/
Disappointing change. An almost doubling of my cost here for something I do not even want. There are plenty other choices for that type of music, but eMusic used to be unique. It appears they no longer wish to be such. Maybe if we kept the same pricing for the music we are used to, but charge 3 or 4 tokens for the majors, instead of the usual 1 for what we always had before?
Nothing particularly original to add here, I’m afraid. Count this long-time subscriber among those who will be canceling at the end of the month. Halving my monthly downloads to subsidize the major-label stuff I’m not particularly interested in anyway doesn’t appeal, I’m afraid.
Danny, after reading all the comments here, I have to agree that this is basically a sellout of your brand and your brand’s followers. Worse, you are positioning it like it’s some kind of plus we all have been clamoring for.
It’s dishonest and possibly even illegal. You are facing a potential class action here — this is a clear case of false advertising (how many people here, including me, “paid forward” for annual or longer subscriptions without it being disclosed that eMusic could pull a bait and switch?).
I urge to do the right thing — let all of us who are grandfathered in opt out of the SONY crap. Not only is it the right thing to do for your brand and your fans — it will cover your ass: Before you count the money, you might just want to ask your lawyers about FTC action, and about class certification. Not rock’n'roll terms, to be sure. But since you’re now leaving the safe haven of doing the right thing for the music and entering the shark-infested waters of the majors, you’re going to suddenly need a lot of high-priced lawyers.
Sleep well… I won’t be renewing.
This is a huge blow. I’ve been a three-plus year subscriber and am so disappointed that this change is taking place. I will seriously consider dropping my plan once this is implemented. The major label back catalogues being offered doesn’t even come close to making up for being whacked from 50 to 30 downloads per month. What I love(d?) Emusic for was the ability to find great Americana, country, and blues artists that aren’t being played on the radio. Artists like Scott H. Biram, Robbie Fulks, and Corb Lund have become among my faves after discovering them here. All this move means to me is 40% less music each month for the same price.
My first reaction is your really hurting the indie labels that got you to where you are. You are offering stiffer competition with the addition of established major label artists making it harder for indie artists to compete on the emusic platform.
That would be fine in and of itself, but then you take away the amount of downloads customers have per month at the same time.
It’s obvious what that will do to indie labels on eMusic. You’ve really turned your backs on what has made this site money in the past “10 years” that you talk about.
It’s not about being a “music curator” or any of these abstract terms you’ve mentioned, it’s plain and simple: You have betrayed everything you’re site has been about. “Major Label Aritst” does not refer to a style of music, nobody cares whether the Sex Pistols are identified with a Major an Indie. What is of concern is where that money is going, and now it’s going back to sources that will feed you another “Sex Pistols” band ever again.
Thanks eMusic, as a business owner I can now exclusively send all my customers to Itunes and not have to create seperate links to eMusic anymore since it’s not worth a damn to.
I’ll be joining the ranks of those who leave eMusic when my current subscription ends. I’ve used eMusic to discover and try new (and even some old) artists that are indie based. Leading to actually purchasing CDs from some of the artists. I guess eMusic wants to compete with iTunes and Amazon, but LaLa looks like an interesting option for me. It’s a shame what’s happening to eMusic. I’ve enjoyed the time I spent here.
Count me in as one more very disappointed customer. The change in my plan from 90 to 50 downloads is way more than a “slight” decrease in the number of tracks. So you’ve lied about that, and you’ve lied to the people that were grandfathered in, and told their plans wouldn’t change as long as they were members in good standing.
I also have just about no interest in major label music, so I could care less that SONY is here. I would also like to be able to keep my rate as long as I never download any major label track.
I personally believe the nature of the site will now change, with good quality indie music getting less “shelf space” and (uninteresting to me) major label music being pushed.
I used to use MusicMatch jukebox as my music library software of choice. It was a great program, better than most of the others out there. Then they went mainstream, sold out to Yahoo, diluted the program drastically (while claiming they were improving it) and ran it into the ground. I tried the new program for a short time to be fair, but absolutely hated it, and soon completely stopped using it.
As far as the new eMusic, I will try it for myself, since right now it’s a habit. However, I’m not sure if I will stay with it. I really miss liner notes for the CDs I download, and with other options available for indie music, if the price advantage isn’t there, I may just go back to buying CDs. (Or use sites that allow you to download the liner notes.)
ONE THING I CAN NO LONGER DO IS TO RECOMMEND eMUSIC TO OTHER PEOPLE
As a long time eMusic subscriber, I am now faced with paying twice as much per track when my subscription renews in September. In the past, when eMusic changed their subscription options, I was allowed to keep my existing plan. I no longer have that option.
And even if the editorial content stays the same, the community generated content will certainly change. I expect the charts to contain fewer up and coming artists and more of the same old same old. Add to that the increased cost when taking chances on unknown artists, and you will see a major change. It’s not the experience I’ve consistently paid for annually since 2006.
I guess the first thing I’ll do is switch to a monthly plan.
I think this is the breaking point for me. I’ve been here long enough that I remember the unlimited downloads plan, but 50 downloads for $20 just isn’t cost-effective for me any more. I might as well just use Amazon or iTunes at those prices.
I will also be considering cancelling. I understand that prices go up. However, my plan is essentially being cut in half! I don’t really thing it’s very good service to your long-time customers to increase their prices so dramatically, just so you can add Foo Fighters and Wu-Tang clan to the catalog…
There’s nothing inherently bad about “major” labels, but if adding them causes prices to go up, you’re better off without.
I’ll be keeping my eye out for the next company to fill the niche that Emusic apparently no longer wants to fill.
(I do like the new album pricing, but I don’t know if the money I’ll save from that will make up for what’s being taken away.)
Emusic is dead.
Long live used CD’s and file sharing.
Very disappointed to lose 30 downloads a month. I have been a subscriber since Oct 05 and have enjoyed being able to discover and become a fan of artists I may never had downloaded if the e-music plan was more expensive. The low price of the monthly subscription allowed me to experiment with my downloads and if I ended up not caring for a couple of tracks on an album, I could delete them and not be too concerned about lost downloads.
Now, with the price doubling, I will need to use my downloads more wisely and I know the music I have not yet discovered will suffer.
I liked when e-music encouraged discovering new music, not downloading the same big named artists you can find on other online music sites.
While it might be nice for emusic to have access to more record companies and artists, my major disappointment was a notice I got that once my current 2 year subscription ran out, that it would change from 75 to 30 downloads. So far I haven’t seen any new plans that would accomodate for 75 or more downloads a month (maybe there will be). I can live with a bit of a price increase here and there, but this is major. Personally, I use emusic mostly for music that isn’t readily accessable in other places and have no use for Bruce Springsteen and Dixie Chicks downloads. I also have to wonder if comparative pricing will come into effect. If the cost of a Sex Pistols album download is similar to the price of a good condition used or even new CD elsewhere, which is the better deal? If these “major artists” are what will be driving the price up, how about a system where these artists cost two downoad credits or something similar that would accomodate the cost but still keep the music priced cheaper than other services. Other “unknown artists” marketed by inpendent record labels could continue to have the option to price their downloads cheaper. I have enjoyed my emusic membership, but if there won’t be any larger download packages offered at a good price, I will have to consider whether it is worth it.
Sony is part of the problem, not part of the solution. It hasn’t broken a new act about which I care one whit in thirty years, and I already have all the back catalague, I can handle, in LP, CD, SACD, box set, and MP3 form, many times over. And more to the point, if I wanted Sony back catalogue, I could buy a lot of it at Amazon MP3 Store for $5-$7 per album already, since that’s a big chunk of the “classic” bargain catalogue there.
For the privilege of being able to buy music that I never am going to buy, my grandfathered account goes from about $.18 a track to over $.40. There are things I’ve downloaded for which I’d pay $5 an album (12 tracks at $.40 per), but a ton more that I would never have, because I knew little about the artist in question at the time of the download. (I am willing to spend $2 or $3 based on buzz, generally, but not a hell of a lot more.)
I thought I’d die with an eMusic account. Now I have to wonder whether I’ll be here past my renewal date. (Right now, I am betting “no,” but who knows?) If eMusic were to drop off the face of the earth, I’d still have plenty of music I’ve downloaded greedily but have yet to explore adequately, but I’d rather not face that day due to a pricing decision that anybody would know will alienate the faithful. (And since eMusic is not run by idiots, I presume the loss of some of the faithful is a cost already factored into the decision to revamp the site and pricing so radically.)
All of this new music would be great, except that you are raising prices by quite a bit. I love my 100-songs-for-$25 plan, and now the closest option is 50-for-$20. To me, the major label music is not worth the new price. As many others have stated, if I really wanted this additional music I could get it at another site.
I enjoy eMusic because I can find so many new artists that I would otherwise never encounter. Wintersleep, Modern Skirts, Portugal. The Man, Bon Iver, Frida Hyvonen, Bowerbirds, and many more. And your great selection of old punk classics! Really, this stuff is why I love eMusic. I do not want to pay more for the option of getting major label music. I may as well cancel my subscription and spend the money on live shows…
So I’m losing almost half my downloads but I’m gaining Hall & Oates — wow what a bleepin’ deal! Way to stick to the early adopters who built emusic. the end is nigh…
Read though the comments so far and am in complete agreement with all the disappointed fans of e-music. I hope they read through these comments and come up with a solution to this before subscriptions are canceled.
My first thought when I saw the news (on another site) was “oh, cool”. Then I read further down in the article and saw the bit about pricing. “Oh, cool” switched to “Uh-oh”. Then I came to emusic direct to read the scoop and my fears were comfirmed. So basically, even though I’ve been an emusic supporter (and a vocal one at that, even in the face of my friend’s “emusic sort of sucks” reaction) since 2004, I’m still getting the shaft just so SONY can sell their back catalog? Hmm. Yeah, don’t think so.
I realise there is a recession on that not only hits consumers, but business’s as well. I also realize that emusic was far too affordable to last. However, I also assumed it was a site interested in keeping it’s long-standing members. With this move, you’ve shown that you’re really not. And I’m pretty sure you knew people were going to react this way too – why else would you offer to give free booster packs to us in August (assuming any of us stay around)? You’re trying to soften the blow, soften the change, yada yada whatever. Losing 40 of my downloads just so I can now ignore the Sony catalog seems rather harsh, emusic.
I am not sure I will stick around, if I do, it will definitely be at one of the lesser-priced plans, so yes, less revenue for you. To be honest, I stay with emusic because I enjoy it – the lists, the reccomendations, the pricing. Anything you didn’t have, I could always use iTunes for (and have in the past). But maybe now it’s time to move on.
And wrapping this all up in a “indie” vs “major” discussion was just bad form, emusic. There is no discussion. The indie model has succeeded – musicians reach out to the fans and understand the internet and how to use it (ie pricing and downloading). The Major model hasn’t worked for years and we all know it. The only reason Sony and the like would even enter into a plan like this (and grace emusic with their prescence) is because the music RIAA-driven industry has been in a recession itself for the last decade and a half. They’re now grabbing at straws, trying to hold on and unfortunately, it looks as though emusic been dragged into the fall with them.
Chalk me in the disappointed column. I don’t really care about the major labels. I am mostly interested in the obscure items so this change does little for me except to raise my costs. But I am not ready to cancel yet as this is still the cheapest way to legally get music downloads.
I think it is a calculated move by emusic to get more new subscribers even if they lose some of the current ones. Hopefully, this does not cause a backlash and result in them losing money as I have seen many companies do under when they change their business model in an attempt to expand their business.
Very disappointed at the price change – I am going to end up paying more than DOUBLE what I currently do if I want to get the same number of downloads when this change goes into effect.
I understand why it may make business sense to make this change – emusic used to be a “niche” service of sorts but they are moving into direct competition with iTunes and other major-label MP3 services.
Hopefully another emusic service that is more affordable will spring up because I’m not sure if I want to pay the price you guys are asking or not.
(Second Post With Spelling Corrections, Please Delete First Post
While it might be nice for emusic to have access to more record companies and artists, my major disappointment was a notice I got that once my current 2 year subscription ran out, that it would change from 75 to 30 downloads. So far I haven’t seen any new plans that would accomodate for 75 or more downloads a month (maybe there will be). I can live with a bit of a price increase here and there, but this is major. Personally, I use emusic mostly for music that isn’t readily accessable in other places and have no use for Bruce Springsteen and Dixie Chicks downloads. I also have to wonder if comparative pricing will come into effect. If the cost of a Sex Pistols album download is similar to the price of a good condition used or even new CD elsewhere, which is the better deal? If these “major artists” are what will be driving the price up, how about a system where these artists cost two download credits or something similar that would accomodate the cost but still keep the music priced cheaper than other services. Other “unknown artists” marketed by independent record labels could continue to have the option to price their downloads at a cheaper price. I have enjoyed my emusic membership, but if there won’t be any larger download packages offered at a good price, I will have to consider whether it is worth it.
To me, “Major vs. Indie” isn’t an interesting debate. Having a staff of energetic and enthusiastic staff with a true love for music, coupled with great discovery tools on the site is what made eMusic special. I think back to my favorite albums over the last 5 or so years, and it’s mostly music that I downloaded on a whim from eMusic based on recommendations or lists. I downloaded these albums because I was paying ~22 cents/track.
My typical month goes something like this. As enticing new albums that I KNOW I want come out, I download them. This usually turns out to be 3-4 albums, so let’s say 30-50 tracks. Then, one night during the end of my renewal cycle I put on the headphones, pour a drink, and start digging. I dig through random stuff I’ve “Saved for Later”, I start clicking on lists and links in the site, and I burn through the remaining 40-50 of my original 90 tracks. I then spend the next month listening to that stuff on the iPod. Some of it I don’t care for much, some of it is okay, some of it I listen to on a regular basis for the next year, and sometimes a band makes it to my personal “Immediately Buy Anything New They Put Out” list.
Under this new, DRASTICALLY changed price scheme, I get 50 tracks instead of 90. Now, I’m going to get the 3-4 albums at 12 tracks/album (kudos on that move, btw) and essentially be done for the month. I’m not really interested in spending more than $20/month here, since I also have money going to the occasion Amazon download, physical CD purchase, or other source.
What this means is this – my fundamental relationship with eMusic will be changing. It’s no longer going to be about discovering new music. AT ALL. It’s going to be a “Oh, eMusic has this album for half the price of iTunes/Amazon, I’ll just buy it there.” sort of relationship. Granted, this is just my personal usage pattern, but I suspect it’s similar to many others.
If this is eMusic’s intent, might I suggest including downloadable liner notes with “whole album” purchases? This would set eMusic apart from the other services. Higher quality rips would also be welcome. Read the message boards for similar suggestions from your passionate fanbase. (Another one that looks good to me off the cuff is variable pricing. Let Sony or any other label charges 2 “credits” per track if they want, or 15 “credits” per album. I’ll simply use my “discovery” credits for 1 credit/track songs!)
The new content is nice and all, but it doesn’t really fit into what I’m looking at a digital “discovery” service for. At this point, I might end up lowering my monthly subscription and using the money I save to look into some sort of monthly subscription service like Zune Pass or something. I dunno, I guess I’ll have to evaluate their selection. I’ve never really looked into any of them before, since eMusic had such a great thing going. I guess I will now, and that makes me sad.
please offer your existing subscribers some sort of choice for the sony catalog. Maybe even have songs from this catalog counts as two downloads for existing members. To me it almost seems as if you all need to change your pricing model in general and are blaming this on the Sony deal. I understand and would much rather hear that you all need to charge ‘same for less’ due to economics in general than adding mainstream music from a major label that goes against why many of us subscribe to eMusic in the first place.
I, too, was an eMusic subscriber back in the ‘all you can eat’ days. After they switched to limiting downloads based on payment level, I relied on a useful feature of emusic: if you canceled and signed back up later w/the same account information, all your old downloads were still available to you, and you could download them again as often as you wanted. So I would sign up for one month subs here and there when there were albums I knew I wanted, use up all of my credits, then cancel, knowing I could come back again at any time.
When they changed their rates a few years ago, I got grandfathered in at 90 songs/$20. This was a sweet deal, but it had a catch: if I canceled, I could only come back in at the new, more expensive rates. This encouraged me to keep my sub active, and it got me using emusic as a true music discovery platform. Sure, some of the albums I downloaded weren’t that great. But at $.22/track, I could afford a few duds here and there.
Now that there’s essentially no grandfathering for previous account holders, there’s no incentive for keeping my subscription. Presuming I can still sign up for a month at a time, I’ll just use emusic like a cheaper alternative to iTunes or Amazon, rather than as a subscription to a music discovery platform.
Perhaps this makes more sense to eMusic as a business. Time will tell. From the looks of it, though, this deal with the ‘majors’ (and, yes, Charlotte, there is most definitely a difference between the majors and the indies) appears to look more like a deal with the devil. I hope eMusic got a good price for their soul.
Never one to be short on words, I’ve decided this time just to keep it simple: MY HEART IS BREAKING in many, many, many pieces.
This is full of F-A-I-L.
Clearly with so few other companies carrying ‘major’ labels these days, this is a step in the right direction …….
I want to register my disappointment too. For me, emusic was always a place to find new and old music that slipped through the cracks – stuff you don’t see on iTunes or Amazon. I rarely went to emusic to find a specific album or artist, but mostly used it as a tool to discover stuff I had never heard before and couldn’t hear anywhere else. It still serves that function, but now I get less music for the same cost because emusic wants to attract a broader audience by offering artists that enjoy wider popularity.
I can’t fault emusic for making a business decision that will likely make them more profitable, and I won’t immediately cancel my subscription. I’m just disappointed that emusic sold out their existing customers to reach a wider audience.
There was a lot of brand loyalty before, and this kind of loyalty seems especially important for a subscription-based service. I wouldn’t think that a customer who is looking for a specific, major-label back catalog album would be likely to sign up for a subscription when they can get the same album from iTunes with no commitment.
Good grief,
Why do I lose so many downloads? If I wanted Sony i’d go to Amazon. Want to sweeten the deal EMusic? Instead of using a monthly plan of set download counts, If I paid for them I can download them and not lose them that month if I forget, can’t find anything, whatever…
I joined as an unlimited subscriber. I would routinely get warning letters that I download too much, the next day I’d get another letter stating the previous letter was a mistake. THEN you changed my plan to 90 without warning. I stuck with you anyway. I am disappointed that I’ll get almost 50% less music.
Thank you RIAA/Emusic. I knew you were too good to be true.
This is unacceptable. The whole indie vs. majors debate feels like a smokescreen. The hard fact is that, as I approach my 5-year anniversary as an eMusic subscriber, my monthly downloads are being reduced from 90 to 50 for the same price. I can certainly understand increasing my subscription cost, by a reasonable amount, if only to permit management to provide a pay raise to all the nice folks at eMusic. After all, if my employer was paying me the same salary in 2009 as in 2004, I would be inclined to work elsewhere. That being said, I fail to see how the inclusion of major label releases brings added value to existing eMusic downloads, whether they are from the STAX catalog, indie label artists, crappy knockoff remakes by “tribute” bands, or Karaoke tracks.
I would like to propose an alternative: Designate tracks/albums/artists/labels according to a two-tier pricing structure. By doing so, eMusic can debit my account one download per track for their usual offerings, and two downloads per track for the major label releases being added to the service. If I absolutely must have the latest Kelly Clarkson album, I would rather download it from eMusic than one of the other subscription services, even if it’s going to use up my download credits at a higher rate.
Without a more equitable solution than the one announced, I will be disinclined to continue my eMusic subscription. Brand Loyalty is a two-way street.
Let’s push all the rhetoric aside and call this what it is: slashing the service nearly in half, or doubling the cost for end user like me and many others. This site will no doubt begin to look more and more like iTunes with every passing day, and pretty soon eMusic will be a mere division or adjunct of the Very Very Big Music Corporation of America, a little button on the newest Windows Media Player next to the cute little Napster kitty kat.
Buh Bye….
As a loyal subscriber since emusic’s early days, I I am furious about the significant per track price increase. I have no interest in the music of Bruce Springsteen and the Dixie Chicks and will cancel my subscription immediately. Shame on you emusic! Shame on you!
Disappointing. The major label back catalog does not interest me much, and like most of the other posts, my pricing plan is basically doubling. The current pricing encourages a lot more sampling and taking a chance on lesser known bands. I fear these changes will force people on the look out for cool new acts to find their music from different sources.
As an annual plan member at the 50 songs/month level, the prospect of being changed to a bizarre 210 song/6 months plan just plain pisses me off. I became a member because it was fun to discover new artists at fairly low risk. Now the price is going up significantly and the new plan is, in my opinion, stupid. So I guess when my plan runs out after this coming month emusic and I will be parting ways. It was fun.
Why not flexible “pricing”?
Comedy tracks are overpriced as is (desperately needs album pricing); under the new price structure I predict comedy tracks sales to fall to nearly zero. eMusic needs flexible pricing. My suggestion: Indie label (1 credit per track), Major label (2 credits per track).
I subscribe to emusic to have access to independent music at good prices, since I can take a risk and not lose much if the music is not as good as I thought when I previewed it. I’m not sure it’s worthwhile any more. I can buy much of the music on emusic on one other legal site (if I download the whole album) at prices that are competitive with emusic’s new price structure.
I expect that I will be cancelling my subscription. I don’t need to be tied into a monthly commitment at these prices. I don”t need the major artists to be available on this site. This is disappointing.
I, too, have been with emusic since the early days. I raved about it to anyone who would listen. Now, I’m being rewarded with a double in price and a service that looks a lot more like the competitors. If I wanted major label music I would go to Amazon.
Shit.
Sony doesn’t care about you. They’ll just take downloads from the indies, who will then withdraw. Then Sony will too, leaving you nothing.
Exciting, 10-year-too-late news but a 27% increase for 53% less downloads makes eMusic no longer worth it to me. It does not help that you have continually provided an inferior product (low quality encoding, a behind-the-times website, no rollover downloads month to month). And you have wasted an amazing community by having little to no social networking on your site.
Having Bruce Springsteen in your catalog ain’t gonna help. And most us already have the Clash and Sex Pistols on CD. emusicFAIL.
I too will be cancelling my membership at its next renewal date (mid-October). I don’t know what has led emusic management to believe that its existing customers (or new potential customers) thought that access to the Sony-controlled back catalogs would be a big win. Nobody signed up at emusic to access Sony, and indeed I and many of my friends and relatives have been delighted by the musical discovery process that has resulted. This process has been facilitated by the pricing, and the effective doubling of cost (with no justification other than “now you can get downloads of the sony back catalog”) really undermines that.
The best imaginable explanation I can come up with is that emusic is now going after (a) the existing iTunes/amazon customers by offering them a fraction of those site’s catalog at a discount price (b) younger subscribers who for some unfathomable reason having (i) realized they can get The Clash via other means and (ii) are excited about it. Whether or not these two areas of potential expansion will make up for the losses caused by the repricing … only time will tell.
As for the letter that opened this blog entry: deeply insulting. A lot of angsty hang-wringing about whether “major label” artists would “change the fabric of emusic” when the real news is that in order to add the major label material, you will double our cost per download. There could be other reasons for an increase in cost (“We’ve decided that musicians deserve to earn more”), but there’s none of that, and in fact barely a detectable acknowledgment that this “breakthrough” for a site that helped me discover some incredible new artists comes at a high price.
This is so sad.
I’m 40. I’m old enough that I’ve had 8 Tracks, Records, Cassette Tapes, CDs, and Remastered CDs of the same albums. I sit on about 250G of music that I’ve amassed over 20 or so years of avid record collecting. I’ve had local record stores. I’ve had the place where a guy at a counter recommends something I’ve never heard of…I’ve had the best of the ‘brick and mortar’ experience and I felt it when those places started to dry up.
In 2003 I found eMusic and I started to have the same thing again. I could get recommendations that were driven off one of your Editors making something a ‘Pick’, not an algorithm (like Amazon and iTunes). I have young kids now and can’t go to clubs a lot, but I discovered some great bands through your site and I’m very thankful. For the most part, the reviews were sensibly written by people with similar taste to my own.
Sony will bring the crowds in, but I’ve got to go. I’ve seen the big boys shit on too many things that I hold dear to watch this one go that way too.
I’ve got one month left at the old prices and I’m going to shrink my swollen ‘save for later’ list and then I’m out. Good luck in the new world eMusic and Thank You.
I’m just really sad that it has to end this way.
This will end my emusic subscription and my recommending it to anyone. itunes and Amazon, etc… already exist. Time to find another place to get music. This sucks emusic.
This is online music socialism – I am subsidizing the loud minorities desire to download from a major label. Why mess with the formula when it seems to have been working so well already? eMusic has had a loyal following of music lovers who have demonstrated that they are already willing to pay for the non-major label music catalog already available. Throughout my entire eMusic tenure, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve not been able to find the music I wanted here. Therefore, the ONLY thing that will change for me with this is that I will now be forced to pay twice as much for the same music.
Is there really no other way to arrange this in a more equitable manner? For instance, since major label songs appear to cost eMusic so much more, then wouldn’t it make sense to just charge more credits for each of those downloads? Or perhaps create a “premium music booster pack” at the higher prices for the consumption of those clammoring for major label music. Or better yet, just let me opt out of the new music and keep my current plan.
In the past I have always raved to my friends about eMusic and what a great deal it is, but sadly I am now forced to reconsider. It pains me to do it, but unless eMusic management sheds the greed and reconsiders this policy, I’ll have no choice but to cancel with the hordes of others who helped build this site.
As a subscriber, getting my monthly downloads cut in half basically defeats the reason I signed up for Emusic in the first place. I likely will not be downloading much of the major label music and will be forced to pay more for the independent label music.
Had you acquired the new catalogue while maintaining the existing download levels I would be ecstatic. Had you lowered it by 25% percent or less I would be understanding but to half it is unacceptable. Nothing about your service besides the major label content has changed so I am not sure why I should pay twice as much.
To be honest, I’m probably going to terminate my subscription with Emusic. Everything I enjoyed about the site is about to change and of course the music I want is so easily obtainable elsewhere on the web.
Very disappointing. You sold your soul to Sony and we now will pay nearly twice as much per song even though I will not download the “majors.” The closer you get to itunes the less advantageous you become. You have not replaced the music blogs as my source for new music (though you certainly provide a good service) so no matter how much you tout your pretty recommends I feel betrayed.
I know a price increase was coming, but this is silly and certainly not worth it for having access to old Boss. I must rethink membership.
I am disappointed. The Sony deal highlights a rather serious disconnect between eMusic’s management and its user base. I have valued eMusic tremendously for the ability to explore rather aggressively the breadth and depth of song that I did not know was out there. Be it rock from the underground, blues from the delta or funk from Nigeria, the one thing I never found eMusic was lacking in is options and opportunities to explore. This was made possible by the high number of downloads and the truly unique charts, full of compositions and compilations I had never even heard of before (and that you can’t really find anywhere else).
I never thought that eMusic needed a stronger mainstream back catalog. It never crossed my mind. Now the complete orientation of the site is changing. And so will my approach.
I expect nearly static charts, across the many genres. Can anyone imagine a time when Thriller won’t be #1? And cutting the number of downloads so significantly for the same price I was paying yesterday can’t be made up for by the fact that I’ll be able to download a Justin Timberlake record that was a hit two years ago. How will I decide which two albums not to download this month? What new sonic experiences will be denied me so that I have the opportunity of binging out on Hall and Oates?
Mr. Stein, remember that companies like Sony are the source of their own recent decline. Do not let ambitions of Amazon or iTunes parity distract you from the fact that eMusic is a unique (and one supposes) profitable place because it is different. Because it has no lumbering, customer-suing dinosaur of a label to which it is beholden. Because it doesn’t comply with how the majors want things to operate and has charted out its own shining path.
Please bear that in mind the next time a major comes knocking. People who love eMusic don’t need what they’re selling, and if we do – there are plenty of other places to get it. Keep your rep and your brand tight, or hazard someone else sweeping in and picking up where, today, you lost your path.
This is frustrating. I subscribe to emusic because it is a great deal and an excellent way to find smaller, independent bands. And now, b/c they want to reach a bigger market (which is okay), they are going to raise everyone’s prices? (which is not okay) Guess what, I don’t want the lastest Brittney Spears album, and it’s unfair that you raise the prices on the smaller stuff to account for this.
If you are going to do this, you really should have gone with flexible pricing, where “pop” tracks could cost as much as $1.00, and small, little known bands could be as little as $.15.
At this point, I’m seriously considering canceling. This is a shame, because I’ve always loved emusic and have spoken highly of it to others. I’m afraid you will lose many of your die hard loyal customers with this change.
I will be quitting e-music now that I am charged roughly the same price for HALF of the downloads. The beauty of E-music was the amount of downloads of indie music for a low monthly price. I could give two shits about now being able to download Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, and Modest Mouse.
In trying to expand your reach to people not interested in indie music, you will effectively push away all of your supporters who have been here since the beginning. Way to go E-music! Reach for those stars you call money.
I stay with emusic as one of my music sources because of the indie labels. I dont care about the majors as I already have anything that I want from them. I’m also ” grandfathered ” in on a 40 download plan. I will now be paying double for less downloads. I like emusic and have sent them many customers but when my plan switches I will cancel my plan. I have spoken to several of the people that I’ve turned on to emusic and they will also cancel when they switch. I will miss the emusic that I knew and loved but nothing can last forever.
I too am not happy about the huge price increase. I’ve been a loyal member for over eight years, and have recommended many during this time. I have never had a problem finding great music in your collection, and have a “Save For Later” list that continues to grow. But if adding a bunch more mainstream artist causes the rates to increase, I do not see this as a positive move. Sony can keep their back catalog, I’d like to keep my emusic experience affordable and positive.
@Ryan-Great point about Thriller always being #1…the charts are going to become nearly useless as a tool to see what’s new and of value…unless you just know that if it’s on the chart it can’t be either.
Projected Top Ten List on Jul 2:
1) Thriller
2) Born to Run (not bad, just about forty years old)
3) London Calling (see 2, above)
4) some shit by Mariah Carey
5) some shit by Pearl Jam
6) some shit by….I think you get the point.
And we get to pay more for it! Yeah!
I am disappointed in the price hike, eMusic. As another 4 year plus subscriber, I’ve found a huge variety of music to love in your catalog. I don’t need any major label tracks. Please let me keep my current plan without access to your “catalog expansion.”
All these majors are fine I guess, but still no Sub Pop?
Sony now runs eMusic. Good Luck!
Thank you, eMuzak, for contributing to the demise of indie music. Thanks for discouraging me and your other users from discovering new artists. On a personal level, how can you justify cutting my 300 downloads per month to 75 downloads?! I’ve been investing a lot of money in your service to own great music, and this is the thanks I get? At least give your dedicated users the option to not have access to Sony’s muzak and get a price break. I just lost my job, and now it looks like I’m losing e-Music, too, from hereon in to be ever known as e-Muzak.
Yeah, count me in with the disappointed and insulted. My subscription will become less valuable so that people on another continent can download Sony? One of the major reasons I joined eMusic and became a major fan was because of Sony’s anti-consumer practices (DRM, rootkits, lawsuits, etc). Knowing that my money would not enrich the RIAA was a major plus for me. Now, I may have to cancel just to ensure that these idiots (whose stupid and outdated regional practices are causing my loss of value and whose lawsuits against their own customers still continue) don’t get my money. I feared that a sellout was on the horizon when Pakman left. Looks like I was right.Enjoy your new customer base of forum trolls who will still complain that new albums aren’t available
Blargh. Changing subscription plans like this is a huge downside for me. I’ll be canceling when the changes go into effect.
Is it impossible to do what another user suggested: grandfather subscription accounts for people who have no interest in subsidizing Sony?
I want INDIE!!!! I don’t want to even see the names of most main stream artists. I want to be challenged,educated,pushed out of my comfort zone,kept on the cutting edge. I am insulted by your changes. Most of your members don’t give a rats ass about best sellers and charts and pop princesses. If we did we would just turn on the radio.
Basically we get charged nearly double for a back catalogue we already have or don’t want. The charts will be clogged with bands we’ve heard of for ages instead of new bands we get to explore. As a loyal emusic subscriber who has converted many friends to this site, I am very disappointed.
If 95% of the feedback is against this change, will emusic be willing to give the majors the boot? Or is turning a deaf ear to loyal customers “more of the good stuff” as well?
So far I see at least 100 account cancellations from this change, and that’s just from the people who’ve seen this announcement and taken the time to post here. I wonder if eMusic will listen. Everyone I know who uses and loves (loved?) eMusic was here precisely because the Sonys of the world were NOT here. Sigh.
Like a lot of the comments here, I must say that I am very disappointed. I’m OK have the added access to the major label artists, though I suspect I will not use this much. However, I am completely disappointed with the price hike which is incredibly massive percentage-wise, at least for my account given the years I’ve been a subscriber.
I think it is a dangerous thing to alienate your longest, most loyal customers on this. We’re the ones that have kept your business alive when lots of music sites have failed.
Add me to the list – the value proposition is gone. Will cancel.
I’m terribly disappointed by this change to subscription rates under the aegis of disingenuously providing access to major label material. I have only been subscribed for a year but my experiences have only been positive. I’ve recommended emusic to anyone who would listen, I’ve recently upped by subscription rate to 100 songs/month because I’ve enjoyed finding so much new music every month. Frankly, it’s been exciting to pay independent artists (at these reasonable rates and DRM free) rather than getting them through other means — today, regrettably, it can be hard to justify paying for music when other options are available, and emusic makes that experience so rewarding. But it’s now become harder to justify my commitment to a subscription payment plan — it’s been nothing but a thrill, and an increasingly rewarding one — but the price increases (with negligible benefits from the Sony catalog) will make impulse and exploratory buys that much harder. Instead of looking forward to a long-time future with emusic, I’m looking at the 450 items in my Saved Queue and I’m trying to figure out ways to cut my losses before canceling my subscription. I can no longer recommend emusic like I have so passionately done over the last year. I suspect the logistics of a tiered pricing model mentioned above (pay more for access to Sony and other majors, pay the same for current rates and access) is difficult and counter to the negotiation arrangements that got the Sony catalog in the first place, but to me, it seems like the only way to appease the long-standing subscribers. Good luck sorting this mess out.
@Dave – I wonder how many pledges of cancellation they would need to see to actually amend the new policy. 100s may be a drop in the bucket to them if they think that they’ll woo the iTunes crowd and mainstream music listening consumer in general, but maybe if they see that they’re potentially losing 1000s of subscribers they would reconsider due to potentially significant revenue losses.
I’m definitely making sure that my emusic subscribing friends know about this sooner rather than later so that they can add their opinions into the mix if they feel so inclined. They’ve obviously committed themselves to this change, so expected a complete reversal is likely out of the question of course, but I would like to see them consider some of the tiered structures or forms of grandfathering for long time users that have already been mentioned in this string of comments. Such systems would hopefully still give unknown artists more of a chance of being downloaded and allow longtime users to continue experimenting/taking chances on new indie bands and labels.
If I wanted a Pearl Jam record, I’d go to town and buy a used or new copy for 10 or 18 dollars, respectively. eMusic is where I go for smaller label albums that are almost never in town. Sure I have to wait a few months after the albums release date to find it on here, but I’m okay with that. And now with the addition of a slew of big name artists (who I either don’t care about or already own) I’m going to have to pay the same amount of money for ten less tracks a month. Cancel, cancel, cancel.
Its been a good run here for me. I love emusic, been here over 5 years. I always loved getting more for less – and it was conveniently more of what I wanted – INDIE and underground, reggae, bluegrass, and all that great stuff. But I can’t afford my tracks to be cut by 2/3 for the same price.
90 downloads will become 35. Sorry, not worth it for the selection. I can go buy a couple albums (maybe only 2 instead of 3) but I can dl exactly what I want. Since everyone else is going dig rights free, eMusic is losing that edge too.
I’m not really shocked. Yes this will chagne the face of eMusic drastically – but you obviously feel that is the wisest choice and can respect that. I am saddened to be losing an alternative to the big record companies, but I am merely a guest on eMusic (albeit a paying one…until october
I’ll enjoy some of that new back cataloge 
)
I appreciate all the great music eMusic has provided me with! Thanks eMusic and good luck!
yeah, i’m not down with this price increase either…maybe if it meant access to Sub Pop but I don’t care about Sony.
Count me as another long time subscriber who will be cancelling when the new prices go into effect. I understand price increases are a fact of life but doubling the price of a download in one fell swoop is a bit much. I also have no interest whatsoever in the Sony catalog so trying to wave that in front of my face to distract me from the price jacking isn’t going to work. I liked eMusic because it used to be about the music. Now I guess it’s about the money. Disappointing.
Personally, having my 50 downloads per month reduced to 30 per month (at the same price and still non-rollover) in return for access to the Sony back catalog and a 12 unit maximum album price is not a good deal at all! I doubt I will be long for emusic once these changes take effect.
I believe you are grossly overplaying the allure of access to the Sony back catalog.
What a load of crap. I will be cancelling my membership after this month.
Fuck Sony.
I’d be willing to pay a bit more to get more indie labels on board (Sub Pop has been mentioned several times, and I agree), but Sony?! That’s not why I’m a subscriber.
Please eMusic, cancel this Sony deal altogether and work on getting us more of what we’re here for, Independent Music.
So I get fewer downloads for my money because Sony Music Group, a terrible company I refuse to buy anything from since the rootkit fiasco in 2005 (one of the very things that drove me to try eMusic), is being added to your catalog? That’s just great. Very exciting. Thanks a bunch.
This really sucks. I’m going from 40 downloads per month for 9.99 to 30 downloads per month for 11.99? How is that an improvement?
After I get my 40 this month, I quit. I mostly listen to classical, and there is enough free stuff out there to keep me happy.
@Nate – you make a good point. They won’t care about 100s. They might not even care about 1000s. They will count on people who are initially outraged to cool down a little and “give the new system a try.” As it happens, June 5 I get my 12th month’s 50 songs so as soon as I download them I’ll kill my subscription. About all I care to do at this point :-/
And I thought Universal was the Devil when they bought eMusic!!
DANNY STEIN / KIP MORGAN / JDS / Dimensional Associates?
CATHY HALGAS NEVINS? How this for a PR DISASTER?
Are you still going to hit double digit growth this year?
ANY REPLY TO ALL OF THESE COMMENTS??
Long time subscriber with no interest in the Sony back catalog. I cannot justify a 44% reduction in monthly downloads with nothing in return. I will be canceling my subscription once the new pricing schemes take effect. Will continue to support the independent labels and artists that first attracted my to Emusic by purchasing their music elsewhere.
Come on, eMusic, this doesn’t sound like you at all!
You’ve just destroyed most of the advantages associated with eMusic under the guise of expanding my choices. The problem is that you haven’t really expanded my choices in the least. All of the music you are adding was already available on Amazon and iTunes. Yes, those 200,000 tracks will sometimes be a bit cheaper to eMusic subscribers, but the rest of the eMusic catalog (where I have the most interest) will cost me more than twice as much as in the past. If it’s really about the new tracks costing more, why not just use tiered pricing, at two (or even three) credits per track on the new catalog, instead of doubling the price of the whole catalog?
I have always depended on eMusic to let me experiment with new and lesser known artists for a good price. Now, I’ll just have to look for Amazon’s daily deals to find the good values. Even Amazon’s $5 albums are now cheaper than eMusic.
If you need to raise prices a bit to make ends meet, then say so. But don’t add some back catalog tracks, double your prices for everything else, and then act like you’re doing us all a big favor. Seems like you’ve been getting advice from the RIAA on how to treat your customers. I hope that works out well for you.
I’ve been a subscriber for many years, but I won’t be renewing when my subscription expires.
I subscribe to emusic.com because the price makes it safe for me to explore your wide selection of classical music that is difficult to locate or sort through elsewhere, especially new music. I couldn’t care less about the latest Yo-Yo Ma recordings or umpteenth-reissue of an Isaac Stern recording. So I find that emusic.com is effectively doubling the cost of my subscription, but for what? To appease Sony? Very disappointing!
It’s been a pleasure downloading records from BIS/IODA and Harmonia Mundi. But I’m sorry to say that the price change means I’ll be cancelling.
I’ve had some time to think about what these changes mean to me. Initially I was excited to see upcoming arrival of back catalog from a major label, but that was before I learned about the significant cost increase. Fortunately, my eMusic Premium Annual subscription (90 downloads, $191.90, about 18 cents per track) recently renewed in April, so I have until April to see how eMusic changes with the addition of major-label content. I’m disappointed that the new comparable plan is the 35 downloads every 30 days at 41 cents a track. I know that 41 cents a track is still a good deal compared to itunes or amazon. I guess the subscription plans at the old rates were too good to last. It looks like the eMusic community on the forums will likely change, with many people cancelling.
Horrible news. First, I had 90 downloads previously. Now, I get 50. I’m not going to download things from Sony. I have nothing against them, its just that appreciate the fact that emusic offered an area to showcase unheard of talent.
I just wonder why you couldn’t give us “old-timers” the option of whether or not we would like to participate. Why not offer 2 different options–like your audiobook segment.
Also, I’m well aware that this isn’t the first change in download policies here at emusic.
What does this mean for emusic? I feel like this is going to completely change the landscape of the service. I expect to see the charts radically reflect the new options–expect Thriller to be the top downloaded record. Also, I expect that Sony probably garnered some type of promotional deal within this agreement, so I expect to see many more banners, and suggestions pointing towards these artists. As I said before, I’m not against the label, just the essence in which it is going to destroy.
First off: I am canceling. Had been at the 65/$15 plan. Makes no sense to get less music for more money. Explain that logic in a recession, and when the cost of music in general seems to be trending downward. Hell, you could round out a pretty swell music collection just by blindly clicking on the Amazon “daily deal.”
I can’t believe the core subscribers care much about anything in the Sony catalog that they don’t already have. And The Clash? Really.
Emusic is trying to compete with Amazon and iTunes, which it will never, ever do. Never-ever. The editorial content is OK, but I think someone has too high of an opinion of it. It’s never sold me any music.
Goodbye emusic. Maybe Sony will buy you.
I could go with supporting the idea of 2 credits for Sony’s stuff and one credit for all the rest. Please keep the number of my downloads the same! I don’t want Sony!
Are we only getting the Sony back catalog? What about the Verve/Blue Note and ECM material available in Europe and elsewhere? Will we get that in the U.S. as well.
Also, as a major jazz nut, I hope you’ll continue to pursue those holdout independent labels such as HatHut and Steeplechase. Hopefully, the new pricing will make eMusic a more attractive option for them.
Just don’t take any music *away* and I’ll be happy!
I have been with emusic since 2002 or 2003, and this is the first time I have considered canceling. I could care less about sony. Any of the albums that will be added that I want I most likely already own, or could pick up at a used CD store. So the new price (reduction in service) gains me nothing. Now if they would bring back some of the good labels (Anti, etc) they lost over the last few years I may reconsider.
As it is iTunes is looking better and better. They have gotten rid of DRM and have a better selection of non-main stream music.
I will keep emusic for the audio books, unless they mess that up too.
I only download Classical music so I can only speak for myself. At first I was dismayed to lose 10 downloads at the same price, but I think you have done a good thing by offering lengthy pieces of music with a max level of 12. I have gone to other sources in the past for operas, for example, because I would have used up my entire month with one opera or ballet or part thereof. Also, I think improved recommendations is only a marginal need, but I hope your next effort is in the area of keywords. I know that for Classical music this can prove a challenge, but at the moment, you barely live up to that challenge. I have found a great percentage of albums by accident.
this is sad… emusic, by doubling your prices overnight, you are going to drive away the loyal customer base that has made this site what it is. just as sad as the price increase is the fact that the major label catalog is going to destroy the charts, so even if i felt like sticking around at the new higher prices, it would be much harder to find interesting new music. i will definitely be cancelling.
this is disappointing news, I really come here for the indie stuff I can discover, not catalog titles. I will get one third of the downlaods I now get for the same price, not a very attractive offer. I guess I’ll say goodbye to Emusic and stick with my Ukranian site where the tunes are about 12 cents each and you pay as you go.
As an eMusic subscriber since July 2002 on the 90/$19.99 plan, this is terrible news. Color me gone.
I’m disappointed and on the fence. I came to eMusic years and years ago when it first started getting off the ground because there was just something awkward and weird about the music selection and because I could legitimately buy tracks for about 25c and not feel guilty (well, maybe a little). I made a conscious decision when I started college that I would pay for my music and somewhere down the line that will end up in the artists’ hands. Paying less than iTunes and still getting music legitimately was and still is a pull for me to eMusic; albeit, if eMusic doesn’t have what iTunes has I’ll revert to iTunes but that means that I always always pull up eMusic first.
With that said, if this deal was made to compete with iTunes, then this is a bad direction. Some battles cannot be won and I honestly believe Apple cannot be matched. Turning eMusic loyalists into collateral damage in order to compete better in a competition war that it doesn’t belong in in the first place, is obviously not a healthy decision for the sake of the company’s philosophy. If eMusic wants to pander to the big wigs and rake in more money, then so be it but it has to make sacrifices—and the sacrifices are the eMusic’s vision and the eMusic’s customers. It doesn’t get as simple as that. eMusic, last time I heard, you’re #2. I think that’s a pretty good place to be in, so let’s not hallucinate about being #1. Again, Apple will forever hold that crown.
One commenter rightly noted that if we want something from the big labels and eMusic doesn’t have it, we’re just going to go to the record store or iTunes and get it. We, as customers, have no hurt feelings when we discover that eMusic doesn’t have a certain artist or track because we all know that eMusic isn’t here to satisfy everyone’s every musical desire and whim—that’s why we choose to be with eMusic because we pay a fraction of that it would cost elsewhere for a quirky, limited music selection that can’t really be found elsewhere with the same ease.
People that are gung-ho-iTunes aren’t going to change. That system is so ridiculously easy and universal, those same people aren’t going to put in the effort to install the eMusic software and set it up to only be reverted back to iTunes to load on their iPods. That’s a technical barrier that many iTunes loyalists won’t want to tackle regardless if eMusic comes out with it’s own iTunes-like software or not. iTunes is iTunes and that can’t and never will be cracked anytime soon. If this deal was made to pull iTunes customers, it’s not going to work.
As far as pricing changes. Disappointed to say the least. This will, unless eMusic listens to us and rids itself of these changes, double the cost of tracks to get half or more the number of tracks. In economics, that doesn’t equate… even counting inflation. Now if the deal was made to keep the company afloat in these hard economic times, then, CEO, please just say it. It’s getting to be a lame excuse but we all understand what that means. Now, I appreciate the free Booster pack but that’s hardly a consolation prize for how much money and time as a member I’ve put in (5 years). If there needs to be a price change, then do it, but don’t make it that drastic a change for members that have old plans and didn’t change it a year or two ago for a reason.
This news is a disaster for eMusic’s most loyal customers. I have been a subscriber for many years. eMusic just informed me that instead of getting 90 downloads for $20, as I have always done, I will now get 50 downloads for my twenty bucks. That’s right: eMusic wants to almost double the cost of my subscription from 22 cents per track to 40 cents. I already have all the old Dylan and Springsteen albums. The chance to by them again for about $5 is meninngless to me. I use eMusic to discover new music at a fair rate. But no more.
Mr. Stein, can you explain to me why I should be happy about this news? Thanks.
I keep re-reading all these posts, and re-reading my account page. I’m sorry that anyone is getting their downloads cut by half, but, seriously, my downloads go from NINETY to THIRTY FIVE. How can that possibly be true?
Is it that I’m getting punished for being on an annual plan these past few years? Because one of the many folks I’ve gotten to sign up for accounts has been going monthly, and is only getting his monthly plan to drop to 50!
Yes, plans change. Yes, prices go up. Nothing good lasts forever. But seriously man, I’ve been here since 2003, haven’t spent a music dime with anyone else since 2006….and I get cut from 90 to 35 when newer subscribers are getting cut “only” from 90 to 50?
Is it unreasonable to say that, on top of everything else, my feelings are hurt? I’m upset, and ready to have anybody at all explain this to me.
Oh, and I almost forgot: In an email from eMusic to me dated November 21, 2006, it says:
“Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
Well it only took 2-1/2 years for eMusic to turn this promise into a lie. Explanation, Mr. Stein?
Danny,
Did emusic take TARP money from the Obama administration, and thus have to change your successful business model to satisfy the government? As a member since 2006, I have turned on countless numbers of friends and family to this once great service. I am now seriously considering canceling my subscription. Who is to say an Alice in Chains or Michael Jackson catalog album is more important to me than say the new Saxon Shore, or Jeremy Enigk? To ask your loyal customers to take nearly a 50% reduction in downloads for the same amount of money is not only bad business, it shows arrogannce and a lack of respect to me and all other subscribers…but good luck with your decision.
Bill
Ho hum, this is really a big let down.
For me the price per track has nearly doubled, the trade off is that I can now download some major label music I really don’t care if I explore. I am on emusic for reason after all, If I wanted old Janis Joplin or Wu-Tang albums I’d buy the used record club version for 2 dollars at the local record store or even amazon for that matter.
This was such a wonderful site, and this may just kill it for me all together. My ticked off reaction is to hit cancel and walk away in efforts to somehow show them my pathetic moment of fury; I’ll resentfully hang out another month and see what happens.
What is this complaint worth?
Well really nothing outside of being heard; I don’t think kindness plays into it, its a business move. They’re going after that audience that has had a hang up with the lack of major label music on here. The gains on this will likely be great for them, losing a few of us indie music fanatics is expected, and likely pocket change at this point.
@More Big Disaster: good question!
This isn’t the first time emusic’s prices have changed. It used to be that i wasn’t affected by the price changes because I’d been a longtime subscriber. But now I get screwed for Sony?
Mr. Stein, this feels like a breach of contract to me. It is doubly insulting that you refuse to even acknowledge this in your all-too-transparent smokescreen of a post.
I chose emusic because I prefer to support independent labels instead of majors. Now I have to pay more for music I didn’t even want in the first place. Kinda sounds like the auto industry bailouts, huh?
Oh, and Mr. Stein, in regards to your question of whether ‘indie’ and ‘major’ mean anything, or if it’s just industry jargon: hopefully this outpouring of disappointment will clear that up for you.
Add me to the growing list of ‘grandfathered’ subscribers who are thinking of canceling. Like others, I’m simply not interested in Sony’s back catalog. And as another subscriber said, I’d rather have the Subpop catalog added instead. But overall, I just wanted to add one more voice to this: I signed up – and continued paying my dues – for a certain product that I’m just not going to get anymore. I have really enjoyed the focus on indie artists and indie music even in genres like experiemental electronic music. I’m sure I don’t want to count up how many hours I’ve spent browsing the catalog and adding and subtracting artists from my ‘Saved for Later’. Now that Sony is here and the prices are going up, I’d only be downloading the ‘must have’ releases anyway and not have those extra 10 or so d/l’s for the experiments. I guess the only thing that *might* keep me here is that the MP3′s are at least going to be DRM-free, for now at least. I’ll see what the new Emusic is like, but if this service was Sony some indies back when I signed up I would never have done so.
Big mistake, So sad! The world doesn’t need another Itunes or or Amazon the like. emusic WAS unique. Unfortunately this will be my LAST month with emusic. I will not go from 50 per month for $11.99 to 30 per month for $11.99. It is NOT only the cost per download, but the change in philosophy. I doubt that the current emusic subscribers give a flying rats ass about Sony. I was here for the bands and musicians that are hard to find, not signed to Major labels. This poor decision could be the beginning of the end of emusic. It is the end of emusic for me. Very disappointing!
I have been with emusic for many years. I can understand a slight price hike from time to time, but I can not condone what is happening now.
Emusic, you have TWO choices:
1) Continue to honor the price structure for current members.
2) Lose your customer base (myself included), and try to rebuild it.
Those are your ONLY two options. I truly am sorry that the big music industry may be breathing down your necks, but this is not the answer.
I hope you make the right decision…
My downloads have gone from 200 to 100, and the price per track from 25 cents to 41. 41 cents still isn’t bad compared to iTunes et al, but I am getting nothing out of this price increase. Instead of being able to take risks on obscure indie artists with my big, cheap package, I will now have to be more selective about how I use my credits. Like many others here, I doubt there will be much to interest me in the Sony back catalog (Sub Pop, Drag City and Sundazed would be a different story altogether . . . ). It is sad to see eMusic pander to the major labels (and their fans) and alienate its indie-oriented consumer base. I can only hope they are doing it out of economic necessity rather than basic greed.
“Major” and “Indie” do mean a bit to me, mainly in thinking about who the money goes to and what I expect from their releases. I’m not really apposed to majors, I just prefer indies.
I’m glad to see Emusic’s catalog growing, but not the cuts in the subscriptions. When Netflix made the choice to charge me more for Blu-Rays, I hesitantly removed that option from my subscription. Now Emusic is going to charge more for “premium content” and I don’t have a choice about how it affects my subscription. I understand the change (and maybe it would come anyway), but I’m not happy about having even fewer downloads to budget on your already ample catalog.
goodbye.
I will give this a month to see if I like it. I have been with emusic forever and to lose 20 downloads a month just because you are adding new music to site seem like your mvp custys are getting a bit of the shaft. I am now seriously considering canceling my subscription. Like I said I’ll give it a month. If you are smart you leave the old plan alone and move forward with new custys at the new rate. I will really have to think about this.
“Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
It profits a man nothing to give up his soul for the entire world — but to do it for Sony?!?
I don’t want to get ahead of myself by promising to cancel when the time comes, but I am going to give it serious thought. I am one of those who will see my downloads cut in half in exchange for the arrival of music that holds very little interest. This is not what I call added value. It is probably totally impractical, but I am with those who wonder whether there may be a middle ground to preserve something closer to our current arrangements for those of us who would be content not to receive access to the Sony catalog. And it is only back catalog, after all: if we find ourselves in a fantasy world in which Sony suddenly starts releasing new music of interest, we’ll have to obtain it elsewhere anyway, or else wait two years for its arrival on eMusic.
Someone will come out a winner in this arrangement, but it certainly is not current eMusic loyalists.
While I love the addition of the new artists, I don’t quite like the fact that I’ll get less than half the downloads for the same price.
One thing I would request – give us “rollover” credits, instead of having them expire each month. I’m willing to pay a bit more for the music, but I think it would be only fair to allow us to save credits over to the next month.
The more I think about this, the more mad I get. I LOVED emusic! It was THE ONLY source of my music. If this change does actually go into effect, I WILL be canceling my subscription.
–> IF ANYONE KNOWS OF REPLACEMENT OPTIONS FOR EMUSIC, PLEASE POST THEM NOW!!! <–
.
Hmm…
This is a bit unexpected. I remember when the prices changed last time, and my old account was grandfathered in. That was great. This is not. 65 -> 37 for the same price is bad news, IMHO. I loved eMusic for the obscure electronic stuff. Not sure what I’ll do now. It would be great if you’d continue to offer some sort of indie-only subscription at the same rates. I’d definitely stick around if that were the case. Gonna have to think it over now…
I understand the need to raise prices, though this dramatic increase feels like a gut punch (and having eMusic describe it as a “slight” increase is like an extra slap on the face on top of that). The sad fact is, the site will still offer a good deal, just not the ridiculously good deal that it had offered and I really will have to carefully consider whether or not I should maintain my membership.
eMusic served a wonderful niche but have made a decision to move toward being iTunes Lite. I get it–it’s a business decision, eMusic is a business, they need to make money to survive. Can’t fault a company for that. But that doesn’t make it any less sad for the users who enjoyed the service for what it was—and who weren’t here looking for Sony’s back catalog anyway.
This site really has changed the way I consume music. eMusic was where I discovered countless new artists–artists that I never would have discovered elsewhere. I’m deeply saddened that the component of the site I liked the most is being taken away from us (and make no mistake, it is being taken away—less downloads for more money equals less risk taking).
I wonder how many artists like Frederik, Basia Bullat, Sing Fang Bous, The Morning Benders, Liam Finn… geez, too many to even remember… that I WON’T discover now. (For cryin’ out loud, this site was my first exposure to Spoon many years ago).
Sigh. Sad, sad day for the eMusic faithful.
ps. the note about “indie vs. mainstream, does it matter?” just seems so, so transparent and contrived. C’mon. Please don’t insult our intelligence too.
eMusic was doing everything right until this “improvement”. This huge spike in price will cause me to cancel the service. Seriously, “Sony back catalog”??? You lost more than one customer, that much is sure. But hey, CEO’s in this country are there to draw big salaries, not to make good decisions.
today’s my birthday; and what a lousy fucking gift, emusic. total bullshit.
you’re wanting me to pay five dollars more than i’m currently paying for twenty-five less song credits than i’m currently receiving just so i can have access to a bunch of shit that i’m not even interested in. how “exciting.”
thanks for alienating a loyal customer.
Me too, I still buy indie music as a way of showing my distaste for a bunch of far-away suits swooping in, overproducing and overpackaging what is ultimately a collective musical culture. If “indie” vs. “major” is such an outdated distinction, why bother with this whole apologetic announcement….. More choices! Whoop-de-doo, it will be just like shopping for cereal.
Time to cancel my account and go buy some Clash tapes at the thrift store — 50 cents!
I’m sorry to say this appears to be an enormous price hike that is being slipped in with news of an expanded catalog. I’ve been a subscriber for a few years so I still get 90 downloads a month by paying my entire yearly fee in advance. You are cutting my downloads by more than 60% and you still want the entire fee up front!
My renewal date is in January and, like others, I’m not deciding now that I will cancel my membership at that time. But, also like others, I will give it very serious consideration. I already have an enormous music collection that includes more than 2000 CDs as well as many, many eMusic songs. As much as I enjoy the eMusic experience there are almost no services — other than essential ones — that I would not cancel in this economy if faced with a price hike of the kind you’ve announced.
Frankly it’s disappointing that your letter doesn’t really address the price hike in any way. Did you think members would not notice?
Others have mentioned the issue of “rollover” credits. That’s a suggestion you would do well to take. Your current system is frustrating enough because credits expire on a different date every month increasing the chances of forgetting to use them all. I’ll also add this: If you still want all the money up front the least you can do is allow us to use the credits at any time over the course of the year. Even that may not be enough to keep me as a customer but, without some change along these lines you seriously increase the likelihood that I will end my membership. I doubt I will be the only one.
Did they really think this would make their subscriber base happy? Funny I was just talking up this site the other day to a friend. He was excited about it and said he would join. I’ll be sure to stop him now. Great indie music, grandfathered pricing plans, reasonable rates? All this is now gone and makes me look like a liar.
As everyone has been saying, the price point here is perfect to try out new bands. Sometimes you find some good ones, other times not. No big deal. 90 more DL next month, not anymore. The reality is that the longtime labels that have stayed here will be hurt. Why? Because they do not have to compete with the majors here. Most people (especially the new subscribers) will not bother to find them. They will get the Dixie Chicks or whatever Sony band and that’s it. Those that are interested in the indie stuff will have left. This is the end of emusic as we have known it.
I’ll stay til my plan ends and hope something changes for the better (2 DL/Sony track anyone?). At a more than 50% rate increase, I will find it difficult to renew. But the bright side (for emusic) is that they will only need to get 1 new subscriber for ever 2 or 3 that leave. Good luck.
uhhh…a massive price increase for the likes of Billy Joel?
Goodbye, emusic.
I have been a member for seven years and have always told people about emusic. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. 90 tracks for $20 (even though It used to be unlimited) was still a good enough deal to stick around, and indie music has always been more or less easy to get here. But there are albums on labels that emusic carries that have been around for awhile, and emusic still doesn’t have them, or they get them a couple months after everyone else. Still waiting for the new Camera Obscura or St. Vincent to be available (4AD).
What I fear will happen is that emusic will find a way to emulate iTunes and that new albums that are popular will cost extra credits. Songs that used to be 99cents on iTunes are now more expensive, the logic being that mainstream music is better, and therefore, more valuable. 50 tracks for $20? I don’t know.
Fortunately there is competition. I think LaLa is the new eMusic. For people who support legal downloading of music, LaLa has the best of all worlds. You can actually listen to the album all the way through (once), legally. If you want to build up a collection of both major AND indie music, you can “own the song” for ten cents a track, only catch is you can only listen to it on the internet. But that’s not such a big deal with things like iPod touch where you have access to the internet all over the place. And you can of course purchase the mp3 file from LaLa.
If LaLa had it’s same feature set as it did now, but in ADDITION adopted a plan where you pay $20 a month for 50 mp3 dowloads, eMusic, iTunes, Amazon, they would all collapse. As it stands now, I think LaLa is the future. It is going to get a MASSIVE amount of new users as a result of this.
Remember, the only constant in life is change. Things that were once great, stop being great. That’s what happened to eMusic. It was nice while it lasted, but they seem to have changed their priorities.
The difference between major labels and indie labels is that major labels follow the buck, and indie labels follow the heart. Sony doesn’t care about artists, Sony cares about its profits. So I think we don’t need major labels here, and for many of us eMusic is (was?) great because it was a source of music for those of us who love music, rather than follow the charts or whatever.
Obviously, adding Sony’s releases here has already had an impact. As of July, the prices will be raised, we’ll get fewer downloads for the money, and we’ll have to endure recommendations for mainstream shite when all many of us want is an alternative to that crap.
Those are my two cents. I’ll stick with it to see what happens, but I can’t say I’m entirely happy about this news, and how it will effect my account.
By the way, regarding the Clash and the Sex Pistols? Great music notwithstanding (I love both those bands), they sold out a long time ago. Idealism isn’t a one-year plan, it is a lifetime commitment. And once the money started flowing, the Clash did stadiums. And the Pistols re-formed to do the same, lamely. So yes, I do think of them as major label — made safe for general public consumption, de-clawed, and sold right back to you.
Never forget that customers vote with their feet. I’m gone.
I listen to quite a bit of “major label” music (whatever that is). If I found the need for a title outside of Emusic’s catalog, I sought it out without grievance because I understood that my 90 downloads for $19.99 was a bargain and that bargain would be jeopardized by bringing the big boy corporate music machines into the mix. Now, lo and behold, this is exactly what’s happened. It’s okay that my quirky Emusic site, where I’ve found some terrific music, is wanting to carry The Clash but I don’t know that I buy the argument that they’re doing it for the integrity of their catalogue and I’m honestly not sure that I want to pay nearly double the old rate to use the site. I feel we should be grandfathered in as before. If you still don’t own “Born to Run” for some reason, then charge the newbie subscriber premium for it… but I think my two vinyl copies will suffice for now and I don’t feel the need to pay you for it again. Or, if you can’t swing the 90 downloads how about 75? I’m sure however, that some bean-counter at a board meeting has already dictated this castration as a business necessity.
That being said, I’ll probably hang on to the subscription, but I know I’ll long for the old days together, when were both young, our wallets thinner and our integrity intact.
CHECK OUT AUDIOLUNCHBOX.COM
While the average price of the eMusic download is still less than iTunes and Amazon on the face of it, the fact that eMusic customers often lose downloads because you can’t roll them over, and the fact that that the encoding is below the quality of iTunes or Amazon make the value pricing proposition virtually nil.
I am a new subscriber and have to say I’m more than a little furious that a plan I agreed to only a two months ago will now feature 22% fewer songs. And let’s note again that all of the music that’s about to be offered could be obtained elsewhere. Yes, those tracks cost more on iTunes, but then at least it’s my choice.
As for the indie/major label distinction: while it may be only a semantic difference in terms of music (good music is good music, whoever produced it) the real difference lies in business relations. Don’t forget you are talking about an industry that spent all of their time, money, and energy in the last decade suing their customers instead of updating their business model. Now, not only do they want to capitalize on companies (like eMusic) who gave customers a product they actually wanted (a way to find real musicians at legitimate prices) but they want to set the terms. It seems to me that Sony and the other big labels have a lot more to gain from eMusic’s community than it has to offer, so why is eMusic bending over backwards?
I’d like to say I’m giving up my plan in protest, but it’s still the best deal out there. Be cautious though, Mr. Stein. You’ve opened Pandora’s box, and not the good kind that streams music to my laptop for free.
Regards,
Marty
I haven’t read enough (between msgs 50 and 174) to determine if the early outrage entitled me to a grandfathered 30/$12 plan. If so, thank you early dissenters and thank you emusic for listening to them.
My intent joining emusic was to support artists and labels that make recordings possible in a seamless manner. I have numerous less legitimate ways to obtain music, but emusic made sending a few cents per download to an indie artist convenient. Every middleman gets their cut (of course), but that was true when I was buyingmusical physical artifacts too.
My concern which I’d like to hear addressed is how the Sony deal might effect prior contracts made with indie labels. My understanding is that emusic had a standard 50/50 revenue split contract with indie labels, and that monthly aggregate revenue at emusic was dispersed per actual download. If the Sony-deal price model is the new standard, do the indie labels also benefit from revised subscription pricing?
I may never send a cent Sony’s way, even through emusic, but there are a number of independent labels who found the prior licensing deal too financially slight and departed the emusic fold. Perhaps they might be wooed again.
Also, I applaud you for introducing album pricing. I have a long saved-list of compilations and classical works that hitherto simply didn’t make sense (vs discount/used CD purchase).
I might as well add my voice to the grandfathered many: I’ve been around since the ‘unlimited download’ days and now I’m thinking of cancelling. To reiterate: I’m here because of indie music and already own all the Sony music that I care about. Do I wish that itunes would let me get DRM-free music for a reasonable price? Sure. But that’s their problem to remedy – that’s NOT emusic’s niche. I’m here at emusic for the stuff I can’t get elsewhere and to try new music that I would never buy at $15/cd or $1.29/track. This is a huge disappointment *not* ‘great news’.
NO NO NO, wrong direction for eMusic to take, as all the prevailing comments seem to be here. Why not let grandfathered accounts choose to stay and not have access to Sony, I will probably cancel.
This is a big disappointment, as my monthly allowance is being slashed. I like the idea expressed earlier of letting subscribers opt out of the Sony plan in order to keep their existing plan. Looks like I’ll be bailing out soon.
Count me as another disappointed customer. As soon as my June downloads are used up, I’m quitting.
Please reconsider. Leave the current subscribers alone or even charge double for the Sony downloads. Apply the new pricing to new customers.
i’m trying to find the logic in this. cut my downloads nearly in half and double my price per track? a 15 song booster is a poor compensation offer. i’ll be walking away from this one.
I’d be OK with it if the change in pricing structure didn’t appear to be designed to chase off long-time members in good standing. Quite frankly, that sucks and is the reason for me canceling my membership. I’ve been with eMusic a long time. Clearly, Sony carries more weight than the community eMusic has built over the years.
Others make a good point. You can just go to iTunes or Amazon if you want the major label stuff. Keep your integrity, eMusic.
I have to agree with the lion’s share of those who have already commented, that while there is some good to this news, it isn’t enough good to offset the negatives and bad news associated with such a drastic reduction in the number of tracks available within each plan level. I have been an eMusic member/subscriber for nearly 7 years and have always been at a plan level allowing me 65 downloads for $14.99 each month. Now I’m going to be paying the same money for half that number of tracks. I don’t really care what music your adding, losing nearly half of what I’ve been getting is NOT A GOOD DEAL TO ME. A 50% reduction per month is hardly fair.
The reason that I became an eMusic subscriber in the first place had a lot to with the goldmine of emerging artists, world music, jazz, etc., and hidden or forgotten gems that eMusic routinely has on offer and for one reason or another couldn’t be accessible via other means easily or economically. I’d be really impressed if you were adding say, the Universal Jazz (European) catalog instead of making Bruce Sprinsteen available.
I was grandfathered in (as were many others) the last time the pricing structure changed and that was a good deal. THIS IS NOT A GOOD DEAL. I fail to see why you couldn’t come up with some palatable grandfather scheme for those of us that have been long-time, reliable supporters of eMusic. That would be fair. You’re penalizing the faithful the hardest with this new scheme.
I think I may have to start scoping out the competition a bit more seriously. Whether or not I stay with eMusic is debatable at this point unless you guys can come up with something for those of us that have been with you through thick and thin that’s better than what you have on the table now.
I am incredibly disappointed by the pricing changes. I have been a subscriber since February 2004 and have preached the eMusic word to countless friends and have turned many of them into subscribers. Now my 90 songs for $19.99 has been cut to 50 songs for the same price and that is unacceptable.
The semantics of the major vs. indie debate are meaningless. What this is about, for me at least, is the value of an eMusic subscription. My current price plan allows me to get the music that I know I want while also taking chances on recommendations from friends and fellow subscribers. I have discovered so many great records and artists over the last 5 years and eMusic has been a major part of my music buying habit, which still includes vinyl and cd purchases. Now that my number of downloads has been cut in half I will seriously reconsider whether or not to continue subscribing.
Several people have suggested alternate pricing solutions and I think you need to consider doing something. Obviously, a large number of your core customers are unhappy with your decision and I would hope that you are concerned with your loyal customer base.
The flexible pricing plan (1 download for an indie label song, 2 for a major label song) doesn’t make sense to me. The value of those songs is inherent to each person. How many downloads is an Acid Mothers Temple song worth compared to, say, one by the Offspring, depends on the person. I favor the suggestion offered by a few people before me that let’s current subscribers keep their current plan and not have access to the Sony titles while offering new pricing plans to those who want access to everything. I have nothing against Sony and, in fact, I buy many of their Legacy titles every year. I’m just not interested in my subscription being worth considerably less just to have access to music I will not likely purchase.
I certainly hope that you address the issues that have been raised in this forum. You began your post with “eMusic’s customers are rabid, smart and adventurous consumers of music.” Thanks for the butter up but to think that giving your post a title like “more of the good stuff” and then move into the tired major vs. indie debate is cynical and completely dodges the essence of the situation.
Like many of the others who are writing, I came to eMusic for the Indy stuff. I became a huge Alt Country fan because of eMusic, finding all kinds of singers/bands I would have never known. Now I’m going to have to pay more money to get fewer songs each month so that eMusic can carry the type of music I was running away from? If I wanted those old Sony songs I’d already have them.
I completely agree with the previous poster:
Emusic, you have TWO choices:
1) Continue to honor the price structure for current members.
2) Lose your customer base (myself included), and try to rebuild it.
If my price structure changes as drastically as you plan only to accomodate music I do not want….I will be one of the loyal customers who leave. Maybe you’ll make it up with people who want to buy cheaper old Sony songs. If so you made the right call. If not, you screwed up a good deal. Not only was I a fan of eMusic I was an Ambassador/Salesperson/Evangelist. I personally signed up friends and family members because I loved eMusic.
Sad
Well I have been very happy with eMusic and sort of sorry to go from 75 songs to 50 songs, but the times are “a-changing”. So as long as the service stays as good as it has been and you keep the feature of being able to re-download my songs, then I will stay here and enjoy the new music. I hope you stay True
Thank You for the heads up. we do not like surprises..LOL
Cuggie
How do you think your service will compete at these prices? I’m looking for more difficult-to-find and independent albums through this service, not major label pap I can just torrent without a guilty conscience.
I and others are cancelling..
As a few other people have mentioned, I’d be much more willing to take a cut for Sub-Pop, Anti, Epitaph, and similar great labels.
I’ve been a loyal eMusic subscriber for 4 years now and this makes me very sad and angry. 20 less downloads a month for the same price? For what? Music I already know of and can get elsewhere! For shame, eMusic. All you’re doing is bending to the pressures of the big labels and their big prices, and in the process screwing your loyal customers who want quality indie music. I can no longer recommend your service.
At first, I was upset that I’d go from 75 downloads to 50 downloads if I spent the same every month as I was before. But, I thought about it. When I had 75 downloads I was taking risks on stuff I was only marginally interested in. Some of it was good, some of it was so-so. I figured for 27 cents a track it was worth the risk. What the new pricing structure means to me is that I won’t be doing as much risk taking. Oh well. On the positive side, even at 46 cents a track it is still way cheaper than iTunes, Amazon, etc. So, if I get a little more options on what to get I’ll still be okay. Maybe I’ll jump up to the next tier. We’ll see. I look forward to see what the Sony catalog is bringing.
just another voice stating the obvious… I’m leaving when the price change goes into effect.
I really like emusic, have recommended it to tons of friends, and do always find my plan’s 100 songs to download, but will not pay almost the same amount for half the downloads.
no way.
I’d have to think that amazon and itunes are jumping for joy at these new prices, they’ll certainly be getting a lot more of my money.
I use eMusic to explore relatively obscure new music; I could care less about the Sony back catalog. I just went from being a longtime enthusiastic subscriber to feeling betrayed and insulted by this “indie vs. major” red herring. Slashing my downloads does not mean “more of the good stuff.” I will be canceling my account and spending the extra dollars at Other Music.
Echoing everyone else: I’ve been around for 3 years, and generally loved my time at emusic, but I think I’ll be canceling my account next month. This change just chases off old subscribers; doubling prices in the middle of a recession makes no sense, especially when it’s for content for which there’s little demand. An indie plan might keep me around, but without that, it’s just not worth it.
This is an intresting development…is this all going to happen in the UK too?
I’m all for more music on emusic, but can we have some more indie labels too!
(Sub Pop, Tzadik, Domino (in the UK – where they are based!), PSF etc.) (I might pay a bit more for that, especially if it meant the indies getting enough to make it worth their while to put stuff on emusic)
Well, then, what’s next? I was wondering when this was going to happen, but I thought it might not happen for a few more years. Peace to you, emusic! I’m cancelling at the end of June.
like others are saying, if I wanted major label stuff I would be elsewhere. I’ve been a subscriber for three and a half years, and I’ve gotten a lot of music that I wouldn’t have sought out or purchased if I weren’t on eMusic, and I felt free to do that because I had 65 songs to burn through a month. Now I’m getting cut down to half that, and frankly that takes all the fun out of eMusic. Looking through the sample list of artists that will be available from Sony, I’m not impressed. I have a lot of that stuff already. I don’t want to pay more for this service because you’re adding a bunch of music I don’t want. I’ll most likely be taking my $15 a month elsewhere … times are tough, and I get that, but I too have to be more careful with money and I guess I’d rather save it and buy a CD off the artist at a show or something. sigh.
Booo!
My download price just went up 240% when my current subscription expires. Way to alienate your best customers, eMusic. I wasn’t thrilled when the plan changed from unlimited downloads to a monthly limit, but I understood. This change I don’t understand at all. If I wanted Sony dustbin items at high prices, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Consider this another vote for a non-Sony payment plan like the one I have now.
Yep, I have 28 FEWER downloads for the same price so you guys can afford some back catalog stuff from corporate labels? Do you really think it’s worth it?
We don’t want anything like Amazon or iTunes. That’s why we’re here.
I could give a little, but you ask too much. I don’t think I can continue my subscription. Very disappointing.
Charging me 1.5 or 2 credits for Sony’s catalog would have been preferable to charging me more $$$ for the same content I already come here for.
I was super happy to pay emusic for the hole-in-the-wall labels, and digital versions of 12-inch records, etc. I think its garbage that I have to pay to access that same content, all because of Sony that I won’t be downloading.
The unfortunate things is that you have little immediate competition, so although I would love to see you shortly regret this decision. I have a feeling that even I won’t find a satisfactory alternative by next month. However, I will be leaving as soon as I find one.
I bet you’re going to shrug off the dissenters as missing the bigger picture.
That’s cool. we all have the right to convince ourselves of what we want to believe.
But all you have done is help slow the downfall of an obese greedy whore of a company, who has been raping the actual talent pool of music for a long time.
Congrats on your short-sighted business decision.One word: torrents.
That being said. I would have been happy to pay more for the content you already have in order to bring back some of the small labels that were squeezed by the existing model. But not the 40% increase for the arrogant heavy handed Sony.
You say “eMusic will always be an alternative to mass market digital music stores — a deeper, richer music shopping experience”
That statement is a big contradiction. If you’re going to be an alternative to digital music stores, then the last thing you would do is try to be MORE like them. By getting Beyonce and others, it’s clear that you just want to make more money.
I will also be one of the people who cancels my membership. What makes me most angry is the fact that eMusic just decided to change everything one day and now my plan went from 100 downloads to 50 –half as many — and I have no interest in most of these new artists. I wouldn’t be mad if my plan stayed the same price.
The real headline should be “eMusic nearly doubles prices for subscriber”
I agree that this is bad news. eMusic has always been tha best way to discover new (or old) artists that you may not have been aware of. I have also been a longtime subscriber and sucked it up when downloads stopped rolling over. But to penalize not only the subscribers, but also the artists that I have found – and usually love – bu subsidising Sony is unforgivable. My losing half of my monthly dl’s is bad enough, but I believe a lot of eMusic users besides me also use this as a discovery tool, and the doubling of the costs will hurt the artists. I’m not the type who threatens cancellization, however, I am taking a “wait and see” attitude. I am concerned that it may become too costly to continue my search for new music via downloading based on stuff I read on eMusic.
Don’t sell-out, eMusic!
Bummer. I couldn’t afford my subscription before, even though it’s $14.99 / mo.; now that the number of downloads are being butchered for radio crap (mostly), I gotta go. Thankfully Cleveland still has a few good college stations that play the independent art I came here to buy. Now that I think about it, I have suggested emusic to at least a dozen people who’ve ended up subscribing! Can’t do that anymore…
Good lord, are all the first responses from e-music stockholders/employees? I hate this idea and the more I think of it the more I hate it. If I want old music, I’ll go to a thrift store. E-music has long been the only place I download from, not because of the number of tracks available, but because It offers something unique: It is inexpensive enough to experiment and diverse enough to discover something new. This move puts it squarely in the corporate mediocrity of Amazon/iTunes/Clearchannel. I was an early adopter, but I fear that I will likely be an early casualty of this move.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Now that the truth has come out, DANNY STEIN, it is clear you were being duplicitous in your post here.
It’s a night and day difference to be DOUBLING prices for long term members.
If SONY music is not so different from any other music then it should cost the same too. Personally I don’t want it anyway.
I don’t consent to my account being changed. If you change my price or number of downloads, I will be gone, period. Maybe you don’t care, but I have been here for years and I doubt I am alone.
This could have been a great moment for eMusic but now it’s looking more like the final nail in the coffin.
Oh well.
I’m listening to the entire new Swing Out Sister Album on Lala right now (been waiting for a long time for this one, must have just come out recently) for FREE. If I want to buy the album, I can listen to it online forever, for 80 cents (web album). If I want to buy the album to listen on my iPod, that’s $7.50 (mp3 album), which seems to be the standard price for an album at lala.
Again, lala has stuff emusic does not have. The new St. Vincent album? Listen to it free on Lala. Emusic still doesn’t have it.
This deal offers me nothing. I’ve been a subscriber for 4 years and it will mean a halving of my download quota and a doubling of the price per track.
Bye, bye e-music.
I saw this in an article in the New York Times today. First thought: “Oh shit, how long before they raise prices AGAIN?” Didn’t wait too long, huh, Danny Douchebag?
As a long time subscriber (hell, I can remember when you could download unlimited songs for a flat fee, but that was before eMusic added a boatload of great indie labels, so I was cool with it), I can’t see any advantage to this. I have an internet radio show and have come to rely HEAVILY on eMusic as a source of new music for the show. I could easily list 100-200 great unknown bands and labels that I NEVER would have heard of were it not for eMusic.
I was a Connisseur subscriber at 300 DLs for $75/mo. Now you’re cutting my DLs by 67% and cutting the price by less than 50%? How am I supposed to be “excited” about that? So some goober can download Michael Jackson albums? The irony is now all those idiots who show up after Christmas every year and complain that eMusic sucks and there’s nothing good here will finally have a site they can enjoy. It’s too bad that the people who have supported eMusic through the years get kicked in the balls so the masses can have their Springsteen a little more cheaply.
Now I’ll have to go steal music just like everyone else!
Buh-bye, eMusic!
So, emusic offers more mainstream music, and the customer gets less downloads for the same money. Old number of downloads? More money. And the benefits of this? Beyonce? Pearl Jam? Michael Jackson?! No thanks, no thanks, and no thanks.
Something has gone wrong with your vision. I was paying less than 30 cents per download, and now that will double to over forty cents per download. I will mass download in June and sign off for good. Thanks for a good year. And, BOOO HISSSSSSS. Click.
You guys owe us an explanation — and fast. Or a plan that addresses our concerns (everybody’s favorite: grandfather us in, and let the new people you will undoubtedly attract — and who will change the indie culture of eMusic — pay your higher rates).
For now, as you can see, people are drawing the worst conclusions, and you are going to be hemorrhaging a LOT of memberships. And for what?
To compete with behemoths like iTunes and Amazon — who will crush you with their pricing power if they feel even remotely threatened by you? (And who, by the way, have ALL the major labels and allow people to download at higher rates and only what they want and when they want.)
A risk of US government (FTC or DOJ) action or a class-action lawsuit? (You are on record as telling us: “Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.” Bait and switch, plain and simple. It’s against the law, in case you don’t know it.)
Remember “New Coke”? Remember Sony’s disastrous attempt at putting malware on their own customers’ computers?
WHY…? Why? WHY intentionally alienate virtually your entire customer base, which you have so long and lovingly built up, in order to try to be the last whore in this tawdry major label marketplace?
One day, the eMusic disaster may well be taught in business schools under the rubric of “how to trash your brand, sell your soul, and STILL lose everything…”
PLEASE wake up before it’s too late.
In a way it’s kind of cool that I will be quitting eMusic. I will save money and time and I can listen to the music I have and start going to CD stores again.
Thanks eMusic for forcing me out as a customer, I will definitely make the best of it.
I was pretty shocked when I first read this news, but after thinking about it for awhile, it makes a lot of sense for emusic.
There are only so many indie music lovers out there, whereas casual music listeners number in the millions, if not billions.
I’m sure the head honchos at emusic understand they will be losing a big chunk of their current subsriber base with the price increase, but they will probably make a net gain in new customers once news spreads about the type of bands available on the site. It’s tough to find people like me who love to find new bands that no one has ever heard of, and it’s much simpler to convince the average joe to subscribe when they can find stuff they know and love.
I have yet to make a decision whether I will continue to subscribe. I’ll probably give it a few months.
Frankly, we were spoiled with the old pricing structure, but that doesn’t make me want it back any less.
Good luck trying to take on iTunes and Amazon at their own game while not even having your current subscriber base to back you up.
No wonder David Pakman left.
”
Danny, after reading all the comments here, I have to agree that this is basically a sellout of your brand and your brand’s followers. Worse, you are positioning it like it’s some kind of plus we all have been clamoring for.
It’s dishonest and possibly even illegal. You are facing a potential class action here — this is a clear case of false advertising (how many people here, including me, “paid forward” for annual or longer subscriptions without it being disclosed that eMusic could pull a bait and switch?).
I urge to do the right thing — let all of us who are grandfathered in opt out of the SONY crap. Not only is it the right thing to do for your brand and your fans — it will cover your ass: Before you count the money, you might just want to ask your lawyers about FTC action, and about class certification. Not rock’n’roll terms, to be sure. But since you’re now leaving the safe haven of doing the right thing for the music and entering the shark-infested waters of the majors, you’re going to suddenly need a lot of high-priced lawyers.
Sleep well… I won’t be renewing.”
Pretty much my sentiments.
See you later, eMusic. I will miss you dearly.
The added collection is not worth the price increase. I had plenty to download as it was. I may have to cancel my subscription.
For now I will be keeping my subscription, but I have one foot out the door. I want to see how this shakes out–I’ll hope for the best (emusic listens, comes up with a fairer plan, continues to have the indies be the driving force behind the service), but I expect the worst. The drastic price increase is harsh, but I’m more upset about losing downloads. The wonderful thing about this service was the way it encouraged experimentation and serendipity, but no more. Fewer downloads means fewer risks, and then what’s the point?
The sad thing is that if emusic had said “Look, we need to raise prices reasonably so that a) we can keep the indie labels we have, b) make sure performers are fairly compensated, c) maybe bring back indie label we’ve lost, AND d) keep the majors on the outside looking in; so we’re going to increase your subscription but let you keep the same number of downloads,” I think you would find a very different and more positive response in these messages. The addition of the Sony catalog along with the slap-in-the-face delivered to loyal subscribers makes it pretty clear that emusic has a new target demographic of listeners who feel it’s their purpose in life to make sure Mariah Carey keeps livin’ large.
DISCLAIMER: yet one more long-time Emu fan bitching and moaning about price increase
I understand eMusic’s need to change with the times and be ready to respond to market trends and demands – however, with this news of eMusic’s ‘big changes’ – this news of my plan being irradicated is unwelcome.
i now pay the same price and lose 20 downloads a month. how is that rewarding consumer-loyalty? quick answer: it’s not.
i’m crying foul on this one. heck, i might even cry fowl. chicken. caving in to the weight of major labels because their business model is dying. so, eMusic throws them a line at MY expense? the expense of an independent music fan? i could really give two craps about BMG/Sony – LET. THE. MAJORS. DIE. don’t let them pollute the eMusic charts.
the major labels are drowning and eMusic is going to let them take it down with them.
how about you reward your long time consumers by grandfathering their plans into the new model instead of making us shoulder the financial burden of this new deal with the devil.
the word lame was invented for situations as this.
So my annual plan, which I have had for 5 years, and which gives me 90 downloads a month, will be downgraded to 35 downloads a month come December.
This is a BIG increase. Right now I pay $191.90 a year for 90 downloads a month, or $0.18 a song. Next year I will pay $171.99 for 35/month, or $0.41 a song — a 128% price hike!
Way to reward old and loyal customers, Danny.
Oh well, it’s been a good run, and now the party is over. I hope these big price increases mean than the indie, jazz and international artists whose music brings me to eMusic will get more money now. But I really doubt it, especially when “Born To Run” crowds them off the best-seller lists.
I have to think carefully now about whether or not to renew in December. You will probably lose me. And I certainly won’t be proselytizing for you anymore. In the meantime, I look forward to sucking down my 90 songs a month until it’s done.
Good luck with your new major label “friends.” Pay attention — they will teach you so much more about screwing your customers.
Yep. Ditto. Rewind, repeat.
Adding major label does nothing for me, and cutting my downloads from 90 to 50 is only hurting me. I’ve found a ton of great music through experimentation and discovery (lfmseek!), but I won’t be able to do that anymore.
It’s been since April of 2003. I’ll be around until the price change, but I just have to quit after that.
eMusic bosses, your silence is so incriminating. Did you not expect us to be upset?
I feel like someone bought my favorite record store, forced them out, and then acted like they were the same store as before.
Epic Fail.
I just canceled by the way; and I took the 25 DLs you offered me to stay, then canceled. I never would have done that to the old eMusic. You want to act like a big boy, I hope you fall like a big boy.
And the longer you sit silent the angrier people are going to be…jerks.
Gotta add me to the list of long-time subscribers who will probably drop if this goes through – Sony releases are uninteresting to me, I have all that I want, etc. If you seriously expect long-time subscribers to continue with this service, you need to do a much better job with describing what to expect with the new labels: will we get the entire catalog, or just whatever Sony wants to give us? Will we get albums on the day of release, or will we have to wait weeks or months (as we now do for some indie releases)? Why should we not expect another gigantic rate hike if we sign up for a year-long membership like loyal customers?
Add me to the list of the extremely disappointed. After a few good years, it looks like it may be time to move along. Having my downloads cut almost in half just to have access to music that I have no interest in? No, thanks. Not to beat a dead horse, but the average eMusic subscriber is here because it ISN’T like every other site that pushes major label artists. As a business, if it makes you more money, you have every right to make the transition. It just seems to require a huge turnover in your subscriber base.
I am not interested in the Sony back (or forward) catalog. 90 downloads a month for $20 was my chance to take risks, to buy and try new things. It’s not worth the cost with 44% less downloads.
It’s been a good run Emusic; you won’t have me as a customer after July.
Just to add my voice, but I’ll be canceling after the next batch of albums in June. I could care less about the Sony catalog and since you’re doubling the pricing and not offering much of an explanation beyond “corporate happy talk” I get the feeling you don’t love me anymore, eMusic.
I’m not only a passionate eMusic subscriber, I’ve been a frequent contributor and am proud to have my own album available through you (via Sunnyside). Your hook-up with Sony is not welcome, not particularly good news and does nothing but dilute your brand and make you a somewhat cheaper alternative to iTunes. I don’t go to eMusic to find new Sony releases (and frankly haven’t needed to find any music on Sony for a long long time. Had you chosen an alliance with Nonesuch or Island (especially to give us access to the Mango/Antilles back catalog, that might have made sense. But Sony represents the last gasp of the old music biz. it has consistently turned its back on anything new or vibrant (they signed a distribution deal with T Bone Burnett for his DMZ label, then decided not to promote the albums they released and cut the label loose…typcal); it has neglected the gems in its own archive, has been consistently negligent in the mastering & packaging & repackaging of its better artists and has very little new to offer.
Anyway, there are plenty of others who can bash Sony.
You want to distribute their music, that’s your business. But doing so at your customers expense is our business. My plan would change from just under $200 a year to….just under $500 a year. For the privilege of downloading Journey? No thanks.
BC
There’s nothing wrong with adding more labels/artists, but not at the expense of the customer. I thought you guys “got it.” The labels are DYING, but music (and art in general) is flourishing. Now isn’t the time to ally yourself with a dinosaur when there are warm blooded vertebrates popping up left and right. Someone get these people a copy of THE LONG TALE!
Thanks but no thanks, emusic. You and Sony can have fun without me. I’m off to go buy music directly from the artists and cut you guys out altogether.
eMusic, I’d just like to say:
****WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!!!!!****
You’re going to KILL the smaller artists! EVERY self-respecting current eMusic subscriber is going to leave, and the new subscribers you so desperately seek will NOT be downloading albums from smaller artists… wiping out this source of revenue to them.
I’m not an idiot. The rest of the people posting here are not idiots. Don’t TREAT us like idiots by telling how GOOD this is, when there is NOTHING good about it.
I wish nothing but a swarm of locusts upon Sony and the other big labels… do you want this fate to happen to you also?!?
Locusts… or happy customers. Which do you want?
Question back at you, emusic, who exactly is it that you expect to be happy with 2-year old major label material? (and from Sony, of all places — not exactly been a paragon of virtue, have they? but okay, these will be drm free, virus free, etc. I trust you.) The kids who log in and complain about not finding the latest pop song will *still* call you swindelleeers for not having it. And the older folks, who currently complain about not finding their favorite greatest hit from the 70′s 80′s and 90′s? Somehow I doubt they are type to spend a whole lot of money pursuing new music, no matter how easy you intend to make it for them.
I’m afraid, emusic, you’re going to lose.
Thus, I’m going to lose too. I’m the type who will download the whole album, based on the strength of a song clip or two. At about 3 bucks per album, I can afford to take a few losses. At $5 or $6 per gamble? less so.
*sigh* I’m here until Feb 2010. Don’t know where the wide wonderful world of singers, songwriters and musicians will be at that time … but I want to be with them.
I’ve been a subscriber since 2003. I am seriously thinking of canceling.
I think you are making a huge mistake. I hate the subscription model, but eMusic has still been acceptable to me because of the price and the commitment to independent artists. With these new announcements you are stepping away from the reasons that I am a subscriber in the first place. The cuts in downloads are drastic and I’m pissed off by the fact presenting it as something for which I should be excited. An apology is more suitable under the circumstances. More good stuff?!?!
Jeez, emusic! I’m so pissed right now I can’t even think straight to use the downloads that I just got!
Fact: the big labels are dying.
Fact: by instituting these changes, you risk running the business into the ground.
eMusic have lots of AMAZING artists right now. eMusic, are you REALLY in such a financial bind that you HAVE to do this? Or do you REALLY think it makes sense to jump in the same waters as iTunes and Amazon?
PLEASE tell us why you’re doing this. A little honesty can go a long way…
Fewer downloads. More money. Nothing of interest to me in your expansion. I’ll see if you’ve made any moves to treat existing members right when my prepaid plan comes up in January.
I don’t care that it’s half the cost of iTunes – I have never bought a single track from them. You just raised the cost of experimenting above my threshold. How do you figure that you’ll expand your membership enough by this move to more than make up for driving off your current uber-loyal members?
A very disappointing move, one that many poorly managed companies make. Instead of controlling costs, add the cost to the customer. I made a career out of not only advising these poorly managed companies, but also designing and installing management controls to focus their (management’s) attention on business rather than on internal conflicts.
While some may want major labels, others do not. Forcing every customer to accept major labels is a dictatorship, and we all know what happens to dictatorships.
While I occasionally will download a major label artist, the track or tracks would be ones that I like, not particularily ones that are played 4 or 5 times each day on a radio station. And, as they are major label artists, I expect to pay more for those tracks.
I enjoy finding superb music by relatively unknown artists, and subsequently I support those artists by purchasing their music. Now I am forced to pay major label artist fees for those previously offered at a reasonable rate. Those reasonable rates were presumably agreed with the artist who recognized that in order to become successful they needed to get their names and tracks published. That avenue for them is closing quickly with your change. You are becoming commerical radio.
As others have mentioned, I will download a complete album based on a clip, and many times I end up downloading a track that lasts 20 seconds and offers nothing in the way of music. Seems to me you should have made huge profits on those tracks.
I am sure you (eMusic) are aware of many sites today that offer free downloads of selected music. In fact, many of them offer these tracks at 320, not just streaming.
Given my experience world-wide for over 20 years at teaching managers how to pay attention to business and reduce costs, I expect eMusic to meet extremely serious times in the very near future. Perhaps you have heard of companies going under due to lack of customers?
Perhaps instead of paying top dollar to hire ‘publicity experts’ to tell us the GOOD NEWS, you might have considered spending the same amount of money to hire specialists to straighten out your organization. Taking that action would have given you an opportunity to save money not just this year but for years and years, provided you continued to follow their directions.
Instead you took the weak manager’s position: raise prices and ignore customers and solvable problems. Easy to solve? Absolutely not, as it takes balls to be tough.
Respond already, Danny Stein. You are alienating the vast majority of those who got eMusic to where it was.
This point has been made a few times above, but I’ll reiterate it: I don’t like the idea of my subscription money making it into the pockets of the major labels. I pay my $12 every month because I feel that the small, niche artists that make their music available here are richly deserving of my financial support.
In contrast, I feel that Sony, Columbia, etc. do not need or deserve my money. For example, I have a deep, unceasing love for Pearl Jam; but the artists and their label have profited enough from their work, and they will continue to do so without my help. I realize that if I don’t download any of their tracks, little of my subscription money will go to these newly added labels; however, I still find it objectionable — especially since their being added to emusic has resulted in an increased price-per-track for all tracks. In this way, I feel like I’m paying for music that I won’t even listen to. (In fact, since I already bought most of Pearl Jam’s music 10 years ago, it feels like I’ll be paying for it again).
I can see why emusic made this move, but I think that the price hike does a disservice to those emusic customers that won’t even consider downloading these new tracks. My perception was that such people were the “core” customers of emusic — the loyal customers that allowed emusic to grow and survive.
Hmmmmm. Better be REALLY good additions for a 33% increase in price per song. Not a particularly customer friendly way to support your exisiting users. Maybe you should have considered the way Netflix supported its early adopters by grandfathering pricing. Virtually 100% retention and very high upgrade rate. Again, hmmmm.
Right now I split my purchases across sites. eMusic is often expensive when the entire album is downloaded since you don’t offer album pricing. With this increase, the reasons for eMusic subscription are plummeting.
Tally me down for the terrible decision vote. It’s been said quite a bit already that THE major demographic of this site is being pushed away rather than further integrated. Business is business, and maybe it’s the best decision for eMusic, but the last thing I want to do is spend more money so people can have access to the Boss.
Thanks for the great music since 2005. It was a real great way to get to know indie bands for cheaper than what iTunes and now Amazon wants to ask from us. While the new pricing guide suggests downloads still cheaper than what those two offer still, I am very very disappointed that in order to please the mass market, everyone has to pay for it.
So thanks, but good bye
I doubt this is about what your customers want. Short and sweet: I will not pay higher prices, I will cancel my membership.
I personally am ok with them adding Sony and even raising the prices a bit. I’ve already been through one price hike, but didn’t mind that because I got more downloads a month too. I really don’t like going from 50 to 30, but this place is still a way better deal than iTunes and Amazon both of which I rarely use. It would be nice if the service reduction is less… like 50 to 40. Honestly, I guess this was too good of a deal to last.
I think a lot of people on here are going overboard with the complaining though. eMusic still has the best selection for the price even with this rate hike, and if you leave here what are you going to do? Pay more money for the same stuff at iTunes and Amazon, wow that’ll show ‘em. Please. I love the subscription model personally. The other services don’t have that. I won’t be leaving because there is no other service like this.
While I may already have some of the Sony catalog on cd that interested me back when I bought those things, there is still quite a bit I never picked up and always wanted but refused to pay 9.99 or more for a download of if from iTunes. Sony has a great back catalog of music that doesn’t suck, that’s a plus to me.
I’ll also agree that I think it is rather annoying to add Sony yet we still don’t have Sub Pop and some other important indie labels. Even In The Red seems to lag really far behind as we don’t have any of their new albums. I actually had to go to the store and buy the new Blank Dogs album.
Anyway, it’s cool to add Sony, just a shame our plans are losing so much value. I understand that price hikes will happen, but this is pretty steep. Just please don’t lose the indie focus and don’t let the majors run the show here. They are great examples of total failure in the digital age, don’t follow them.
Count me among the seriously unhappy! I don’t come here for major label fare. I come here for the indies, and I was always thrilled that your company championed indie labels and artists in the face of the festering leeches the major labels have become, promoting over-produced, over-hyped flavor of the month while cheating many an artist out of profits they should be receiving, or simply dropping them mid-stream while high-jacking the rights to their unreleased material. And when business sours? Blame the consumer!
So now I should be happy that in order to offer us their old leftovers you are cutting out fully a third of my downloads??? For the same price I’ll be getting 2-3 fewer albums per month? This really sticks in my craw.
This is crud. I went through a rate increase, but they jumped up the number of songs, now I am paying for what I originally paid $9.00 for a month for $12 a month. I can find oversold albums like the strokes and prince at the local flea market and garage sales for a dollar apiece (or less) and rip them in the same amount of time that it takes to download an album. I am going to probably stick with amazon daily downloads that mainly feature the same top albums at emusic and their $5 album deals to supplement my disc digging at used stores. The added bonus is that I will not have to automatically have money drained from my bank account each month, I will be free to make a decision based on what I want to spend. No thanks emusic!
Been on eMusic since Sept 2005. Sad, but my subscription ends July 2nd 2009. I will not pay 33% extra for Celine Dion.
The end of a good thing. If I want this type of “upgrade” I can bottom-fish at Amazon. eMusic has been a great place for experimenting and exploring without being exploited. Not anymore. Why not a 2-tier pricing model? Would that have been so hard to figure out?
How about the increase in price for existing albums going 100% to the artists that produced them? So many opportunities to do this right, all squandered.
emusic, you are screwing your independent artists with the mess that you are creating. The blog posts on 17dots trying to rationalize this sell-out are nothing more than a total cop out.
You are ripping me off! Changing my plan without option. I don’t care about your expanding catalog. You told me before that I was grandfathered in… now you are ripping me off. SHOCK. Do you run credit card companies also? This is how they change their interest rates. BAM. Too bad. This just do it. Until there has been laws passed against credit card companies. I know what’s this got to do with emusic? Can’t you see the similarities? Terrible how you treat your customers. Come on, you should think of your customers that are already members. I have been for years. That may end. After all there are more download sites than itunes and amazon. Don’t have that thought,
‘ well, cancel if you don’t like it” Why wouldn’t we. Shisters?
This is very bad news. I’ve never posted a response to anything online. I’ve been a member for years and will have my 90 downloads cut to 50. This means I will not want to take any chances on the music I select to download. In fact, after a couple of months I’ll probably just quit so I can spend my money more specifically on exactly what I want to buy. I don’t care about these major labels that are being added to the mix. Those artists don’t interest me. If they do, I already own their music. eMusic should be about finding new artists. That’s it, eMusic. The end.
FIRE THE CEO DANNY STEIN
Twist and Shout . com offers independent downloads and they are the best independent record cd store in the United States. Check it out. They ship.
Another long time subscriber here. I couldn’t possibly care any less about Sony, or any other major label. eMusic has been my gateway to discovering tons of new music over the years that I never would have taken a chance on at a higher price point. After October, that will be over. I’ll spend the money on cd’s or vinyl of stuff I already know I like.
I have been a subscriber to eMusic for many reasons. The major ones were value and quality. I loved the idea that no major labels were involved because I knew that it would affect pricing. Now that they are coming onboard I will no doubt have to move on. I guess I would rather use Amazon’s service than eMusic simply because it didn’t change. If eMusic wants to fit in it can. It will just have to do so without me. Hopefully another service will appear to take up the mission of providing underground/indie music at a good value.
Until then I’ll have to get by with bleep, enpeg, and Amazon.
“Hopefully another service will appear to take up the mission of providing underground/indie music at a good value.”
It’s called lala.com
Lets get the point out of the way first: if this change really happens, I’ll be joining the stampede of loyal eMusic members right out the back door.
I’ve been stewing over this all day long, and increasingly my biggest grievance is now the lack of transparency with the whole thing. If there really is a rock-solid or inevitable reason for this change, THEN TELL IT TO US STRAIGHT. Don’t insult me with the whole “Great news! We’re giving you half as many songs for the same price!” bit – just explain to me candidly why you thought this had to happen.
Great example: How many people on here participated in the Campaign to Save Paste? They’re a great company who fell on hard times, so they turned to their loyal customers in complete honesty with a plea for help, and the money came pouring in in droves. They valued and respected their customer base, and the customers in turn took good care of the company when they needed it. There’s a lesson here, eMusic. Don’t treat us like idiots or collateral damage – we are the one who built you and have made you what you are today. Are we really that expendable?
SHOW US SOME RESPECT AND DO THE RIGHT THING, MR. STEIN, AND PUT TOGETHER A CANDID RESPONSE TO ALL OF THIS JUSTIFIED OUTRAGE.
It’s the least you could do.
From unlimited downloads for $8/mo. to 40 downloads for $8/mo. to 210 downloads over 6 mo. for $96 ? Less than half the downloads for twice the price ? Sorry, folks, that ain’t gonna work for me.
I am appalled that my plan should change from 90 downloads per month to 35 downloads per month for nearly the same cost per month. This is a reduction in my downloads of nearly two thirds. Is this more of the good stuff? Absolutely not! What a disingenuous title for this announcement. When my plan was grandfathered in, assurances were given that the grandfathered plans were permanent as long as we remained members. If this matter is not rectified by the time my plan is supposed to renew, I expect I will quit emusic. Getting the major labels is not worth such a price increase to me.
eMusic (long known as a good place) Sony (well known for the RootKit)
Why would you even go near these people, I would not give a dime to sony, and will now cancel since you are obviously giving them something. Bad Move !!!!
This is just an excuse for a 50% price increase. You add more stuff and then cut the number of downloads and don’t have any annual plans with 100 or more downloads.
You’ve just became iTunes Lite.
FRAG YOU!
Not going to re-hash, but I will be cancelling my subscription no later than July 19–the day before your new, outstanding, blah blah blah pricing plan takes effect on my account. Good luck, but this was too bitter a pill to swallow. Particularly since I sometimes forget my downloads…
This is Horrible news!!!!
I do not download any tracks from these companies nor will I ever. Big companies like these actually destroy the purity of music in my opinion. Why should the addition of these Labels drive up the cost of my subscription when I have no interest in searching through their catalogs of music. This is really terrible, I have been using emusic with pride for a long time. I would tell my friends how great it is to use this site as an avenue for independent artists. I’m totally in love with the catalog it currently has and I do not see the needed to change. I cannot speak for everyone but I know that I will be canceling my subscription if the cost of adding these labels drives the cost of my subscription. I will lose 40 downloads a month for music that I have no interest in. This is ridiculous! If Emusic can engineer a way where they can remove the new and added catalogs from Arista, Columbia, etc from my searches and allow me to keep the same subscription I’ve had I’m here to stay. If I lose 50 percent of downloads for music I don’t care for, I’m definitely saying goodbye…. It was fun while it lasted…..
-Mike
Fergus wrote:
When my plan was grandfathered in, assurances were given that the grandfathered plans were permanent as long as we remained members. If this matter is not rectified by the time my plan is supposed to renew, I expect I will quit emusic.
No, Fergus, you (we) should sue. It’s against the law. That’s why I keep mentioning to Danny that this is a risk of class action (or government action) against eMusic.
Here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking about this since I heard the news, and it occurred to me on my drive home that eMusic customers now have a pretty safe card to play:
Since we’re losing the grandfather pricing, it’s no longer in our interest to remain loyal to eMu.
However, if enough of eMu’s customers walk, then it will die a well-deserved death, and something else will come along to do its job. Like it or not, eMu, you’ve created a niche for music-obssessed indie fans and that market void will get filled. Maybe not by a company as stylish or as (formerly) cost-conscious as you, but that niche will get filled. Hopefully, the current indie labels associated here might band together with a Matador or Sub Pop leading the way to create a truly indie(and jazz, folk, etc.)-only concept.
The only way that we loyal fans can lose is if we adopt the new insipid major-driven formula and limp along with it in a half-baked version of what we actually want. Zombies like that can live for a long time. In the end, if we go along with this new format, we’ll belie our major reason for being here, and obscure the fact that a truly independent music market actually exists.
The new eMu is better off dead. Time to unsubscribe.
This is an insult, but I should have seen this coming. Previous comments have covered how I feel very well, so I won’t be redundant.
After June, I’m outta here. I’ll be visiting lala.com, and I want everyone to be aware there are FREE music sites with good high quality music downloads from unsigned artists such as alonetone, Soundclick, MacIdol, etc.
I’d rather not add a major label and keep prices where they are. I’m sure I won’t last long at the new price level. A 5 or 10 % increase is one thing, a 35-40% increase, for music that I’m not really interested in, is another. I have the major labels; I come to emusic for the indie labels. Your aditions of Soul Note, Black Saint, Honest Jon’s and so forth were really exciting to me. Sony/Columbia, eh, I can get those anywhere.
Here are things that will happen when you raise prices in the face of customers whose dollars are already shrinking.
1. You will get cancellations from breaking your agreements.
2. Independent artists will get less exposure.
3. More peer-to-peer and illegal downloading sites will spring up.
4. The world will hear less music.
Is any of that good for any of us?
Emusic really should be ashamed with the way you have framed this debate. Instead of increasing the profit margins for the Artists and indie labels who have made you, and the loyal customers that followed, you are instead lining your pockets and the coffers -if not coffins – of majors like sony.
As it’s been said here at least 250 times before me, I’ll certainly be canceling in the future and paying my money to people like othermusic.com and local record stores who consistently adapt and sacrifice to ensure that there loyal customers keep coming back. I feel like shit that I ever supported eMusic. It’s like a deal with the devil. I had truly sold my music soul for cheap downloads, only to see my favorite stores begin to disappear, telling myself that this was the future of independent music, because I really believed emusic would figure out how to make it work. Meanwhile, their unstated goal was to simply make more money, under the auspice of authenticity and revolution – I cry foul.
I celebrate your move to mediocrity and hope you all prove us wrong – then I won’t have to feel bad about supporting you for all of these years while artists got exploited by your cheap pricing schemes.
I’m rather perturbed. I was told I was grandfathered in the last time prices increased. Now I have lost 40 downloads per month and all I get is a bunch of crap mainstream music that I wouldn’t have wanted in the first place. I’ve expanded your subscriptions through word of mouth about the greatness on eMusic. I loved the affordability, the insights, and the ability to help support indie bands. Now you are giving your support to major labels as well. Shame on you. Do the indie bands get reimbursed in the same manner as the major label bands? I never saw any info as to what the bands are getting out of my subscription. I will be seriously considering cancellation of my membership.
lame. i already miss you eMu. it was fun while it lasted…
Maybe someone from eMusic’s legal department could explain their legal interpretation of this statement which they sent to me and many others in October of 2006.
“Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
I can only echo many of the comments here. My downloads are going down almost 50%, but I’m not very interested in what I’m getting in return. I suspect I’ll cancel as well.
I agree with most who have already posted. I am having to pay twice as much per track to have music available on the site I am not interested in. If I were interested, there are other places for me to get it.
If I increased fees by 2 times in my buisiness, I would surely go out of business. I fear this is the new fate of emusic.
The main draw for me with emusic was being able to sample music for low risk/price. With that benefit gone, I will simply discontinue my membership. It has been a good 4 years but I guess it had to end sometime.
Finally, a plan which benefits the rest of the world while screwing over the US. I LIKE!!! NZ ftw!
You really blew this transition, emusic. Clearly, indie labels have been trying to figure out how to release music on the site in a way that’s profitable for them; a couple years back, Drag City decided there was no way to do that and dropped out. If this transition had something more in it for long-term subscribers than a one-off booster pack and was more explicitly about providing more cash to the indie labels, I think you’d have avoided a subscriber revolt. Pegging the change on Sony was a mistake; whoever decided to do that has one hell of a tin ear. I’ve been an embarrassingly vocal advocate of emusic since I started in 2006–so much so that I sounded like a shill, even to myself. The site seemed too good to be true, and apparently was.
The only reason I’m holding on to my subscription at the moment is in hopes that you’ll reconsider your decision not to honor any of the grandfathered accounts. Don’t much expect that to happen, though, and if it doesn’t, I figure I’ll probably be a subscriber 4 months out of the year.
Rick, if you are serious. In fact we (I am in Australia) are getting screwed over more. We use the US version of the site so we get the price increases and credit reductions but we will not (according to eMusic’s own statements and the depressing reality of geographical distrib ararngements) be getting the Sony catalogue.
Higher prices for fewer downloads. Looks like emusic is losing its independent feel already. The virtue of the independent record store is that you can get alot of stuff for cheap — we’re not the people who shell out $18.99 for one blockbuster Coldplay or Britney cd every 4 months. We’re the obscurists, the experts, the guys with massive record collections who look out for stuff that’s under the radar, left of the dial. This price hike (and download cut back) seems totally antithetical to our aesthetic as listeners.
And, really, if you don’t have the essential cds from megastar acts like The Clash and The Sex Pistols – what are you doing on emusic, anyhow?
BAD MOVE. Pretty much everyone I know on emusic is thinking about cancelling.
I for one don’t need or want any major catalogue choices. I have a hundred save for later and need all the downloads I can get. This is a typical marketing ploy from some exectutive to try to make more money and leave the loyal subscriber in the dirt. thanks for 7 years I will be canceling my subscription
“Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
where’s the integrity?
Prediction:
Jobs sues emusic and Sony and delays emusic rolling out the Sony back catalog. (Why wouldn’t he? emusic is getting a better deal than iTunes.)
emusic pisses off most of its customers and a bunch of its independent artists and has a big, big problem.
I’ve been wrong before, but this development has to stick in Apple’s and Amazon’s craw and I would think that they are contemplating action.
And one last point: I”m going to miss my fellow grandfathered members – folks who knew what the fuck they were talking about. You guys were great. I can’t tell you how many albums I’ve downloaded based on the user reviews. Sigh. Get ready for pages and pages of misspelled and irrelevant reviews. I’m going to blow the dust off my torrent client…
I am very upset. i don’t want that major label music. That’s why I joined emusic… but then you tell me you are going to cut my downloads in half or will make me pay double. I may as well just use Rhapsody… or, dare I say it, iTunes. This is very disappointing.
Add me to the growing list of disappointed, long term customers. All along I appreciated everything that made Emusic different than the rest…now they’ve simply become the rest. It had been a tolerable “use it, or lose it” business model. Let’s see how many customer’s enjoy that crap at double the price. Goodbye emusic.
I’m sorry to hear this. I signed up with emusic because I wanted to find interesting, obscure music that wasn’t signed with the major labels, and to read that I would now have to pay more to get less is a deal-breaker for me. I’ve just cancelled my account.
I’ll be back if emusic decides to change your mind on the pricing change. I honestly don’t care about the new additions.
Danny, you’ve just been had. Sony couldn’t care less for the $$$ from emusic sales, but it’s been a sore in their eye. People like us, having a CHOICE in music selection, FREEDOM to experiment, taste — it’s a threat to their business model: music industry by numbers. What they want is to invest money in promotion, MTV/radio play, cash in their 20% margin, and get out. This used to work great with the Top 40 radio crowd, and the same 10 artists in rotation. This model falls apart in the net age, thus the “majors” are the dying skunks. New diverse labels and artists, trading directly to the public, will finish it off. Despite the e-music’s sell-out. It still hurts, though. This used to be a great place for the indy artists to find their listeners, among the people who wouldn’t mind experimenting a bit, for a low fee. Now, in the time of crisis rivaling Great Depression, you’re jacking up prices, reducing the choice (cause people will experiment less after the downloads have been slashed) and trying to spin it as a pure goodness to us?
I think we’ve made ourselves heard. Your move now.
My guess is this change has been coming for a long time and is the reason David Pakman left eMusic….because he knew this would be a disaster.
Either that or as a result of him leaving, the people steering the ship have no clue. Well that last part is true either way.
Given the economic climate at the major labels, the distinction between majors and indies in terms of promotion has been blurring for some time. However, the main difference is that major labels tend to sign acts that they think will sell units whereas indie labels tend to sign acts they are passionate about, so it’s more of a difference of intent more than anything else.
From a business standpoint, this makes perfect sense. Danny and eMusic are not doing this as a charitable institution; this is his livelihood, as well as that of all those who are employed there. It is part of the responsibility of eMusic’s management team to keep the business viable. Nobody profits if eMusic can’t survive because they can’t attract new subscribers. The simple fact of the matter is that indie music is a niche market in a lot of ways, and while obviously eMusic has done very well up to this point, being beloved by indie music fans is only going to take them so far. I, for one, will be happy to see original tracks from artists rather than lame cover versions by one or two members of the original band recorded 20 years after the fact. I hope that Sony will make an effort to release out-of-print tracks by artists that eMusic subscribers would be passionate about (such as the Icicle Works) which would help differentiate eMusic from other services like Napster, Amazon and iTunes.
I don’t find it necessary to cancel my subscription. Oh, I’m not happy with the price increase, but the price of everything has gone up and quite frankly, eMusic is still a bargain compared to every other site out there. My only concern is that eMusic doesn’t over-promote within the site Sony artists who don’t need it so much as other artists on smaller labels that could use the spotlight more. That would be a shame.
Count me as another long time subsciber that you are loosing! I have been paying $15 for 65 dloads for many years, and you are rewarding me by cutting my downloads in half??! I don’t want the big label stuff, and if you are going to offer it don’t make me pay for what I don’t want. If you want to keep me, provide two plans: one the way it was, with no access to the majors, and one at the higher price for people who want it. Believe me, other carriers have this market already, by doing this you are going to lose the market you already have. And you are going to lose them, just read some of the above posts.
NOT HAPPY AT ALL! This seems like the beginning of a bad thing…
I came to this site to find cutting edge indie tracks, not Sony’s back catalog. This is NOT where I feel eMusic should be heading!
And the thing I’m most upset about is the change to the “grandfathered” plan I’m in… yeah you’ll drop the price about 11 bucks a year, but cut my downloads from 90 to 35 a month!!!!!!! That truly, truly sucks ass!
I’m seriously thinking about not renewing… and hand pick what I want from Amazon.
I don’t want to subsidize Major Label “classics” and super-platinum-flavor-of-the-month with my credits. So I get less of the little-known music I love so someone can say “oh look, they have Wu-Tang Clan!”
I’d be happy if I got less credits in exchange for lossless files or something, but why pay more for something I’m not going to use? I can get that stuff elsewhere.
I’ll keep my subscription for now, but what used to be a no-brainer auto-renewal is now going to be something I really think about the necessity of every month.
boo. you mutts totally gutted my plan. not worth it at all. what garbage.
To address the final question in Danny’s post: it doesn’t matter what I think, because eMusic clearly does believe there’s a difference between “major” and “indie.”
As of July, I’m getting 17 less tracks for the same amount of money. I don’t think there’s a difference between the “major” and “indie”–there were some artists I thought might download of the many new artists being offered here, but just having the *opportunity* to do so means I get less for my money than I did previously.
So despite what is said here, “indie” artists like Sufjan and The Grizzly Bears and Earl Hines and Vladislav Delay and Okvervil River literally aren’t worth as much to eMusic as the artists eMusic is bringing in next month…and my value as a current “indie” customer isn’t worth as much to eMusic as all the “major” music fans it should be able to bring in.
Nice work building your brand on my back, eMusic. I hope now that it’s allowed you to cut deals and reach a new audience, you’ll be able to sustain it, because I suspect much of the loyalty and identity you’ve commanded up until now from customers like me will not be there for you.
Danny –
I wrote before as an e-music subscriber, but now I am writing as a Marketing man, which is my profession. Having read all of the comments, I would say that you might want to reconsider your new plans. Perhaps raise the price $1 month for us current subscribers and charge new subscribers anything you want — they won’t know the difference just as we current subscribers had no points of comparison when we joined. A basic marketing premise is not to alienate the customers you already have. And you clearly have a savvy and loyal core audience. And one on the verge of alienation.
Well, crap! This just sucks. Pardon my French. I am on the 780 annual downloads (65 a month) for $143.90. After November, when my year expires, I would go to 288 downloads (24 a month) for $129.99. Great! I save $13.91 but loose 492 downloads!
Well, I will give this place a chance until it is time to renew. But unless I am wowed by the new catalog, it is Amazon for me. Keep in mind that the vast majority of time I download compete albums and both iT and A already offer discounts for album download. Advantages? Better bit rate and I don’t have to worry about downloads expiring.
Re: Springsteen and B. Joel
Don’t get me wrong, I love them. I’ve loved them since I was in my teens. So I have had plenty of time to buy the CDs. And rip them. Why on earth would I want to download stuff I already have? Or I can get cheap as a used CD.
it was fun while it lasted… a long time customer here that has made dozens of referrals over the years.
.:.the scene changes (bud powell)
This is harsh.
I have been with you since the very beginning. Back then it was $9.99 for unlimited downloads. Then I was forced to accept 40 downloads for the same price. I was disappointed but I also felt that allowing unlimited downloads was business suicide and I sure wanted you to continue!
I was then forced to pay $11.99 but you gave me 10 more downloads per month for staying and paying. Fair enough. But NOW you just lop off 20 downloads – taking me BELOW the $9.99 amount – and I still pay the higher forced price?
Believe me, I find fantastic music everywhere – major and indie labels – and I have especially wanted Blue Note recordings to be on eMusic, but to drop to the lowest number of dloads ever for a higher price that was forced on me is too much and even suspect.
Reconsidering everything.
What do I think? I think emusic promised me that I would retain my current 90 downloads for $19.95 plan as long as I’ve maintained my account in good standing. Which I’ve done.
And now, they’re telling me that that guarantee is meaningless. Didn’t mean anything. Unethical, irresponsible, and absolutely unacceptable. The lawyers will get rich trying to straighten this out.
Shame on you emusic. Shame.
This is a sad day, you are letting your niche slip away, emusic. I’ve always been passionate about supporting struggling, independent artists. Your new role with major labels, that take advantage of musicians, will alienate your loyal customers.
Arn’t you guys thinking about this? Theres a reason why people choose this service over itunes! The price hike I can take, but to see that extra money (30-40%!!!) go to a major label is terrible. We know that money isn’t going to the indie artists.
You guys provided a great service, connecting artists with music fans, but it looks like that time is up.
I have been subscriber for very, very long time. At leaast 7 years.
This is just not right: My per song price is going to jump from 23 to 41 cents!!!
Almost double!!!!!!!!
The least emusic should do is to leave option for current customers to remain with plan they already have.
I don’t care in particular for Sony’s back catalog and other commercial-low-quality music, otherwise I would use itunes.
What is going to be difference between emusic and itunes anyway after this price jump?
How are indie labels going to survive drop in sales and revenue due to fact that emusic is going to lose most of customers???
Shame!!!
So long, emusic. Nice service you had there.
I mean, shoot, I can’t even think of one Arista release worth the vinyl it was stamped on since 1978. I’m supposed to be excited about paying 40 cents a track and $6 or more per album for that?
A 60% price increase?
Arista! As if!
Sad. I was a 200 a-month user (only since about January) and have been going hog wild downloading tons of great stuff indie, jazz, classical, poetry, folk… loved the catalog, loved the price, my only frustration was running out of downloads with a week or more to go. Now you bump me down to 100 a month? for about the same amount of money? To pay for Sony’s back list that’ll probably be available at amazon and iTunes for less by August?
I finally joined emusic after my best friend’s local record store finally went bust; Our many discussions about why that happened (mostly greed and ignorance at the top of the industry) show that emusic is continuing in the glorious tradition of music industry bean counters pretending that music fans are such obsessional suckers that they’ll stand for anything as long as they get their music. It seems obvious from the previous posts that, yet again, not so much. I teach high school and have a pretty good handle on what people under the age of 30 are up to: of my four friends who are serious music fans, two of the three over 35 are longtime emusic subscribers (the third is the ex-record store owner); the 25 year old kid steals all his from some pirate site, along with most of my 18 year old students. I was just saying the other day, in regards to the b.s. bonus track/special edition swindle the majors are running for target, walmart, etc. as reported in the New York Times, actually makes me want to steal. (Which is saying a lot, from someone who has supported art, artists and musicians his whole life.)
I’m not going to start stealing, but I won’t be buying here after July.
Good luck counting your pennies from the millions who have been ignoring sony’s back list for the last 20 years in every used cd bin around the country, waiting patiently for the chance to download it here for 40 cents a song.
The votes are in guys. Are you going to listen to your customers and reverse this poor decision?
Hmmm, for me to lose 25 downloads per month and still have to pay the same price, just to have access to Sony’s back catalogue? Bullshit, I may just cancel my subscription to eMusic. It was the place to go for the hard to find indie stuff, but I may as well have a subscription to iTunes or Amazon. Stupid move on your part, but then again, when did a big corporation give a damn about the little guys who helped them get to where they are now…
It’s a bit disappointing to see this. I was going to try my darndest to keep my eMu subscription going when my annual plan re-upped next February, but I don’t think that’s realistic anymore. I’ve already found myself hard at work whittling down my saved list to make sure I didn’t have 30 albums left over when my subscription came back around, and now I’m glad I’ve made the effort.
eMusic has led me to discover so much good music that I can’t be outraged or angry; after all, it’s just business. But forcing everyone to take on Sony (when a “plus Sony” or double download cost would have worked just fine) while increasing the price by near-double is going to leave a terribly sour taste in any person’s mouth, guaranteed.
I’ve got too much to thank eMusic for to be angry, and I’m thankful that my current plan is being honored (50/month for 12 months) instead of getting some retro treatment, but I find it hard to see myself re-upping next February, which is a real shame.
I hope some more thought goes into this between now and then, because I’d like to argue for it when my extra money is so limited, but as it stands, I don’t see it.
Briefly, good and bad:
1) Disappointed in a major way because I think ultimately emusic will water down to the masses and indie music will suffer;
2) Okay with this because I”ll have a source of popular music download for my wife and daughter at prices lower than I-tunes.
As a littel bit of a concession, maybe you can let unused downloads go into an account isntead of expiring each month. Maybe cut it off at 100 or something. Often I find myself downlaoding stuff at the end of the month I ahe no real interest in jsut to avoid wasting downlaods….
I’m in agreement with the idea to charge extra downloads for Sony/deluxe content, while leaving the hundreds of thousands of independent tunes eMusic is built on at 1 download! And keep the established accounts structure intact! Let Sony pop garbage there and most (myself included) won’t buy it.
I’ll give eMusic a chance for a month or so since I owe the site that much for years of 90 downloads/month for a bargain basement $19.99. However, if I were taking bets like Vegas, I’d put the odds of me dropping my account by August at 75%.
I know I’m very much not alone here – I wouldn’t want to see the balance sheets of eMusic come August/September.
IF HAVING SONY WOULD DOWNGRADE MY PREMIUM PLUS PLAN, AND HAVE MY DOWNLOAD COST INCREASED 95%, I AM NOT USING EMUSIC. A BIG “NO”!!!
Pricing is going to make a big difference in eMusic’s mission.
Not just that the new rate is less of a bargain; you come to eMusic because you can splurge credits on bands you might not buy otherwise for the chance you might like them, because it’s low risk. You don’t have to be careful — you can be adventurous.
If tracks now cost twice as much, we’re now going to be half as adventurous.
Major label albums — you pretty much know what they are and whether you want them or not. If i really want Kind of Blue, I have no problem with buying it elsewhere for $10.
Not a lot of happy campers. Though looks like there might be some pretty happy lawyers lining up….
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said.
Consider this my Hancock on the petition.
It’s been good, eMusic.
I agree with a lot of the others here that I would download stuff just out of passing curiosity that I never would have before, because the price per download was worth it. But 40 cents a song? For that price, it’s going to have to be an artist I already like. Playing it safe. I am a big electronic music fan and I definitely won’t be downloading all the remixes I would have before. I used to download a single with several remixes, knowing there may be one or two I really like. Not worth it now. And 30 second previews don’t cut it for electronic music.
I agree with the majority of the posters here. This will most likely end my time here…..which I have enjoyed immensely. This will turn Emusic into a me too music provider ….with the lowest bit rates provided for their songs. I could justify that at the old prices but doubling the cost for a bunch of dinosaur music I either have on CD or I’m not interested in leaves me cold to say the least. I hope the research statistics are telling them they are getting a lot of new customers. They are alienating their base. A very risky business indeed.
As a subscriber for nine years, I have weathered my share of policy and pricing changes from eMusic, but I have always continued my membership. I have to say that this new change is a hard one to accept. The price increase is far more than I would have ever expected given (what I thought was) the underlying focus of eMusic, their catalog and their membership. For years I have rushed to eMusic to check out music that I heard in a club, in a music shop, on independent radio, or that was recommended to me by a friend, and I have always felt so free in trying volumes of new music. I work in sales and marketing, so I understand how improvements can raise the price of a product, but I also know that if I raised the price of my product by almost 50% overnight that my customers would say unpleasant things to me before switching to one of my competitors.
Even if I continue my membership, I will now be forced to treat eMusic no differently than I treat iTunes or Amazon, and this — more than anything — is what’s incredibly sad to me. iTunes and Amazon are fine, but I think of them like I think of a grocery store or an appliance warehouse — impersonal, utilitarian, get in and get out, know what you need before you go in. I have always thought of eMusic like my local record store, or like a friend’s basement in high school where I would just sit and discover new music for hours.
As a lifetime insomniac, I have spent literally hundreds of nights reading up on artists that were available through eMusic, downloading albums, listening, analyzing, rating songs, recommending tracks to friends etc., all while my family slept soundly and thought that I was insane. This has been my favorite place online to burn through hours of my time without feeling guilty, or like I was being unproductive.
I was disappointed when unlimited downloads went away (which was probably eight years ago or something), but I learned to love my subscription and my 90 downloads per month. I bought booster packs until I was told that I went over my limit for the month and would have to wait until the beginning of my next billing cycle. I set up a second account just to get more music. I even changed one account from a grandfathered 90 downloads to a connoisseur plan because it was cheaper than maintaining my booster pack habit.
I have been mainlining music through eMusic for nine amazing years and I am sad to see that relationship change. eMusic has outlasted relationships, jobs, cars, apartments, laptops, and countless hard drives of ever increasing size. I have not decided whether to keep my membership yet, but I won’t let the unfortunate changes affect all the great music I have downloaded and the time I have enjoyed on the site. I just feel betrayed by what I perceive as an enormous amount of greed, and a wildly inappropriate price increase.
Good luck in your new business model. Doubling the price for less than half the amounts of downloads during a recession is not a wise move. I am moving on to http://www.efolkmusic.org and elsewhere. At best if you did not want to grandfather in longtime members to their existing price structure, you should have at least given them a free month or a meaningful number of free downloads. Good luck building back up your customer base, you’ll need it.
Another disappointed customer here. Emusic’s value to me has always been twofold: firstly, a deep and comprehensive catalog of independent music, and secondly, a very low per-track cost that encouraged experimenting with that catalog. The complimentary nature of those two features made Emusic a no-brainer, and the new price structure more than halves the benefits of an account by disrupting the relationship of those two features.
I’ll be leaving when my sub is up as well, provided the planned changes are not revised in some way. I’ll miss Emusic…
Thanks emusic, this is such exciting news! So exciting that I will have to calm myself down by cancelling my subscription.
I’m another longtime customer, always telling my friends that they should give emusic a try. Thanks for screwing your loyal customers, I feel like an idiot now that I have been touting the greatness of emusic for so long. What a colossal bummer.
Well, first I want to say that the anger expressed by many in the comments is a little over stated. The per track price is still much lower than a purchase from iTunes or Amazon. I realize that this has taken everyone by surprise but we need to put everything in perspective.
I have been able to build up a great collection of jazz due to emusic. If emusic needs to increase its prices in order to survive I can understand this. I hope that the new pricing will allow emusic to provide more money to the artists or survivors (since most of the music I select is by people who are no longer with us). I think that explaining it this way and then saying that you will offer major label artist would be a better message.
I do not plan to cancel my membership. I understand that a company needs to make a profit and that economies change. I am waiting to see what additional jazz content will be added to emusic.
My current plan: $143.90 for the year, 65 downloads a month.
What eMusic proposes: $129.99 for the year and gives you 24 downloads every 30 days.
Wow – I save about $14, but I get only 1/3 of my current subscription. From $.18/track to $.45/track.
When my account renewed in early May, I considered not renewing because of the competitive prices on Amazon, especially their album of the day which I faithfully check daily – and end up buying regularly. But I renewed my eMu subscription for the year, and it looks like this will be my last year. I’ll take my $130 – $150 I spend here annually and be more experimental when Amazon offers an interesting album on sale.
My guess is, eMusic can’t handle the prices they offered long-term subscribers who have grand-fathered plans, so they’re offering us ridiculous plans that we won’t want to keep. Looks like they’re succeeding. I just wish they would have kept their word and actually honored the grandfathered accounts like they said they would.
I’ve been with you guys for about 3 years, but will be canceling once my current plan expires. Also, if you seriously intend to try to change my annual plan before it expires, I will be seeking a full refund or getting you guys investigated for fraudulent business behavior.
Ok…You had me at hello. You had me at exploring music. You still have me at the indie electronica recordings i *love*
I do NOT support RIAA affiliated labels
I do NOT want to pay a PREMIUM for RIAA affiliated music that I WILL NEVER DOWNLOAD
You have likely lost a long time customer.
Back to torrents I go.
At the end of the day you have doubled the cost of my subscription. Good for your bottom line….. leaves a very bad taste for a long term and devoted subscriber who cares little about what the major labels have to offer. Forget brand loyalty from this consumer…. knwo its all about $$ and cents.
Good job, corporate bozos. Oh boy, we get tired & lame Sony Catalog for double the price (and half the downloads).
Wow. What a massive corporate %$# you. I’ve been a subscriber for over 5 years and you just change the terms of the contract like that! Have you guys been taking tips from the credit card industry? No “thank you for your business” bonus downloads, no grandfathered subscribers. Nothing. Just – suck it and like. Honestly, I feel like I have no choice but to cancel my membership just to say “no – $#@! you
When I joined e-music the downloads were UNLIMITED. Granted that was always too good to be true, but you’ve progressively been charging more for less and now this – doubling the price in a recession!
I think you guys don’t really understand what the relationship between your subscribers and your product actually is. We’re not just bargain shoppers looking for the hottest new music and the cheapest prices. We’re people who love exploring.
The thing I loved about my deal before – 90 downloads for $25.00 (not as good as mu previous 100 for $20) was that I could try things I’d never have bought otherwise with little risk. It was really fun – I could download something, check it out and if it sucked, well, it was no big deal – DELETE! And don’t think you don’t have clunkers in your library b/c you soooooo do.
I didn’t mind that the music I DL’d wasn’t from major labels, it was a great chance to expand my library in other genres: Comedy, Bway, and lots and lots of Jazz.
I really wish you’d consider some tiered pricing. Now at 40 cents a pop, experimenting with lesser known artists, exploring an album b/c someone wrote a cool review or I like the band name just isn’t going to be worth it.
Additionally, you may want to consider a “whole album” option, b/c some of your DLs were borderline rip-offs as it is, specifically in Comedy where one album might be broken up into 20-25 tracks, each under 2 minutes. Those albums will now be cheaper in iTunes. For a while tracks that were under 1 minute were free – you should consider going back to that as well.
What a disaster. At least now when I give my $ to Steve Jobs, I’ll have the satisfaction of NOT giving it to you.
Not a great way to treat the customers who’ve been with you for years. Corporate, Major, Indie, whatever. Making good to the people who’ve got you to where you are, that’s the sign of a company that values its customers, and you are no longer that company. Negotiating to allow existing subscribers to maintain current plans, was it really that tough? Or was it the bottom line that made the difference?
Nice knowing you, Emusic.
This is unbelievable! Cutting my downloads in half, doubling the price, for a bunch of crap music that everyone here has already memorized and half-hates? Seriously? Sony? Who the heck is crying out for a ton of Sony labelled bands? You really think that your target market is interested in a bunch of has-been bands? They are looking for cutting edge music, stuff you can’t find on ITUNES! I can’t believe that you guys SO badly miscalculated this move. It’s really amazing to watch a successful business make such a huge misstep.
You are going to be hurting starting today, and you’ll feel the pain for some months, and likely years. What you’ve done with this move is not only failed to add substantial value for the price increase, but you’ve forced the burden of paying that price on loyal customers who didn’t ask for it to begin with and alienated them. You’ve also motivated them in completely the wrong way.
Congratulations on the brilliantly stupid strategic move.
Not impressed enough with the new catalog to be happy about having my downloads CUT IN HALF for the same price. Seriously, did you think I’d be soooo happy to get Michale f***ing Jackson that I wouldn’t mind losing half my downloads per month????? I really doubt you’ll be able to get enough new Top 40 customers to make up for all the indie fans you’re screwing over. THIS JUST PLAIN SUCKS!
You said you’d honor grandfathered accounts.
You lied.
Then you cut the number of downloads I get for my money almost in half.
I don’t do business with liars.
Lame sauce. I’ve been with emu for a few years now and like most of it’s users, I couldn’t give 2 shits about anything sony. Fuck sony. Fuck the price hike and Fuck Danny Stein. That’s right buddy. Thanks for the response to your loyal customers. Oh wait, you didn’t write one. Great work.
You guys really screwed up. You’re tossing a lot of customers for this nonsense. Did you really think this through?
I’m out with the rest. peace. been fun.
If I cared about CBS/Arista/Epic, etc. I’d patronize iTunes. As many others have said, you’re essentially halving the value of my subscription to subsidize the acquisition of artists I either own already or have absolutely no interest in (the latter more than the former). I’ll be gone soon as well. Sorry.
So now I get half as many downloads a month for about the same price? I don’t care for much of the Sony catalog, but I am stuck with the new plan regardless? You make $50 a month of recurring revenue off of me, and I’m feeling ripped off.
Seems like eMusic is subsidizing Sony to the detriment of smaller labels. Not to mention hurting loyal customers. That is just wrong guys.
Here’s a free suggestion: allow current subscribers to keep their existing plans and block us from downloading Sony material. Change the plan for anyone opting into Sony downloads.
You guys screwed up.
Fix it.
Danny,
Wow. I am pretty disappointed with the new pricing plan. I have been with emusic for 4 years. Since first becoming a customer, I have increased the amount of money I’ve spent here by upgrading my service plan. I loved the fact that I was able to purchase a 1 or 2 year annual plan. When the pricing plan was changed recently and emusic “grandfathered” in those with the older plans, I was grateful and spent even more money.
When I first came here, I was instantly drawn to the ‘”not mainstream” vibe. I liked that I could find music left of center. I really felt as if I was in a small music shop “sorting through” the different “bins” of music. I’ve found some amazing music here. I have loved everything about this site and passionately told my friends about it. I post links to the site on my facebook page. Hell, I even tell strangers about your site.
While I appreciate the wider variety you will be offering, the new pricing plan really hurts us long time customers. I will be losing 180 downloads a year while paying almost $50 more per year. That is hard for me to swallow. My download per track price has jumped from about 24 cents per track to 46 cents per track. Granted, that is still a great price, but I’m not sure it’s a price I’m willing to pay, especially since it means less music for me.
I will acknowledge that you have been good about taking care of your long time customers in the past. I respect that and truly appreciate it. Perhaps once September rolls around I will renew my plan at the higher cost. If I felt I was getting “more for my money” I would do it in a heartbeat. However, as a consumer, paying more for less doesn’t seem to make sense to me. I guess we will have to wait and see. I hope you re-consider the new plan, or at least, find a way to make your long time supporters feel a little bit better about what they are getting for their money. While the “wider variety” is a plus, it hurts that it comes with such a heavy price.
With respect,
Scott
This letter is disgusting. That my allotted downloads are being cut to just over half of what it is now and that the price per track will come very close to doubling is some of the most dissapointing news I’ve heard in years. May sound pathetic, but that’s how much I valued what I had. But what really pisses me off is how disingenuously it’s being pushed on us. Others have commented on this so I won’t repeat it here. I’m not the type to diss on bands I like when they sign to the majors. I’ve even begrudgingly accepted some of my favorite artists allowing their music to be used in car commercials. They should make money for making good music. But emusic has always preached against what you’re doing now. I remember when Epitaph left. I was really disappointed at losing Tom Waits (whom I had just come to love thanks to emusic but never would have spent $10 on based on samples) and a few others, but I bought emusic’s line that you weren’t willing to compromise on your pricing. And now you’re doing exactly that for Sony, music we can get pretty much anywhere else.
Been a member for well over 4 years now. I’ve recommended emusic to EVERY friend and family member of mine that loves music. When my roommate said he was going to cancel his $12 subscription to save a little money, I offered to pay $12 of his part of the utilities so he’d keep it. Although I’ll now be getting the bulk of my music from Amazon and my local independent record store, I just might keep a small emusic subscription. Modifying your pricing plan to throw a bone to your longtime users would help, but I’m guessing the cost-benefit analysis has already shown that it’s not worth it to you. Not sure yet. But I am sure that I won’t be recommending the service to anyone in the future.
Just need to add the voice of discontent. How does this make sense. I’m sure I’ll stay for the first month to see what’s up, but after that I can’t see it. I’m still flabbergasted and shocked. You write this as a plus? Why can’t Sony be double credits or something? My 90 downloads is nowhere near enough. I went nuts over xmas with your booster pack sale–losing 40 downloads for $20 I really can’t afford for crap I don’t want is really a low blow and I’m pretty sure is going to lea to my canceling my (since 03?) long time subscription. I love all the noisy, bleep-bloop, sqwack! crap. Sometimes that’s only worth $0.18 a track.
The 12 download a;bum thing is a great idea. Too bad it comes with such a crap change. Lucky us!
I agree with Zeus, I’ll be paying the same as last year but instead of getting 75 downloads a month, I’ll be getting 35? Count me out! Maybe a cool music service like what emusic was will pop up that offers music that I want to listen to at a price I want to pay.
I have to say I am actually quite disappointed in this development. Going from 90 downloads a month to 35 a month is not what I consider a good deal. The attraction to emusic is that I could afford to try new artists, albums, genres, etc. The albums / artist that you mention will be added are artist that I already have or are probably not interested in. This is a sad, sad day for the small independant artist that rely on emusic to reach their audience. A typical album next year will cost me almost 3 times as much under the new plan than it does today. I fear that while this move may save eMusic it will only hurt the small artist that eMusic has championed over the past 10 years.
I would have been much happier if eMusic would have provied two plans one with majors and one without.
i’m an emusic member for mass quantities of small label music. if i wanted sony shit i wouldn’t be here. i have two 90/month subs, both will be canceled in their last months. FUCK YOU SELLOUTS. i’ll buy from the indie labels directly.
I am not likely to stay a customer for long. The current deal is great, I have discovered a lot of music that would have remained unknown to me. I don’t need the major labels.
1. Customers were well-awared and expected NOT having titles from Big 4, before joining eMusic.
2. Users who don’t have access to Sony’s items, such as geographical restrictions, should not suffer the price increase anyway!
The price increase is unacceptable. I simply don’t see the value in a subscription model where the per track price is double the current price. As such, I dont expect to maintain my subscription.
Others have already said it but it seems pretty straightforward to me…
If the new tracks cost eMusic more $$ then that cost should be passed on to the consumers of those tracks.
The idea here seems to be grow the base by adding mainstream stuff (nothing wrong with major label music – just the pricing), ignore the disappointment of hard-core heavy users by slashing their plans to please Sony. Maybe it’s necessary for emusic’s survival – I don’t know. The hard core crowd is getting screwed. Going from 50 to 30 downloads a month simply means I get less music at the given price, and it sounds like the truly big time downloaders are getting reamed even worse. There was plenty of independent stuff here I wanted, so fewer tracks a month in exchange for Sony material available elsewhere is no deal.
The question is whether a broader base will gravitate to a pay per month subscription with what remains a fairly low profile site. Is there really a sweet, exploitable middle between people who download every now and then from iTunes and Amazon and those who “rent” their music (access everything for monthly fee) of mainstreamers who want to buy 30 tracks every month? Do the people who want to download Dylan, et al legally ALSO want to download a set number of tracks a month? Better hope so, as the hard core music-heads who DO want that steady flood of tunes are only being alienated by this move.
What eMusic should do, and will never do, is allow those of us who don’t give a rip about downloading “major-label” tracks via eMusic to keep our old monthly pricing plans and track allotments, with access to download only independent artists, nothing from the major labels. The new pricing structure would of course apply only to those who elect to have access to the major-label tracks. This is what would be fair, so of course it will never happen.
I’ll be canceling my subscription.
This is the death knell for my relationship with eMusic. One of the biggest reasons I gladly subscribed to this service for 3 years was that I knew that the money was going to a lot of artists I liked and it had no monstrous corporation thumbprints on it. Now they are here, big foul, nausea-inducing fingerprints that I want no part of. I will blow through my last two months of dls and then I will seek out another independent site. I don’t know the economic situation eMusic finds itself in, but if it came out in defense of the priniciples I thought it had and just told us that they likely wouldn’t survive without a price increase, then I would understand. Embracing Sony is something I do not understand. Giving your subscribers a shill about how great this is for the future is so insincere it is almost like you are mocking us; like what I would expect from a corporate giant. I feel dirty.
Dear eMusic,
As a loyal and longtime subscriber, I am very disappointed to learn about your new arrangement and pricing plan. This will probably be the push I need to end my subscription when it expires at the end of the year. And because I introduced my father to your service and I purchase an annual gift subscription for my brother, you will probably be losing two additional customers. Amazon has done a nice job with their MP3 download program and they don’t try to rope customers into an expenisve long term deal. While I understand that this is a business and that you need to make a profit, I don’t understand why my cost will be doubling while receiving fewer downloads. That is not good business. Thank you for all of the great music and best of luck to you and all your new customers.
Sincerely,
Glenn
Another longtime subscriber lost (nearly 10 years — back to the era when they added FAX label & you got a free mp3 player for joining).
Haven’t seen much on Sony that I don’t already have or cannot live without. Couldn’t I just join the BMG record club??
I am also a long time subscriber. I want to add my two cents to this debate. I’m finished with emusic. Listen, let’s be honest. We can all find other ways to find music. Torrents, limewire, soulseek. Our options are endless. Many of us are on Emusic to try in some small way to contribute to independent music. I’ve downloaded many albums on emusic that have sent me straight to an online distro for the Lp version. I’m not the only one using emusic this way. We are all pissed. I’m cancelling in July when my account is up for renewal. I’m not happy about it. I love the editorial content of emusic and I love the virtual community that is absent in local music stores. But to tell me I’m getting something I never wanted and pretending it’s worth twice the money is rediculous. I’ve known Keyes for years and have stuck by this site even when I was wasting credits every month but this is insulting and I hope you see the mistake you’ve made when many of your costumers cancel. If you change your mind, let me know.
Dan K.
This stinks, in my opinion. I have been a member since 2002 and now I feel that all my loyalty has been for naught. Basically I get half the number of downloads for the same price because of labels that offer stuff that I have absolutely no interest in at all.
Why are I and other long time customers being punished? That’s what this works out to, Danny, though you may not conceptualize it that way. The whole point of being an eMusic subscriber was to find the great stuff that the Big Pig Label Whores (Sony et. al.) would not produce or promote. Now I get to download the same unknown artists at twice the price so that other people can get Sony at half the price of downloading it from iTunes or Amazon. Hello? (How much was the tab for the wining and dining for that series of corporate stroke sessions?)
Here at eMusic I was free to experiment and support artists who otherwise would not get a fair shake from the RIAA prostitutes. That’s gone. I supported eMusic because it seemed to give those artists a forum that they could not otherwise get, and I could buy my music legally. Danny, I have never heard of you, but I imagine you are picking up a pretty good salary making lame-brained decisions like this.
In this case you made a huge mistake.
Your decision is a complete catastrophe for your business model. Why you think that I would hang around paying twice as much for the same thing I am getting today so that someone else can download something they could easily get from Amazon at half that price is sheer lunacy.
As you can see from the overwhelming negative response to your sudden and obviously ill-considered decision to dictate to your loyal customers that they are now supposed to pony up so that the bean counters at Sony can keep themselves in the style to which they are accustomed, you will lose a large number of subscribers.
If this is your decision, rather than a tiered pricing structure based, I’ll be canceling my account. I can use Pandora to find new music, and then purchase it in other ways, perhaps directly from the artists, or in the very active used CD market. Or for that matter from Amazon, who HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAIR TO ME as a LOYAL CUSTOMER and has yet to screw me.
I hope that you will reconsider this absolutely moronic decision.
You are now just the same as the others. Thanks for giving me nothing for my years of being a loyal subscriber. I will be dropping my account as soon as you reduce my account by TWENTY downloads a month, but still charge me the same amount. Way to go.
While it might be nice to add additional labels, having been a member for many years I haven’t nearly exhausting the interesting material already carried by Emusic. I have to say with the price nearly doubling for me, it will no longer be worth it to subscribe. It’s a shame, especially in this ecomony, to pillage your long term, loyal customers. Maybe you could have an EMusic “classic” that would preserve the old rate structure but not include these “new” labels.
It seems that’s a significant price increase to have access to a catalog of cut-outs or bargain bin music. E-Music is losing it’s luster.
It’s clear that this new pricing structure is not aimed at us Old Faithfuls here. They have laid plans for the future. This is for the new customers, those who haven’t had unlimited downloads or paid 1/9 what Apple charges per track. This is for people they want to steal from iTunes. They are looking at a much, much bigger market than we music nerds/crate diggers/nose pickers. And I have to admit, it makes business sense. They’ll never get rich supporting an audience that complains about paying $5 for an album.
So where does that leave us, the wretched refuse, the “loyal customer”? Stuck between coughing up the extra bucks for less or back to illegal downloads. Same place we’ve been heading for years but now our hand has been forced. Yes, it sucks but remember…it’s not about us. It’s…the future…
whatever, soon some other service will figure out what emusic was doing right, and then i’ll pay THEM for music. i’m done with emusic.
I’ve loved emusic because the great price structure allows me to explore a wealth of new, obscure, exciting and odd music every month This change is disappointing -I can already go to itunes or Amazon when I want to buy what everyone else listens to- I don’t need emusic to supply major label stars too. I’ll reserve judgement for a little while, but I am readying myself to find a new source for music discovery.
E-music is selling out at the expense of loyal purists who champion the concept of keeping the majors out in order keep costs down. To me, E-music represents music as art rather than marketed drivel. Fine; great artists will soon be incorporated into the catalog: (Bruce, The Clash). Their mass appeal is/was incidental (there was a time when good art infiltrated the pop charts) rather than intentional via the corporate suits who mass produce pop. Thus, the price boost is understandable, as it still somewhat represents Emusic loyalists/purists who don’t do what their told or listen to the radio. Emusic offers reactionary choices, in which there are those (perhaps in a particular demographic) among us who miss or relate to a particular sound. Personally, I blame grunge for routing the airwaves away from at least an occasional good or even so-laughable-it’s-infectious tune and into the whiny rock that lessened the appeal of new wave and sex, drugs, and rock & roll oriented stations simultaneously. Sure, Nickelback and Tool may not wind up at Emusic (a glorious thing, particularly since it would mean that E-music became iTunes and had similar prices to pay these overwrought drivelers), but a purveyor of whiny, psuedointellectual “rock” soon will: Eddie Vedder – the jerkoff who took the fun out of rock via his 4th-grade rhetoric and incomprehensible snarling, middle class woe-is-me, humorless, no-account, pissant excuse for punk. Thus, Email has announced on this day that it is moving into the 90′s and wants us (ok, me) to help pay this jerkoff because too many people think he’s deep and important.
The new E-music is bringing some of the good with the really, really bad, and the presence of Ed Ved makes me violently ill. Still, I still have not determined whether or not I will continue subscribing to E-music because I am spoiled by my current plan: 100/$24.99. I don’t need any of the Springsteen or Clash albums because I already have them on Vinyl and CD and will soon own an MP3 converter to transfer them over.
The classic rock riff-riff will soon pollute bulletin boards all over the site (“Oh! That Jeremy song made you suicidal, too? We sure are cool, serious, middle-class dweebs!”) so profits shouldn’t be an issue for e-music executives. However, long-term subscribers – those who have been here for at least, say, 6 months – shouldn’t be punished via their pocketbooks to accomodate said riff-raff oriented rock.
I say – not to sound like a mutineer (speaking of Mutineer, is Warren Zevon on the way? Well, I do have 9 of his albums already, so I don’t really care) – that we loyalists walk if we don’t dig the forthcoming adjustments. We should demand that our plans not change – what we came here with should/must gosh darn remain. I want my 100/$24.99!!!!! That’s why I joined!!!!! Then again, our strike may not matter; on this potentially sad (almost green) day (yech!), E-music announced that they are one (accelerated at their own chosen speed) decade away from becoming iTunes in disguise.
Please, E-music, say it’s not so. Please don’t change my current killer subscription rate!!!!
eMusic lied, so I will not be renewing my plan when it comes up for renewal in April of next year.
“Your selected plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
Too bad emusic is choosing to reduce the number of download by 40%! I wonder what kind of business model they are looking at. I am extremely unhappy and will be canceling my subscription next month. Way to go emusic.
absolute SHITE!
enough said.
eMusic…don’t do it you morons!
Did the major labels finally figure out how to kill eMusic? Or is eMusic simply killing themselves? Most likely both.
Sorry emusic, this isn’t good news at all. Less credits to explore music out of the mainstream isn’t my idea of a good deal. This brings emusic closer to being just another download site. I’ve felt an affinity with emusic until now. It never pays to take value away from your customers. Disappointing.
Ref #738:
I had a typo: where I wrote “their” when I meant “they’re.” Even Masters students make mistakes.
Are the leaders of eMusic reading these? It should be read into the minuets of the next board meeting.
Good Luck Your going to need it
cuggie
Dear loyal eMusic subscribers,
I’ve been trying to find a way to get rid of you pesky customers for years. When Sony recently contacted me to see if eMusic would be interested in their back collection, I realized this problem I’d been having was finally solved.
What do eMusic fans loathe the most? The Big Music industry! What do the despise the second most? NOT being able to download their favorite independent/indie tunes. Eureka! Combine the two, and I knew I’d be able to clear this place out in a single day. They don’t pay me the big bucks for nothing.
Some of the staff members were concerned about our customers’ fierce dedication to eMusic, so I decided to add the final cherry on top: insult their intelligence WHILE breaking the news! By including such classic lines, such as “More of the Good Stuff” and “Do “major” and “indie” mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon?”, I knew the fight had been won.
Don’t get me wrong… I want good music just as much as anyone. I just happen to want a job at Sony even more. I’d been trying to find some way to prove my dedication, and I think driving eMusic into the ground should do it. I think this move shows that I’m more than capable of working for a major record label. I’ve shown that I can ruin a business and ruin independent music labels in record time. With business decisions like these, how could they NOT hire me?!
In conclusion, I think that… aw, f*** it. Why would I even bother saying anything more to you.
Sincerely,
Danny Stien
Count me as another subscriber who is feeling cheated by the new pricing. Clearly this is, as noted in some of the above comments, a move intended to expand emusic’s subscriber base by offering more mainstream artists. Have you even considered keeping the old pricing for your loyal subscribers and charging the higher rate for newcomers, who will presumably be attracted by the expanded selection? The last time the price was raised, you added more tracks to my plan, which seemed fair. What made you think that anyone would be happy to pay the SAME amount of money for LESS content? How about letting us keep our current plans if we pay a year at a time, or some such? That would insure a steady,reliable cash flow and still allow those of us who have been with emusic for a number of years to feel as if you value us. I am disappointed. As another subscriber put it so elequently, “Boo! Emusic! Boo!
Mr. Stein, with all due respect, you’re lying to us by putting “more of the good stuff” as the title of your post. I am one of your annual premium customers, and I see that when my plan rolls over, it will go from 75 downloads per month to *35*. That’s less than 50% of the downloads I had before, and it’s happening because you’ll have 200,000 more titles that frankly, I could care less about.
I have been an emusic customer for 4 years, because it gives me a great selection of international, jazz, and classical titles that I can’t get anywhere else. Now, I’m having that value taken away so you can offer titles from American pop musicians. That’s not more of the good stuff – that’s less value, and more “access” to the crap that the corporate music machine has jammed down our throats for decades.
I really hope that your new relationship with Sony doesn’t mean that you’ll be putting any less effort into getting titles from some of the diverse labels that have helped support emusic for years.
How about offering two types of subscriptions: one for pop music customers, who want access to the Sony catalog, and one for the rest of us who care about access to diverse labels?
It’s really sad that access to the Sony catalog has to come at the cost of reducing the value for the customers that have stuck with emusic the longest. Here’s an opportunity to provide great customer value: figure out a way to bring Sony in *without* cutting our value.
For me, this announcement is no cause for joy. Emusic will no longer be unique.
1) The addition of THE MAJORS will have a huge impact on the daily/weekly/monthly download charts. I used these charts to discover music you won’t hear on radio. Thanks to the charts I discovered my favorite album of 2009- Lost Channels by Great Lake Swimmers. Sadly, the charts will be taken over by the major artists–making it harder to discover “undiscovered” gems.
2) The pricing structure is definitely a deterrent. I loved the sense of discovery that your subscription format afforded. Unfortunately, I’ll be discovering a lot less music.
Have you considered offering two pricing structures: one as is, the other for those seeking major releases? Or how about keeping the pricing structure as is and simply charging “double-downloads” for major releases. That way subscribers who love independent music can continue to enjoy Emusic.
Good luck with the changes…but I really don’t see this working. The indie spirit community and sense of adventure/discovery you’ve cultivated will be:
a.) watered down by more commercial releases
b.) and restrained–in the economic sense–by giving users fewer downloads.
c.) Fewer downloads gives people less new music to discover and talk about.
Sigh…………………..
Here’s another grandfathered eMusic subscriber who has discovered that his 90 downloads will be cut nearly in half in order to grant access to music he has no interest in. Like many of the other commenters, what drew me to the service was the freedom to explore new music, a freedom which was fostered by the interface, cost structure, and subscription format. These are the qualities that made eMusic stand out, and which led to my frequent referrals of the site to my friends (a reaction which I discover is not unique to me, after reading these comments). While I’ll likely wait to see how the slick new eMusic works, I expect that I’ll be looking for another service by the end of summer. What an unpleasant surprise, considering I had intended to keep my eMusic subscription forever. Well, we can always hope that the voices on this page will be heard, and that an “indie option” could be added to keep us sequestered from the major label back catalog dreck. I’m sure that most of us wouldn’t mind being second-class citizens, if it means that we will retain our current value from eMusic. Let the new crowd into the velvet-roped vip lounge; I only ever wanted to stay in the indie basement.
You’re going to double my yearly subscription and offer me fewer/same downloads? Did anybody at e-music ever work at a gym or ymca or something? (Okay, that was rhetorical.) There’s a reason businesses don’t just double people’s memberships every few years.
I wonder… are the staff of emusic looking for new jobs yet?
Hmmm….
I wonder… are the staff of emusic looking for new jobs yet?”
—–
I don’t know. But I’m sure glad there isn’t emusic stock! That stinker would have made a sonic BOOM from plummeting so fast!!!
Why, emusic… why?
This is a really, really unfortunate development, but I guess we shouldn’t be shocked. We’d like to think of emusic as the local used record shop owned and operated by music lovers. But emusic is a business. Nothing more and nothing less. Sure, the business succeeded because of the loyalty of its customers. These customers put emusic in position to make even more money with the only “catch” being that, in order to grab that bigger pot of gold, emusic has to dump its existing customers to chase after a different set of customers (who desire mainstream, major-label music, and who could be pulled away from itunes so long as the price-per-download is a little bit lower).
It was an easy call from a business perspective — so long as more money gets made, it doesn’t matter if the loyal customers who built the company are kicked to the curb. Yes, independent artists suffer — the new customer base isn’t going to downloading the Rural Alberta Advantage if there’s a Simon & Garfunkel album to enjoy. But that’s the Rural Alberta Advantage’s problem, not emusic’s.
Good luck with the business venture. But please don’t pitch this as “good news” to your existing customers. It insults our intelligence. It’s a bad economy, and you’re offering less service for more money.
“this is a business” is the worst possible rationalization for what happened today.
They are running their business into the ground. This is flat out bad business.
They can’t compete with iTunes with their pathetic site and still lame selection (as far as mainstream users are concerned). They are alienating their core customers, which are all they have. Competing with iTunes is a going out of business strategy.
Man, all good things must come to an end I suppose. I really hate that eMusic, a once great service that I introduced countless number of friends to has finally sold out. I wish there would be a way to keep my current plan without a rate increase being forced. Sadly, I think I will join the list of loyal users who will look to other services and quit my eMusic account unless a change is made that allows me to keep my current account settings. In this economy, with people losing jobs and having salary cuts enforced on them, I wonder who thought it would be a “brilliant” idea to do this? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
THE SILVER LINING: for the first time in my life, i am reading a very long string of comments/posts and feeling deep solidarity with 99.9% of them. how often does that happen to anyone? it is truly uplifting to know that i have so many compatriots who see right through to the bottom of this pathetic, two-faced (“more of the good stuff”??), back-stabbing sellout. to all of you whose love of music is greater than your willingness to follow a once-great music subscription service wherever it might see fit to lead its members by the nose, in its bizarre efforts to help a teetering, worm-eaten industry stay on life support: let’s find something better…and if we can’t, let’s build it ourselves.
Does e-music realize that a lot of devoted subscribers still buy music in the form of CD’s and vinyl? The closer in price that downloads get to CD’s, the less I want downloads. Plus, the CD or LP has resale value if I get sick of it. If downloads cost $6 an album, I’ll be bummed if the album sucks.
Is a deepening recession really the best time to be doubling memberships? It doesn’t sound like you guys researched this.
Truly sad. My subscription will be canceled – for sure. I’ll miss our community, the exploration and discovery of musical treasures, and the ability to take a chance on an artist (that your low prices allowed). This change does not seem like a wise business move — drop your niche market and lose your loyal subscribers, to compete with the firmly established providers of mainstream music?! And I most certainly do not buy your condescending letter and crappy “deal”. Please!
Like so many others, I’d forego the Sony crap to get grandfathered in. But I’m afraid it is too late to save the eMusic we love. The service is obviously in the hands of people who no longer value their existing customer base.
This indie-lover needs a new home!
Where are the ex-eMusic subscribers congregating?
Hope something comes along to fill the void…
Plenty of other folks have pointed out how unfortunate this is. Consider my subscription cancelled
Well, I gotta say I’m pretty disappointed in this decision. As I’m sure it’s been said hundreds of times already, I’ll be paying the same price and getting less for it.
As for the “new” major label content, I definitely won’t be purchasing any of it (from emusic or anywhere else). It has nothing to do with the definition of “indie” vs “major label”, it has to do with the world-raping attitudes and bullying practices (legal and otherwise) of the RIAA and the rest of the major labels.
Why the hell would I give them even a cent of my money (little or none of which would actually go to the artists anyway) which they could then use to sue me, crippled children, college students, or anyone else who’s downloaded more than a few songs “illegally”? It’s obscene, and stupid as it may sound, I’ll admit that it gives me a bad taste to see emusic dealing with these people.
In the end, I might be canceling, I might not. But I fail to see how enraging your most loyal of customers to the point of cancellation just so you can POSSIBLY keep “morbidly-obese-women-who-accidentally-subscribed-to-emusic-without-knowing-what-it-was-and-instantly-became-enraged-because-they-couldn’t-find-any-Shania-Twain” resubscribing is a good idea.
Dammit.
Is this a joke? After having a subscription for years on this site I promise you I will be canceling the day before this “improvement” happens.
This is incredibly disappointing. I’ve been an emusic member since 2000. The addition of the major label content by no means makes up for the fact that I’ll be losing 40 downloads per month while paying the same monthly subscription fee. As many here have noted, I can purchase this major label content elsewhere when I so desire and I presently do so. I’ve absoultely loved my emusic subscription up through this point in time and I’ve recommended the service to countless friends and aquaintances. Unfortunately, I really don’t see myself sticking around after these changes take place in July.
I wish that all the negative feedback being posted here could actually have a chance of impacting this decision although I know it would be naive to actually believe that might be possible. This is a big business decision. The important distinction between the indies and the majors is really less about musical differences and more about the way business is carried out. It seems that as we may gain some major label content we’ll also sadly be moving much closer to that major label big business model. It’s a shame. So long emusic… It’s been nice while it lasted.
——Forwarded Message——-
To: dstein@emusic.com
Subject: New beginnings
<<Hi Danny,
<<We love the direction you’re moving in over there! Your subscription model is the <<new frontier in bringing profits and customer satisfaction back to the record industry.
<<We’ll help you out in any way we can with this partnership! For starters, we’d love to
<<get some cross-promotion for our bigger artists who might appeal to your “indie-<<minded” audience.
<<This is the beginning of great things to come. We look forward to working alongside <<you.
<<Regards,
<<Ronald Lipshitz
<<Director of Online Marketing, Sony Records
Meet the new boss…same as the old boss.
What everyone else said. I’ll be canceling as soon as I use up this month’s credits. This is a sad day.
I can see more money for less product if you up the bit rate to something like flac or maybe even go to wave. I like some of the comments, don’t care for the so called major lables and would like to see the independent only. But like everything else in the world the price just goes up and the quality goes down. The quanity also goes down in your case since I will get much less for more money.
I guess I will have to find a replacement for emusic in the future. I really don’t think this is such great news to spring on us and will have to think hard and long about staying with you
I’m underwhelmed, to say the least. How can anyone be excited at having the cost per plan essentially being doubled for the privilege of the option to download Sony’s catalog titles? As a metalhead, I have no interest in music put out by major labels. Here are things I would consider a good value for a modest price increase:
1. Adding content from significant labels that are missing (Metal Blade, etc.)
2. Availability of new titles on the official release date (most new releases I want are delayed)
3. Rollover of unused downloads
4. Complete catalogs of labels (there are major holes in the catalogs from labels such as Nuclear Blast and Century Media)
Doubling the prices on emusic is quite steep. Without rollover of unused downloads, emusic’s new pricing is much less attractive, especially with having to be locked into a year-long contract. I honestly don’t know if I will renew my subscription next year. The availability of $3-5 used CDs without a contractual commitment is seeming very attractive.
Count me in with others who believe that emusic should have variable pricing for record labels and artists who insist on higher royalty rates. If Sony believes their catalog is worth more, let their tracks cost 2 credits. Let them see what people download when competing music from independent labels are available for 1 credit. Increasing the price on everything to placate Sony is the wrong approach. I’m impressed that emusic is asking from feedback; I just hope that they reconsider the new pricing structure.
Count me as another disappointed subscriber. Increase my selections with music I don’t want, and then reduce my downloads, seems like I lose on both counts. My continued membership is doubtful.
First of all I didn’t join this site to get music from the majors. i joined this site because it gave me an affordable option of downloading the smaller guys and giving new unheard music a try.
I think this totally screws the audience that has brought this site up. You guys are completely neglecting your core audience and now competing with majors like itunes. Bad idea. And you just destroyed your own niche by doubling the prices. I’ve been a member for 3 years and will be canceling my account more than likely as soon as the change happens.
Thanks emusic for the years and it’s unfortunate you had to mess with a good thing.
Is GM running Emusic now? Great timing! It’s always a great idea to bite the hand that feeds you. Adding Michael Jackson and Billy Joel to this site was pure genius. How many people will “celebrate” with the “free” 15 tracks and then cancel the service? Soon, you’ll have new subscribers who complain about all those “weird” bands on the site that “nobody cares about”.
I was here during the last great controversy over limiting downloads per month. I left then, and your good offer brought me back. I wonder what it will take to bring me back this time……
This disappoints me. As others have mentioned, I specifically joined eMusic so I could take chances & discover new music. While it will be nice to download a few “major” albums that I don’t yet own for a relatively cheap price, it will come at the expense of taking a chance on an old blues or new, interesting-looking indie album. I don’t want to make threats like “I’m canceling my subscription”, but honestly this takes a lot of the luster off of eMusic. I can’t say that I’d recommend the site to any friends at this point.
My old friend Amoeba is going to be seeing a lot more of me. I CANCEL!
Your pricing structure always sucked, even iTunes recognizes that music is purchased on albums.
I just thought I’d glance at the tail end of the comments, but they turned so opposed that I thought I’d share my own reaction, which was: Sure, okay. Great.
I’ve enjoyed the service and gotten a lot out of it, and yes, of course, listened to a lot of music that I wouldn’t have otherwise. So I’m willing to put forward some trust to see where this goes, and to see what new music becomes available. (And to see how much of the Sony classical and jazz catalogues go up. Riches.)
I wish you the best with this, and I’ll stick around.
As for the business criticism this seems to have generated, I offer some thoughts…
Am I disappointed that the pricing changed? Yes, yes I am. But things change, this changed. Oh well. I can keep things in perspective. The value I get from emusic, and what leads me to try out new music, is the pricing *model*, not cost per track. Once the monthly fee is paid, that’s sunk cost, and each download represents only opportunity cost. i.e. Downloading X means I can’t download Y, but there’s no marginal price difference. The fact that the tracks are relatively cheap is nice, but the real incentive to try new music here is that the tracks are paid for. Keep that. Well, and there’s the pseudo-community record store feel. That works too.
Now I get 74% as many downloads. I’ll live, and hopefully I can make up some volume on new 12 track album pricing. Like I said, I’ll stick around.
Worst news, now tell me my cat just died………Thanks
What needs to happen is varied pricing. Let me keep my 90 downloads as “Credits” and charge me 2 credits to download the major label stuff. I’m glad to see it here, but it’s going to make me less adventurous… fewer, more expensive credits and the lure of familiar names and catalogues will leave a lot less room for exploration for many of us.
Add to that the fact that most of this old back catalogue stuff can be had on Amazon for dirt cheap and no, as a member for almost five years I’m not excited.
Try variable pricing and make everyone happy! Is that soooo hard?
How many remember this: “Your selected plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
BIG MISTAKE !
I agree with what everyone else here is saying. Radio is dead, and the majors are ruining the music business. Well maybe not, as long as they can get dumb clones to buy the crap they’re putting out. Have enjoyed emusic while it lasted. Found a lot of great artists who would never get radio time. The more it costs the less you buy and try, which ultimately hurts the artists. Might stick around for a bit to get a few things I want, or might not. Thank God Im on a month to month. Certainly there’s little to lose by cancelling your sub plan. The only thing I do agree with is that an album with more than 12 tracks or so should be a set point value.This is the year of the big sellout it seems, and the major one is in the whitehouse. Too bad we cant point this kind of angst in that direction also.
The beginning of the end for emusic RIP
Terrible, terrible idea. Just stupid. I do not want nor care about the pop nonsense which will now be on offer, and I have no idea why I should be penalized for emusic executives’ craven decision. I have enjoyed the service up till now but in the light of the price hike I will probably cancel. By the time emusic realizes what a mistake this is many more will have done the same.
What’s next? We get to pay 75 cents a download to get access to Miley Cyrus and Hoobastank? That would be great news for a lot of people, but non of them are currently eMusic members.
Of course, eMusic is hoping this move will bring them some mainstream attention. But why try and go toe-to-toe with Apple? eMusic had carved out a great niche, it’s too bad they’re trying to grow out of it.
What a bunch of whiners. Everybody says they have broad taste in music, but in fact there are only 2 kinds of music you guys like: Free, and very, very very cheap. “I’m here to support independent artists, but if you dare charge me more than 24 cents I’ll go to bittorrent!” What the hell kind of support is that? You get a d/l, the artist gets a nickel. An indy musician can’t eat rice and beans at that price.
Never mind emusic, what we need, something like what Snocap tried to do, is to make it easy for indy artists to sell directly from their own websites; plus social networks for us to help one another find the good stuff. And, we need consumers who will pay for the stuff they like, even if it is free on limewire. I know I’m much more likely to pay a buck per song when the artist is keeping 80 cents, rather than 15.
What bad timing this is. Just today, I finally convinced quite a few members of my mailing list to give Emusic a try. I was so excited about the great music and indie artists that I had found on here for the last year. But alas, more of the same BS that other services offer. Not to beat a ‘dead horse’ here, but the increase in price and reduction in downloads is just a crime. Now I have to appologize to all those other music fans on the mailing list and tell them that I am sorry that greed has taken over another otherwise great music service.
After the end of June, I’m outta here !
You can’t even get your act together enough to carry many of the current titles released on the actual indie labels you currently carry. Why should I be excited about paying more for access to archives that I already own or don’t want?
I have been a very happy customer of emusic and often talk about it to my friends. No more. “the distinction between indie and mainstream music simply does not matter”? You’ve got to be fucking joking. Don’t get me wrong, I like many “mainstream” bands but emusic was something different. I appreciated the lower prices and the ability to discover lesser known bands that I may not have heard before. If I wanted Billy Joel and Boston, I’d go waste my money on iTunes. You have just destroyed what made emusic so attractive.
Dear Emusic,
I have been an avid fan for almost 2 years now. You were the holy grail of independent music. We don’t want Sony!!! We love you because you bring us great indie labels!
Increasing our plan to reward the independent artists. I can live with that. But for Sony????
Hell no!
I’ll give you a few months, but I’ll likely be gone by the end of summer.
It’s been a good trip.
-stev
Very disappointing. I guess this is e-Music’s way of getting rid of grandfathered accounts.
Hopefully a “new” e-Music site starts up in the near future. I may stick around for a month or two after the change, but will most likely go back to buying CD’s from the local record stores after that. Adios e-Music!
Hmmm. One of the reasons I subscribed is to expand my musical boundaries. I have spent much time listening to the clips, searching for stuff I might like, looking in nooks and crannies I haven’t even considered until I got on this site. Sure, some of the stuff I’ve downloaded turned out to be disappointing, but then that also happend quite a bit back when I payed full price for my vinyl! On the plus side, I’ve discovered some real gems. I’ve looked forward to my 40 song “POP” every month now for some time now, not to download stuff I know I will like, but to take advantage of the low price to take some chances with new (to me) artists.
So, now I’m asked to pay the same price for 10 less songs per month? This is going to put a damper on my experimental side, and I’ll probably end up downloading more of the new more popular stuff that’s soon to be offered here.
I guess I’ll have to see if the trade off is worth it.
I’m not baggin it just yet, ask me again in a few months.
SO as many above have already said, you’re adding craptacular corporate pop that can be found in thousands of places and significantly raising prices to do it? Are you fucking nuts? The only reason I’m here is because emusic *was* a great service. Since you don’t rollover unused credits the 33% decrease in downloads each month is completely untenable. Enjoy following GM into bankruptcy. You won’t be getting another penny from me.
Well, most of you guys have done a good job of expressing how I feel, so forgive me for sounding redundant.
The great thing about my grandfathered plan (65 for $15) was it allowed me to try out new and emerging indie artists (This is where I first discovered The Decemberists many years ago, for instance) and catch up on Indie-type artists that I somehow missed when I was younger (how did I go through my 20s without running into Galaxie 500?) without having to pay 15-17 bucks a CD, cause I can’t go exploring at that price. The changes obviously mean a lot less exploring, and that’s quite sad, but 65 for 15 did seem too good to last. But at least the new album-as-12-downloads-max pricing might take out some of the sting (although I notice the wording “select” albums. hmmmmm) or it may just mean that I download only “select” classical albums. It *could* mean that under my new plan, I *may* be able to get 3 Indie/unknown/emerging/forgotten classic/classical CDs a month. And if I can do that, I may stick around. But that price comes close to what I can pay at local used CD shops and I’m a guy who tries hard to give my cash to local businesses, so at some point, I may just decide to cancel and spend more time at the used CD shops. We’ll give it a few months and see. Even if I abandon ship, thanks for the music, eMusic.
I think eMusic should consider a tiered pricing scheme similar to the iTunes model. Let the Sony catalog cost 2 downloads per track. Longtime users who avoid Bruce Springsteen at all costs won’t be affected, and new users will still feel like they are getting a deal relative to the $.99 iTunes store.
I certainly don’t expect eMusic to freeze the prices on subscriptions forever; as a longtime subscriber I’ve seen my cost per download go up a few times. The first time was, as someone mentioned earlier, expected, as the unlimited downloads were too good to be true. The latest increase, however, is both ill timed and too steep to be shrugged off. I can think of no restaurant, gas station, book store, car dealer, or record store that would dare increase prices by nearly 50% and expect to keep my business.
Since eMusic is imposing a 44% increase on my download cost, I’m curious to know if the artists will receive a similar pay raise, or will the increased revenue go to the musical acts who are precisely the ones who need it the least – Springsteen, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Brooks and Dunn, Kelly Clarkson, et al.
Another disappointment. I have a lot of the Sony back catalog on CD anyway–I can rip it for free. (At least until the R.lI.A.A. goon squad catches up with me.) I can’t imagine any technical reason why current subscribers couldn’t opt out of access to the Sony material in exchange for more downloads. Maybe the business argument for getting hitched with a major outweighed the customer-loyalty argument? Anyway I’m not an automatic cancel–yet. (Even at 2x the current price the available labels here have a lot of great music at half the cost of Amazon.) But I’d be way more inclined to stay if, instead of explaining why the new plan is such a great deal, Mr. Stein were willing to acknowledge long-time members’ concerns about the plan.
selling out all the artists to sony after pretending to care about them. i guess it is true that $$$$ is the bottom line. shame on you. it was said the best up above: meet the new boss same as the old boss.
I think the solution that would keep people happy and keep a good number of the existing customers in is this:
Major label or Indie labels like Sub Pop Epitaph who didnt want to accept the current pricing 1.25 current credits for a download, which is basically the current cost for people going from a 30 song to a 24 song plan.
1 download credit for a standard indie song. So basically Emusic, indies and major labels get their cake and eat it too.
For subscriptions, we should be able to purchase an EMUSIC standard subscription, and an EMUSIC plus subscription. We should be able to have the old and the new at the same time.
Coming from a small town where it is difficult at best to find indie music, eMusic has been my lifeline. I can get major label stuff anywhere. Decreasing my downloads by nearly half for the same price just means I’ll be doing a lot less exploring. I’ll stick around awhile (as long as the music that I have saved for later doesn’t go away) and see what is offered, but I can’t imagine there will be enough content I’m interested in from the major labels to sooth the sting of this price hike!
Long term, non-US customer here. Getting downloads almost halved (or prices almost doubled, depending on how you take it) for nothing in return? Terrible.
We like the service, but why screw us over like this? Throw us a bone! Do some territorial deals already and at least give us access to some new existing indie content, let alone major stuff.
The funny thing that seems to get overlooked about iTunes/Amazon is they don’t necessarily charge $1 or more per track. (In reference to the “We will never sell music for $1.29 per track grandstanding). If you are buying complete albums (which it seems a lot of eMusic customers do based on what I’ve read) then the per-track price can be a lot lower. At current eMusic prices there are even albums at this moment that are cheaper on iTunes or Amazon based on number of tracks. That ratio is going to get a lot worse when the prices change in July (yeah they said they would introduce a 12 track album download cap, but note they said that would be on SELECT albums only…and iTunes and Amazon have plenty of $5.99 albums anyway).
Now that iTunes is DRM-free why would users put up with the eMusic inconveniences such as requiring a subscription (where you can lose downloads you paid for to boot—what does that do to the PER TRACK price??), crappy broken website that never gets fixed and actually gets worse over time, broken and missing tracks that never get fixed, and a still very limited selection of major label releases? It makes absolutely no sense as a value proposition. Sorry but ‘editorial content’ is not going to make up for that. The other sites have that too and it’s better organized.
When an album is the same price at eMusic as at iTunes or Amazon, only a fool would buy it on eMusic because there is no longer any advantage. Good luck with that business model. If iTunes still used DRM on most things then there could be a business case but NEWSFLASH!….they don’t.
No matter what anyone here thinks or the threat of canceling their subscriptions, this is going to happen. Money talks and the whole idea of running any business is to make money….lots of it. While they toss around their rhetoric about how freakin great this will be, it will only be great for their pockets not ours. We’ve already seen the pricing go up and the downloads per month go down with the last regime change. This sucks! As much as I would love to have access to the toe tappers I hear on the local radio I also liked the idea that I can save money and find new up and coming artists without resorting to the BS pricing and limited independent catalogs at Amazon or Rhapsody. I have totally denied myself even considering lining that arrogant ass Jobs’ pockets by installing the bloatware Itunes on any of my machines so I’m not even considering them as competition. I left emusic once and came back as the catalog grew and became more rich and diverse. Now I’m afraid that I will probably leave for good until another provider comes on the scene that “gets it”…at least for a while until they get greedy.
Remember Emusic….You can’t take all that money with you at the end and while your sipping your martini’s on your yacht I hope that you remember what you sacrificed….the people that supported you through thick and thin.
Only in America…I’m sooo ashamed.
This is fascinating and sad to watch.
Mr. Stein is going to look at these comments and say, “Well, it’s a price hike. There’s always going to be bitching after a price hike.” But what he apparently doesn’t understand is that eMusic’s strength is evangelism. It’s been obvious to most of us longtime members that eMusic has always somewhat relied on the uninformed – the person who signs up not realizing they won’t find the music they want there, or the person who pays for a subscription without downloading a thing. The uninformed user isn’t really losing anything here, and for all I know, that’s what Mr. Stein sees as his most important market.
But what eMusic has just pissed away – and so AVOIDABLY, my god – is the evangelists. I don’t mean the vocal minority on the eMu message boards, but those of us who have been spreading the good word to music lovers for years.
Reputation, brand – gone and gone. There’s some money to be made without those two things, but it’s gonna be a tough row to hoe.
I feel terrible for the majority of the eMusic staff. You know – KNOW – this is disheartening to watch from the inside. I can completely relate. Sorry, guys.
Oh, yeah, I’ll also chime in as a marketing professional – hey, a few of us here. The messaging here is HILARIOUSLY inept. This “so-so news (price hike btw) HEY NEW FEATURE” bullshit with the recommendation engine – who the hell wrote that? How stupid do you think 17 Dots readers – who obviously represent the vocal but passionate minority and not the free trial noobs – really are? Your best recommendation engine WAS the people now leaving comments here. Come on, man.
Very well said Jeff Morris. I agree with everything you wrote, I find it sadly fascinating as well. I also feel bad for the eMusic employees who had no say in this decision and can imagine how horrible this is for them.
Congratulations on selling out.
This is total bullshit. I loved emusic for its ability to provide me a window to experiment with a bunch of music I haven’t heard, cheap! Nothing cheap about $.50 per track and nothing experimental about adding a bunch of mainstream shit most of us already have. Yet another example of the old adage “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
This is both good and bad news. Good that there will be more choices. Kinda iffy on the price increase – while I understand times are tough, and E-music needs to make money for the artists and to keep the service going, times are tough for everyone.
The bad part for me is fewer plan options! The most I can get on a monthly plan is now just 75 songs a month!?!? What about the other plans you used to offer? I am currently on the 100 songs a month plan, and I’m always able to use them all. Now, I will be forced to be more choosy, and won’t be as adventurous in my purchases. Booster packs are fine and all, but you charge more for them. That is a very bad thing for indie bands (and for me, personally).
But hey… E-music needs to make money. It’s all about the money. After being an e-music subscriber for about 4 years, I’m now going to have to decide whether I want to continue.
I tried to feel good about this, but I didn’t succeed. I think it’s crapola. Bottom line, I like emusic the way it is now. I like my plan the way it is now. I don’t appreciate these changes, but whatever — do you. When I tire of emusic, which I never thought humanly possible, I will cancel my subscription. This is truly disappointing, but it is what it is. After two years and two months with y’all, this is what I get. Wow. As I said, “Whatever.”
While you’re changing things, you may want to consider letting us electronica fans listen to a track sample that lasts longer than 30 seconds. If not, there’s always Traxsource, which knows how to please us true housheads with track samples that last at least a minute or two.
I also would appreciate it if you would actually answer me when I report that there’s a defective track in your catalog. Maybe you were too busy making changes that are guaranteed to mess’ up my emusic vibe to care.
adding new stuff is great. doing it by increasing my cost is not. minus one customer and minus 25 bucks per month. bad decision.
July marks my three year anniversary with emusic. For the majority of those three years, I have been an incredibly vocal advocate of emusic, convincing friends to subscribe and only once asking for a referral to get free tracks. I’m currently grandfathered in at 65 tracks for $14.99/month. Now that number is being slashed in half, without any other options, just so emusic can court a bigger audience and make more money for themselves and a media giant.
I will never advocate for this site again. I will cancel my subscription in June when I receive my last proper amount of tracks, and I will (probably not with much arm twisting) convince the friends I have on emusic to cancel their accounts as well.
emusic was a great service because it offered so much value for so much choice. Now long-term subscribers are not being given a choice for the future of their accounts. Why not offer plans with different access? Why not let long-term subscribers like myself opt-in to a Sony plan, or keep the plan we currently have without access to Sony’s catalog? I have a strong suspicion that emusic knows none of us would opt-in to that scenario, and they’d lose their cozy relationship with Sony.
No matter what you’ve convinced yourself of, Danny, these changes mark the end of emusic. You are not the same company you once were. Enjoy the temporary boost in subscribers you’ll get when the masses hear “emusic” and “Sony” in the same sentence; I hope you also enjoy the drop-off when those new subscribers discover they still can’t get anything less than two years old (seriously, how many of the people you’re courting will actually pay enough attention to the fine print to realize what they’re getting themselves into?). This move is going to alienate your long-term subscribers AND your new subscribers.
Congratulations on ruining the best digital music service in history.
Seems to be a dumb idea when you have such a large catalog of music that needs to be discovered and that was the entire premise. I didn’t join eMusic for major label catalogs. I wanted to be able to get a variety of music for a cheaper price, drm free and also be introduced to cool music through the articles on the site. Now I’m essentially paying more for less of what I want. For Harry Connick? Come on…
I could have seen the price hike if other catalogs were added… but just the ones from Sony seems a little narrow minded. If any other catalogs are added… I don’t expect anymore price increases or I’ll have to be packing my bags. My budget is tight enough. I really dug eMusic before I read this… it’s still a good deal though. Just stings my wallet a bit.
Just count me as another customer who’s probably leaving in July. Leaving to watch Amazon sales and the used bin at the CD store, or wait for someone online to offer what emusic used to. Sorry.
Just great! Well it looks like my eMusic subscription is another “nonessential” I will have to sever from my monthly costs. At the new ridiculous price increases (to appease Sony) I just cannot justify staying. I didn’t come to eMusic for the so called “Big Name” record label! I came on board with eMusic for the variety of bands I would’ve otherwise never heard and the inexpensive cost of discovering new musicians. I DON’T want any of Sony’s “OLD” releases at any price! I wish Sony would go the way of the dinosaurs by either becoming extinct or there behemoth bully of the block size humbled.
As a 10-year Emusic subscriber, this new deal with Sony bites. I’ve already got all of the back-catalog music I want. For many of us, Emusic is how we find new, interesting music. The community here is unsurpassed in their knowledge, and we all know the joy of discovering something new and refreshing. I discovered the Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, The Immaculate Machine, and hundreds of other excellent artists here. I seriously doubt that I will renew my annual subscription when it expires. I don’t want the major label music!
one difference between major label and indie label is cost – paying bloated major label costs because 90% of their music isn’t good enough to sell on its own so they have to do things like pay radio stations to play it – and we see the impact of that immediately here, as my subscription is being cut by 33%. not sure if i will cancel my subscription, but I may, as it has certainly lost a lot of value. maybe someone will pick up the torch emusic has left behind.
For all you people asking for an Sony free option, we’ve already got it in the rest of the world… only trouble is that our prices are all going up as well. This is more than just appeasing Sony, emusic want a larger slice of pie and are trying to use Sony as the scapegoat.
When my annual subscription (90 dl/month for $192) ends in October, I’m out of here. This price doubling is hard to swallow.
Wow, this is a kick in the gut. I am a longtime subscriber (since 2002), grandfathered in on a 90-download per month plan for $191/year. I am now told that on my next renewal date my plan “will change to the new eMusic Plus Annual plan which costs $171.99 for the year and gives you 35 downloads every 30 days.”
That’s about a 250% price increase, which sucks. But the worst part is this little note about “new album pricing”:
“Ever hesitate to download an album comprised of many tracks because it’d eat up so many credits? Album pricing will allow you to download selected albums of 12 or more tracks for the price of 12 downloads.”
So, I get 35 downloads a month, which means I can download two albums and then I have to find an album with 11 tracks or less or settle for an incomplete album. If you allow 36 downloads per month on this plan I could count on three albums. But someone chose the magic number 35. I suspect that was not an accident.
If you were trying to piss off your most loyal customers, you succeeded.
I have been a subscriber since 2005. The uniqueness of eMusic is that it does not carry the commercial/pop labels like Sony. The increase in pricing and lower download is a big jump from the current plans. Why should I pay a higher download price if I do not have interest what of ever to download Sony label music?
I propose that emusic should keep everyones plan intact. If some wants to download a Sony label song, charge it with 2 credits instead of 1 credit. Like they do with emusic-audiobooks.
Jeff Morris (above) hit the nail on the head. This is a really very badly arranged marketing ploy. And it appears to me that it is backfiring.
eMusic obviously want to be more than a place for folks to find the treasures existing in their catalog of indie labels and unsung performers. On one level, I get that. You have to compete and the competition is iTunes, et.al. But what eMusic is missing is that their brand is what is it because they’ve been what they are. To change what they are to something else is tantamount to another “New Coke”. And we all know where “New Coke” is today.
Danny…..you are going to lose a tremendous number of your core base of subscribers over this. We don’t care about back catalog from an outfit like Sony. That’s not why we’re here and its never been why we’re here And we haven’t been wiling away our time pining for it either. What we came for is what you’ve always done a nice job of providing. But beyond simply adding a catalog that really doesn’t matter, is the price gouging that you’re forcing onto everyone, whether they’re interested in the Sony offering or not. And that’s what this amounts to: PRICE GOUGING.
Many people have been added to your subscriber ranks through the word-of-mouth efforts of those of us that have been with you a long time. That’s going to be ending for you and it is that same word-of-mouth that is already making people turn away from eMusic. Maybe that’s okay with you. Maybe you’re thinking, “so what? the number of new subscribers we get will off-set the one’s we lose in no time”. If that’s actually what you’re thinking, I dare say that you’re off-base. Bad word-of-mouth is far-reaching and it has a tendency to linger. I am a career marketer (in the media/entertainment industry) so I KNOW how damaging it can be.
There’s still time for you to come up with something more palatable. I, for one, hope that you re-think your position. I think if you fail to do that, your “MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF” campaign is going to very quickly change to “eMusic SUFFERS FROM MASS EXODUS OF CORE SUBSCRIBERS”.
Is that what you really want??
Did I miss something…have there really been no comments from eMusic on this?
Wow.
I’ll use small words.
DANNY
YOUR
CUSTOMERS
ARE
ANGRY.
DO
YOU
CARE?
I’m astonished that people are so incredibly angry about an expansion to the catalog and a moderate (for the vast majority of people) price increase. “Oh no! 20 extra cents per track! I’m going to start stealing from artists instead! That’ll teach you!” My take as someone who has been with eMusic since 2005 – for what it’s worth – it’s a good thing to have access to more music, it’s still much cheaper than iTunes or the like, it’s a sustainable business model, and I’m sticking with it. As annoying as it might be to some of your long-time customers, simplifying your pricing structure by eliminating some of the legacy exceptions is actually a good thing. Good luck, and thanks!
I don’t see how this news is of any benefit to existing customers. We don’t use emusic to get to major label back catalogs. It seems like the announcement is completely skirting around the fact that every current customer is getting screwed by this new pricing scheme. And is anyone at emusic going to acknowledge this?? They are suspiciously silent so far in the face of this uprising of anger amongst their most important asset.
Doubling the price is not a moderate increase!
Do you think casual music listeners (most people) are going to like their download credits expiring every month? Or still not being able to find most music they would want, music that’s available on iTunes? Is this a good business decision?
I’ve always said there are two kinds of music – good music and bad music – I like good music. That’s eclectic. That is Bruce Springsteen and Modest Mouse. Steve Earle and Stephen Stills. That’s e-music and I think the addition of Sony’s back catalogue strengthens this. So a big step in the right direction.
Sometimes when you fix one problem, though, you create another. I’ve been on a 50 download a month plan – at an avg cost of $.24. Many months I’ve had difficulty finding 50 tracks that I really want and end up losing some. And then there is all the filler – greatest hit compilations or re-recordings that may not even be the original artists. Now that you’ve raised the average price per track for folks on plans like mine by 75% in exchange for adding all the good stuff from the Sony back catalog, I recommend that these “cut-outs” be taken down – or better marked down to the “cheap disc” bins. Yes every once in a while there are real gems to be found within these, but it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Prior to the current “Great Recession” I wouldn’t complain saying that if you want the wheat you gotta take some chaff, but everyone, no matter what their financial position, is hurting somewhat these days and come my next renewal and 75% price increase, II will be much more selective. That means Yes certainly on $.42 for Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” but no way for “Top disco hits of the 1970′s volume 4″ when they aren’t even the original artists. I do like the album pricing – but the 12 cut limit is too high. Except for multdisc sets (Top 99 classical tracks), there are rarely more than 8 good tracks on an album. As a financial guy though, I know that eMusic, while definitely your teams passion, can’t be a not for profit business, and you need to get to a business model that works. This will increase your subscriber base significantly and be a boon to the music industry. A caveat for you guys – don’t think that Amazon or Apple, or Rhapsody won’t see this as a shot over the bow, and launch competitive counter strikes – (which is good for music fans and music artists alike.)
@ Corey
I actually don’t think that the price increase is what is fueling the fire here. It’s the way that it’s being handled. When you give someone a spoonful of crap and tell them it’s ice cream, they will find you out and they will not be happy. It’s a simple case ot “the principle of the thing…”
If emusic had sent an email a year ago saying, “We’ll be increasing your subscription rates in a year due to the increasing size of our catalog and the considerable growth we’ve seen as a company. We know it hurts but it’s an inevitability of said growth. Over the past few years we’ve seen the addition of great artist like [fill the list in] to the emusic catalog. We’ve been able to introduce many of you to your new favorite band or bands. We’ve helped each other stay ahead of the curve, etc, etc… We’re excited, and we hope you understand. Thanks for the great ride so far and hopefully the many great memories to come.”
A little watered down, but something actually from the heart that addresses the situation of which they now staring down the gullet. There’s no heart in the above statement, which is the shame of it, because this company was built on the customers’ passion.
Quite simply, the fervent early-adopters are being shown the door because there is a larger group of consumers that Mr. Stein hopes to snare with proven commercial winners.
Big risk on his part because eMusic was successful in that it was differentiated from all other music services.
If parasitic publishers like Sony get in the door and prove their value (ie: sales) to the host (eMusic), then the Sonys dictate the terms and all music services evolve into varying shades of vanilla such that they are all ripe for consolidation under one roof. This is how online music will move, from serving the consumer with differentiated, nearly customized options, to a single, consolidated warehouse offering high prices. With traditional music retail dead, the publishers are moving on to suck all they can from the viable form of music retail.
I’ll hang with eMusic for a while still. Until it becomes evident that the parasite (Sony) is killing the host. This will be evident when Sony release news eclipses the news on indie releases.
“At least I’m enjoying the ride.” – Hell In A Handbasket
well, this seems to be going over very well – don’t you think?
Imagine, Danny Stein, if your (cable TV/ cell phone/ life insurance/ pick your service here) told you without warning that they were going to give you something you did not ask for, & for the privilege they would cut your available (channels/ minutes/ etc) in half – but wait it gets better – for the same price!!!!! No notice, no emails, no nothing – just a popup when you go to your acct.
Have you ever had this experience with any subscription from anyone? No? Why would that be – because it makes no sense to piss off the people who helped you build the business???
I’m sure that if you were the customer you would probably have your executive asst on the phone yelling at everybody they could to bitch by proxy about it. BTW, what’s your phone #?????
Like many others here, I think I’ll be checking out – I was always willing to put up with eMusic’s flaws (not so friendly web site, pulling music w/o notice, DL Mgr issues, etc) because at the end of the day it was a good deal for a variety of interesting new & great old music.
It’s a shame but I guess it was inevitable that some bonehead business genius like yourself would screw up a good thing. Time to go shopping . . . . . .
This is utter bullshit! I have been a member for almost 4 years and love the huge Metal selection. So now, because you want to add artists that I don’t give a rat’s ass about, I have to pay more? I hope your company goes down the toilet you corporate fucktard!
SUCK IT EMUSIC!!!!
Wonderful news and a great catalog of music to get.
Indie music still needs a place like eMusic to thrive. So long as the major push does not come at the expense of the indies and eMusic manages this growth in a thoughtful fashion, I’m all for it. I can fill some of the gaps in the collection.
One or two requests – improve the mp3 quality. I don’t think 320kbps is asking too much and it one ups amazon and itunes. Also, how ’bout some quality cd artwork for those of us who still burn an entire cd…front, back and cd would be most appreciated.
Thanks for the new music.
Danny- I’ve been an emusic subscriber for years. I love the service, the website is great and keeps getting better, and you guys keep adding great music. So far, so good. I hope that the new changes coming to eMusic (good and bad) don’t alienate too many of your current customers in the hopes of bringing in new ones. Too many businesses operate that way these days. I trust you will do your best to prevent that from happening.
I have to say this, even at the risk of sounding like a cheapskate. THE LOW PRICE IS CRITICAL. It’s a perfect middle ground for those of us who want to OWN new music without stealing it. I love buying new music. Honestly, I buy so many albums through emusic based on reviews and recommendations alone, without worrying about whether I might not like the whole album or might be wasting my hard-earned money. That is what draws me to eMusic. I do not advocate stealing music, and I never do that. But let’s face it, many of your customers will switch over to stealing new music rather than pay a higher price for it. Or at the very least, they may just walk away from eMusic and accept that it is once again too expensive to just “try out” new music by purchasing it legally.
The eMusic model has been great. I know the company wants to grow and compete with iTunes, but your low price and indie feel is what makes you competitive. If you get too expensive you may lose your core base of customers and might be crushed. I’d hate to see that happen. The indie labels that supposedly want you to raise your prices need to realize that many eMusic customers (like myself) will no longer just impulsively buy their products if the price is too high.
I’ve hung in there with emusic through a few price increases so far. But I’ve always said, there is a limit. I hope the impending price increases don’t push me over the edge. I am not looking to download the Billy Joel back catalog at near-iTunes prices. I could do that anywhere, without having to maintain a monthly subscription. I love the affordability of trying out many NEW and INTERESTING recordings each month through eMusic, and have converted many of my friends and family members into eMusic customers. I would hate to see eMusic turn into “iTunes lite.” Good luck Danny.
So….I have to pay more money because you want to add artists that I don’t give a shat about? I’ve been a member for almost 4 years and this is a monumental FU to me and other long standing members.
I honestly hope that Emusic goes down the toilet because of this. In today’s economic environment, you can’t simply pull crap like this and expect to thrive, let alone survive.
Thanks for being a corporate azzwipe, Danny. Really appreciate it. And say goodbye to my membership!
Yeah that’s a good point by comment number 459. How come I did not receive an e-mail about this. Instead I see this notice on the home page instead. Dan let’s just hope that the independent labels do not want to be associated with emusic anymore.
Oh yeah , I predict Michael Jackson to be number one on the charts which i pay no attention to.
this is very disappointing. i’ve enjoyed emusic for 4 or 5 years, and i know it sounds silly but i have to admit that i feel betrayed (thank goodness i didn’t pay for a full year at a time!)
i wish there was a way i could keep my old number of downloads and forgo access to the new sony stuff. unfortunately i will probably be canceling my account. the price for music will practical doubled overnight… i might as well go to itunes, at these prices.
The big thing here is not the adding of the Sony Catalog. It is the HUGE hike in price. A slight increase would be from my 191 a year that I pay for my 75 downloads a month to around 225 for the same plan. Not going from 75 to 35 (a more than 50% decrease) and paying $20.00 less a year. The same plan that I had will now cost me 371.88 which is a 93.79% increase. On what planet is this a slight increase. I hope that this changes soon.
Well….
Now, being a 300 month downloader… I thought this was a great deal at 74.99 a month. Under the new plan I would get 100 songs at 40.99 a month and then have to buy ‘booster packs’ (50 @ 24.99) for a total of 140.95 – almost a 100% increase!
I too like many have used this site as a reference point to find music that was really out of the realm of the general public’s ear. If I wanted a bright new pop or rock album… I have generally headed over to Amazon for a couple of reasons…
1. The bit rates are higher (generally) than on emusic.
2. Amazon does a better job of transitions between songs that go right into the next one
3. Amazon has a way better popular music catalog than emusic will with this new change.
I think that the notification also stinks…. No email, no warning, Just a notice at the top of the page telling me that my account has been changed. It just stinks… seem cowardly to me.. Just sneak in a notice….
I have started drinking again. Thank you.
double the price? no thanks.
it was fun while it lasted.
I got no email or any notification of this. Not that it would have mattered. These increases are extortion…pure and simple. Good-bye Emusic. You have lost this customer.
Let’s see: Downloads that cost 70 percent more than I now pay. Music from the back catalogs of artists – Bruce Springsteen, the Byrds, Celine Dion (bleck) – that I already have or never would want. I just don’t see the upside of this change. What made emusic attractive is that it exposed me to new music – British Sea Power, the Woods, the Intelligence, brakesbrakesbrakes and countless others – that I never would have gotten to hear otherwise. And it did it at a price that made exploration attractive and possible. When it turns out that I just am not interested in Deerhunter or Shearwater after giving them a spin, that’s a price I could write off at 25 cents a download. That’s far less true at the new rate I’ll be paying, 42 cents a download. It’s exactly the kind of higher cost that major labels instituted in the CD age, a cost that curtailed my buying for years. Since I began with emusic, I’ve steadily crept my membership up to 100 downloads a month and that usually isn’t enough to satisfy my curiosity. Now, with a plan that will give me half that many, 50 downloads, but cost me nearly the same ($20.79) my curiosity will not only not be satisfied, it’ll be stifled. I hate to say it, but having been turned on to downloading by emusic, I’ll have to start looking elsewhere to satisfy my jones.
Does this mean that indie artists get paid more per track just like major label artist, or is Springsteen going to be getting paid more when I download a Drive By Truckers or Bobby Bare Jr. track??? I hope you’re not screwing the “little” guy to pad the pockets of the “big” guys, because that would be seriously unethical.
I agree with many of the others here that emusic’s decision to increase prices so dramatically, just to add major record labels to the catalog shows a misplaced sense of priorities. The whole reason I joined as a member was to get a great deal on the small label indie music I’m interested in. At this point I don’t know why anyone would choose emusic over just getting their downloads at Amazon.
On the other hand I very much respect and appreciate emusic’s decision to “grandfather” former members into the same deal they had initially been working with. I also like the ability to get a whole album with more than 12 tracks for just 12 downloads. In other words, from a purely personal standpoint it doesn’t look like I have anything to lose – more music available for the same great price I’ve been paying. Which begs the question of why so many people writing above are so completely bent out of shape about this. It shouldn’t directly affect them, should it? Is this “grandfather clause” only applicable for some types of membership and not all?
I’ve loved emusic, and I just hope they keep their priorities focused on indie music of all kinds.
I guess I never realized that the people running eMusic have no idea what made eMusic appealing to everyone.
I do care about the “semantics” of independent vs. major labels.
I don’t see how at this point you could get the bad taste out of the mouths of your former subscribers… It might help if you fired yourself. For now I’m quitting like everybody else.
Well, I was just looking for ways to reduce my monthly finances and emu made the decision for me. As much as i hate to lose this service, I can’t justify the cost per track on a reoccurring subscription basis.
Hope to get the new Dino Jr album on the way out at least…
I thought about this a little more…
Danny, you’re not going to pry any iTunes business away from Apple. They’ve been implanted with Apple’s cultural ninnyism and won’t abandon Mr. Jobs’ alabaster church for your tent the woods.
Furthermore, it’s not all about the money. Most fervent music fans–especially those of indie music–consider Sony et. al. to be Satan. Getting in bed with them is brand suicide.
Finally, you can kiss Sony’s ass all you want…it is your right and I can’t stop you. But you will not be using my lips to do it. My account expires on Friday and will not be renewed.
I feel like I got hit with a bait and switch. I’m a new member, getting prepped for my third month of downloads. The only reason I signed up is to buy small label jazz that’s tough to find in the stores at a low cost option that enabled me to explore unheard music and take a chance on those albums. But now you’re going to take away 25% of my tracks a month, because now I have the “privilege” of downloading massively distributed music I can find for a couple bucks at most used stores or summer garage sales? And you’re going to tell me to celebrate it? Here’s a bit of advice… When you spit in someone’s face, don’t tell them to smile.
I mean, if this Sony deal didn’t go through, would the plan options have stayed the same? And if so, then why force current members to subsidize the stuff that we didn’t come here for in the first place? Here’s what I offer. You keep my 50 for 15 plan intact, and I promise to never download a friggin’ Sony song for the entirety of my eMusic life. I’ll stick to Act and Fresh Sound and Criss Cross labels, and then you can report to Sony that eMusic isn’t dragging down the “intrinsic market price” of their music.
Deal? Yeah? Let me know, because one way or the other, I’ll be making a decision before my July downloads, and unless the numbers look different to me than they do now or the bitter taste of the news diminishes, you’ll have one less member on your subscription list. That’s not a threat; just simple pragmatism.
Big disappointment, eMusic.
Hey Luke #478 —
I don’t see any evidence of being grandfathered to anything. I’ve been an eMusic subscriber since 2002, and my account is being “retired” so that I can participate in eMusic’s new – and how its better is beyond me – pricing scheme.
Have you picked up on something that the others here haven’t?
Things change and people have to expect that. But the right thing to do doesn’t include penalizing those who have been so supportive over the years so harshly. eMusic should absolutely devise a fair grandfather plan for any subscriber who’s been in good standing (paid up) for say, more than 3 or 3 years.
So, if you know where this grandfathering is discussed, how ’bout sharing that.
Ahhh…This is the nightmare scenario I have been fearing! Amazon was just fine for major label stuff! None of the highlight groups listed as being added seem worth the price increase. I mean, Beyonce and Kings of Leon? Ug!
I can understand now that major labels are finally willing to consider DRM free stuff, eMusic might want to expand their game. But couldn’t they have come up with separate subscriptions: one for independent labels willing to be more reasonable on prices, and then one for whiny kids who can’t live without major label crap (and whose parents are paying for their subscriptions anyway)?
Oh well. Such is life. EMusic is still a good deal, I guess. But I am depressed over this.
Cowardly, bye bye emusic in 2 weeks.
So, to recap…
In the middle of a global recession, you’ve decided to almost double the cost per download for your most valued long-term return customers – customers who I might add, have more discriminating tastes than your average radio listener – and in return you are offering access to a catalog of the same mainstream schlock they can get anywhere else and had no interest in downloading in the first place.
All for what is a non-essential service. It’s not like you’re selling food or clothing. Hell, you’re not even selling a TANGIBLE music product.
Guess it’s time to cancel my subscription. Thanks for showing me how little you care for your customers.
Despite being out of work and eating oatmeal for my main meal of the day, I am glad I re-subscribed for two years at my old rate for 90 songs a month. 35 a month? Are you kidding? For two more years I can have what I tried to sell friends, family and strangers on park benches. No more. I admit I’ll grab some Sony songs, but really I care about news EMC or more Alligator or Sugar Hill. Why not focus on what emusic does well, but only do it better. Another site with the same old mainstream catalogs is just another site even if slightly cheaper. In two years I hope a emusic replacement will have cropped up. Because the emusic I’ve been giving my meal money to is dead. Now where can I find those early Shakey Horton records. I am still looking.
Raster Noton. 12K. Warp. Beggar’s Banquet. Downloads cheap enough to encourage experimentation without resorting to P2P or otherwise ripping off niche artists.
Is the “indie vs. major” divide just jargon? Well, when Sony shows up, prices double. That says it all right there. Will I keep my subscription? Up in the air right now, but I certainly don’t need to download Kind of Blue or London Calling. I have all those already. Meantime, I’m checking out artists like Seaworthy and Pjusk.
eMusic: Run a survey among your members to find out what they think. My guess is 90 % would oppose the change.
Attracting new customers and expanding business is fine, but to do it at the expense of existing customers is bad business.
Many of us are long-time, loyal subscribers and having this change pushed on us feels about as good as a swift kick to the groin.
I agree with Dave’s comment above. I don’t care about the stuff on Sony’s catalog. That’s not why I’m a member of Emusic. That stuff is everywhere and it’s not much more $$ to buy the stuff on Itunes or Amazon if you compare it to the new Emusic pricing. I’ve recommended Emusic to a lot of folks because it’s a great place to discover new independent stuff at the right price. Now with this deal, I can’t see my self doing so. I hate to say it but I’ve just joined Napster for $5 a month and, much to my surprise, I’m liking it so far. I’m considering jumping ship.
So the new price is off putting. Even so, I at least hope that every artist on your roster will benefit from this price increase. The indie acts were your pioneers and they deserve the $$$ more than the new Sony crap who has the legal/lobbying muscle to get more money out you guys.
More mainstream bands, half the downloads? SIGN ME UP!!!
I have been a long time subscriber and have enjoyed every minute of discovering new music. But now, to have my account nearly slashed in half for a bunch of bands and labels I purposely avoided iTunes for is simply outrageous.
Honeymoon’s over eMusic.
Stop with the Major/Indie arguments. It really about the money spent on our subscriptions and quantity of downloads we get. Having more “major” music won’t change the content that is already in eMusic. Its about eMusic needing more growth.
The company completely mis-read the tea leaves here and will most likely suffer and and not prosper as they planned. If they had treated their current customers with repsect (Paste), We would all be behind them. Raise my fee another dollar or cut me back 10% or 20% on downloads. Honor existing subscriptions for another year as is. ROLLOVER credits. How much money do you owe Sony? Can you re-negotiate the deal?
And now….
From Term of Use Contract from eMusic i.e. ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT
2. If any modification is unacceptable to you, you must stop using the Service.
6.2 If you have downloaded some but not all of the individual tracks of a particular album, eMusic may offer you the ability to “complete” the corresponding album at a discounted rate.
**** Has anyone ever heard of this or benefited from it?
6.6 Under any Service level, any UNUSED DOWNLOADS in each 30-day cycle do not carry over to the following cycle and are forfeited, UNLESS your subscription plan expressly allows rollover
************************ Has anyone ever heard of this or benefited from it? Like wtf? Where is this and how do we get it?
6.11 EMUSIC RESERVES THE RIGHT, AT ANY TIME, TO CHANGE ITS FEES AND BILLING METHODS, INCLUDING THE ADDITION OF SUPPLEMENTAL FEES OR SEPARATE CHARGES FOR CONTENT, OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY EMUSIC, EFFECTIVE THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER AN ONLINE POSTING AT http://www.emusic.com. EMUSIC MAY ADDITIONALLY PROVIDE NOTICE OF BILLING CHANGES VIA EMAIL. EMUSIC MAY ADDITIONALLY PROVIDE NOTICE OF BILLING CHANGES VIA EMAIL. If any such change is unacceptable to you, you may cancel your subscription to the Service, as provided in Section 7 below. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SERVICE FOLLOWING THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF A CHANGE TO SUCH FEES AND BILLING METHODS SHALL CONSTITUTE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH CHANGE.
(upper case courtesy of emusic legal department)
7. Termination is your sole right and exclusive remedy if you are not satisfied with the Service.
8.3 8.3 By posting messages, inputting data, suggesting playlists, suggesting ideas or engaging in any other form of communication through the Service, you irrevocably agree that any such content, and all intellectual property rights associated therewith, shall become our sole property. We may copy, sublicense, adapt, publicly perform, display or otherwise exploit any such content and rights in any manner whatsoever, throughout the world, in perpetuity, without any obligation to make any payment to you or others or to give you credit.
I just found this section to be interesting!!
11. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF AND ACCESS TO THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND AN “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. WE DO NOT MAKE, AND HEREBY DISCLAIM, ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE SERVICE, THE EMUSIC SITE AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THE EMUSIC SITE OR ANY PORTION THEREOF, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING (WITHOUT LIMITATION) IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, OR ANY WARRANTIES ARISING BY COURSE OF DEALING OR CUSTOM OF TRADE. WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY THAT ANY MATERIAL, CONTENT, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES DISPLAYED ON OR OFFERED THROUGH THE SERVICE ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, APPROPRIATE, RELIABLE, OR TIMELY. WE ALSO MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS AND/OR YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, FREE OF VIRUSES, MALICIOUS CODE, OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR OTHERWISE SECURE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
The complete cover your ass clause!!
15.3 Our performance of this Agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this Agreement is in derogation of our right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Service or information provided to or gathered by us with respect to such use.
Hmmmmm!
15.9 To the extent it may be applicable, you agree with us to opt out from and expressly exclude any applicability of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act.
Only passed in Virginia and Maryland.
What was it about this that you don’t you like?
And I would still like an eMail sent to all of us from the company.
Does anyone know the subscriber base of eMusic?
I’ve had a day to sleep on this, etc., and my reactions aren’t quite as strong, but they’re still rather charged.
1: The timing on the price increase vs. adding Sony could not have been handled much worse. You’ve since communicated that the two aren’t directly linked and the price rise was required even without Sony. Due to the timing, the perception is they are inexorably linked and explanations after the fact look like frantic spin.
2: I don’t want a single dime of my money going to the RIAA or any affiliated label until they stop abusing the court system, blindly suing customers, and lobbying congress to get laws changed to protect their business model.
3: What I would be the most in favor of is eMusic splitting into two sites – one new site that’s RIAA free and maintains the spirit of what eMusic was, and the second can remain here and turn into the faceless indistinguishable entity it will become now that the mainstream garbage is here.
4: With the introduction of the mainstream, the charts will likely become useless. They used to be filled with interesting music to explore. I expect they’ll become just like any other pop station on the radio. Vastless expanses of over-produced, low-talent monotony.
In any case, eMusic as we knew it is now gone. Hopefully someone else rises to take its place.
As a newbie (membership for only 3.5 years), I was surprised to learn of this price increase. During my tenure there has been 2 other price increases. These were modest increases compared to this latest one.
I have been extremely happy with my emusic membership. For this reason, I am willing to give you guys the benefit of the doubt and remain a member to see if the additional money is worth it. I am presently downloading from the other download stores. And I assume others here are also doing the same. Perhaps with an expanded catalogue, I’ll be able to find more here and forgo amazon, itunes, and rhapsody.
Everyone should read post 404. Someone claiming to be director of online marketing at sony has said the following in an email to Danny Stein
“Hi Danny,
<<We love the direction you’re moving in over there! Your subscription model is the <<new frontier in bringing profits and customer satisfaction back to the record industry”
Take special note of the mention of profits. For the industry not artists.
Oh and the saavy Mr. Lipschitz was kind enough to paste in Mr. Stein’s email address as well.
dstein@emusic.com
Let’s flood his inbox shall we?
Some marketing rules learned from several careers doing marketing and teaching college students: if you can raise prices without losing business, find the tipping point and raise them.
Another rule: gaining new customers is much more expensive than retaining present customers.
And yet another: Research, research, research. Make decisions based on fact not intuition (and may I add panic.)
And one more: Communicate with your customers.
Has emu exceeded the tipping point and ignored (or worse run off) present customers.
How many free dls will emu have to give away to get casual listeners? and will they use a subscription model? and how many ads? and heaven knows what else that is part of this new business model. I guess they focused grouped or surveyed present of potential members. It just doesn’t seem so. And emu communication and customers service is horrible. They could have done this more effectively.
I’m trying hard to find reasons to stay. I know they have to grow the business and perhaps there aren’t many more than 400k music geeks like us.
Will this be a case study for bad marketing and communication practice for the next generation. I teach public relations and this is looking like lecture material for how not to. I wish emu well and hope they are successful in turning this into a profitable mainstream dl site.
I started on eMusic originally back in the days when you could pay a flat fee with unlimited downloads. Yes, that’s right, unlimited downloads. That was back before broadband connections were commonplace outside of Universities. I could set up a download list and run it overnight. The next morning, everything I wanted was all there. Ok, I admit it, those were my greedy days. Also way back then, the eMusic catalog was much smaller than today.
Then eMusic took that away and allowed me to subscribe to 90 downloads for less than $20 a month. That’s still a good deal for both of us. When my 90 downloads would reload each month, I had no trouble downloading all 90 tracks in a single session. I’ve had over 200 albums in my “Saved for Later” queue.
I don’t listen to pop music – “indie” or otherwise. I’m just a cranky old man who listens to jazz and classical – not that other crap so many other, mostly younger people these days like. But that’s just my opinion and eMusic had always done a great job at catering to the desires of a lot of different musical “tastes”. So I was cool with that. What I do have in common with a lot of the people who have different tastes is that I don’t want these labels.
Who cares about Yo-yo Ma (except Yo Ma-ma)? Musically, he’s as exciting as wallpaper. I want the classical and jazz versions of “indie” music. Give me Havergal Brian and Martinu any day. So eMusic decides to jack me up to make way for Sony? I say let me keep all my “indie” downloads and don’t let me have access to the expensive mainstream crap. I don’t want it any way.
I guess eMusic has now gone greedy on me. Is this to make up for my greedy days, lo those many years ago during your salad days?
The only good thing I can say is that there will no loger be any 14 second tracks on classical albums. I wouldn’t waste a download on those recordings before. As you can tell, I remain unconvinced that there is anything good in this for me. Gee, slightly over half the downloads for the same price. Why am I not happy about this?
I am going to give it one month… But the way I figure it, if you purchase whole albums, in some cases its cheaper to go with iTunes than with eMusic..
I think that we should have the option to stay at the same old price plan and not get the newer music, but then purchase booster packs if we want to download the music from the “majors”
I think you just made a HUGE mistake. I had just put my account on hold as of June 12 since I am moving soon. I was paying $24.95 for 100 songs. I looked at your site just now and saw the announcement. More music. Great. Then I read the small print – I was being moved to a new plan: $19.95 for 50 songs.
Let’s see. I was paying about $.25 per song before – now I’ll pay $.40 a song – a 60% increase. All of this to get artists I could care less about. In addition, you still have the ridiculous policy where a subscriber loses unused credits.
I think you have lost sight of who your customers are. Speaking for myself, I want more indie artists – not major label artists I can get anywhere.
I will think twice about whether to return after my hold expires.
Huh. At first I was pretty excited about this – always like more music options, regardless of the label. But, now I see they’re scrapping my plan, basically keeping the same annual fee but chopping off 60 downloads/month. So…this is probably the end of what was a glorious run with eMusic. Bummer.
The new plan sucks! Amazon often has deals on full cd’s for $5 or less. Screw Sony and keep the old plan. The reality is you increasing the price is driving people to Limewire and Torrent sites. I was looking for places in my budget to cut and this makes it easy.
thanks to whoever recommended audiolunchbox.com — I just checked it out and it seems like a decent alternative. I have no desire to lose half my downloads here and I could not possibly care any less about getting access to R Kelly and John Mayer. Packing it up and moving to another service.
Has anyone else seen the article about the eMusic betrayal of its customers in the New York Times? The article says “As part of the deal, eMusic says it will slightly raise prices and reduce the number of downloads for some of its monthly plans.”
Slightly? SLIGHTLY????? That’s not shading for business purposes, that is a bald-faced lie.
I have (or rather, had) an annual plan (not monthly). Downloads cut by 60 per year, for double the price. Or I have the privilege of selecting a “new” plan.
Is that what it has come to, Mr. Stein? You feed this crap to the New York Times and they pat you on the back for bringing the music industry into the 21st century. I don’t know how you sleep at night.
It’s best that I just cancel. I wouldn’t dream of handing my credit card number back to a company this dishonest.
Dan, my advice is to cool it with the spin and be honest about what’s happening — to your subscriber base, your business model, your cost structure. If you need to create a bigger tent and grow your base by adding Sony, just say so. Explain the difficulties of this environment and the increased challenges of being a virtual distribution arm for a huge number of small labels, vs selling through a well-established base of popular music that might give you scale and help you compete with iTunes, Amazon mp3, etc.
The thing about your audience is that they are very sensitive to the forces driving the music industry. And that can be good or bad. Good, if you’re straight with us about what’s going on. Bad if you try to spin it that we’re all going to win because you’re bringing Sony’s mass-market product into a world with boutique values.
eMusic finally respond (from the forum)….
Hi Everyone:
We’re here, and we’re reading every word. We feel as passionately about eMusic as you do and would not have made this decision if we did not feel strongly that it will be beneficial to everyone involved.
We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic — and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it.
Obviously, a lot of comments have been about the pricing. The Great Recession of 2009 is not the best time to be doing this. We own up to that. However, we – and our labels – simply cannot sustain some of the lowest cost plans that many of you currently have. The price increase is not just about Sony, it is for all of our labels, including the ones that have left over the years and those we have yet to sign.
We appreciate you, our most loyal customers, and we understand that people have naturally reacted strongly to yesterday’s news. All that we can ask is that you show some patience, that you see how we go about handling this catalogue. We have a lot to offer real music fans. We have since 1998, we do today, and we will once Sony launches. That will not change.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We will continue to check back.
Cathy Halgas Nevins
eMusic
I agree with much of the sentiment in this thread.
I’ve been a subscriber for a few years now, and have, without hesitation renewed my subscription for two reasons:
1) eMusic is not cluttered or diluted by mainstream music. I’m not denigrating mainstream music…I own every Springsteen album ever recorded, even Human Touch. But eMusic was a place I could come to explore, discover, and learn about new and different music.
2) It is inexpensive enough for me to be adventurous with my downloads. One of the the biggest challenges in discovering new music is that it can be an expensive proposition, because the hit/miss ratio is high. I’d say that I genuinely like and regularly listen to less than half of the music I’ve downloaded here. But the good makes up for the bad.
The new additions and pricing schemes degrade both of these values.
I would have happily continued my subscription as it. Despite minor quibbles here and there, eMusic was, prior to these changes, exactly the service I wanted.
I see three potential options that would appeal to me: 1) A ‘grandfather option’ where I can be grandfathered in at close to original cost, 2) A ‘premium/non-premium’ membership division, where premium membership would be more expensive, but would give access to the new content, or 3) The new major-label content requires 2 credits to download.
None of these options would preserve all of the great things I loved about eMusic. I would still prefer that the new major-label content simply not be included at all. However, these options would still provide new, innovative music at a price point that would allow me to be as adventurous with my downloads as I was before.
One last point, that was made before, I’m sure: the major label bands have plenty of publicity on myriad other download sites and through other channels. eMusic was a place where lesser-known bands could shine though, without having to compete against the noise that is the major-label music system. This was a service to those unsung bands, as well as to the larger universe of music. I hope it can continue in some for here at eMusic.
The new plan seems poorly conceived and poorly presented, whatever the intent. The merger with Sony – for that’s what it comes down to – comes at a time when the major labels are desperate and no longer have the barest thread of credibility left. The legacy entrusted to them has been squandered and their disdain for all but the most profitable of their artists (and sometimes those as well) has been breathtaking to see. No wonder longtime patrons of eMusic are reacting as if we’d just wandered into our local organic food store and discovered it had been taken over by McDonald’s, with the smell of Happy Meals and rancid grease wafting over the trays of strawberries.
Of course Sony has remarkable music buried in their vaults, but much of it really is buried. As a long time music veteran (as an artist, producer & journalist), I used to look forward to my visits to Sony…I would scour the vaults for Louis Armstrong, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters’ Blue Sky recordings, Johnny Winters, Terry Riley, Gene Clark, Tim Hardin, Bill Monroe, Mongo Santamaria, early Arertha, Romeo Void, The Staple Singers, Eric Dolphy, Mingus, Monk, Sly & The Family Stone, Jimmy Rowles, Olatunji, Clifford Brown, Hot Lips Page, James Blood Ulmer, etc. Last time I was there, a year ago, there was nothing in the vaults but tired compilations, Michael Bolton Xmas cds, what looked like K-Tel “hits” cds of Merle Haggard and such and a few recent movie tie-ins. That’s it.
eMusic seems to want to alienate the very people who are their foundation, the ones who actually notice the arrival of new releases on Harmonia Mundi, Sub Rosa, Revenant, Sunnyside, Document, Vanguard, Folkways, Ocora, Alula and Al Sur. The ones, like myself, who would love to see you carry albums on Axiom, Mango, Nonesuch, Antilles, Anti, Sub Pop, etc. The ones who download upwards of 90 tracks a month and who buttonhole friends and strangers alike about the joys of being part of a musical network that draws on the taste and writings of John Morthland, Ed Ward & Lenny Kaye, and who use eMusic as a means of finding terrific new artists from the Sahara, Peru, Brazil, Brooklyn, Montreal, Barcelona and Cuba while digging deep into 1920′s gospel, 1930′s blues, 1940′s flamenco, 1950′s rumba, into the treasures available from the vaults of EMI India or early Swahili 78′s.
Does that describe me? Yup. Are there a lot more of me? You bet!
Why not give us X amount of credits per month and then let the artists/labels decide how many credits they should charge per song/album. This way the cool/up and coming/independent bands can charge little so they can gain exposure and the old/over the hill/major label bands can charge a bunch to pay for their retirement. This way every one only has to pay for what they want and bands have to compete for users monthly credit. It’s also fair to emusic as they can simply chrge the bands/labels X% of sales and they don’t havde to worry about what the right price is; the users and bands will determine that based on competition.
Here’s another long-timer (5 yrs) that will be gone at the end of the month. Going from 75 to 35 downloads at the same price is quite unpalatable (and removes the best thing about emusic — the freedom to explore new music) but trying to sugarcoat it as a “good thing” is just out-and-out BS, a real insult to your core users’ intelligence.
(And here’s some irony: Right after I read this lame news from emusic, I checked my snail mail, and I had gotten a card in the mail from my Internet provider, Comcast, saying that my Internet speed had just been doubled, at no additional charge. Wow! What a contrast.)
I’m in Canada, so I’m not sure yet how this is going to affect me. But I must say, I’m not interested in Sony’s back catalog.
So whether I stay or go (when Canada eventually sees these changes) depends on how the price compares to the alternatives. If it’s too high, I will quit. Or if it’s just slightly under prices elsewhere, why would I stay and commit to a certain number of downloads per month?
Mandy, be wary of Audio Lunchbox. I don’t know what the status on it currently is but there was some severe sketchiness going on over there not too long ago.
If this takes affect you will lose a loyal, loud and persuasive customer immediately. This is stunningly wrong.
I’d like to add my two cents. Like many others, I was at first excited to see the announcement. There is *some* material on Sony that I’d consider dipping into, mostly jazz/classical. I have all the Billy Joel/Bruce Springsteen/insert pop icon here that I’d ever want or need and don’t much listen to it anymore anyway.
Then I saw the pricing details, the loss of downloads, etc. VERY disappointing. Count me as another who will probably not renew when my plan expires, and one who will go away mourning the loss of a great source of music that I’d not have discovered otherwise. I’ll find another way to keep up with the great jazz and avantgarde artists/composers I’ve discovered here.
The only thing that will make me reconsider canceling is if eMusic adds an option that will enable me to keep my existing plan and lets me forego access to the Sony catalog. Short of that, I’m out later this year.
This is not good news to me. I have no intention of paying double to get access to stuff I don’t want or already have (seriously, how many emusic subscribers don’t already have the full Clash catalog on CD?).
I 100% agree with Chris’ post on 6/2: “Why not give us X amount of credits per month and then let the artists/labels decide how many credits they should charge per song/album. This way the cool/up and coming/independent bands can charge little so they can gain exposure and the old/over the hill/major label bands can charge a bunch to pay for their retirement.”
I love emusic because I can download anything that I think I *might* like without an is-it-worth-the-price decision. If the price for the “obsure” tracks on emusic doubles I will not renew my plan (and probably leave emusic altogether).
Please don’t break emusic with the proposed pricing plan. For 2 or 3 tunes a month iTunes will turn out to be a better source for most folks (due to superior iTunes catalog).
This REALLY puts truth to the phrase, “it’s all about the fucking money” I go from 200 downloads a month to 100 for the same price I was paying for the 200. The bogus Twenty-five free downloads does NOT make up for the screwing your customers are being forced to take, and I do mean forced. I am going to have to give up emusic because I refuse to be scammed, fucked and left to rot. I loved emusic, so much music out there I had never heard and at a great price was unbelievable. I really think your company is going to fail miserably because of this, you’re not going to make more, but I believe you will lose it all. Now you are just another itunes and all tha goddamn rest.
Hi, my Nickname is SparrowHawk and I’m an eMusicoholic. I got my first taste of your sweet nectar in January 2006 and soon after started a month by month relationship with you. Three months went by and you convinced me you could fulfill my every desire and I made a two year commitment for 1080 sonic delights a year at $0.17 a piece. At the time you even promised, no, guaranteed that you’d continue to provide for me this way. Now I find out from someone else that you’ll only be providing me with 420 a year and that they’ll cost me $0.41 each. I should have known you were just toying with me.
You tell me I’ll be getting more of the good stuff but you were already giving me the best stuff. I’ve had some of the good stuff that you refer to, but it was all just a stepping stone to my relationship with you. Personally, I don’t care for the rest of the good stuff you mention. Can’t you see I need my Chicago Blues, my Psychedelic Rock, my Americana, my Roots Reggae, my Salsa, and last but certainly not least my Power Pop? But at what cost?
I know you’d continue to provide for me at least in the short-term, but you’ve shattered my faith in you and can’t go on like this. I hope you understand, but you should have been more up-front with me. I used to spend hours gazing at you, cataloguing what I liked best about you, eagerly anticipating what you had freshly ripped for me. I’ll miss the sense of discovery and how you made me feel when you led me down new paths. I feel betrayed, even dirty. I’m sure I’ll run into you here and there, at least until your contractual obligation to me has been met. I want you to know that I’ll be ok without you. I’m sure I’ll find someone else who treats me the way you used to. I sincerely hope you and Rolf are happy together, but personally I feel he’s only going to use you and hurt you the way you hurt me.
Finding new customers costs much more than retaining loyal existing customers. My existing plan provided enough credits that I was interested in exploring music I might not otherwise have purchased, which benefited small catalog artists and independent producers alike. This forced “downgrade” is poor business. You’ve raised the cost of my account by 30%. Even my cellphone, cable and audiobook accounts leave existing customer accounts “as is,” applying rate changes to new subscribers, or to existing subscribers who choose to change their plan.
So what I take away from this is that you are punishing all of your loyal, existing client base. All this for a “back catalog?” Bad business.
I’ve been a member of eMusic for a few years now, and one of its best features is that it allows me to try out new bands and sounds for very little money. It’ll now cost me double to buy a new track. If it’s some band I know well–everything from the Hold Steady or Tristeza that you currently have to a famous artist from the new Sony additions–the price is still very good and I won’t hesitate. If it’s a band I don’t really know but I’ve read about or your team recommends it, well, it’s now much less likely.
I will probably stay with eMusic, but spend less and use it as a way to download fewer tracks primarily from bands I already have on my radar screen. The service will go from a great way to expand my horizons to a kind of down-market iTunes, cheaper with less choice. Of course, it was always cheaper with less choice, but it was a really different place to learn about music in the old style.
I’m sure there are economic reasons for this change, and perhaps one big one is that the smaller labels and bands weren’t making sufficient money at the old price point to keep the eMusic model sustainable. However, adding what are probably more attractive songs, thus making the pool more attractive, thus justifying a more expensive price per song also has the consequence of making the more obscure song more expensive. Is there a way to sequester the Sony catelogue–keep the same cost per unit for most songs, and the Sony ones cost two units, something like that? Without a way to keep the obscure more affordable, those songs are going to be buried, not just b/c the charts are dominated by the major label songs but because the cost of experimentation just doubled. And more blog entries or having a commitment to being fresh won’t make a difference.
I am losing almost half of my downloads so you can add artists that I am not interested in. Makes great business sense to me. I don’t imagine I will be around much longer. I will be looking for alternatives like what emusic offered me when I became a subscriber. Thanks for some great downloads over the years, but no thanks to the way you treat your loyal customers.
“We do have a question though for our customers. We’ve been requested to carry major label titles for years, but we always have gone back and forth on whether it would change the fabric of eMusic. ”
No kidding it will change the fabric of eMusic, sony is home of the rootkit and you will lose your indie base.
emusic was the reason I bought an ipod. Shopping on emusic was as much fun as going to my local record store. I could buy an old jazz cd with 5 tracks for 1.25! Something that was lost and now found, for a couple bucks. It was hard for me to make the leap from liner notes to a huge discount. I would type in a name of an African musician and get their history, feedback and a lineage of people to check out. I could try things with little risk. The price is now doubled. Any way you slice it, at 100 downloads for 25 bucks, it was the greatest thing in the world. Double the price for access to Billy Joel? My local CD store owner is excited to hear the news that emusic is dying. Man, it was a great ride. The greatest era of music buying is over.
Another thought: are the indie and small label artists going to see more money from this hike? Or is it just emusic and Sony?
So, we get MORE crap like Journey & Boston with LESS download credits…
Is this some kind of joke?
I won’t rehash the excellent arguments that folks here have made. I *will* say that I will be canceling my eMusic subscription. The service has been a great way for me to find obscure and little-known music that I like, at a reasonable price. I have absolutely no interest in major labels as a group. If I want something that eMusic doesn’t have, I go to Amazon although that has been rare. Raising my price and slashing my downloads because you’re adding something I have absolutely no interest in is uncalled for and callous. I know you’re trying to make money. But you’ve just lost mine. I’m glas to see that others here see the folly as well.
If eMusic doesn’t honor my current pricing structure – or explain why raising prices isn’t solely for Sony’s benefit – I will cut my subscription back after I finish this month’s downloads. eMusic’s present strategy is an unfortunate sell out to a business model that doesn’t deserve my money. I refuse to pay more money for independent music so that Alecia Keys’s and Kelly Clarkson’s corporate pimps can stay in business.
I have been a huge fan of eMusic for years, and I’ve recommended eMusicto all my friends. I’ve loved eMusic because it has supported electronic, jazz, and classical artists that the major labels like Sony don’t have the creativity or thoughtfulness to carry. I’ve loved that I can use my download credits to support musical and intellectual innovation rather than subsidizing the same old stuff. I’ve loved not having to wade through advertisements and recommendations for major-label acts I have no interest in listening to.
If there is a legitimate financial reason for raising prices, I would love to read/hear it. If eMusic needs to raise prices to stay in business, I will happily pay a bit more. If the independent labels need to raise prices to stay in business, I’ll do the same.
But right now, I am convinced that eMusic’s plan is a giant swindle to Sony’s benefit. Under this “improved” plan, I will receive 25% fewer downloads for the same price. Why should I pay more for access to Sony’s back catalog when I’m NOT AT ALL INTERESTED in it?
eMusic, confess or lose my busines.
I’ve had a day to mull this over.
I’m still not angry over the $0.40 – $0.50 per track price for music I’m looking forward to and know that I want.
I’m just angry over the fact that it’s now too expensive to take risks on new stuff. I think the solution lies in that domain. How does eMusic help its customers explore new music at a low risk. Some ideas have been mentioned such as streaming the full albums instead of 30 second previews. Just brainstorming here – toss a couple of “Exploration Credits” into each monthly renewal. Let the labels themselves decide with albums are eligible, and you could spend one of your credits on a random album to try something new. This would even HELP eMusic differentiate itself from iTunes and Amazon.
I find myself more and more downloading the samplers that Amazon provides. They frequently sell albums for $5. (Today they have the new Ryan Bingham for $4, for example.) The new 40 cent pricing puts eMusic albums right at $5 for 12 tracks – if you could now just add in some extra mechanism to aid in trying out new music, it would go a long way.
Basically, I’m not feeling much better on day 2.
This reeks of sellout like Courtney Love’s crotch.
And we all know what that smells like.
I picture Lucille Ball (with mustache), Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and the Three Stooges dressed as construction workers entering D. Stein’s office to erect life-size posters of Rod Stewart (the one where you can see his dick through hot-pink satin pants) and Eric Clapton (seated, MTV unplugged)…patron saints of Sellouts-With-Talent-Wasted.
Or maybe it’s just desperation. The booster pack blowout thing made me think…uh-oh, Cash Flow Problem. Problem? The Problem is you. Don’t we all hope that evil has an explanation?
And riddle me this: Why?…why….why can I not keep my 300 downloads if I am willing to pay $125 or $135 or even $150 for them? Baffling. Is a straight-out price increase so taboo that it must be pitifully disguised by reducing downloads?
Oh yeah, this smoke and mirrors indie vs. majors thing is especially heinous. Hmmmmmm…we’ll get them stuck on this while we slide this huge price increase right under their noses! That’s what we’ll do! Very cynical. Very poorly done.
Like so many incidents in my life, I’m left wondering….. insolence?…… incompetence? Insolence? Incompetence? Insolence? Incompetence? The yin, the yang.
I can almost see some maketing weasel at emusic (probably someweasel relatively new to the company) passionately presenting ppt slides of “real emusic user quotes”, including “This site sucks” from falloutgirl@tweenhighschool.edu — and — “Why can’t I find any good artists here??” from whinybrittanyfan@ADD.com — and — (you get the idea)… Then the big pitch for adding a steaming pile of big-label chestnuts and doubling prices.
Note to emusic: Find out who your real customers are. And never let marketing weasels do that for you.
I want the ability to opt out of the expansion and keep my original subscription. In fact, I would *increase* my subscription to 300 tracks per month and pay for my subscription on an annual basis if I could keep my current per-track price and the existing non-Sony label selections. But requiring every subscriber to pony up for this expansion when many don’t want it is a very crappy business decision. I have cancelled eMusic before and I may do so again. As others have pointed out, I have most of what I want from Sony/Columbia already, and I have it in lossless format ripped directly from CDs, so I don’t need .mp3 versions of the same thing, *especially* when the per-track price goes through the roof. If I wanted to pay .50 or .99 per track, I can go to Amazon or iTunes.
eMusic seems to want to buck the rest of the technology curve — the cheaper and easier it is to *provide* the product, the more expensive it gets. This is why the music industry is dying.
re: the ‘big’ news —-
not happy about this. not happy at all.
am seriously considering cancellation.
my downloads will be halved. my per song price almost doubles.
and did i even ask for sony’s drek?
not happy about this.
not happy at all.
Even if tracks here are only 40 cents, I doubt people are going to want to go through the commitment of a monthly subscription just to get a two year old back catalog. They’d probably rather pay full price unless the price per track is such a good value, like it used to be.
One more soon-to-be-ex-eMu customer here. And while my backlog is 160 albums strong, there are very few that I would miss or not be able to find elsewhere if I looked hard enough – and if I can’t, well then I didn’t really need them anyway. I already own all of the Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. that I want. I don’t need the Sony back catalog, and I certainly don’t need to go from 50 downloads to 30 downloads for the same crappy price!!!!
What a waste! Why try to beat iTunes, clearly you can see that your LOYAL customers are here because you’re NOT iTunes.
My thoughts, for what they’re worth…
This model *could* work, if eMusic get other majors on board. That’d give you an iTunes/Amazon rivalling catalogue (which they don’t have anything like now) at around half-price – with the user subscriptions sweetening the deal for the labels – we’re paying upfront, as if you had to pay £30 to enter HMV but could leave with a couple of records.
I don’t hold with the idea that indie music is superior to major label music. You’ll be able to get In A Silent Way for 80p / 80c soon – the whole album. All the key Laura Nyro albums. Al Kooper! Pick up the CD-bonus Byrds tracks. (Well at least I hope so).
But yeah, that makes it less likely to take a punt on, say, Deerhoof or School of Seven Bells (two major emusic suck-it-and-see hits for me) – and the price hike is a shocker. There’s not much headroom for more increases in the business model now is there? 40p per track here vs 69p on Amazon, where downloading an album can work out cheaper and that catalogue is streets ahead. They’ve shot their bolt on that score.
It has taken me all day to calm down enough to be coherent about what I want to say. I am a long time subscriber to eMusic; since2002 when you could get unlimited downloads for a VERY reasonable price. I went along with the limited downloads per month, that seemed reasonable since the price was still pretty good and you grandfathered in those of us who were already subscribers. And even though I still think it is unfair, I didn’t complain when you changed the service so we lose our extra downloads from one month to the next if we don’t use them all. I have given eMusic gift subscriptions and recommended eMusic to my friends and family. I’ve even tried the book selections. I am a big believer in the power of the internet in evening the playing field in making media available to everyone and for everyone, and I have always appreciated eMusic’s unique presence as a stronghold for indie music. It’s a place where I can discover new and different, wonderful sounds.
So, when I opened eMusic this morning to see what I could hear, I was dumbfounded to discover that now I would be charged DOUBLE my current price for downloads. Guess what? I don’t want the new music you are getting at this increased price. It’s available elsewhere, everywhere else in fact, that is not what I am at eMusic for. I don’t want it at eMusic if it means having to pay double without any kind of choice or consideration for being a longtime, loyal customer. If you need to increase your prices, that’s one thing, but to just whammy us with a 100% increase for what I consider no value added is making my head spin.
I am one customer who is very seriously reconsidering her subscription altogether. In fact, for the first time ever, I am actually looking at the other music services out there. It’s time to shop around.
Also if they are cutting our downloads in half, where does it stop? How do we know that in a few more months prices won’t go up even more?
E-music is a bunch of amateurs.
If google or facebook were running the site, they would have had the sense to introduce change slowly and at least maintain a strong sense of continuity. The major label addition feels like a merger. AND WE THE SHAREHOLDERS VOTE NO!
Why didn’t e-music explore using ads or getting sponsors? E-music should be more like pitchfork or hulu rather than itunes.
I bet e-music subscribers are generally educated, tech-savvy people aged 20-40 with some disposable income. We are a captive audience that advertisers want to get a hold of. I would rather be bombarded with Nike ads than see the site’s price shoot up and the quality slump down.
The site should sell out to myspace or facebook, who are more motivated by advertising and site traffic.
Plus, has e-music heard of a service called lala.com. You can download songs there for 50 cents and at least stream whole albums once before you buy them. I hope emusic is contemplating the same because right now, lala is the new e-music on the block.
This is terrible news. It seems like this move is just for those people who can never find anything to spend their credits on.
I don’t see the need to add all of these major labels. I totally understand the argument that many of the artists on major labels are in fact “indie,” but the fact that these artists are on major labels makes their records extremely easy to get through other means (has anyone ever heard of the library?). By putting in these new major label artists, eMusic has essentially taken away much of the power subscribers had to dabble. Now subscribers have less downloads (unless they want to pay double what they initially paid), and therefore less credits to adventure with. To me those few extra credits I had left at the end of the month were always used for random explorations and I discovered so many of my current favorite artists that way.
Having been an eMusic subscriber for several years, I was grandfathered in on a plan that allows me 50 downloads for $11.99. I absolutely love this deal, but the new deal where I will be getting (nearly) half of this number of downloads for the same price is just ridiculous.
I will be stopping my subscription after this month.
eMusic never used to have all of the major artists and it was sublime. Now that they are going to have them I must say I feel a bit betrayed and a bit like eMusic has fallen prey to the lazy mill about masses who only want the records they know and love and are afraid to try something new. I am not going to pay more simply because eMusic wants a larger reach in the market. There is no reason to include these major labels and jack up the prices… to do so seems completely out of line with the site i fell in love with.
While I can understand this decision from a business mentality, from my perspective as a simple music adventurer I simply can not support this new direction.
Goodbye eMusic.
I lost 40% of my downloads for the right to download the Clash, Sex Pistols (already have ‘em), Aerosmith (don’t care), and more artists and labels that really didn’t want. I didn’t subscribe to eMusic to get access to these groups. This is a terrible deal for me.
Shouldn’t there at least be an option to continue with an indie-only catalog. It should be easy to restrict content to certain subscribers. After all, I have to pay extra to download eBooks. Why not restrict major labels to those willing to cough up the cash?
I’m thinking about canceling.
Yancey’s reply is covered here in the forum – outside of the firestorm on 17dots. You can see it below… Additionally, most of the media coverage – with the exception of the LA Times, has been basically copy-and-paste-an-emusic-press-release on the issue.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/06/emusic-sony-mp3.html
I would encourage everyone in these posts to avoid wasting your time on 17dots – there are so many great and well articulated arguments against this move already – and send a few emails to the news editors at major news outlets. Don’t let emusic off the hook by keeping you voice isolated to these pages. Once again this is an argument of profit trumping principle, not a general price increase.
Yancey spells the intentions behind the move pretty clearly – especially regarding long-time subscribers:
“The majority of folks saw very few to no changes in their plan. The plans that did see changes were the ones whose pricing was far below what we pay out. We just couldn’t continue subsidizing those accounts. It’s more math than anything else.”
http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=175230
Yancey, editor in chief in the emu forums:
————–
A few things to note:
The new pricing benefits everyone. Existing indie labels, future labels (indie and major), etc. It’s not just for Sony.
Regarding the grandfathering plans, it definitely sucks to see your downloads cut. But this isn’t out of a lack of loyalty: this is because those plans, which we have grandfathered for a few years, would now be priced at a loss. We changed what some of you spend per-track so that it was equal to what everyone else spends. Whether Sony happened or not, this was an eventuality. An eventuality that stinks, yes, but one all the same.
The majority of folks saw very few to no changes in their plan. The plans that did see changes were the ones whose pricing was far below what we pay out. We just couldn’t continue subsidizing those accounts. It’s more math than anything else.
The broader question of how Sony incorporates into eMusic is one that I have been thinking about quite a bit. And I’ll be honest: there are some definite challenges and we’ll be figuring them out as we go along. But as I said in the 17 Dots post, our taste and our values — and here I’m talking about me, Joe, Alex, Maris, Jayson, our writers and the tone of the site that you help define — is the same. All of you regulars in particular I hope will recognize how deeply we hold our beliefs, and how much we love indie music. The idea that any of us would ever abandon that… just not going to happen.
The last 36 hours have sucked. I went quiet as I waited for tempers to cool a bit. I’ve been getting a lot of emails from folks saying that yesterday was a range of emotions, and that while they still aren’t sure how they feel about this move, they’re going to see how things shake out. And that’s a completely rational way to approach this, and I can’t argue with it at all. I’m crossing my fingers that that’s what can happen this week.
I’m going to be posting a new arrivals on 17 Dots soon. God knows what will happen in the comments, but there are great new records to talk about and I don’t want us to overlook them over our inside-baseball stuff. So if you read this and are feeling like talking about music, I’d appreciate a comment or two. If you don’t feel like it, totally cool.
Yancey
PS: I am going on vacation on Thursday and will be gone about two weeks. Completely unrelated to all of this.
PPS: It seems a meme has developed around this “slight” word. The NY Times wrote that, not us.
PPPS: With album pricing and all of that: this will not just be Sony titles. All labels will be able to opt in (and we will introduce it to the UK, EU and Canada later on). I don’t have many more details yet, but when we do we will share them. This will be a good thing for everyone.
————
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/06/emusic-sony-mp3.html
not allowing comments?
Susanne on 2 June has it exactly right; her missive bears repeating:
>>I don’t want the new music you are getting at this increased price.
Exactly: If I wanted that music, I would have gone elsewhere in the first place.
>>It’s available elsewhere, everywhere else in fact
Exactly: it is available everywhere. Why bother with emusic to get it? There is no longer any advantage to staying at emusic.
>>that is not what I am at eMusic for.
Exactly: New music whose prices are not inflated by the tired, run-of-the-mill labels through which one pays for the label rather than the music.
>>I don’t want it at eMusic if it means having to pay double without any kind of choice or consideration for being a longtime, loyal customer.
Exactly: If there is no longer any advantage to remaining loyal, especially at the doubled fee, then there is now no disadvantage to flitting about among other providers or just buying the albums from amazon ad hoc.
>>If you need to increase your prices, that’s one thing, but to just whammy us with a 100% increase for what I consider no value added is making my head spin.
Emusic has decided to become just another, garden-variety player.
>>I am one customer who is very seriously reconsidering her subscription altogether. In fact, for the first time ever, I am actually looking at the other music services out there. It’s time to shop around.
Absolutely. Give someone else a chance. I can say categorically that I will be moving on the a different provider.
Emusic will now be just another garden-variety player; there is no longer any reason to choose it over any of the other players.
Moreover one cannot help but wonder about a company that doubles fees while simultaneously subtracting downloads — in this economy. Are you kidding? Even at the old fee, who has not considered dropping his or her subscription for a year or so? And now at a doubled fee and fewer downloads?
There world of music providers is too big and too varied to countenance such nonsense.
Suzanne has it exactly right.
dear fellow loyal emusic fan,
they don’t care:
http://www.thebanded.com/thebanded/blog/nickneyland/Sony and eMusic: A Match Made in Heaven
they don’t care about you or what you think or do. they’ve decided to reach for that proverbial pot of gold. most likely, illusory. they have visions of Big Dollars floating through their little brains, and that’s it — you don’t exist anymore. collateral damage.
too bad they couldn’t just level with their fans. that’s the very least we could do. instead they feed us this BS happy talk!
oh well.
I agree with many of teh comments taht the major losers will be the small labels and the more obscure artists since with the increased costs, I will not be downloading music or artists I have never heard of just to try it. Instead I will stick with the stuff I know.
hey if anyone finds a good option to eMusic, please post it here
The distinction between indie and major label is important in this case because the addition of Sony has resulted in my cost per track doubling. That tells you all you need to know about dealing with major labels.
Danny, you write that “[i]ndependent labels and artists will continue to be eMusic’s core”. I doubt that. How about a wager? After a month of the new system, I’ll bet you that at least 7 of the most downloaded bands will be from a major label. If I’m wrong, then I will stop complaining. If I’m right, I can go back to my original subscription, the one that I had before y’all decided that I just had to have some old Aerosmith records in my life. Deal?
We had a good run. But like the Inuit of old, we “grandfathers” are being unceremoniously pushed out on sea-borne ice floes into a homogenized oblivion so as to make room for the “true” indie freaks. You know, the ones who relish the opportunity to (finally!) download the Boss’s ’75 classic “Born to Run,” consider Brittany Spears to be a “musician,” and who think Kanye West really is the voice of “our” generation. Thanks eMusic/SONY/BMG for showing me how square I am. If that’s America, they can f-ing have it. I’d rather listen to an Italian couple butchering “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” on a mandolin and Casio keyboard at a sangia party on a piazza in a small Tuscan hill town FOR FREE, than be forced to pay double for half as much in this soul-less, vinyl-sided strip-mart of a country. You embody the “American Dream.” I can’t wait to be awoken as an ex-pat.
I think eMusic is being purposely misleading in some of its comments on the new pricing. They brag that one will still pay less than half of what you would pay elsewhere for a given track. This can be argued in some minor cases. But what cannot be argued is that I am not forced to pay for a certain number of tracks each month elsewhere without knowing whether there will be tracks I really want. I am sure I am not alone when I say that I’ve purchased tracks I never would have bought elsewhere simply to meet my monthly quota.
I think that, if eMusic expects to keep existing users at prices that range up to a 100% increase, they are going to have to let subscribers roll credits over to a new month when they cannot find what they want.
And please don’t tell me that I’ll be able to find old Sony dreck to fill my monthly quota.
So lame.
So if I read your notice correctly, March 2010 you no longer need my money? That is when you ask me to pay twice as much and give up 40 downloads. Good luck in the future and there is no way I can tell my friends about the great plan that once was. Well…Crap why go on your mind is made up!
What John G said in 550 was exactly it. The BEAUTY of emusic in the past was always that I could — at a much reduced risk — not only FIND new artists, but also “take a chance” on a lot of artists that I never would have otherwise. Having the 50 downloads or whatever a month really encouraged me to be constantly looking at what was coming out, flagging things that were interesting, looking for similar individuals and seeing what they had flagged, and choosing to spend the credits on something new. I didn’t need emusic to feed me major label stuff — backlogged OR newish “indie style.”
The story about older customers being the only ones with drastic cuts to their plans seems to be an overly idealistic spin on the situation as well — a friend of mine just recently joined at my recommendation about two months ago and is seeing his plan cut by 13 tracks a month. Seeing own my credits cut nearly in half means that isn’t really realistic anymore; I’ll have maybe an album or two worth of credits each month that will probably not fully cover the artists I already know, and at the price it would take to go back to the number of credits I had before, I just can’t cost justify taking as great of a chance on it.
Seeing a one time 30 day booster pack for fewer songs than I’m getting cut in a month is just a slap in the face.
I’d also be interested to know if there’s an alternative to emusic that would act in the way I’d used emusic until now. I’m not sure if I’ll continue my emusic subscription or not — probably not. But I will certainly stop singing it’s praises to everyone I know, and tell them exactly how little loyalty was returned to the members who’d been loyal to it for years.
Danny Stein: How many hundreds of customers have already said they plan to cancel their accounts? Why the silence? Please address our concerns.
I’m also one whose cost/track is being more than doubled, and will likely cancel as a result if nothing is done. From an email in 2006: “Your selected plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.” Any lawyers here?
I think this is great news. It seems a bunch of people are complaining about the price increase, but it is still almost half the price of Itunes and Amazon. Emusic will still be a great place to get all of your indie music, so why would people leave? Where are you going to go to get a better deal? If you don’t want the major label songs, don’t download them. Emusic is still going to be a great value.
If you chose to insist that all subscribers will be forced into the new higher priced plan, then you can be assured that i will not renew my subscription. The appeal of eMusic lies in the the current great combination of value and content. I have appreciated finding music that I would likely not have been aware of. I also appreciate being able to afford it. Now it seems that it will double in price while only providing me with access to additional music that I did not join for in the first place.
Your decision to add the major label content comes at too high a price and it will be the independent artists that suffer as a result. Presumably, it is the major labels that is now driving your pricing structure. Consider the fact that you have made a deal with the devil and received little in return.
If you were to maintain your current pricing plans and indie content while allowing those who desire access to the majors’ back catalog to pay a higher rate for that option, then you have the opportunity to please all concerned. Otherwise, it appears that by the comments already posted, you can count on losing a significant number of current subscribers, myself included.
I still get 30 downloads a month for $11.99…on the other services I would be lucky to get 11 songs for that much. How is this a bad thing…someone help me understand.
My five cents:
I already have a hundred glorious new discoveries cued up on my “Saved for Later” list. I sure don’t need major-label chestnuts I already have. Like most people posting here, I don’t use or appreciate emusic for that. I resent this MAJOR price increase, for which, essentially, I get nothing of value. Is this necessary to emusic’s profitable operation? Or is it just greed and over-expansion? I also fear that you will no longer promote indie music and indie labels with the same enthusiasm or focus. If you become just another itunes or Amazon, I will seriously consider canceling my service.
I just felt obligated to add my voice to the “pissed off” crowd. I, too will have 40% fewer downloads for the same price. I, too, will have additional access to a bunch of music I don’t want, and that I could have gotten elsewhere if I did want. I, too, have stuck with eMusic for its commitment to non-mainstream music.
ugh, I could go and on and on, but others have said it better than I could. This sucks. I can only assume that eMusic is trying to attract a bunch of new customers while hoping that its existing customers just suck it up and pay more for stuff they don’t want.
Sorry, but I’m leaving too.
I admit I’m not adding anything new to the conversation, but I think it’s important that you know just how many of your current customers are disappointed with this decision. I’ve been a huge fan of your service and it’s one of the first places I go to find new music. Usually, I’ll hear a great track or two from a new band or album on one of my favorite music blogs and head right over to eMusic to see if I can get the whole album. With the emphasis on music discovery, I’ve usually found a couple more albums to fill out my monthly quota in just a few hours. It’s a great way for me to hear new music in an affordable way and to contribute to new artists.
It’s not very often that I download classic albums from this service. I don’t need this service to help me find Nebraska or Highway 61 Revisited, and I’m not happy paying a premium price so that other users have that capability.
I’ve read before that artists using your service see a profit of about 30 cents per track. I don’t have a source to cite and it doesn’t really matter to me if that number is 100% accurate. However, it makes me wonder what kind of deal Sony is getting if you’ve now pushed the basic plan cost to consumers to 50 cents per track. It was my original belief that the eMusic was looking to expand their catalogue on their own terms by having the majors agree to the established pricing structure. Keep in mind that Sony isn’t giving license to the bulk of their popular holdings, only to the long tail.
In my opinion, if Sony thinks it’s special enough that it can demand a higher price for a collection whose average quality isn’t anything special, then they continue to try to market and sell their music through traditional channels. If they concede that eMusic offers a collection of highly enthusiastic music fans who are willing to spend a lot more money on affordable music, then I’d be happy to let them play our game on our terms. It could be a lot of fun. As it stands though, I’m much happier playing without the cool kids that demand all the attention.
By the way, kudos on establishing album pricing. I was hoping for 10-track policy rather than 12, but it’s a much awaited improvement.
This 70-yr old grandfather is sooooooooo disappointed. I wouldn’t have believed the appreciation I gained for new independent artists I met with the incentive of the eMusic pricing structure. With 35 downloads for same price I’m now paying for 90, I couldn’t possibly afford that kind of experimentation in the future. You’re destroying what made eMusic so special for the sake of catalog additions widely available elsewhere.
What’s the difference between the majors and the indies? The price change says it all.
I signed up for emusic thinking I’d get the obscure music from the bands I liked and then go away. Two years later I’m still here, getting music from the bands I like and discovering that the kept on making music long after the majors tossed them aside when they stopped raking in buckets of cash. The free daily download only sweetened the deal (and I’ve been really impressed with the selections).
I agree that having an “indie only” subscription is a good idea, and let people that want Sony pay for it. Of course, you probably wouldn’t get Sony with a deal like that. Don’t let the majors overrun the site.
Of course, as long as you’re cheaper than itunes, people will probably stick around. The only exciting news is the 12-track limit on album downloads. Valuing albums based on how many tracks they have was always a bad idea anyway.
Is this the beginning or the end?
Are you insane? Downgrade my eMusic Connoisseur account, which I’ve had
since the beginning of eMusic, from $75/300 per month (which I actually do
LISTEN to) to $40/100 per month, with the option for me to downgrade to a
LESSER connoisseur account at $31/75 per month? And expect me to LIKE it??!?!?
Are you f’***ing kidding me?
You can bet that I’ll be looking around for another option, and that there
will be droves of others leaving eMusic as well.
Sheesh. Unbelievable.
You are an idiot,
Great way to end your little press release crap up there with a question that no one gives two shits about. You basically shafted all of us and then try and bring it all back by getting the reader involved. MY ASS! You don’t really care what we think because the decision has already been made. You actually just gave us an ultimatum. Do we stay or do we go?
You know what would have been nice, Maybe if you would have asked us first instead of betraying your loyal members.You didn’t tell us what the costs were going to be for a little major label action and I don’t want it at this cost. Basically you’re sitting on your thumbs waiting to see whether this gamble will pay off or not.
This was the best solution your crack team could come up with. You need to seriously consider seeking outside help with this problem.
Oh, and way to look out for the customers in this winter economy jack ass. I would think you would want to bed down and secure all the clientele you can in times like this. I guess it’s just easier to follow suite with all the other major corps. and wait for their table scraps.
We’d really love to hear from you on this disaster Danny.
Or don’t we matter as much as the teeny boppers will?
BOOOOOOOO. Goodbye eMusic.
As a 52 year old life long music devotee, eMusic was an oasis in the cesspit of the popular music scene. You suck.
I’m afraid I’ll have to agree with what seems to be a majority of posts above – the reason I am using eMusic is not to download top-40 songs, there are many other (and more mature/integrated/etc.) services for this. eMusic is great because you have content no one can match at prices that are (or at least were) reasonable, even in this economy.
Adding top-40 music may sound like a good idea at first, but it will likely cause many members to look elsewhere for music in the future, especially in light of the planned price increases.
If I have a vote or any say in the matter, I’d veto the price increase. Hopefully someone there will review the posts here to get a feel for what the membership thinks.
Totally unacceptable. The reason why people who REALLY use this site like it is because it provides us with new, fresh independent music and does pander not corporate mainstream.
You just went against everything that distinguished you and made you different. Thanks alot Danny. I will sadly cancel my subscription.
PS: I think making this announcement after the fact is a bit of an insult to your subscribers. After all, if you really care for our opinion, doesn’t it make sense to poll us BEFORE you make a decision like this?
I’m really disappointed in this news. I joined eMusic just a few months ago, and I’ve really enjoyed finding a lot of artists I’ve never heard of, at a really good deal.
I agree with the comments that this is not a Good Thing. Like others have said, if I wanted major label music, there’s tons of places to get those (and I normally spend about $10 a month on tracks from itunes, which is less than the $50 I spend on emusic). I don’t like seeing the plans changing – I’m a big classical music lover, and I download tons of music from off-the-beaten trail labels, and have been very happy with the selection and pricing. I’ll probably stick around and grumble, just because it’s still a good deal, but maybe you could have tiered pricing – ie, a different level of subscriptions for people who want the access to the major labels, so those of us who seriously don’t care don’t have to pay more?? I echo the sentiments that it’s not fair to those of us who don’t care that we need to subsidize those who do.
Once again corporate music reigns. Perhaps Simon Cowell should join the e-music staff and bring all of the American Idol stars along for the ride. Sad, I’ll be leaving at the additional cost and less music.
Just adding another statement of disappointment.
It seems like Emusic is now actually punishing me because I joined their service many years ago despite the absence of two-year-old Sony music.
The announcement was just another case of “In order to serve you better, we will be charging you more for less service,” that is usually the first step of a company becoming something that I want nothing to do with.
It’s also disappointing that there has been no reply from Emusic.
Too bad. I’ll get roughly 50% fewer downloads for the same price. I’ve been a subscriber for the past 5 years and I’ve chosen to cancel the account because of this. I don’t NEED eMusic, but eMusic needs to realize it can’t exist without its customers. Too bad! Another good thing bites the dust.
Oops, accidentally posted before finishing- ok, here goes again:
I’m really disappointed in this news.
The point of my eMusic subscription was not to find major label acts. I can get those from iTunes or Amazon or even *gasp* a real live record store. I’m even willing to pay the iTunes price for an album that I know I want.
The thing I liked about eMusic was that it let me take a risk on artists that I’ve never heard of, and in exchange for trying them out, I got a great deal on the price per track. Now instead of 50 tracks per month I get 37 – I lost an entire album per month in exchange for what? I didn’t want major label acts on your service, especially not in exchange for such a rate increase.
What surprises me most is that you obviously didn’t test this idea with your subscribers. I hope it doesn’t destroy your business. But I for one am pretty sure I’m canceling my subscription.
So I’ve had a day to think about this whole change and I figured I’d throw out one more post why I’ll be leaving.
- One of the things that was fun about eMusic was, at 0.24 a song (50 songs / month annual deal is what I had, at something like $144, which is not nearly as good as some of the older members have but still awesome imo), I could download stuff I only thought I might like. Mostly this worked out; sometimes not, but it didn’t matter. I discovered a ton of great bands this way that I otherwise probably would not have.
- My yearly plan is up after June, so when I came in to investigate renewal options I honestly expected a rate hike (10%, or maybe 20%). I would have been okay with this, assuming that the hike was mostly going to pay our independent friends.
- But… and this is the big “but” that everyone well knows, the huge hike in rates is obfuscated by the inclusion of Sony’s junk mixed into one cultural change. There have been small, hidden comments regarding how the indies might be getting more too but it is impossible to separate what they might get from what Sony will undoubtedly demand.
So bottom line, I would rather research the music I want to purchase in other ways now and buy only what I truly want. I’ll miss poking around all the interesting stuff on eMusic but the increase puts it too close to the price I can otherwise get (despite what some of the apologists have claimed). Anyway, there is my last 0.02 on all of this.
Yeah, this is pretty insulting to the customers who’ve been with you for years and have gotten others to sign up too. 40percent fewer downloads for the same price. I never thought I’d say it, but amazon’s mp3 store is starting to look like a better deal. I’m pretty sure they’d think twice before screwing their longtime supporters this way.
And screw Sony, too – it’s pretty doubtful most of emusic’s longtime paying customers were begging for Mandy Moore’s first three records, and stuff like that. Now they’ll have the option to download those for more than twice the price they’d pay at the used record store.
No thanks guys.
I hope you guys go out of business and stein has to work for mcdonalds or maybe a door greetet at wal-mart. No he probably would fuck that up too. STUPID STUPID STUPID! There are a lot of music sites out there other than the ones dumb-ass stein has mentioned. I would love to see everyone of your longtime members pull their membership. I would suffer with not having the emusic I once knew., but you have changed for the worse. You suck stein. GM, Circut City,Bennigans, Pontiac, and Emusic gone during the economic recession of 2008-2009. RIP…no don’t
I’ve been a subscriber since 2007. I feel completely shafted by this new change in pricing plans. I could care less about new additions to the catalog, you’re giving less downloads for the same old price. Paint it how you want, but as a once-loyal customer, I feel ripped off.
I am currently looking at a replacement music download service. You really had a loyal customer. I recommended you to everyone. You’ve completely ruined my faith in emusic.
I would be willing to pay a bit more to help support eMusic with allowing all of us access to Indie bands, but I’m not willing to pay double so that I can have access to crap that I will never have even the slightly inclination to download. If eMusic is faltering in the money area, come clean to us about it and we, the customers, who made and will make this company what it is, can help you guys out by striking a deal about price increase. Belittling us and trying to cover up this big label catalog increase with BS is not the way to do it. Unless eMusic comes up with an “Indie” based account price versus “Major” catalog access account price, I too will be cancelling my subscription because it’s just not worth it. And as I said before, I am willing to pay a bit more to have an Indie only account price, but not what you’re going to be charging us in July. Think about it, eMusic.
Wow–frankly, the addition of the major labels is something that I couldn’t care less about; I’ve found no dearth of good content on the site as it is, only occassionally wishing for something that wasn’t there (and that typically was NOT major lable stuff anyway). What kills me is that I will now get half the music for the same price, dropping from 65 downloads to 37! Wow, again. I’ve been a very happy customer for a very long time, but I doubt I’ll stick around too much longer. Maybe that is the idea?
Hi Dan – I’m not here for the major labels – I’m here to explore and find good music. Like you USED to say — it’s FUN. Your news just took the fun out of it – I’m upset. I will cancel my subsription (100 downloands at $24.99 monthly) before you diminish my account to 50 at $19.99 monthly. Your BIG business switch makes you like all the others – a sellout. it is totally unfair to all of us who have been longtime members. Yet ONE more disappointment in modern day life. Are you really happy to deliver this kind of news? You should be ashamed for ever considering it. Sincerely – M. Alan Hanley
My number of downloads shrinks, but I can download Michael Jackson’s “Thriller?” I should be impressed by this for what reason? How long until emusic becomes just another dollar-a-song-itunes-wanna-be?
How many times do you think you can offer people less and pretend it’s more?
This is pretty rotten news. I loved eMusic because it was a deal AND because it was the place to go for independent music. If I wanted back catalog Sony music, I’d go to the closest CD store and buy it in the bargain bin for $4.
Halving my downloads and telling me to enjoy the shit-tacular “new” selections is terrible business. I am a loyal customer who has been singing the praises of eMusic for years. I’ve recommended it to anyone who will listen. In fact, a friend of my signed up two days ago! Now there’s no reason to recommend this to anyone.
Do you really think that by becoming a bigger provider that you can go up against iTunes and Amazon? The marginal savings you offer now are of almost no benefit when weighed against the fact that your catalog will still be very small.
I just went for the indie stuff and the great price. I don’t want the so-called majors. Now I have to pay almost twice as much for something I’m not going to use. Let’s hope somebody starts another emusic for jazz people … Count me gone…
I’ve downloaded many artists over the years here who have subsequently been made unavailable. Perhaps those labels / artists will return? Losing Tzadik, for example, almost caused me to cancel a year or so ago. The notion that subscribers can download tracks again that maybe didn’t get a proper archive was a major appeal of this service. Hopefully, it will remain one reason to stay on during this transition.
Since my plan doesn’t expire for nearly a year, I don’t have to worry as much as some of you about the decision of whether to renew on the new terms. It will likely be contingent on other factors. Regardless, the fact now is that there are many other places on the web to find new artists, old artists, and commonly known artists for free download. Pricing pressure could very well result in a net loss, if not in overall revenues, then surely in the collective wisdom that has made emusic such a valuable service. I’m all for artists getting a fair shake, but I think we can all agree that Bruce Springsteen is the last guy who needs one.
Why not have two levels of service? One for so-called majors, and another for indies.
Geez, everytime there is something good, the record companies have to ruin it.
Wow. I was happy when I first heard about this. There are some groups on Sony that I like and thought it’d be great to be able to pick up some stuff from those bands.
And then I saw how much it was going to cost me. Too much of a hit eMusic. I may stick around for a couple months, but count me as a soon to be leaving customer. I hope you pick up lots of new mainstream music lovers, because I think you’re going to lose a lot of long time customers.
You could have at least allowed my tracks to roll over, since they’re now so much more expensive. I never used to worry too much about not dl’ing my full 50. Even if you’d given me 36 tracks a month so I could have gotten 3 (12 track) albums a month I might have been ok. But really? 2 albums and 6 random tracks? That’s a crap deal.
Thanks for all the great music you’ve brought me over the years.
Remember how Coke began selling new Coke and phased out the original formula? It wasa marketing disaster and sales plummeted. Well let’s hope a similar thing happens here. While it’s always good to have more selection it is a major bummer to existing subscribers, who took a risk to join emusic in the beginning to have there accounts downgraded in this way. With prices going up and almost half the downloads i will have to seriously consider whether i’ll keep the service. It’s kind of nice to get something for the money and more expensive downloads just encourages me to go elsewhere for my music. Emusic has really made a stupid decision on this one. I don’t think it’s worth it to pay twice as much money to get a catalog of music which i couldn’t care less about. Emusic was supposed to be about independent artists, right?
PLEASE DON”T SELL E-MUSC”S SOUL TO THE CORPORATACRACY!!
I sincerely hope that this is not a “done” deal. Although, I have the feeling that since you are heralding it as an improvement, it is. I have read over all five hundred and something comments. The majority opinion seems to be that this might not be much of a benefit to us. I have been a member of e-music since August of 2005 and it has been a great experience. Until now I had the e-music premium grandfathered in at 19.95/mo. for 90 downloads. Now I read that I will be losing 40 downloads a month (or 44%) per month, yet still paying 19.95/mo. This is a “MAJOR” hit to my membership, and of very little benefit.
I feel that the additional artists or labels (major) that e-music may be gaining is not worth the trade. I understand business costs go up, and that the US economy is crap at the moment and many businesses are raising prices and/or lowering consumer value. Is heading in this direction the long term vision that e-music wishes to pursue?
If the change in price is due to higher operating costs for e-music I would be able to swallow it much easier then if it is to acquire “major” label artists. Like many intelligent people I use other services such as Amazon(r) and Rhapsody(r) to get the stuff my kids like. (I staunchly refuse to have anything to do with i-tunes) E-music always worked because of the value. I could risk trying unknown artists and explore different genres in comfort. I knew if the downloads weren’t that great, then it wouldn’t be a huge loss. There were many, many months when I didn’t use all my downloads at all and figured that was a gimme for e-music, since I paid the same amount anyway.
Recognizing that the other online music sites ( i-tunes, Amazon & Rhapsody et al.) have all raised the “per track” download price on the hottest songs to 1.29 each (an increase of .30 per track) I figured that e-music would eventually have to raise it’s low price to continue covering costs. Here are some ideas.
1. Offer grandfathered users the opportunity to keep their current number of downloads at a price comensurate with e-music’s higher operating costs. I would be willing to pay more to keep e-music the shining jewel that it is now.
2. Offer a 2 tier membership; keep fee’s and downloads the same for members who don’t want access to Sony’s back catalog as one level. Create a second (platinum or w/e) level where the member can access all the current catalog plus the Sony back catalog.
3. Say “Thanks” but “No Thanks” to Sony because e-music has such cranky, contentious members that they don’t want Sony’s MAJOR label offerings.
4. Start another site that offers the majors back catalogs of music to people who want that kind of online service. I guarantee that if you went back to charging .99 per track for the “hot traxx” you could blow i-tunes, Amazon & Rhapsody out of the water. All 3 of my sons would immediately convert!
All that being said, I realize that e-music is still a good bang for the buck. It’s just that I don’t know if I will feel as good about using the service knowing that the pricing and download structure could change radically as new “major” labels are added. Please consider our input and review your decision.
This sucks the big one. I’ve been a member here since 2002. Back then it was unlimited downloads. Then emusic was sold and a downloads were capped. Currently I can download 100 songs a month for $25. Now you’re cutting that in half. For what? So I have access to a bunch of shitty music that I don’t care about. Needless to say, I’ll be canceling my subscription and just start stealing music like everyone else on this planet.
Thanks for ruining an awesome site.
Mr. Stein,
Allow me to add yet one more voice to the seeminly unanimous and undending thread of disappointment. Though I am no “grandfather” on this site, I am not a child either, and I think my own surprising sense of loss at this news serves as an indicator.
More than anything else, eMusic is sacrificing its identity. This company’s purpose and niche has always been to serve as a home for lesser-known artists on independent labels, allowing them to gain a foothold among avid listeners who are willing to experiment and explore. The low price was appropriate to the fact that many of the artists on eMusic frankly could not sell any albums at an iTunes rate, because nobody knows they exist.
The few loyal customers who do not respond to this price increase by canceling will likely become much more conservative with their downloads, sticking to what they know. As a result the obscure bands and artists will lose out and remain in their anonymity. As eMusic expands its collection into the mainstream and raises its prices, it
becomes more like iTunes (which sells hot singles to the billboard top-40 crowd) and less like classic eMusic (which has traditionally served those who view an album as a cohesive unit of artistic expression).
eMusic, you are good at being eMusic, but you are terrible at being iTunes. More than that, why would you even want to be iTunes? The more you attempt to appeal to the mainstream crowd, the more you will lose your heart– namely, the people who love to expand their horizons, to give new artists a chance, and to share what they learn with their friends. Even though these people have been subsidized in the past, in a way they have earned their discounted rate by extending eMusic’s borders by word-of-mouth. Yes, the numbers reveal that losing a “grandfathered” subscriber will actually cut losses for the company in the short-run. But what they don’t reveal is that these subscribers are indeed the vital center of the independent music community.
The addition of a major label at the same time as a radical price hike is not convincing anyone that the independent labels are reaping the benefits. If the prices had increased reasonably, and labels like Sony had been left to their own appropriate venues, I think most current subscribers would understand the increase and would stay loyal. Now we’ve lost all confidence that the minor labels are actually benefiting from the change.
Yes, Mr. Stein, there is a BIG difference between the major and the minor labels. That difference is precisely the thing that has defined eMusic since its inception, and it’s precisely the thing that has attracted 400,000 loyal users. The only thing that could
possibly move us to question that loyalty is a change in eMusic’s identity–which is (unfortunately) exactly what has happened!
If a price increase was necessary to keep eMusic afloat in difficult economic times, I totally understand. I would be willing to pay more if I knew that it was going to the marginal artists for whom this site has always been an advocate. But now that I know there are *other* reasons for the increase, I am not so willing.
I have told countless others about eMusic and suggested they join, all without pursuing the benefit of congratulatory downloads. I was even on the brink of expanding my subscription (for the second time in a month) to pay more than what I would normally want to pay–just because I liked the service so much. Instead, in light of this new development, I will either drastically reduce my plan or cancel it altogether. In a world moving more and more in the direction of “rented” music (like Zune) or even “borrowed” music (streamed for free on sites like Imeem), it’s a wonder I’m even still buying music
at all! But I am, because I want to support the artists and their art.
Though the price is still less than half that of Amazon or iTunes, very few members of your *new* mainstream target audience will be willing to pay even that for artists they don’t know. They will treat your site like a bargain bin for their few old Sony favorites,
then revert to iTunes when they’re done.
I agree with the suggestion of many that eMusic offer some sort of alternate plan for those loyal “grandfathered” customers who could honestly care less about Sony’s back-collection. Keep those songs off our radar, and keep our prices low! I interpret this oft-cited idea as a call for eMusic to somehow maintain its unique identity in the midst of an otherwise very poor decision.
Frankly, I would have appreciated an honest and forthright approach to the need for raising prices– not an outright change of identity. Like so many others, I will save my money and loyalties for that new company on the horizon, which holds to eMusic’s former ideals, and gives the nameless artists a crying chance!
Respectfully disheartened,
Dan
“The majority of folks saw very few to no changes in their plan. ” – Yancey
Sorry but that is just flat out bullshit. There isn’t a single person who doesn’t see a change to their plan. Why are you destroying your credibility like this? Is the situation really that desperate for you? It’s sad.
Ya know…here’s the bottom line right from the horses ass (oops) mouth:
They lose money on anyone not paying at least forty cents per download. They want to get rid of those money-losing customers. They are too chickenshit to actually come to us face-to-face to tell us that it just can’t continue, and instead try to butter this turd with icing and shove it down our throats as a Good Thing!
No amount of wailing or bitching or writing letters to the editor will change a thing. Danny wants us gone. He’s succeeded.
Bye!
A’ight I was the first poster, but sadly won’t be the last one. Guys, yes we need to voice our outrage/opinions but some of you are being a) unreasonable and b) highly immature about this.
I think it is wise of the editorial staff to (quoting Yancey) go quiet while tempers flame. For those who did not catch it. Here is Yancey’s post:
A few things to note:
The new pricing benefits everyone. Existing indie labels, future labels (indie and major), etc. It’s not just for Sony.
Regarding the grandfathering plans, it definitely sucks to see your downloads cut. But this isn’t out of a lack of loyalty: this is because those plans, which we have grandfathered for a few years, would now be priced at a loss. We changed what some of you spend per-track so that it was equal to what everyone else spends. Whether Sony happened or not, this was an eventuality. An eventuality that stinks, yes, but one all the same.
The majority of folks saw very few to no changes in their plan. The plans that did see changes were the ones whose pricing was far below what we pay out. We just couldn’t continue subsidizing those accounts. It’s more math than anything else.
The broader question of how Sony incorporates into eMusic is one that I have been thinking about quite a bit. And I’ll be honest: there are some definite challenges and we’ll be figuring them out as we go along. But as I said in the 17 Dots post, our taste and our values — and here I’m talking about me, Joe, Alex, Maris, Jayson, our writers and the tone of the site that you help define — is the same. All of you regulars in particular I hope will recognize how deeply we hold our beliefs, and how much we love indie music. The idea that any of us would ever abandon that… just not going to happen.
The last 36 hours have sucked. I went quiet as I waited for tempers to cool a bit. I’ve been getting a lot of emails from folks saying that yesterday was a range of emotions, and that while they still aren’t sure how they feel about this move, they’re going to see how things shake out. And that’s a completely rational way to approach this, and I can’t argue with it at all. I’m crossing my fingers that that’s what can happen this week.
I’m going to be posting a new arrivals on 17 Dots soon. God knows what will happen in the comments, but there are great new records to talk about and I don’t want us to overlook them over our inside-baseball stuff. So if you read this and are feeling like talking about music, I’d appreciate a comment or two. If you don’t feel like it, totally cool.
Yancey
PS: I am going on vacation on Thursday and will be gone about two weeks. Completely unrelated to all of this.
PPS: It seems a meme has developed around this “slight” word. The NY Times wrote that, not us.
PPPS: With album pricing and all of that: this will not just be Sony titles. All labels will be able to opt in (and we will introduce it to the UK, EU and Canada later on). I don’t have many more details yet, but when we do we will share them. This will be a good thing for everyone.
Let me add my voice to the growing list of dissatisfied “old users.” I am indifferent to the availability of major labels, since I can always get them elsewhere if I really wanted them. However, I do not appreciate the loss of my current grandfathered plan! I have been a subscriber for three years, and this change will take away 40% of my monthly downloads while keeping the price the same. Not cool! Last year, when you increased my monthly price, I accepted it because you offered me a commensurate plan upgrade. But, now it has become clear that my loyalty is no longer valued. Goodbye, eMusic, it was fun while it lasted, but now we must part ways.
I have mixed feelings about this…but then I just read the notice a few minutes ago. I think it’s great news that more music will be available, although I must say that I had no problems finding great music just the way the system has been set up. I’m hoping this isn’t a move because of comments I’ve read from new members that are outraged when they can’t find the top ten songs heard on the radio, and are not adventurous enough to do a little music surfing to locate great talent. I am a little upset about my 19.99 a month for 75 downloads now only able to download 50 songs. If the new offerings make up for that higher pricing for less music, then I may stick around, (I do like the ability to download an album of more than 12 songs and only being charged for 12), but if eMusic’s new plans don’t provide me some compensation for getting less at the same price I’ve been paying for the last few years, then I’ll be cancelling my subscription.
It is possible to have an opt-out from the major labels and keep a tier without the major labels at the same or similar costs for those of us who relish eMusic for the niches that are served.
Wayne G.
radiowayne.com
Okay, I lied on how that was my last post a little while ago. “Ha ha ha!” to Yancey’s post.
“The majority of folks saw very few to no changes in their plan.” Really? Did the majority of folks just join last week? Don’t believe it.
“this is because those plans, which we have grandfathered for a few years, would now be priced at a loss.” The word NOW jumps out. Pretty obvious that a big chunk of price increase is directly due to Sony, ya?
Price increase probably inevitable, as I already said. THIS price increase, though, is being sold by distortions and spins.
Whatever. I am not mad really, just no longer a customer.
I have never listened to the Sex Pistols or Clash. I have no intention of doing that now. I don’t listen to Pop music of any kind. I’ve loved eMusic because of the available esoteric, original and authentic music from around the world. It will now cost me nearly twice as much for the same music I have been downloading for the many years I’ve been a member.
Just putting in my two cents. Going from 90 to 50 downloads for the same money isn’t worth the addition of music I came to Emusic to get away from. I’ve been here for years and have gotten quite a few friends to join here as well. I was told everytime you changed the price that my old rate would “as always” stay the same “and thank you for your continued patronage”. Now it’s more like “Yeah, now not so much, there are some teenagers whose money we could get”. You are still cheaper than the other places, but this is still a pretty big “F you loyal customer”. I have discovered so many new bands here, some of which have become my favorites, that I have literally never cared less about the crap they play on the radio. Now I get to pay more to see it smeared all over the site making it harder to discover the kind of bands I stayed here for. Other than that consider everything “Dan” (comment 593) said double for me. After I polish off my saved for later folder I’m probably going to say “see you later”.
PLEASE DIGG THIS ARTICLE AT:
http://digg.com/d1snDo
Please help to raise the awareness of this issue
http://www.lala.com/#home
Looking for an alternative? Check this out. There are 2 ways to purchase music.
1. Buy the “web song” for .10 per track. The song isn’t stored on your computer but on the internet. You can listen through any web browser & it is compatible with i-tunes and Windows Media Player. The Mp3′s are DRM free. However, it appears that you are tied to a web browser to listen.
2. Buy the Mp3 download for .89 per track and store it on your computer for synching to other devices.
Quoted from lala’s home page:
“No ads, no subscriptions — just an incredible catalog of music to explore. Listen to any song or album once for free. Music from major labels and indie labels, all legally licensed. New albums on the day of release, and hidden gems from an artist’s early works.”
I wonder if they will be seeing a huge increase in web traffic within the next month? I will continue to search out alternatives. If I find anything that seems worthwhile I will post it here. #586
Count me in with the majority of the unhappy. I will probably cancel my subscription after I use up my remaining downloads.
How absolutely disappointing is this – paying $192 annually right now for a total of 900 songs for the year (75 per month)- the PREMIUM Annual plan – being automatically downgraded to the $172 plan annually for 420 songs for the year (35 per month). Perhaps this is a bit of sticker shock for me – because even with the new pricing – one is paying $172 dollars for about 42 CDs (assuming 10 songs a CD). At a “regular” store 42 CDs would cost around $672 (assuming $16 a store-bought CD) – granted quite a savings here on e-music – but when you compare it to the current plans…. and THEN if you compare to the new pricing for 75 downlaods a month…. *sigh*
Clearly the larger catalog availability and the deals reached to get the wider range of choices (whether one takes advantage of them or not) probably necessitated the price increase but WOW – quite a price hike. Not sure if I’ll stick with this.
“More of the good stuff”?
perhaps…..but actually..
Less stuff for the same amount of money….
or
More of the good stuff – for way more money
Yeah I know – these guys have a business to run….
*sigh*
OK, my second post on this new change. I just changed my Premium Account to eMusic Basic Account. Noticed that not only was I going to get 1/3 less songs, but the price also increased. Sticking with Basic plan until I see whether new offerings justify my upgrading my account. People are hurting financially, so going to have to be more picky on the songs I download.
Sorry to post again, but can it be eMusic you do not understand how I used the service?
For $25, I got a hundred hits a month. That was a hundred chances to experiment. Meaning I did not come to eMusic to buy, but to play. At thirty cents a track, I could experiment wildly. More than half the tracks I bought were musicians I never heard of and would have tried at all, but for thirty cents? What the hell. So much of what I downloaded were things I took a chance on, sometimes with great success, other times as total strike outs. But of course, this is much too expensive now. Also, why such huge jump in price overnight? I am sure you guys thought this through and I am probably not a typical user and I realize that at the new price one new user will just about replace two old ones. Anyway, I am really sorry to lose the service and the community.
I was there for the $10 unlimited days, then quit at the changeover, then came back and have been an Annual 90 per month subscriber for years. Like Dan said above, you have just lost any and all integrity. You have completely alienated your entire core of subscribers. We are here because we don’t listen to the radio! We don’t care about Sony’s back catalogue! We are here because Sony isn’t here! If you needed to raise the rates, let us know, we probably would have stuck with you.
You fucked up!
Glad that you’re finally expanding the available catalog.
Sad that I’ll be canceling my subscription in July.
It just feels like a slap in the face, getting less tracks for the same exact price.
You’ll make more money, we’ll get less music.
thanks.
While I am very unhappy about this move for the obvious pricing reasons, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Emusic has been such a great deal that catered exactly to what I wanted in a music service – always seemed to good to be true. I have recommended emusic to everyone I know since I joined in early 2005…le sigh. Not sure if I’ll keep my membership – while I have no pretense of any sacrosanct distinction b/w major and indie label artists, my tastes tend to run toward the former, and exploring new things and supporting upcoming, unknown artists is part of the appeal. The new pricing structure will no doubt go toward that latter goal – I may just switch to another service with more flexible pricing (lala comes to mind) to support the upcoming/underground artists i discover.
Danny? You there? Yeah, I didn’t think so… We’re all still anxiously waiting for a response from you. I understand if you don’t have the stones to say anything though. It’s gotta be tough to defend a fuck up like this one. You could’ve done the right thing and fixed it but I imagine it’s a little late for that now. Regardless, I still want to know what the hell you’re really thinking.
So does anyone who isn’t collecting a check from emusic think this is a good plan? Rate hikes in a global economic depression? Come on now… I got a plan. Lets get together the lawyers, financial gurus, network geeks and whoever else it takes to start fresh. We can rebuild the emusic we all know and love, just without the imbeciles who clearly don’t understand WHY we all subscribe. Any interested emusic employees wanna move on to greener pastures?
Nergal…you can paint this thing up anyway you want….it’s still a steaming pile of bullshit. The really sad thing about all this is there really are no other subscription music services that let you download mp3s and use them as you please for the money. I’ve been looking all day for other services and while I have found some interesting sites out there, they are not as slick as emu. I guess I will go back to buying used CDs. This is a better approach for me as I can appreciate the higher bitrates. Even though emu is still more cost effective than the current comparable alternatives out there, I will cancel my membership out of principal.
Screw you emusic, just like you screwed us!
count me in with the dozens of previous unhappy emusic member posts. i think this is a terrible move — i sincerely doubt i’ll continue my subscription after two and one half years of alternative and hard-to-find musical bliss. through emusic i discovered pavement and guided by voices, finally got turned on to the pixies and fell in love with neutral milk hotel. i was able to listen to all kinds of new and exciting music. but aerosmith? beyonce? no thanks.
This is sad. I really looked to Emusic to provide something that we can’t get elsewhere. Yes, there is a very important difference between “indie” and “major”. The difference is that “majors”, no matter how avant garde or anti-establishment they are, have the benefit of widespread distribution of their music, provided by their labels. “Indies”, no matter how “alternative” or “mainstream” their sound may be, do not have this advantage. Therefore indy label bands rely on alternate sources of distribution (i.e. college radio, internet radio, “CD swaps”, etc. etc.), outside that of the corporate-determined avenues. With this move, Emusic has “leveled the playing field” and essentially thrown the indy labels into the same pit as the majors, thereby doing away with the unique service provided to indy bands by an outlet like Emusic. They’re no different than Itunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc. except that they are (slightly) cheaper, for now… look for that to change!
I realize I’m just another voice in the crowd, but I can’t help be agree with the grandfathering account theory. I look forward to my account renewing so much I often find myself hitting the “refresh” bar around midnight. My friends and I often greet each other with “what have you emusiced lately?”
Emusic, you have the best game in the business. Period. Why not work to make your longtime loyal fans happy? I love my choices, the ability to download a great new album on a whim. Why not leave good enough alone? I already went through my “save for later” and bulldozed a dozen or so options. How can you call this supporting the indie?
Grandfather our accounts, give us the option, or offer the Sony catalog as a “booster pack.” Not only will we all stop whining, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d buy more than a few boosters to round out my Dylan collection.
This is a bit like finding out about the death of a valued friend. It is difficult for me. My intention was never to bind e-music up into a contract plan where they were losing money on every track I downloaded. I expected and would have gladly paid an increased price for my plan had e-music asked it of me. Like many others I suspect it is not because the indie music labels and bands are going to see any increase in payment per track, but in order to make everyone pay for the higher payment per track to the “major” label.
Like everyone else here it is the FUN of feeling free to experiment with new musical groups, try genre’s of music I never considered before and on the way had great editorial guidance. I loved the “dozens” and used them consistently as a way to launch myself into all kinds of wild tangents. I sure will miss that.
I sincerely hope that e-music will consider our pleas! Give us the choice to pay the freight for what we want. Then e-music can see if this loyal core will put our money where our mouths are.
I am still researching alternatives, since the best way I know to deal with grief is to begin seeking information and solutions. Here is another indie site I found using search:
http://www.greatindiemusic.com
The site isn’t as pretty or fancy as e-music is now, but my guess is that e-music didn’t always look so glitzy. When the sites begin to put on their “ball gowns” that is usually the prelude to changes…not always good ones.
Here is greatindie’s deal: Monthly membership: 2.99USD
Cost per song: 0.49ea. USD
download as many or as few as you like.
All Mp3′s are fully compatible and DRM free.
(sighs) I will keep looking.
My the cost of my downloads are doubling. 95% chance I’ll cancel. I don’t want Sony music.
Just about anyone can find the best Clash and Sex Pistols albums in a thrift store bin for .99 a LP. That’s .99 for the whole record. That doesn’t mean they’re not fantastic albums, but you can easily (and luckily) get them for cheap. These are not the albums I get from eMusic. These are not the new bands that I discover on eMusic every month. Now I’m going to pay the same fee, only to get less (LESS!) music because of these additions? I know I should wait and see what shows up but, right now, I’m bummed by this move.
These new changes also have me considering seriously whether to say goodbye to eMusic. I think that a smarter move would be to let the current subscribers continue with the same allotments per month. I get a “non-standard” 90 downloads for $19.99 which will be changes to 50 downloads. Sorry, but this feels more like a kick in the teeth, disguised as “good news” about the major label crap that is already widely available for download. I will always remember the early days of eMusic and miss them.
I too like many here have been with Emusic for a while, not as long as some but long enough. I too am disappointed at the loss of credits/downloads. I do understand the need to keep pace with costs. I also understand the need for Emusic to innovate or to improve their services to meet market needs. What seems to have been the biggest failing here is that the price increase (that is in essence what the reductions in credits per dollar is) happens to be being paired by the announcement with the Sony catalog under the assumption that this was good news for most or all customers of Emusic. Clearly that assumption was not tested well.
Since apparently the operating costs have been a significant issue,the price increase should have been handled upfront with the community (as that is what most of Emusic’s base really is). A frank announcement of when the new prices would be implemented and what changes these would be in advance might have gone some way toward reducing anger. Simply throwing this announcement out there almost hidden under the news of Emusic adding something being claimed as “New & Improved” is almost a text book lesson in how NOT to handle marketing communications. Credit Card companies do this in those little pamphlets. Emusic could have done this better. Instead, much good will has been lost, Emusic has angered a portion of their community (customer) base and given competitors an opening into their customer wallet-space. That is never a good thing in any business.
While it is too late to go back and change things the question is now: how to fix things? Pricing probably cannot be changed (now that it is announced and the need is real it is illogical to go backwards). Emusic may have some discretionary options that can be done for customers, however. I also think that adjusting your product/plan options to allow for non-Sony (or other “major” label) services should be considered. As many have stated, some have no interest in these big names. While the higher payout to the artists and labels from all angles is possible under this new model, not all will demand or indeed necessarily warrant higher payouts. Even if lower per track pricing is not permitted perhaps more tracks per dollar might be possible for an all non-Sony/non-Major Label product.
Thanks for listening.
In Oct. 06 I received an email from eMusic stating the following…
“If you are happy with your current plan, simply do nothing. Your old plan will be GUARANTEED as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.”
I have in no way deviated from the agreement I made with you. When one party says that they will GUARANTEE a service/product the buyer has every right to expect that GUARANTEE to be honored unless of course while using the product the BUYER violated any of the terms.
The words Commitment, Character, Integrity, Respect, Honesty, Accountability, Morals and Values come to mind when I make an agreement. I fail to see any of that on eMusic’s part.
this is terrible. I love 50 downloads a month but get to pay the same amount?? JOY! This sucks and is going to ruin this site. What a bad fucking idea.
I’m very disappointed that you are reducing the number of downloads I can get from 50 to 30 and raising the price as well. Since I am the 3 millionth person to reply to this notice, I assume you won’t read it. I don’t need access to big-name rock-n-rollers. I just want to be able to find obscure folk, psych-folk and European artists, etc. If these are overwhelmed with promotion of big name artists, emusic may cease to be a way to find what I’m looking for without already knowing it by name, thus eliminating the element of surprise. I can’t ask you to reconsider, but I feel personally hurt that you made this change, and I suspect it will redound to your detriment. I really don’t like itunes, but it may be the only game left in town if emusic folds or gets too clogged with over-commercialized dreck.
Ok, the album download pricing is a great addition! There are some long albums that I’ve been hesitant to grab because of lengthy track counts. That will no longer be an issue.
I’m not so sure I’m thrilled about the new song additions. I already own everything I could want from the artists listed.
My real fear is that the great independent artists will be buried by more popular (and better selling) bands.
I’m not saying I’m quitting yet. (have I really been subscribing for four years already?) If the free booster pack is a monthly offer (and not just a one time deal), it would help to keep me a happy customer.
Thanks for the alternative sites, everyone. Please keep posting.
I think I will use this page as an example to my undergrads on how
to destroy a web community it took you eight years to build in
only a few hours!
I guess that “major” vs. “indie” jargon boils down too more money for less product.
i’ve been with EMusic for over 7 years (back when it was unlimited downloads) and you guys have come a VERY long way since then (mostly good and a little bad)…the bottom line is this – music for an excellent price…not just music, but amazing music…as long as you don’t give up on the indi labels in favor of major ones, i’m very happy with the announcement and know it just means i have more choices…period…
Oh, and if you don’t raise the prices that is…keep those 2 things in mind (low price, more choice) you can’t help but keep me and other diehard fans…the ones that will leave because you carry “major label” are just too pretentious to realize that just because something is on a major label doesn’t mean it is bad…
hey dave, # 621, if you have that email about a “GUARANTEE” send it to me: mehazh@optonline.net
did someone say “class action lawsuit” ??
So … you are cutting my downloads and bumping the price? And in exchange I get music in which I have no interest? I have over 400 albums “saved for later”; somehow I think I’ll survive without Sony.
It seems everyone has a better idea than Danny Boy. Why couldn’t danny come up with better option than fucking all of us and telling us that it’s good news? I hope everyone does cancel and danny and sony live happly everafter…in HELL. You are screwing us and you don’t care. You have had no new updates about going through with this. You have not responded to the people who have been paying your salary for years. Maybe you are out with thr big wigs from sony. Maybe the are fucking you in the ass now for getting them in the door(backdoor). It is sad that I have resorted to cusing but I am pissed. STEIN YOU SUCK. OUST HIM TOO >>>OBAMA. I already bought all the Bruce Springsteen albums when they came out. I’m tired of them. EMUSIC brought me new music. Things I would have never tried. But now, you STEAL from my plan and tell me this is good news. I would hate to hear any bad news you had. Do the RIGHT thing. Step down as CEO turn it over to any of us who have invested time(I spend about 2 hours a day on emusic site) money thousands and you tell me here comes the Clash.
BEST BUY has all the Clash cd’s for $6.99 all the time. Most of the Boss cds are in used cd stores for $3.99(secondspin.com) FUCK the CASBAH. Rethink your plan. I guess I just not made for this website anymore. BYE DANNY STUPID
I started a facebook group. Please feel free to join and express yourselves. Thanks.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81281012678
OK, I’ve cooled down a little bit. First of all, the timing of huge price increase as part of Sony announcement is just bad. It’s hard to see that the two aren’t related, and I suppose I have to take it on faith that the price increase is for the indie labels. However, don’t pretend that there won’t be losers here. And the losers might be the musicians that you’ve never heard of that you take a chance on and buy their music. Andrew Bird, for example. On first or second listen, I wasn’t impressed. But he was so popular on the site that I took a chance and downloaded the Armchair Aprocrypha. Listened some more and I really liked it. Went to his concert my wife. Then bought his entire back catalog on emusic and even on Amazon. Bought the Fingerlings albums from his label. Saw him again with my wife when he came to town for Noble Beast. Bought full price CD of Useless Creatures at the show. Now were talking about $200 spent on Andrew’s music. Was I underpaying on eMusic. Definitely. But has Andrew Bird come out ahead on income that they wouldn’t have had but for the low price on eMusic? I think so. If the labels don’t have a 360 deal, they get burned by the low prices. But for many artists, I think they might ahead.
Many have already captured how I feel about this, but I want to toss my name into the “extremely saddened” count. I have been on emusic for 3 years and referred a handful of people. I have really enjoyed the site and continued to increase my subscription levels to the highest ones offered. I love the editorials and I have found a huge amount of indie music that I love on this site.
Is Mr. Stein genuinely asking if there’s a difference between major labels and indie labels? Really? He runs emusic and he’s asking this question? In order to get a major label on board he had to piss off every loyal and rabid subscriber he has — so, yeah, that’s the difference between major labels and indie. The latter cares about music, those who create it and those who listen to it — the former cares about money. Which is emusic?
I would happily have paid a modest increase to keep the site indie. I don’t believe the major labels care about artists or listeners and they have certainly done a fair amount to do legal battle with a new distribution system of which emusic was at the vanguard. I hope emusic knows what they’re doing inviting a wolf to the party.
Man… I think I have to cancel my account. I am certainly not prepaying another annual subscription; I don’t see how they’ll survive the year.
I’m so sad.
Just wanted to add myself to the list of 600 disappointed fanatics.
eMusic– I hope your new 16-year old customers become as devoted and addicted as I was. Actually that seems unlikely.
Thanks to everyone for posting their best eMusic alternatives. See you somewhere else!
I enjoy the fact that Dan self righteously asks us if there is any difference between indie and major label music and then under the new music “Highlights” we see the Dixie Chicks, and under pop we see Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth. How about putting some effort into getting Sub Pop on here and Drag City back, that I would gladly pay for.
Quoting Mike:
> As you close the gap on price point between eMusic and other
> non-subscription sites, it makes less and less sense for me to stay
> on and take chances with new music.
Exactly. It’s not about majors versus indies, it’s about whether
the pricing allows *taking chances*. My cost per track is going
up 235% and the role of eMusic as a place to take chances is
going way down.
Andrew Bird, Mark Kozelek, Ana Moura, A.A. Bondy, Damien Jurado, Denison Witmer, Forest Sun, Gal Costa, Vienna Teng, Hem, Tulsa, Travis Larson Band, Reed Foehl, Natalie Walker, Mythos, M. Ward… WHERE would I, one of the “aging children”, ever find let alone be able to fall in love with these musicians were it not for eMusic? When I first signed up, it took me a minute to realize some of my favorite musicians weren’t available, but clicking on “artists like…” introduced me to some of my now alltime favorites. Andrew Bird is irreplaceable, in my book. 100 downloads per month for 24.99 allowed me to buy albums I never would have gambled on otherwise and wow, has it enriched my life. But now? 50 dls for 19.99? I’m hearbroken.
I doubt seriously the addition of major label music is going to be enough to keep me over the disappointment in the price increase. Is it’s back catalog… it I wanted it in the past, I probably got it. No big draw for me.
If this means that some of the missing catalogue of, say, Mark Kozelek/Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon will be added, or that my Grey Eye Glances once downloaded now not available will return, it might soften the blow, but overall, my days of joyful discoveries on eMusic might be over.
I’ve heard it said before that for every dissatisfied or satisfied customer that speaks up, there are ten others who were dissatisfied but will never say a word; they’ll just go elsewhere. I’ve seen very, very few people in these 609 comments who were happy.
And to Jason, @557, who is thrilled with his 30 dls for 11.99? What if you were getting SIXTY for 11.99? Maybe in reverse you can see why we’re so disappointed?
I know it’s still a good deal, comparatively, but this will radically change what I used this site for. Probably to the degree that I won’t use it any more after we get “more of the good stuff.”
I was happy with eMusic’s current catalog and price range. I am not happy with eMusic’s new price range. I’m opening an account with Amie Street.
It’s been said so many times in this thread before, but as a subscriber since 2004 I just wanted to re-iterate and add my name to the long list of disgruntled customers that will be cancelling as the changes take effect (after re-downloading/backing up my previous downloads and using up my remaining credits). This site has always been a great resource for finding excellent new music from smaller bands and artists and has always benefited from a thriving community of like-minded music fanatics (lists, reviews etc), but these changes seem to be against all of the interests of that same community! I stuck it out when a couple of months ago, I was forced to upgrade my old $9.99 / month for 40 songs plan (that I was quite happy with) to $11.99 / month for 50 songs. But now that the number of downloads will be cut nearly in half for the same price (at the apparent cost of adding a bunch of huge major label albums that I won’t be downloading anyways) it’s clear that it’s time to jump the sinking ship.
This month marks my sixth and last year as an e-music subscriber. Whenever the topic of how the blind greed of the major labels has ruined the music biz arises I always bring up emusic as an example of a company that got it right. Not anymore.
I have no doubt that the “leadership” at Sony/BMG is behind the insane cost per track increases that have been implemented. Sad (but not surprised) to see that even emusic isn’t immune to the horrors of the major label’s idiocy.
sorry but you’ll most likely be losing another longtime subscriber. price per cut will more than double for me with less than half the number of downloads… and the “new” stuff at first glance does not seem worth it. right now i never have a problem finding enough music every month.
Wow, this really sucks. I can buy major label crap anywhere. I come here for the indie selections at a reasonable price. But now suddenly 1) my plan is more expensive per track and 2) my plan is cut in half in total number of downloads!! And there is no way to up it as apparently the largest plans just went from 300 to 100 downloads. For real???
What does this mean for the indie labels I want to support? Are they still getting the same share of the earnings per track? Or is everytime I buy an indie track the major labels getting some of that dough?
Adding my name to the list of longtime subscribers who plan on getting out.
The recent announcement of the changes to eMusic are really disappointing. Not only are you cutting my monthly downloads significantly, I don’t want what you trumpet as the great new service. I have had a membership at eMusic for three years because I love indie music, NOT the over-hyped or over-the-hill artists you list as “highlights” to the new plan.
Member Since: October 2003 and always on the highest download plan available. Size doesn’t matter and never has with emusic. It’s always been about being able to keep up with and support the indie artists that emusic supplies. I have enjoyed doing this all at a very reasonable price until now. If this new price increase is the way emusic is going, I will go directly to the artist.
At 17 cents/track I was absolutely evangelical about eMusic. Now they’re asking me for 45 cents/track. I enjoyed all the music I downloaded and had a long wish list queued up to download. Forget it. I will not be renewing when my subscription is up.
At six tracks per dollar I didn’t worry too much about taking a chance on music. At two tracks per dollar the dynamic changes completely. Might as well pay a buck per track at Amazon or iTunes.
Now if someone wants to start a new company that replicates the old eMusic and keeps the per-track cost down around 20 cents/track, I’m in!
Good times while it lasted. Sad to see you go, eMusic.
I have been with eMusic for several years now, and I consider myself a huge fan and dedicated customer. I am skeptical of the changes in the price structure. If the expanded catalogue means I won’t have to spend more money paying for music that you don’t carry on Amazon, maybe it will be worth it. But the stuff I tend to buy elsewhere is music from Indie artists that in a sense graduated from eMusic. Iron and Wine, TV on the Radio, Decemberists, to name a few. And also artists that fit the Indie mold but for some reason aren’t in your catalogue. Hercules and Love Affair and Fleet Foxes, to name two recent ones. Having access to bold face artists like The Clash, Springsteen or Outkast doesn’t do much for me. A lot of that music is easily available elsewhere and often heavily discounted already. I would rather see you figure out how to keep an artist like Neko Case in your catalogue than to add music that we’d find on the proverbial Price Busters shelf. if you could do that, I would willingly pay more.
It’s not the fact of the price increase, it’s the brashness of it — for me, a 78% increase in my per-track cost. To which I just reflexively say no. I think we would have swallowed a modest increase, but you have to have known what would happen with this. “Still cheaper than itunes” is not the point — the pleasure of emusic was the freedom of just trying things out, a freedom that only existed because the cost was so low as to offset mistakes. You aren’t going to draw hordes of itunes customers with Sony’s back catalog, and you are alienating the customers you had, so, you know, good luck with that.
I was talking to a friend today about the new pricing structure, and it seems kinda arbitrary. I think she has a unique plan b/c she pays $10.99/mo for 50 downloads. Her monthly fee is staying the same, and now she’s gonna get only 40 monthly downloads.
I had a sweet yearly subscription with 40 downloads/mo for $96. E-music wants to knock 5 downloads off my monthly limit, and they want to double the cost of my yearly subscription.
So I would be paying $192/year for 35 downloads/month, and my friend would pay $132/year for 40 downloads/mo. And we both joined 4 years ago within a few months of each other. I just think that’s wrong.
I researched the new monthly plan which will cost the same as the 6 mo/$96 plan they offered me. Why not just roll me over into the monthly plan than make it seem like I’m getting a deal through their 6 mo subscription? It feels like they’re trying to pull one over on me and lock me into a subscription at no savings.
Why not screw everybody over equally than grandfathering some plans and not others? The new pricing is too arbitrary.
This Sony merger should have happened on a trial basis with a choice for members to opt-in or not.
What a disappointment. I’m looking at a 50% increase in cost per download, and I am not remotely interested in the Foo Fighters or any of the other “big names” that have been mentioned thus far. Emusic’s pricing is now far less attractive and its catalog only marginally deeper–does that make it iTunes’ more mediocre cousin?
I’ve been a long time advocate of eMusic. Whenever I would tell my friends about emusic, I would always brag about the low cost of getting quality music here. But, I’d always have to back it up with the caveat that “your not going to find everything you’re looking for.” For me, it’s always been a place to discover new artists for a good price. I’m a little bummed about the changes to my account, but really, it’s still a good deal. I’m certain that I will stick around to see how things shake out with the new tracks from Sony. But I can’t say that I’m totally excited about the changes. I’m certain that eMusic is doing what’s best for eMusic and I hope that this move gives them what they need to remain competitive.
There are two announcements here. One, we are adding major label content. Two, we are giving you 1/2 to 1/3 the downloads (depending on when you signed up) you used to get, for the same price. Seemingly one is not connected to the other — it doesn’t suddenly cost eMusic any more to deliver MP3′s. So, how are they connected?
Well, first, eMusic is hoping to generate more revenue by having existing subscribers pay more per track. This would require they sell more in booster packs etc. then the number of existing folks who leave. Second, of course, they are looking at a new market of mainstream music fans who want the new major label stuff primarily. To that different market the new pricing is still a better deal than any competition — more tracks with no restrictions, lower cost per track.
OK, fine. So either eMusic is still worth it, or it’s not. Time will tell. If it’s not, the market will answer with the next eMusic, targeting us indie folks, and the cycle starts all over again. This is “business,” at least businesses that aim to “grow” rather than just be successful and sustainable (i.e. – profitable and satisfy what is their natural audience). To all the whiners on this page, note, eMusic doesn’t care about losing you. All of this is completely predictable (in fact, hence the existence of this page with comments). They have some model of how many first-gen customers they hope to retain. They are moving on to a bigger market. It’s all just numbers.
But, I wonder … My guess is that another reason prices go up (per track) is because that is what the majors demanded it. Why? Well, of course eMusic has to pay them more for their music, which sells more by orders of magnitude. But perhaps they also didn’t want their music “devalued” by being sold for such bargain basement prices?
In any case, like everyone else I’m going to whine, quit, and hope that I’m enough of a market to be worth it to someone to start the next eMusic in this down market world.
Please join the FB group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81281012678
This means the death of Emusic, as we know it. No longer will it be a place to find good unknown bands, because I’ll be spending .50 per download instead of .19. I’m not taking chances at more than double the price of what I was paying. I don’t know who’s doing the math, but I get 65 downloads per month for about 149.00 per year, now it will be 24 for 129.00 per year. that’s more than double the cost. In bad economic times like this, its good that someone can afford to more than double its price to customers! What a shame. Goodbye Emusic!
Danny,
If you really care, then please put a stop to this. I’m afraid I’m going to be missing out on a lot of good and interesting music in the future. I never download single tracks and the new average price per album just doesn’t seem worth it (especially for taking chances). I don’t need the most popular bands on emusic or if you have to have them, then charge more credits for that Sony catalog. Just do something to give me back my 75 downloads that help introduce me to so much incredible music each month.
I know you have the power to do it. So come on, don’t make us quit on you.
Very disappointed in the Sony price rise news.
I’m a long-term subscriber on a grandfathered plan of 40 tracks for $11.99/month. I thought this was good value and it kept me pretty happy.
Now I am being offered a new plan of 30 tracks at that price – ie 25% reduction in value – with the upside being access to the Sony back-catalogue.
I live in Australia, and from what I can tell, even if I were interested in Sony material, the Sony deal does not include this geography.
So what gives eMusic? Why should I sacrifice 25% of my plan to support US consumers of Sony’s catalogue?
Yeah, I’ve got to agree that these new changes aren’t nearly as great as eMusic is making them out to be. I, like many others, joined eMusic for the eclectic selection at a reasonable and competitive price. eMusic offered me music I could find nowhere else while allowing me to support the indie labels that produce the music I love.
Though I’m all for an increase in library size, access to commercial and easily accessible artists such as Boston and the Foo Fighters is not something I’m willing to sacrifice for my ability to buy the music I joined in order eMusic for.
If anyone from eMusic is actually reading this, I’m seriously considering canceling my subscription.
Totally bummed, been a member for so many years. If I wanted that other music I’d be downloading it off itunes. It has been great, magnificent even. I’ve loved being a solid, list-building, review submitting member of this community. Changing my number of downloads (holy crap 90 to 50!) is such an amazing hit that I am of course canceling my membership. The idea that it’s for the sake of some Pearl Jam, Dixie Chicks and Foo Fighters is so weak that I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. Good luck with your new audience, cause it ain’t me. Very sad.
Happy member since 2004.
ouch! that sucks. really sorry, but that is not what i have been an emusic subscriber for all these years for. screw sony.
Hi, I was wondering if anyone at eMusic would care about my input. I have been a subscriber for a few years and have enjoyed the experience greatly. Currently I am “grandfathered-in” under an expired plan that affords me 90 downloads per month for an annual committment of $190. I understand that some changes are afoot and my plan will be “retired”. Too bad. In lieu of my standing arrangement, a substitute plan affording 35 downloads per month for an investment of $170 annually will be offered. I have to tell you and the “powers that be” at eMusic, that I don’t think I’ll be “re-upping” when my current plan expires early next year. Here’s the reason (if anyone wants to know): My investment will have only about 1/3 the purchasing power it currently posesses and that’s a bad deal. I hope you do well with your “new” reorganization.
I’ll have to go back to buying CDs on Amazon and other websites like I used to. Am I missing something? Does one of your representatives want to try to “sell” me on maintaining my relationship with you guys? I’m serious. I really like perusing the indexes and looking at the lists other members have so painstakingly put together for “gems” in the listings of artists and songs. It’s fun! Please let me know if you want to keep me and others who love your site just the way it is.
You lost me the second you referred to me as a consumer of music. Fuck you and your fucking arrogance towards people who actually love this stuff — you’ll be gone in a few months, and good riddance.
I don’t think the ‘major label’ artists should be given less consideration by the listening community than those on smaller labels. Are anyone’s ears really sensitive to that?
I do object to the way the major label business model saturates the media with unoriginal, vapid shite. I don’t want to have to suffer through the roll out of each of Sony’s caricatured teen actor “rock stars”. Emusic would be wise to keep their advertising space as tastefully integrated as I ‘ve found it the last several years. This is a pretty “noise-free” place to shop, and that definitely isn’t Sony’s style.
Emusic’s leadership obviously knew they were cutting a lot of value for their users still under the older price structure. I took a 45% cut in tracks at the same price! This service should remember that it was the major label’s endlessly-rising prices that drove so many paying customers to emusic in the first place! (And drove a lot of other people to the torrents.) Internet-savvy consumers don’t pay for content because they have to, they do it out of respect for those that create it, to fuel the engine of the creative community. The major labels have been pissing on that respect for as long as I can remember, squeezing revenue out of creative people and then discarding them.
Emusic is still a deal for now, but now I’m going to be paying twice as much for my downloads? I LOVE this site, but I will probably cancel now. I would have paid 10 times what I am now if my downloads had stayed at 25 cents a pop. I’m just worried they’ll keep raising their prices to get the popular songs we could’ve found for free anyway, and then their core customers will leave, and then they’re left with people who don’t care about the good stuff that we can’t get anywhere else. This has happened before with other music ‘stores’ like Tower and Virgin.
I discovered a lot of new music from all places with my 100 track plan on emusic. I probably won’t be able to afford to do the same at 50. I have a lot of music from the majors and don’t really need a new source. Amazon constantly runs prices on select albums that beat or meet you old price. If all you get is an old catalogue that Amazon and iTunes is already selling for 5 bucks – I’m not sure I can afford to sample so much from you. I will see, but hope you are not selling your soul.
For those who were into discovering new music with little expense, there are thousands of outstanding albums released under creative commons licenses that are free to have and share. Artists benefit by increasing their exposure, fans benefit from a lot of great music!
Yep. Count me in for canceling too. Maybe you should have polled your customers first. Scratch that, maybe you should have given it a second thought, no poll needed. Bad, bad decision.
i have been an emusic member for about a year now and i have been really happy with it. i like that i can LEGITIMATELY support the independent labels and still feel like i am getting a great value. there is a reason the music industry is suffering and that is due to the ease of accessing music for FREE! your price increase could potentially steer your clients in that direction, therefore resulting in a loss for you and the industry in general. yes, there were been many times that i searched for an artist that was not available with emusic but that disappointment does not outweigh the many other great choices that you do have. for now, i will continue to support emusic but i will not hesitate to cancel my subscription if it no longer best serves my needs. thanks so much for listening!
I think this move will cost emusic it’s core membership of long term subscribers. I am here because I am sick of corporate music, musicians, attitude and lawsuits against children. This site was a breath of artistic fresh air that appeared to be free of the RIAA and their ilk. Now emusic is going to be just like every other music service that is out there. I will be canceling my membership.
I love music with all my heart!!!!!!!!!! when times were very bad, music saved my life,it gave me a reason to live!!!!!!!!!! I have thousands of records,8-tracks,cassettes, and cd’s
I actually read all 600-plus posts, and I’m out of energy, but a quick point or two …
Approximately 600 subscribers (some people have written multiple posts) is not much more than one-tenth of one percent of eMusic’s 400,000-strong subscriber base. As a subbie since 2004 (grandfathered in at 30 DL/mo. for $95.90/yr. = 26.6 cents/DL), I hate to say this, but we’re not going to be missed.
I will give eMusic credit for hosting all of these posts, many of them angry and some downright obscene, on the company’s website.
I owe eMusic thanks for a lot of great music, and especially the second wave of progressive rock: Porcupine Tree, The Flower Kings, Ozric Tentacles, Spock’s Beard, Opeth.
Thank you, fellow subscribers, for your impassioned and erudite reviews. Your comments frequently impelled me to hit the “download” button on something I otherwise would not have had a clue about.
1. The major labels will drive out everything else. Promotion is proportional to money. I don’t want to see major labels here. Why duplicate iTunes and Amazon? And with no discernible added value.
2. The cost per track for me is doubling. For what? Nothing. No good will there.
I am not happy with this. Half of my downloads are disappearing…There is more than enough music on here that I enjoy. Sure, I’d like to see some more labels, but I would rather get my 50 extra downloads. I will probably be unsubscribing once the change takes place.
Wow! I’m stunned. I thought emusic to be an independent music site where i could and have found new music at great prices.
I was just at a point where I was going to upgrade to 200 downloads a month. Oh the new music , i was looking forward to hearing. Now it’s going to cost me $16.00 a month to keep the plan i already have in place, with 100 downloads.
I will now have to seriously consider each “new artist” i try. At your old rates it was not an issue for 25 cents a track to buy a whole album by an unknown artist. The unknown artists are ones who will suffer here. As well as each of us who have supported with our downloads the relative unknown artists.
So, i can access Bruce Springsteens back catalog. I’m not interested. Will i take advantage of the new labels, perhaps.
If that sounds bitter, it is. emusic is still the best deal going and for that i’m grateful. I guess I don’t do well with change.
P.S. have you heard about the “Great Recession/depression” we are going through. Not the best of times to hike the prices on us, was it?
I WAS FLAMING ANGRY THAT EMUSIC CUT THE NUMBER OF MY DOWNLOADS FROM 100 TO 75 AND RAISED THE PRICE FROM 24.99 TO 40.99 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I COULD UNDERSTAND A 5.00 INCREASE BUT 16.00 IS PRICE GOUGING AND DAMN GREEDY AND SATANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I COULD TAKE A SMALL INCREASE (5.00) BUT CUTTING MY DOWNLOADS GETS ME SO MAD I COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! EMUSIC IS A GREAT SITE. IT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE OBSCURE ARTISTS . THE REASON I JOINED WAS TO EXPERIENCE NEW AND OBSCURE (NOT MAINSTREAM) MUSIC. IF IT WAS ME RUNNING EMUSIC I WOULD LEAVE IT JUST THE WAY IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EXCEPT I WOULD ADD A SMALL INCREASE IN PRICE PER DOWN LOAD BUT IF YOU CUT CUSTOMERS DOWNLOADS AND CHARGE MORE MONEY FOR THEM YOU WILL DRIVE THEM INTO A HOMICIDAL RAGE AND MAKE THEM DROP YOUR SITE LIKE A HOT POTATO!!!!!!!!!!!! BESIDES ALL THE SOCALLED NEW MUSIC YOU ARE OFFERING ITS BEEN HEARD THOUSANDS OF TIMES IN YOUR NEW DEAL! EMUSIC WAS ABOUT OBSCURITY AND NEW MUSIC!! AND IF YOU ADD MAINSTREAM ARTISTS IT WILL RUIN THE SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love the expanded catalog as long as it is tastefully done (i.e., not a pop-40 flood). Hate the pricing plan. Probably will sink me. Good luck and I will enjoy my last 7 months of my current plan.
thanks for a great 3 years! I mean that.
Okay, in thinking about this a bit more, there probably is a legitimate business need for eMusic to basically raise their prices. In comparison, its still a good deal. In looking through the posts, its obvious that there are (or were) a huge range of pricing/download structures. I’m definitely in favor of a fair pricing structure and paying for what I download. But the bottom line is that, while eMusic’s price is going up, my budget for music is not so I will basically be unable to explore as freely as I have in the past. The same thing happened when eMusic went from unlimited downloads to a set number. What makes it seem less than honest on eMusic’s part is the change in pricing structure happening at the same time they announce that major labels are coming. The question is, do you trust them or not?
Aloha Danny,
I understand most, if not all , of the coming changes. I will take a wait and see attitude to all of this for one reason. I STILL think you beat the pants off of iTunes, Rhapsody, etc and I enjoy introducing friends of mine to music they will probably never hear in Honolulu on the air.
I hope these changes culminate in more back catalog music and they strengthen this site. I personally hope to see more jazz and Hawaiian music and I hope to see better information about artists and the people who make the music.
Good luck
Am I missing something here? Oh yeah – a response from the site!
Apparently “the good stuff” === “steaming pile”
Just like everyone else on here, I’m extremely unhappy about the price increase per download. I have no interest whatsoever in the Sony back catalog (or any other major label back catalog). This means, I’ll be paying around twice as much per download with no actual benefit!
I’ve been a loyal eMusic subscriber for years and have talked it up to people every chance I get. That will definitely no longer be the case. For now, I’ll keep using eMusic, but I’ll be actively looking for better alternatives.
Also, I’ll be spending less on eMusic per month because there aren’t any new plans that exist at my current price level of $25. I’m sure this was some kind of lame attempt to “upsell” me into the new $31 plan, but it’s not going to work.
As others have already said, this will also force me to be less adventurous in my downloads. And since I’ll be downloading less music each month, that means a smaller number of artists will be getting my support. I don’t think it’s beneficial for the music industry as a whole for half as many artists to get twice as much money (if in fact you’re actually passing the higher fees along to the artists). It seems like this will have a disproportionately negative impact on the lesser known artists.
IF this new pricing plan results in us having access to EVERY release in the back catalog of EVERY indie label in existence, then it MIGHT turn out to be worthwhile. For example, I’d love to see the entire catalogs of more electronic labels like Warp or Kompakt on the site. Also, I’d like to see new releases appear on the site in a MUCH more a timely manner. These are the issues that I care about. If this price increase helps to address these shortcomings, then maybe I’ll eventually feel better about it. But for now, I’m extremely dissatisfied and skeptical.
Not happy at all. I’m losing 40 Downloads a month for the same price! My previous plan (which I’ve had forever) was 90 a month but now it’s 50 for the same price.
Thanks a lot eMusic. Way to show your love to your customers.
I will probably cancel once the new price plan takes affect.
I am not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said, but I need to get this off my chest. I too feel very angry, let down, and betrayed. My subscription will now be cut in half (from 200 DLs to 100) for 10 dollars less. That is a major bummer. What makes it worse , is the addition of shitty Sony (with it’s vast catalog of music I am NOT interested in – in fact, seeing the teaser of artists to come makes my stomach turn) being pitched as such a great thing. It is not a great thing. It sucks. If Sony muscled eMusic into raising it’s prices, what other “great and exciting” changes are on the horizon? How are all the other majors going to impact eMusic as well? It is going to be sad to log onto eMusic one day and see an “exciting” band like Nickelback on the homepage.
You were great while you lasted.
“Major” labels are the labels that priced CDs at $15-$20 a piece. “Major” labels then sued music sharing services and encouraged propietary copy protections that prevented some users from being able to play their purchased music on any but a few approved devices in order to protect that pricing model. “Major” labels have done a lot to profit off music and very little to enrich it.
“Indie” labels have done some of the same but were willing to take a chance on eMusic, a music store that didn’t price music so high that people were unwilling to take a chance on something new and that didn’t force its users to buy specific hardware to be able to play it. We were willing to take that same chance and I believe we’ve profited greatly from it.
It makes me more than a little nervous that my price-per-song has just doubled. I’m willing to pay more for the music that I get on this website but if this change is being forced through by the same people that came up with $20 CDs we should all be very nervous at the control they will come to exert on this website. This will bring more business to eMusic and those new customers will download the “major” labels and before long eMusic will come to depend on their business. If those labels then threaten to pull their music unless changes are made, will eMusic be willing to sacrifice those dollars? Or will eMusic give up the MP3-only format or perhaps require more album-only downloads? Because this influence will be one-way. Those new customers will just as gladly buy their music from another source. The labels don’t need eMusic.
EMusic isn’t indie. Emusic is a business that happens to make money selling indie music. The editors may love the music. The owners may love the music. But this is still a business and whatever they say their decisions will ultimately be made with the bottom line in mind. The major labels have seen that there is money to be made here as well and with that money comes influence.
So, I’ll stick with eMusic for now because I honestly am willing to pay the increased price to continue downloading the music that I love. I look forward to the access I’ll have to these new artists. But if this is the last change that takes place I’ll be very surprised.
I’ve been an eMusic subscriber for a long time and like many others feel a bit betrayed. I’ll reserve judgement until after the roll out and see if the Sony catalogue is worth the price increase. I suppose this is the cost of carrying “Major” labels.
You almost doubled your prices for those who have been with you the longest. Don’t we deserve some consideration? a “free” “bonus pack” now doesn’t mean anything next month.
You’re on probation, Emusic.
I joined emusic because it had unusual music at a great price without $#%$% stupid DRM.
Now, you’re doubling the price per track in the middle of the recession, diluting your uniqueness, and every other music store is offering DRM-free music; and raised your prices BEFORE you bought in any new features.
Don’t imagine that any website features (e.g. related artists) are anything that the customer will pay extra for; those features encourage us to buy music, so they come out of your advertising budget. Don’t trade on your goodwill for too long or you won’t have any left.
Don’t imagine I’ll stick around past July or August if the new features are a disappointment; I’ve got, quite literally, days of music I can listen to; and I can hit Amazon’s $5 Friday album sales when I want something new and pay 41.6c/track (for a 12-track album….) Hmm… that’s odd.. why does that figure remind me of something? Yeah, that’s it, it’s cheaper than most of the plans here, and I only have to buy when I want it. Did you seriously think that changing from being cheaper than Amazon or Walmart to being more expensive isn’t going to affect your customer base?
Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Did you think we wouldn’t care? Oops!
I will be leaving emusic at the conclusion of my service contract. from 65 to 24 for about the same money to buy music i could buy elsewhere. emusic is a place to find the newcomers and never discovered like the dirtbombs and dolorean not springsteen(whose entire catalogue I already own). i don’t need emusic to be itunes or amazon. the art of the good deal is what made emusic emusic.
First off, thank you for growing eMusic’s catalog! My musical knowledge and enjoyment has been enriched during the past 8 years!
I’ve been with eMusic since December 2000. Along the way I’ve discovered artists that I wouldn’t have paid any attention to in other settings, record store, online store, etc. When anyody asks me about music and where to get it, I ALWAYS refer them to eMusic. It is THE place for music.
Doubling the pricing is truly a slap in the face. Our loyalty deserves more than a booster pack.
As to the Major vs. Indie question, is doesn’t matter. What does matter is the availability of great songs and music! Period! Opting for one over the other makes no sense. That simply limits the musical spectrum. Never take out on the artist your distaste for the industry or pop culture. The artist is thrilled that the song becomes a hit. More exposure. In some cases, more money.
Sorry, but I’m not yet ready to hop on this happy face bandwagon. Content that I do not care to access via emusic — Sony’s catalog, and who knows what after that — and that I did not ask emusic to provide to me, is now available to me – at a higher price point than I am paying now for the music that I DO want. And I should be happy for what reason? If I want Sony or other major label product, I can access that now in many ways via other physical product online shops and via my subscription streaming services. Hey everybody – the future of recorded music is via subscription, but I am not very excited about that future. If others feel that being tethered to an electronic computing device in order to hear your “non-owned” music sounds like nirvana, then feel free to embrace your future. Meanwhile…in the current ownership world…I now learn that I can soon buy music I do not want via emusic at a higher price. ??? If emusic wants to keep me or curmudgeons like me on board (a dubious question, but hey let’s pretend), simply grandfather your base (i.e. longtime subscribers) with a restricted membership and current price point – let us keep paying what we are choosing to pay, and block us from your new content, which I (we?) don’t want anyway. Emusic does not have the ability to wave a magic wand and let all members download all offerings on emusic (other parties are involved in the asinine decision to block certain downloads in certain countries), but it DOES have the ability to manage my subscription as described in my previous sentence.
Like many others, once the new pricing plan takes affect, I’m out. Most of the new catalog doesn’t interest me at all.
The indies are going to eventually leave… fewer credits and more competition. How does a Secretly Canadian or a Matador compete with Columbia, Epic and RCA. The deal here at eMusic has consistently gotten worse since the days of unlimited downloads. The indies always get the raw end of the deal… eMusic has always (until now) been a place where they playing field was level.
Good Luck to eMusic and their aspirations of being the next iTunes, and good luck to the thousands of indie labels that are going to have a hard time competing, and good luck to the eMusic users who are going to have less credits and more crap to weed through.
That’s all I got.
LM
I made some queries last night: emusic has in effect become a Sony subsidiary; despite what Danny Stein or the emusic “team” may say to the contrary, at the end of the day Sony is calling the shots at emusic now.
what a collasol mistake. I have been a member since the days of unlimited downloads and have been a loyal member ever since – all for the indie music. I am sure the majority of your current members are as disappointed as I am. Going from 90 to 50 dls for same price, and rolling in the major labels – these are all moves that stand to shake up your current member base and will surely result in a net lose of current long term members. This should have been thought out better with an aproach that could have been more balanced for your long term members. Too align yourselves with of all labels SONY – how ominious, this is not by any means a good day for the indie fan. Doesnt this just plain old suck!!!! I will hang around long enough after the transition to confirm / alleviate my suspicions and I suspect, not long after that I will probably be cancelling. What a good trip it has been with emusic to this point, ever since the Napster days. With this kind of change, be careful emusic – you stand to become irrelevent.
This is bullshit. These new pricing plans will cause you to lose loads of customers, as you can clearly see from all of the feedback. Terrible move emusic.
As with the previous post, but, without the profanity.
I’m sorry, but, a 60 percent increase in my per-track cost is completely unacceptable. I’ve already got > 2 YEARS worth of down-loads from the current catalog in my “saved for later” file. It is quite unlikely that I would put ANY of the newly available stuff ahead of what I already have.
No thanks. I’ll just quit and go back to buying CDs.
I’m just going to add my voice to the ever-growing number of comments about the poor choices eMusic has made in alienating many of it’s long-time, devoted customers by stating that I’m extremely disappointed in the direction that this service is headed.
What was once a wonderful and diverse repository of great independent music, seems to be steadily sliding down the slippery slope of mediocrity and consumerism. eMusic was such a great way to get people to pay for the music they download (giving artists what they deserve!), while giving smaller artists and labels a chance to be heard by a wider audience.
I agree with many of the other comments on the addition of Sony to the catalog. I either have all of that stuff on vinyl or I’m just not interested in it (and therefore I am not interested in losing HALF of my downloads to have access to it).
Hopefully eMusic will see the error in their ways and consider some type of grandfather clause or “indie only” pricing as many other subscribers have suggested. I’m skeptical about remaining a subscriber after July or August.
I was always such a champion of this service and now I feel somewhat betrayed. Kind of a bummer.
Well, I’m late to the party on this one, but I’m joining the chorus of people here who aren’t convinced this change is a good thing. My reason for being an emusic subscriber has been the excellent selection of harder to find, off the beaten path music (especially electronic music) in combination with the excellent pricing. As others have pointed out, this has given me the freedom to explore and discover new music that I otherwise wouldn’t have discovered.
Even before hearing about this change, I’ve been debating about keeping my account (or at least lowering my membership plan to a much lower level) for a variety of reasons. One thing I find really disappointing lately, is that new albums from artists I like are not being added in a timely manner (ie Between Interval’s “The Edge of a Fairytale,” Saul Stoke’s “Metacollage,” Ruxpin’s “Where Do We Float From Here?”) All of these albums are on labels that Emusic carries and have all been out for a while now, but none of them have been added to the catalogue yet. Ironically, at least two of these albums can now be purchased through iTunes or Amazon.com. Meanwhile, nearly everyday, tons of crummy techno and trance albums are added here.
Now we get the big announcement that a bunch of major label music is being added for a higher priced membership fee. I don’t begrudge emusic the right to do whatever they feel is best for their business, but I’m not sure that this new direction is one I’m interested in going.
First, no one likes price hikes anywhere, anytime. That said, I understand from reading the article in Business Week that the price hike is being driven by both the needs of independent labels and the new Sony deal. If that allows eMusic to attract and retain MORE independent labels, such as HatHut(Art) and SteepleChase, that is a good thing. Its also a good thing if it means more money for artists who, like most of us, are trying to pay their bills and take care of their families.
But you guys did a poor job of rolling out the changes and are catching a lot of flack for it. I’m sure you’re already painfully aware of that, so I won’t rub it in further.
Here’s what I want to see from eMusic:
- An aggressive, well publicized push to land and retain more quality independent labels, including the aforementioned HatHut(Art) and SteepeChase. (Bravo on landing ACT, Criss Cross, Soul Note/Black Saint, and Dryfus, by the way.)
- The 25 free downloads in August is nice gesture, but something more if really needed to ease the sting. May I suggest 25 free downloads per month for a year for those of us who are used to downloading 200-300 cuts a month.
- A new 150 and/or 200 download a month option for us music junkies who plan to stick around and not go back to digging through used CD stacks, etc. Also, let me purchase as many booster packs as I want instead of limiting it to $75.00 a month.
- Honor Best Buy/Target “crack cards” after the change. Haven’t heard that you won’t, but continuing to honor those cards would be very good for customer relations.
And, if eMusic works for Sony, I want you go after the back catalogs of other majors. Since my main interest is jazz, I’d love to get classic Blue Note/Verve, Impulse, and ECM titles at prices more reasonable than what one typically finds at Amazon or iTunes.
it’s pretty sad that what was once a fairly good service (there HAVE been issues but mostly overlookable) is giving way to corporate greed. once again, a giant corporate has found a way to destroy a healthy customer-centered environment and change it into one more generic mainstream piece of lousyness.
Nice sellout. And i like how your bootlickers got the first chance to fill up half the comment board with some BS major vs indie faux debate.
Speaking of halves, you cut my downloads in half and try to get me to stay on with Yo Yo Ma? Really? Are you effing kidding me? Either you don’t give a damn about this or this is just a huge cash grab. Or both.
Unfortunately, I will be cancelling as well. I appreciate the years of service guys, but I think your new business model eats a bag of d!cks.
Boo. Nice sell out. Sharpen up those resumes emusic employees. And I like how all the bootlickers got a chance to start some faux major vs. indie debate.
Did you really think the loyal, advocating, grandfathered people would stick around for tiwice the price because your offering yo yo ma? Are you effing retarded or just a stroke victim? Wait, this is just a huge cash grab? How naive of me.
Your new business model eats a bag of d!cks emuic. Add me to the cancellatioin list.
Let me be yet another voice to express my disappointment. The last time eMusic prices were increased, I was forced to go into a higher-priced plan, but at least the per-track price remained the same. My plan currently gives me 50 downloads for $11.99 and this will become 30 downloads for $11.99. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t represent a good value to me.
It has been great discovering new music on eMusic because of the low risk factor. At 50 downloads per month, I don’t feel so bad about buying things that I don’t enjoy. A lot of times, I will see a local band at a club and then look for their album on eMusic. With this price increase, I don’t consider eMusic as a good value any more. There are other music discovery websites, like last.fm and Pandora. I used to feel good that I was helping the really small bands in some way at least. I don’t feel the need to support Sony’s artists, especially Michael Jackson, David Bowie and the like, who already have made so much money. I don’t even want to listen to any more of that stuff anyway.
So, thanks to Sony, and thanks to eMusic, the indie labels and the indie bands suffer.
By the way, portraying eMusic as the great alternate/indie music store and then saying that the lines between indie and mainstream is blurred anyway is quite hypocritical.
Loyal customers signed up with emusic when it was brand new years ago. We were smart enough to see a good thing then … and we’re smart enough to see the writing on the wall now …
If emusic wants to grow and become a mainstream power player (like iTunes, Amazon, etc) while still offering real music fans indy music, that’s fine. But have the decency to keep founding members’ subscription plans at a similar level to what we’ve been used to, while emusic can charge new subscribers whatever emusic wants.
This planned price increase is insanely drastic and disrespectful! We helped build emusic, and I will, more than likely, leave if emusic goes forward with this suspect price scam.
Loyal customers … OUT.
I am crushed and excited to read about eMusic’s update to their business plan.
As a customer of many years, eMusic was able to virtually recreate the experience for me of dropping in to the small, independent used CD/Record shops of my youth. Browsing through the bins, coming across some crazy looking album cover, strangely named band or artist, sampling that music before I left the store and coming home with some real treasures. Groups I had no chance of knowing of other than finding on my musical quest.
There are two main reasons I am on eMusic. The above reason is the first. eMusic has done a great job of recreating that experience: allowing customer’s music lists (so much better than anything else out there due to the fantastic, diverse, and eclectic listening habits of eMusic’s customers), one-click preview of a whole album, a great selection of not only independent american labels but tons of international labels too, music lists that are NOT watered down by the bigger more popular artist names (ala OTHER online music sellers) and the list goes on.
Reason number two is: Price. Just like those smaller shops, I bought lots of used CDs for a reason.
There is such pleasure in coming across a new artist/album that is within my financial means.
Yes, Danny, to me you are speaking. I don’t care as much about a label that an artist is on. However – is that label fair and just with its artists and its customers? Does that label produce a bevy of fantastic artists (not just music for $$ sake)? This is also why I’ve loved eMusic because I can search by LABEL! (I don’t think anyone else is doing that.)
So eMusic I wish you well. Because you will be cutting out the second part of my reason for being here, I can’t say how long I will stay. And it any relationship, when one party is noncommittal (when your business model requires it!) the relationship usually ends badly.
hugs and kisses,
vespathekid
General agreement with many of the posts above – overall, this doesn’t sound like a very good deal. I don’t mind paying more per track (in my case, going from .21 to .41), but really dislike being limited to only 100 downloads a month, when I was on track to go to 300 a month in the connoisseur plan when my annual plan was set to renew next February. Now I’ll never see that option.
The ONLY thing that SOUNDS good at first glance is the option to pay for no more than 12 tracks for albums that have more than 12 tracks… BUT, check out the fine print in Stein’s letter: it references that we’ll have that option for “SELECTED albums”. What does “selected” mean? Will we have that option, say, for Smithsonian/Folkways, or Document, or JSP anthologies of blues, folk, or jazz masters, that will have upwards of 25 tracks on single album? If not, then even that potential silver lining glows a lot less brightly. Sigh. Like some above, I may give it a try for a couple of months and see how it goes.
Booo! One of the best things about emusic was the price structure. It was cheap enough per song for me to take a chance on music I wouldn’t have otherwise listened to. Having cheaper music made me spend more money on music overall. I’m going to give the new plan a try, but I think I will take fewer chances on lesser-known music. I will also likely decide that it is not worth the money anymore (it HAS to be cheap with a subscription model), and thus end up spending LESS money on music. Chances are, I’ll downgrade my subscription or drop the service. Probably, and sadly, my money will move to an occasional album purchase over iTunes, which does not require a subscription.
Boooooo!
That’s awesome. I get fewer selections per month, but more aging rockstars I won’t listen to. That’s a win-win for me.
I can understand in this economy the need to make more money, so I can’t really fault the move. But the fact that my 75/month plan now becomes 35/month for almost the same price will also make me re-consider my downloading future with e-music.
While I don’t wish evil upon emusic, I am very disappointed in the sudden change of pricing and downloads. As others have mentioned, emusic has been a great place for exploring new bands and taking chances on albums that one might otherwise not have tried…you’d be psyched if the new music was fantastic, but wouldn’t feel a terrible loss if it was something you listened to once and put aside. With the slash is downloads, this kind of thing is less likely to occur as the downloads one does have become a little more precious.
It would have been nice if emusic had thought to offer a plan in which current members could opt out of access to this new Sony catalog and could have thus maintained there current level of monthly downloads. Why should long-time members have to subsidize something that they may not be interested in having?
“eMusic will always be an alternative to mass market digital music stores…” my ass! I don’t go to iTunes or Amazon to pick-up Daniel Johnston albums and I sure as hell don’t come to emusic to fish out Byonce’s latest over produced diamond encrusted turd.
I can’t pick up Joanna Newsom’s pivotal Milk-Eyed Mender album or any of Phoenix’s new stuff but I can score Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson? WTF! Why not try to fill out the offerings of the artists and labels you already rep? Boston?! I’ve got that shit on vinyl. I want new indie music. If I wanted to listen to Sony’s lineup I’d turn on a Clear Channel radio station.
It totally reminds me of the scene in High Fidelity when the dude comes in looking for Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say I love you” and Barry tells him off. You don’t go to indie record stores / sites to get that shit. Go to the Virgin Megastore; go to Amazon.
It should be structured to allow subscribers to opt out of digging through Sony’s trashcan and maintain there accounts under the current agreement. I shouldn’t have to pay for music I came here to get away from in the first place. Seriously, don’t crap on my head and tell me it’s a hat!
Welcome to iMusicazon! Enjoy!
I’m excited about the new offerings, but this is more than offset by my disappointment that the price of my package is dramatically increasing. Since I’ve been a customer for several years, I was grandfathered in on the old deal (50 downloads for $12). Now it’s down to 30 for $12. That absolutely stinks. I’m on Emusic for the deals and the focus on independent music. This change waters down both of my reasons for subscribing. Very disappointing!
Dear Mr. Stein,
I don’t care about the indie/major distinction. I don’t care about the Sony catalogue. I do care about traditional English folk and other less common music.
I will lose half of my monthly buying power with you beginning in July unless I want to pay much more. Your new terms of service will cost you many of your most loyal customers; I am still debating about whether to join them as they run for the exits.
Please consider allowing us to keep our old plans if we do not download the the mainstream Sony rock/pop stuff. So much of us just don’t care about your “exciting news”, knowing it is a smokescreen so that you can raise your profits.
If you are not careful, you will become the New Coke of the music subscription world.
Thanks ever so much.
Bad news for me and independent labells!
Who needs Sony’s antiques? My 75/month plan will become 35/month for almost the same price will make me say GOOD-BYE to eMmusic… sorry, but I will not support this venture.
E-Music, I have loved what you do for nearly five years. If I wanted major label music, I would have subscribed to another music site. As I learned from a college prefessor years ago– STICK TO THE KNITTING (do what you do best, and leave the rest to others).
Another phrase I learned in college was K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid), why add the major labels? It’s just muddying the water, and upsetting your loyal customers.
I subscribed to your service back in 2004, because the unit price per song was so low, I was able to try new things. Look at my library— I HAVE tried new things and bottom line, that is what I love to do– THAT is why I am here.
I can’t say I will immediately cancel my service after the changes (I’ll give it a couple months), but I do know my experience here will be less satisfying at a higher price. I have NO need for the addition of major label titles, and their presence will limit what I came here to do.
You can’t be everything to everybody. I would REALLY like to see you continue doing what you do, and remain the BEST at doing it.
My vote is a big thumbs down on this decision.
“I can’t pick up Joanna Newsom’s pivotal Milk-Eyed Mender album or any of Phoenix’s new stuff but I can score Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson? WTF! Why not try to fill out the offerings of the artists and labels you already rep?”
YES. i’ve been flip-flopping on whether my eMusic account is worth it for YEARS because i can’t even find full catalogs or any offerings from indie bands who SHOULD be here.
needless to say, i’m pissed.
the core of what makes you successful are balking at this decision. if eMusic was struggling, there were ways to save it which didn’t include alienating your current subscribers.
i’m sick of not being able to find the indie music i’m looking for, not being able to roll-over unused credits, and most importantly being made to pay for shit i either don’t want or don’t need because i already bought it.
UGH, eMusic. we’re fighting.
Ick. You guys are taking away 40 credits a month so I can have Michael Jackson and Alicia Keys? Not happy. I have been a very loyal customer for a long time. Bought booster packs from time to time and recommend your service to friends. I’m now going to have to consider cancelling my service. I was not an emusic customer because I wanted you to be just like iTunes. Exactly the opposite.
First, congrats on your “expanded offerings”. I guess that’s good for you long-term, should be able to add some new customers.
However, I am very surprised how you are treating your loyal customer base with this change. Surprise, I get 40% fewer downloads for the same price! What type of reaction are you hoping to get? If I was interested in the major label offerings, why would I have been with eMusic for several years? I can get major label offerings anywhere. I WAS a very loyal customer who took every opportunity to talk about your site with others who have an interest in music. Now quite frankly, I’m pretty miffed.
A while back you increased my monthly rate, but offset that with more downloads. I was cool with that. Now, you come forward with this B.S.? Will you add enough new loyal customers to offset your old loyal customers that you’re basically showing no respect to and showing the door? Really, if I stay I would feel like a fool for accepting 40% less product for the same price.
You should really re-think this strategy for your older customers. Feel free to charge the higher rates for less product to the new people who you can bring in, even though they can buy your major label offerings pretty much ANYWHERE. But show that you care, just a little, for your loyal customer base. I hope this was the only option you had, outside of having to shut down your company altogether. You may find yourselves there before long anyway.
And for my last download from this once great site…Bongwater’s freshly ripped “The Big Sell-Out”.
If you lost Kramer and Brian Coleman, you’ve lost everyone!!
I think it’s great that the catalog is expanding, but it would have been much better (IMHO) to offer Sony’s additions as an add-on or upgrade and leave the non-Sony catalog as it was for [about] the same price.
There was something to the idea of downloading entire albums of newly discovered artists because the pricing allowed experimentation. Now I have to drop experimentation so that I have the opportunity to pick up Alica Keys?
I’ve loved eMusic all these years and have discovered lots of great artists through you guys, but only time will tell if the new eMusic will work for me. Honestly, I’m not feeling all that good about it right now.
Thanks for giving half as much for twice the price. Fuck off, eMusic.
I’ve been a member since downloads were unlimited in 2002.. This is bullshit! They are taking me from 65 downloads to 37 for the same price? Just so eMusic can have a few more big names to use in their ads to get mainstream to sign up. Now your treading in iTunes space. You just screwed your indie fan base. Good luck!!
You are more than doubling the price so we can have 3 year old Foo Fighters, and Beyonce recordings??????????? Hey Emusic, in case you forgot, your customer base is Indy music snobs!! Do you really think we will stick around for Alicia Keys, and the Clash?? The Clash?? WTF! If I’d have wanted the Clash don’t you think I would have bought them about 20 years ago? How does this make sense to you??
Bad and Worse.
Since emu claims the price increase and the addition of Sony has nothing to do with each other (ha!) I will analyze each separately.
Bad – Price increase. Subscription plans are a pain in the a**. The only way I can justify having to deal with it is if there is a price that makes it worth it. You just crossed out of that price range. I’d rather pay more and not face that frantic end of the month when my downloads are about to expire. So that’s enough to make me leave.
Worse – the “addition” of Sony. Welcome to mainstream hell. Are you going to start advertising on American Idol? For this move to be a success you need to cater to the moronic masses. I expect the site to be overrun with a bunch of twits who think American Idol is the pinnacle of music. Their reviews of all our beloved indie music will look something like, “this sux!!! this sh*t is weird!!!”
I’m outta here. My only hope is that the cool employees of emusic will find a way to split and start a new indie music service.
I think what galls people the most about Danny Stein’s missive is the fact that it curiously omits the fact that prices would be going up from 60-100%. I think the addition of SONY is a mistake regardless of whether there is an increase – the increase just makes it more onerous.
Mr. Stein should have mentioned the increase and explained the factors requiring it. If there was more to it than just the addition of 2 year old SONY tracks, that might have made it more palatable.
Maybe the increase was necessary regardless? Maybe the increase will lead to more indie labels joining up? Maybe eMusic has already gotten agreements with more indie labels? Maybe eMusic was in danger of losing some indie labels at current pricing? We are left to speculate on these questions.
The only thing we are seeing is that old SONY tracks that noone seems to want are being added and prices are as much as doubling. We are left to assume that one resulted in the other.
I think Mr. Stein should respond to all the negative feedback. Perhaps he simply does not care if he loses indie enthusiasts but gains a bunch of folks that can’t get enough old Michael Jackson music.
Who has been asking for more classics??? WE ALL ALREADY HAVE THE CLASSICS WE WANT!!!! Nobody I know is trying to find more classic artists, in fact some of my friends are trying to get rid of the oldies from their ipod libraries so they have enough space for the tracks they care about (and only don’t delete the classics out of guilt)
We’re looking for the hot new music that changes and twists and bounces around, speaking of which, why don’t you have grizzly bear’s new album!!!!!! what’s up with that?!!!
Also isn’t this a service aimed at ppl who don’t like mainstream music that much and wanted to find all their obscure hard to find indie music for a great bargain price? Thats why I’m here, thats what I thought your mission was, and thats exactly what taking away now. Seriously, Beyonce? JT? I guess you’re expanding your market, but if you’re not a low cost indie provider, just what exactly are you???
Generally I like your stuff, and I’m more surprised by this than anything else. WHY DID YOU DO IT? I DON’T GET IT? NEXT YEAR YOU’LL JUST BE ITUNES!!! WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?? Also, since I’m an annual subscriber this won’t affect ME for a little while now, I’d just like to know why you’re doing it.
-Aaron
Dear eMusic,
This is the most disappointing announcement I’ve heard in awhile, I’m very disappointed. You’ve grown your site over the years on the back of a customer base that loves discovering new, fresh, experimental sounds coming from independent record labels.
If my account changes as has been suggested, I’m afraid I will be forced to areas of the internet where there is lower friction. For example, there are already sites such as Lala.com and others which stream music over the web, and which are working on iPhone apps that will allow me to stream music from their site, to my iPhone. Once that’s out and available, and with these new pricing structures from eMusic, you can bet that I will cancel my account with your services.
Furthermore, as a business owner and entrepreneur myself, I’m deeply saddened by eMusics limited self-awareness of it’s own brand. You have a deep reach into the minds of music influencers, people who are hyper aware of music and love telling other people about your selection and your services. This decision by eMusic to dilute the quality of your selection with older stuff most people already own or have heard of, while it may provide an initial lift to your monthly subscribers, my hypothesis is that your growth will be slowed and possibly even decline as your reach among music influencers that love to talk about music and share they’re findings with their friends will surely decline. This is certainly a short sighted move on the part of Emusic.
You have done a remarkable job over the years of building a site that I actively “jones” for every month, and actually come back to on a weekly basis to see new releases (to be honest though, I don’t think your recommendations system is any good). I hope you’ll reconsider the changes in your pricing structure. Why not allow for a system that allows us to keep our current plans, but that maybe charges 1.5 or 2 downloads for each song of some of these new additions to your catalog. It’s a structure I’ve seen throughout the web, and one that I think would retain your customer base while attracting new ones.
Thanks for your time. If you do go ahead with these changes, then I’ll say goodbye in advance, thank you now for the service you’ve provided over the years.
John G is SO RIGHT!!!
Stein, tell us why you’re doing this or we’ll all just assume its so you can attract more old customers and ppl with mainstream taste in music. I’d hate to think that.
This is TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING news. I’ve been a happy subscriber since Jan 06, with a plan of 90 DLs for $19.99. Now, I get the pleasure of paying the same price for only 50 DLs.
I understand and appreciate that Emusic has to stay savvy to stay afloat, but the music that is coming available is from an era where I was still an avid CD buyer, so I have already purchased and digitized the music I listened to back then. Emusic has been a great tool for me to discover and LEGALLY download new independent music, but with these new changes, I will regretfully be canceling my subscription.
Sad day. Itunes here I come…
That was a typo, John G only posted number 724 (I wrote 725 and messed up my name, somehow, but the real John G is totally right)
This is TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING news. I’ve been a happy subscriber since Jan 06, with a plan of 90 DLs for $19.99. I’ve always known this was an amazing deal and even during times when I would struggle to use all my credits, I would never think to cancel my plan. Now, I get the pleasure of paying the same price for only 50 DLs.
I understand and appreciate that Emusic has to stay evolve with the industry to stay afloat, but the music that is coming available is from an era where I was still an avid CD buyer, so I have already purchased and digitized the music I listened to back then.
Emusic has been a great tool for me to discover and LEGALLY download new independent music, but with these new changes, I will regretfully be canceling my subscription.
Sad day. Itunes here I come…
So here’s the rub, Danny (and I think what is really grating to most of us who have subscribed for awhile): you are changing the nature of your product (devaluing it in our eyes) by adding the useless Sony catalog at the same time as raising prices for those people who have put a high value on your product for years as it is. In addition, you’re trying to shove it all down our throats as something that is Good for Everyone.
I’m no marketing maven, but devaluing your product at the same time as raising your prices for it seems like the Road to Hell for your business model — esp. when it involves getting into bed with the RIAA types. I’m sure they have your best interests at heart, though, so don’t worry.
Good luck to you and your employees; you had a good thing while it lasted. But this 5 yr. subscriber is outta here at the end of the month. Why pay more for a less valuable site? I’m sure you won’t be sorry to see me go from a financial perspective, as my grandfathered plan was probably not sustainable to you. But you should have done something more to ease the pain (in addition to being honest about what you’re up to). It will cost you way more to get new customers than it would have to retain your old, loyal fan base.
Just chiming in, in hopes that this will maybe act as a petition to whoever is responsible for the pricing change. I have nothing new to add to what others are venting about. I personally don’t care that there’s mainstream artists — as long as it doesn’t undermine the true independent spirit of emusic as a site and an organization. And if it does, then you deserve all the hate mail you’re getting (and will continue to get).
What I’m most pissed off about — and completely perplexed over — is the price increase (which is really a download decrease). It makes no sense, and not only does it not reward loyalty (I’ve been a member since 2004), it’s a complete slap in the face to loyal users. Just like every other major company, loyal customers are looked over in an attempt to gain new customers. It’s sad really. I doubt I’ll be sticking around to see how it works out for you. I just hope one day you’ll realize what a mistake it was. Thanks for the slap in the face. It’s a cold way to end a friendship.
Just chiming in in case this acts as a petition to whomever is responsible for making the price change. I don’t really have anything new to add to what everyone’s been venting about. I personally don’t care about adding mainstream artists — as long as it doesn’t undermine the independent spirit of emusic as a site and an organization. But it it does, then you deserve all the hate and ill will that comes your way.
What I’m most pissed about — and completely perplexed over — is the price increase (which is really just a download decrease). Not only does it not reward loyalty (I’ve been a member since 2004), it’s a slap in the face to loyal users. Just another case of a company looking past it’s loyal customers in a attempt to gain new ones. It’s sad really. And I doubt I’m gonna stick around to see how it works out for you. Maybe one day you’ll realize the mistake you made. But probably not. Thanks for the slap in the face. It’s a cold way to end a friendship.
I will be another longtime subscriber cancelling my plan when the price increase kicks in.
eMusic could have avoided slapping their loyal customers in the face by simply charging 2 downloads per track for the Sony/BMG product instead of doubling the subscription price. That way indie fans could continue their plans unaffected if they so desired.
I’ll be on the lookout for another music service that is truly independent.
For those posters who feel that we’re just pissing in the wind here, FTW Businessweek has picked up on this story.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2009/06/_emusic_subscri.html?chan=technology_technology index page_top stories
Let me add my voice to the many above. I’m not terribly excited to now have the option to download music I hate in exchange for almost doubling my cost per song. I would much appreciate to keep my current price on an “Indie Plan” that doesn’t allow access to the Sony material. If you all don’t come out with such an option, I imagine I’ll no longer be an eMusic subscriber at the end of the month.
For those posters who believe we are just pissing in the wind, FWIW, BusinessWeek has picked up on this story
To all of you making comments:
Can you please post any different sites that may be able to replace our emusic? Since I’m definitely done w/ emusic I’d like some other leads.
-Mike
Bad idea – cutting my 65 downloads per month to 37, just so I can have the option of downloading Bruce Springsteen. When I want the mass market stuff, I go to iTunes. I subscribe to this service because it’s a great resource and a great value. Why not instead do the “2 credit” thing, or have an opt-in for the “major label” stuff? I may be canceling my subscription come August. Too bad; I really like eMusic.
Should be 2 points per song for the new stuff and 1 point for the old stuff. For people wanted to download the new expanded music like Bruce Spring they would have to pay for with 2 credits. That way the old timers would still have all their tracks and new members would still have a wide selection. Its a WIN-WIN for Emusic.
Amie Street looks promising. that is: amiestreet.com
They do not have the selection eMusic has at present, but I imagine it will grow in the coming months. They have what appears to be an extremely fair pricing structure in place where the songs start out free and increase in price as they become more popular (on the site). Therefore, stuff like the new Passion Pit is going for $9, but there is a new Datarock EP on there that was, as of this morning, free. Several of the things I’ve gotten from eMusic are there and are usually around $4 – $7. I will probably be heading there when my shiny new eMusic “booster pack” is added in August that will bring my d/l’s for the month up to 45, from my previous 50. I am leaving eMusic after August, and will utilize Amie Street, Rhapsody, and whatever other decent service comes along. If I hear of any other service in the next few days I will pass it on.
BTW those of you who think emusic is becoming another itunes….WRONG! At least itunes lets you download the latest from major labels. emusic will not be offering anything more current than major labels 2yrs old or older. Also, I don’t have to lock in at itunes, and maybe lose downloads, not that I would use itunes, I wouldn’t, but emusic won’t even be that good!! Yikes!
Changing plans is not cool when it is more money and less music. There is plenty of good stuff to hunt for here already…
Michael Dovano above me summed up my feelings exactly. We’re discussing this news on our rock block today: http://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/2009/06/02/i-m-so-mad-at-my-emusic#feedbacks
eMusic is the one entity that offers a wide collection of music for a fair price, and now this seemingly perfect (from this customer’s standpoint at least) business model is going to be drastically changed in efforts to compete for the mass market?! This is obviously horrible news for eMusic’s current demographic – people who are as particular with their taste in music as they are with how they spend their money… and who are apparently really pissed off with this news! I’ll bite and consider this move from a business standpoint…
By having more mainstream offerings, this moves eMusic towards competition with iTunes and AmazonMP3. Admittedly, even eMusic’s new pricing plan, though devastating for current customers, would be a much better option than the two current giants’ plans. That said, AmazonMP3′s service is far superior to iTunes, but that has done nothing to dethrone the the latter. The fact is, the mass market will not be swayed by a better service; rather, they are slaves to marketing and popularity. Better said, they are as discerning with their choice in music as they are with where they obtain it from… (they’re not). This is not an attack on mainstream music per se, but rather the kind of consumer that it appeals to.
In short, I believe you are changing your product in efforts to attract a mass audience that will ultimately not take notice of you. In the meantime, this will drive away your current demographic – myself included.
*Sigh* It was good while it lasted!
Overall I think this is good news. I’m a bit leery of how much use I can make of back catalogue from the Sony labels but we’ll see.
If it turns out that it’s more than I wanted and that I miss the “old” eMusic, I would hope (assuming I’m not alone in my opinion) that you might offer an option to return to the original model pricing plan. By doing so, this would deny a subscriber assess to the major label content (e.g. Sony for now) but give access to the Indie content that you had prior to the switch.
I think I’ll be happy with the new plan, but I’d hope you’d consider the option I have suggested.
Thanks.
Scott
A sudden increase of over 40% for music that I mostly don’t need or want. Yes, it’s still cheaper than almost anywhere else per track, but the old model was better for me. It allowed me to download and discover music that I never would have if I had to pay the iTunes rate for it. The increase in price for fewer tracks will now have me feeling the need to ration my choices. That’s no fun, and it’s no good for all those artists I’ve never heard of but would like to give a chance.
I can’t say what I’ll do for sure at this point, but I’m leaning toward saving myself $30 a month by canceling both the music and audiobook portions of my subscription.
A follow-up note: Those of you at eMusic may not yet see the disappointment in these threads carried over to canceled subscriptions. You make take from this that those complaining here are simply shocked at the abrupt change, and that they will come around to the new model. You may cite the fact that not a lot of people have closed their accounts yet to support your business decision.
Don’t delude yourselves.
It’s quite likely that many, like me, are riding out their current subscriptions and will cancel just before the new arrangement goes into effect.
In less than two weeks, on June 15, my account will be refreshed. I will pay my $24.99 and download my 100 tracks that day. On June 16th, I will cancel. You will not have the opportunity to lower my net # of tracks per month by 50% while raising the cost per track 60%. I will be gone. I’ll be sad to go, but I will be gone.
In short, don’t take heart in the fact that we haven’t walked away yet. Don’t cite meager attrition from the first few days to suggest that what you’ve done is sound. We will leave in droves. Rely on it.
Wow, not to indulge in hyperbole here, but EM is betraying its identity (as a community that champions smaller labels and allows subscribers to explore new music and expand their tastes), its stated promises (not to raise rates on subscribers who remain in good standing), and its loyal customers.
Beginning next month, I’ll have to pay twice as much for half as many downloads. I hope others join me in leaving EM at the earliest possible opportunity.
Bad move, emusic. Bad move.
Wow, seems really dodgy that you read this whole thing about Yay sony! Yay! Don’t we all need another clash album and nowhere is there a mention that they are decreasing my monthly subscription but maintaining the same price. This is bunk. E music made me feel like I was giving artists that I loved what they deserved, that I was buying their albums, albeit electronically and paying for it rather than just downloading music illegally. I feel pissed that you offer me something I don’t want and then make me pay for it. I agree, I’d rather pay the same price and have access to what we have access to now rather than pay more and be offered bunk bands I don’t want to download. If this was for stuff that I’ve looked for and been able to get, sub pop perhaps, then it would be a different story. But screw sony. this sucks.
Really when it comes down to it I have been an emusic member for over three years and I am very unhappy about losing 20 downloads a month, to get access to music that I wasn’t really missing.
The one thing I have always loved about emusic is the discovery of new bands and music that I would have never heard otherwise. On top of that I have stayed here to support independent labels and music and not give my money to the RIAA.
Now in a deal with the devil I am forced to support them and through the loss of downloads a month I lose out on access to new indie music in the process.
If I wanted major labels I would have just signed up for a subscription based service with unlimited downloads to my device.
Emusic you will probably keep my music business for the moment but i think the extra cost of mp3′s is probably going to lose you my audiobook subscription. Because there is where I have wanted more selection but I stayed to give emusic my support.
I am really disturbed to hear this.
Emusic has what, 4M tracks? The addition of 200K more is about a
5% increase, yet I’ve been told that I’m going from 75 downloads to
50. That is a 33% increase in the price. Given that I came to Emusic
in spite of the lack of “major” artists, I’m not very impressed.
The idea of having a cap of 12 downloads for an album is very nice,
but its offset by the huge increase in price for other things.
I’m not at all sure that I’ll stay beyond next month. I am particularly
aggravated by fact that my plan is being erased and not grandfathered.
You have let Sony hurt Emusic and I am not pleased with that. If I
stay, it will be to explore all the neat artists that are largely unknown
in America.
–STeve Andre’ account wb8wsf
The UK takes note:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/03/emusic/
Refers to “stand-in CEO Danny Stein, who runs the investment company which acquired eMusic six years ago”. funny.
I have been an eMusic member since November of 2006. I just found out about this change, and my initial reaction is disappointment.
I’m a DJ at a local low-power FM station, and I rely heavily on eMusic to help me find music for my show. I had a plan that gave me 200 downloads for $49.99. That allowed me to download several albums each week and bring a variety of unrepresented “indie” artists and tracks to my listeners. Now I’m relegated to HALF as much music (100 downloads per month) with a savings of only $9. That means each download goes from 25 cents to 41 cents (a 64% increase if I’ve done my math right).
The prices on eMusic were low enough that I felt comfortable downloading albums I knew little about in the hopes of finding a gem. With fewer downloads at a higher cost, I’ll be forced to be less adventurous with my choices, which is really a detriment to those lesser-known artists.
When I (rarely) want music that’s not on eMusic, I can purchase it through other venues. Most of these artists that are hyped as being available in the new catalog are artists big enough that they can be found elsewhere. It’s music I don’t listen to, music I don’t play on my show, and music I don’t purchase.
I’m not sure whether I’m going to cancel or not, but you’ve certainly put me in a bind with this. Luckily I’m fortunate enough to live in a town with independent record stores, so I think I’ll be hitting the used bins for a better deal.
Yeah. I really can’t say anything that hasn’t been said already; however, I feel it is my duty to let you know, eMusic, that I think this is bull shit. I understand that it is easy to read some comments, get riled up, and then leave a nasty one. But even when I was reading the first comment, I was thinking ‘what the hell are you thinking?’ What were all of the reasons you started out to be an independent music haven in the first place?
I guess what is most disappointing for me is that, like it has been said before, this Sony stuff we can get anywhere. They have already bought out everyone else. eMusic was truly a haven not only for independent artists and labels, but also for the people who want to promote such music and creation. It was a place that had values and a conscience. A place that would actually stand up to the huge money making, mass producing labels. You represented us, and we supported you with our dollars because of it.
I really hope you felt pretty shitty as you made this decision. I hope you feel personal guilt and responsibility, knowing that it is your greed that is what is disappointing all of your loyal supporters. We expected more from you.
As others have stated, I already have most all of the Sony albums that I want. I will probably not be renewing when my current term expires.
ditto ditto ditto…
No! This is BAD news! I can already download the Boss from iTunes, and it’s not like he needs my support anyway. But now my downloads are being cut by 1/3 and the price is being raised??? How is this an improvement?
You can bet that i won’t be buying any Miles Davis, ELO, or Alicia Keys. C’mon, they’re being sold in friggin’ WalMart. Do you seriously need to screw thousands of people over so that people who are already well known can make MORE money?
This isn’t about giving eMusic fans what they want. We can already get that crap somewhere else for pretty much the same price. This is about making rich artists get richer while the indie ones have a harder time. I will be able to hear less of the music that i want to hear just so people who’ve already had all the pie they could possibly eat, can eat more of that pie.
this sucks, eMusic. I was a huge supporter of this site, and i am changing my mind.
According to the article in The Register (mentioned above), there are about 400,000 eMusic subscribers. Its approaching 1000 of us that have expressed some pretty negative feedback about this so-called “boon to subscribers”.
As a career marketer in the media and entertainment industry, I know that only a fraction of people will actually take the time to write in to a blog such as this one. It parallels coupon redemption in many ways. The one very significant difference is that the growing number of us who’re posting here could very potentially be representative of a much, MUCH larger number.
Danny and everyone there at eMusic: you need to listen to what’s being said here. You might have added 200,000 somewhat questionable tracks to your catalog, but you may well lose over 100,000 subscribers in the process. It will be VERY difficult to add those numbers back to the fold.
There are solutions that would appease those of us who are very unhappy and would convince us to stay. Many good ideas have been put forth by several who have posted here. They just don’t happen to be the deal that you’re currently offering.
I think you guys need to wake up.
Allright! 50 downloads for the price that I normally pay for 90! What a deal!!!!
Seriously, I know that this (Sony) is a huge coup for emusic but for the majority of the subscribers, this is irrelevant. Most of us are indie-minded and couldn’t care less about Michael Jackson albums.
Here comes the tweens; there go the snobs.
This is what i read:
“Hey, Faithful Fans!
Well, we sold our company to a bunch of rich fucks. So now we want you to buy the kind of music that you could buy anywhere else, because they’re paying us to promote it.
We’re raising your prices. Isn’t that awesome? Hey, Starbucks lattes cost a lot-a. Get it? Har!
We know that some of you will complain, but if we can spin this to you as a cool thing and get you to believe that The Clash cd that you bought at Kmart for $7 is actually an “indie” purchase, then we’re all good! You get duped, and our wallets get richer.
You’re welcome.
Love,
eMusic”
Subscriber for 8ish years now. From unlimitted downloads to 50. This is an utter, short-sighted P.R. nightmare. Has anyone in EMusic management read Seth Godin’s “Tribes”? You’re shafting long-time loyal subscribers to gain market share of the willy-nilly, fickle, pop-music loving tweens? I’m sad to lose my account. I’m even sadder for the (literally) hundreds of artists who’ve made a few cents off my willingness to gamble on their tracks at fair prices. This is yet another death knell for the indie artist. Boo, hiss and all that.
Very disappointing. Not only will the cost of each track go up, but the charts will be dictated by tasteless hacks and little kids, here for JT and the like. Just like all of the complaints about the lack of “popular music” that appear immediately after christmas (due to all of the gift subscriptions so said tasteless hacks), the site will be overrun with people who have no real interest in decent indie music.
You should be ashamed of yourselves, emusic. Most of your subscribers use emusic precisely because it is NOT iTunes, and now you’ve gone and done everything you can to become iTunes junior.
Major vs Indie is a meaningless debate. Once upon a time, the value of the independent labels was to help market musicians who otherwise couldn’t get their music out on the market place. With the growth of the internet, and Youtube, MySpace and various similar avenues, any band that cannot promote itself isn’t really trying.
What is meaningful is the quality of the music being offered, the range of types of music being offered, the price of the music being offered, and how that music is promoted within a particular site.
Now, I don’t have a big issue with the price increase because, according to what I understand, I’ve been grandfathered in and will continue to pay the same price. I don’t know what the new prices are, but as long as the increase isn’t exorbitant, I would remain here anyway.
I know there is a great deal of great music on those labels mentioned, so I’m not worried about that either.
What would worry me is that e-music has a tremendous ability to promote music through its recommendations, and especially through the free daily download. I have taken exception to that last feature since I signed on with e-music. Nearly every day, the music falls into the same genre. Some of it has been good, some I haven’t enjoyed as much, which is to be expected. But what doesn’t happen is the promotion of different types of music — why no world music, jazz, rarely any classical? Will these features now begin to favor these larger “major” labels, or more “established” artists in order to get people to download more songs from those catalogues?
Hercher, log onto emusic and click on “Please read the announcement” and look at the upper right portion of your screen. You are not being grandfathered, you are being screwed.
This will backfire on eMusic big time. By trying to become iTunes-lite or amazon-lite, you’re only going to force the big boys to lower prices to drive you out of business.
I saw the same thing happen when I worked at a Borders bookstore. It used to be a bookstore chain with character until the corporate powers that be decided it wanted to be just like Barnes & Noble. Now Borders is on the verge of bankruptcy.
This is TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING news. I’ve been a happy subscriber since Jan 06, with a plan of 90 DLs for $19.99. I’ve always known this was an amazing deal and even during times when I would struggle to use all my credits, I would never think to cancel my plan. Now, I get the pleasure of paying the same price for only 50 DLs.
I understand and appreciate that Emusic has to stay evolve with the industry to stay afloat, but the music that is coming available is from an era where I was still an avid CD buyer, so I have already purchased and digitized the music I listened to back then.
Emusic has been a great tool for me to discover and LEGALLY download new independent music, but with these new changes, I will regretfully be canceling my subscription.
Sad day. Itunes here I come…
To the individual who responded to my post, I did as you asked and read the following:
As a loyal eMusic member, you’ve been grandfathered into your current Basic monthly plan and will continue to get 30 downloads every 30 days for $11.99. Your plan gives you 25% more downloads than new Basic monthly subscribers. It’s our way of saying thanks for being an eMusic member!
So if I’m paying the same price for the same number of downloads, how precisely am I being “screwed”?
Well, I’m glad your plan is staying the same, but that’s only because it’s not very good. You were already paying 40 cents a track, the new emusic minimum, and your number of tracks is low, so they let you keep it. Cool. But those of us who were paying 22 cents (me) or 18 cents or 25 cents now have to pay 40 cents like you, even though we buy 90 or 100 tracks per month. Our longtime support built emusic from scratch and we deserve better.
maybe we can get ” roll over dowloads”…downlads we haven’t used,but could save for the next month….how about a bonus pack for the already e- music subscribers ?
I agree that those who bought the larger plans should not be penalized to such a great degree — but keep in mind, any business is entitled to raise its prices. And you are entitled to take your money elsewhere.
Furthermore, I suspect many acts from these labels will become top sellers on emusic. While their music is readily available elsewhere, it is available still at higher prices — I would rather pay .40 for a Miles Davis track than the .99 that i-Tunes would charge me. The other question I might have is that many longer tracks are not available individually on other sources — here they are. Hopefully that will continue. I also like the fact that albums that have more than 12 tracks will be available for download as 12 tracks.
All that said, philosophically, I just am not sure that bringing in a major label that is the right thing to do for a site that has previously been dedicated to less well known labels and acts.
VERY upset by this. I don’t want or need major label music; especially if it means I have to pay more for the grassroots indie music which is the thing I appreciate most about eMusic. I think eMusic is alienating their oldest and most faithful users here. Perhaps it makes sense for them from a business standpoint. But I’m quite upset and disappointed by this. I will be unsubscribing my membership when this goes into effect.
Dan – It looks like our subscriptions will go up nearly 60% because we will get major artists. This is the perfect example of corporate sellout. The BIG music industry has been dying a slow death – they have squeezed the consumer relentlessly (i.e overcharging, re-releasing Cds with an extra track – a new mix – etc.) and NOW YOU are going to let them come in and fuck up what was once a beautiful thing called eMusic. You aren’t kidding anyone with that “free” bonus pack of 50 downloads available in August – you already screwed us in July by increasing our rates. You are supposed to use the Vaseline FIRST! I truly thought you guys were special – I’m going to miss you.
VERY upset and disappointed by this announcement. I have been a huge promoter and long-time subscriber of eMusic. I have loved the opportunity to download large amounts of indie music at an affordable price, legally. It has been my first source of new and interesting music. But now I am going to pay twice as much a month to be given access to additional music that I had little desire for in the first place.
I understand why eMusic would do this. Makes sense monetarily for them and they will likely gain plenty of new costumers by doing this. But for older, loyal customers… feels like we’re being screwed.
Why can’t there be an option for users to have the same affordable price structure and be given access to the same, non-signed music they appreciate and simply not have access (not have to even look at) the major label music?
Sadly, I too will likely end my subscription when this new pricing structure gets rolled out.
I sent a message to eMusic using the “Contact Us” link on the site. In it, I said that I would wait a couple of days to see if they would come to their senses and, if everything stayed the same, I would cancel.
You know what? I’m going to cancel now. I see no reason to honor my loyalty to eMusic when they have done nothing to honor mine. Here are three major issues:
1. iTunes never lied to me. eMusic guaranteed that my subscription price wouldn’t change and it’s changing. I understand that, in the world of Corporations, the concept of lying means very little, if anything. I made the mistake of thinking that eMusic was in it for more than just the money.
2. The secrecy. The only response on this topic from eMusic has come on the forums, that, I believe, are only accessible once you’re a subscriber. Of course, they can’t start censoring the comments now, as much as I’m sure they want to. That would be too “Corporate.”
3. The general lack of “just being a person” to paraphrase John Stewart (and/or the writers of The Daily Show). The canned response that I received from eMusic was “signed”:
Sincerely,
Your Friends at eMusic
Regards,
Kenneth – eMusic Customer Support
Kenneth, after cutting and pasting, couldn’t even be bothered to make it look like a real email. I wonder if Kenneth is even a real person. He’s probably a poorly configured automatic mail reply program.
So, I’m gone.
I’m sure the numbers have been crunched and the number of Alicia Keys fans signing up will more than offset my $240/year, but I won’t have to be lied to again by eMusic.
I’ve already signed up for an account on another couple of sites and am in the process of canceling eMusic as you read this.
Not good, not good. eMusic had a lot of excellent but not wildly popular music. The new direction removes eMusic’s differentiating strength and goes head-to-head against well-established businesses such as iTunes and Amazon. Maybe I’ll stay, at least for a while, and maybe I won’t. But I’m not betting eMusic itself will be here in a couple of years.
Quite frankly as a long time subscriber to emusic I do not feel that we should be punished by lowering our download packages. Change the prices for new subscribers attracted by the glitz and glamour of major label artists but leave the packages as is for long term subscribers. It sucks that my monthly downloads will be cut in half to make room for this change!!!
This plan sucks i could get major label stuff on a multitude of sites.I’ve been a subscriber for almost ten years, maybe we should have been allowed to take a vote on this.Same cost for 30 less downloads there’s nothing exciting about that.Indie/ mainstream who cares at the end of the day i am paying more for less.Looks like well just have to wait for another music subscription site with the balls and pioneering spirit that you once possessed.
Last November I renewed my 2-year subscription plan. This cost me a lot of money, but I justified it on the basis that I would only, except in very special circumstances, get all my music from emusic. It made sound economic sense, and I have been enjoying exploring the classical back catalogues and discovering indie bands.
Danny Stein, you are a thief. You have stolen over half the music I was going to buy over the next one and a half years.
There is a principle in English law that fair exchange is no robbery, and that appears to be the spin that is being put on the theft of my music. Unfortunately this is not applicable as there is no fair exchange. For the money that I paid last November I could download 75 tracks from the Chandos record label every 30 days. After the implementation of this new pricing structure I will be able to download 35 of the same tracks. This is not fair exchange.
But, Mr Stein may say, you have more choice now. This is nonsensical as an argument. An increase in music that I am not downloading does nothing to increase the choice of the music that I had previously intended to download. I have less choice as I have less available downloads.
So how else can this be seen as a fair exchange? If we eliminate choice then what is left is quality. Is the music released on Sony labels better quality? I can answer that question with a simple no. Belle and Sebastian, Gogol Bordello, Gillian Welch, Beirut, and all the others that I love so dearly on this site are absolutely and in every way superior to George Michael, Hall and Oates, Alicia Keyes, or Kenny Chesney. And these are highlights of what we have to look forward to? No fair exchange, and you are clearly robbing me.
The sad thing is that I am not the only victim of this theft. Clearly the Sony back catalogue costs more than the small independent labels and so prices have risen. But the individual artists still only receive money if their tracks are downloaded. I saw the Mountain Goats earlier this year, and they (well, he, it was essentially a back to the roots solo show) was supported by a great artist called John Vanderslice. He was a lovely man, I met him when he was selling his CDs. I bought a few, then completed the back catalogue on emusic. As he was selling his own CDs I would imagine that he doesn’t have a summer home in the Hamptons.
This man is subsidising Kelly Clarkson’s upcoming availability on emusic.
We are now going to pay more than double so we have access to her music, which halve the amount of his that we can purchase. I have no problem with corporations, they do what they do and we can choose to support them or not, but when money that I have specifically spent on a service that supports smaller and often struggling artists then gets used to subsidise big corporations I feel angry and betrayed.
And robbed.
What rankles most is the lack of choice. I made a conscious decision to purchase a particular kind of product and the choice that I made has been taken away from me with no consultation or compensation. If I were a monthly subscriber it wouldn’t be so bad, I could shrug my shoulders and walk away, but I tried to protect against price changes by grandfathering myself in.
But then I was robbed.
So aside from the diatribe what I wanted to say was this; I can see three possible options around this.
Firstly, and probably most unworkably, there is the two tier pricing system option. Current selections could be available at one download credit R. Kelly and his ilk could be available at two credits. Actually, is that so unworkable? Then we get our choice and you find out how valuable your Sony acquisition is.
Secondly, you could offer us refunds. Whatever proportion of our prepaid credits haven’t been used could be refunded to us. I’d be quite happy to walk away. Really happy.
Thirdly, you could just give us two months and all of the rest of our downloads. No monthly rationing, just a chance to go nuts and get everything now. You know, give us what we paid for.
Of course there is also that fourth option. You could honour your commitment to us and give us what we paid for. But clearly that isn’t going to happen. You have the small print* that enables you to do what you want to us, same as any EULA. I just really believed that you weren’t like that. You are sending out your mea culpas and apologias that are trying to cling to the idea that you are different, and I actually think that on some level you are, or were.
You lost sight of all that, I think. It feels like the business model has taken precedence over the vision and your customer base is going to change. The tragic thing is that your behaviour during this transition is going to alienate and then lose many of your older customers. I won’t be staying, and many people here won’t either.
Still, you have until the end of 2010 to convince me. Until then I will be logging in each month, downloading my reduced choices, and one thought will go through my mind each and every time.
I was robbed.
*This agreement gives us the option to change your plan at any time and there is nothing you can do because we already have your money, feel free to bang your head against a brick wall. That small print, eh?
More of the good stuff???
You add a bunch of major label stuff that I’ve either already purchased on CD long ago, or never wanted in the first place, then discontinue my plan and replace it with one that costs twice as much and provides 5 less tracks per month.
I’ve recommended eMusic to many friends because it was a good way to discover a lot of new independent music and compensate the bands who created it without feeding the leeches at the major labels and RIAA. Now you want to raise the rates and give money to a company like Sony that believes that good customer service involves infecting your computer with a rootkit.
If Sony and the major labels want more in royalties than the existing plans can support, why not keep the existing plans as “indie-only” plans and let the customers decide if they want to “upgrade” to a plan with access to the major labels?
If you grandfather in the existing accounts at their lower costs and higher tracks per month, you end up with loyal customers who will never cancel their account because they couldn’t get that good a deal again. If you more than double the per track price for your most loyal customers in order to give them something they don’t even want, don’t be surprised when many of them are unhappy.
-Syarev
The major labels are an evil to the music world and I came here specifically to support independent artists, not them. The competitive edge that got people here to try the indies (low price) is gone with this corporate sell out, and I’m gone too. (Off to check out mag na tune + am ie street + aud io lunch box . com)
This is garbage. I have loyally supported emusic for years. I love emusic. I love exploring classical, jazz, avant garde music on this site. However, I am furious that I am being punished because a major label is showing up at the party. Now I lose 30 downloads a month. This really pisses me off. I guess now instead of spending time exploring emusic I will instead use the time to look for another music service.
I’m going to be paying the same amount & losing 25 downloads a month.
This is not a good deal. It’s just a way to raise prices, for music I don’t need.
Booooooooooo!!! Hiss!!!!!
I agree with all the negative comments thus far.
Doubling the price of songs so that subscribers get access to marginal content that can be gotten nearly everywhere else (at comparable prices) is an awful idea. I’d rather have tiered pricing that differentiates between just having access to traditional eMusic content and Major Label stuff. This *upsell* allows for greater eMusic appeal towards the masses while not alienating those of us who are here because of the value and adventure of finding new music. It works for cable companies, right?
Album DLs somewhat make up for this nonsense, but why charge the cost of 12 songs instead of 10 like iTunes?
You got me: I’ll stick around until the 15 *free* songs come my way, grab some stuff and get the hell out of here.
I can get major label music anywhere. This is a worthless addition for the long-standing subscribers who have made eMusic what it is today.
I’m not going to make any absurd threats to delete my membership until the change happens, but thanks eMusic for screwing over your most important customers in attempt to make more $$$.
This nearly doubles the price-per-track and adds very little music I’m interested in. At the very least, customers should be given an option. For instance, I would be happy to continue on as I have been (100 tracks/25 bucks) and not have access to the expanded catalog, which I don’t care about in any case. Perhaps this works in a business plan, but it most definitely does not work for me as a subscriber. I’ll likely cancel unless other options are offered.
Wow once again Emusic lets the customers down. Thanks for being a loyal customer of good music for almost 5 years by saying sorry we are going to give you 45% less music, i.e. 40 less songs for the same price. i joined for the not so main stream music and the good deal. oh and thanks for the token 25 song booster pack.
I put up with songs missing and disappearing and really crappy customer service for one thing, the music and then you go and get a catalog that most everyone has already. Nice business move. Now instead of going to the used record store and picking up some two year old music we can all head over to emusic.com.
First request: American Pie “the day the music died” on Capital records.
What a sad day for the customers of eMusic. For those of us who have been loyal for years, this is a tremendous disappointment, but what I’m reading from the CEOs note is that there are so few of us so “Who cares?” I hope the new model of trying to attract customers away from iTunes and Amazon by offering a limited amount of major label artists works – it seems short sighted to think that a discounted major label price will entice new users for a subscription service when they can get a much better selection and spend for only what they want, when they want it.
Certainly there was a better path for long time users, but eMusic doesn’t respect their customers enough work with them on a solution. What a shame.
I’m very disappointed to learn that my monthly downloads will be reduced from 90 to 50 while the price remains the same.
But I’m even more disappointed by the automated response to the email I sent regarding the announcement. I hope eMusic listens to the complaints of their faithful customers and rights the situation. Otherwise they’re going to lose a large part of their core.
Add me to the very disappointed list.
I doubt I will have much interest in your new offerings, if I wanted something from these labels, chances are quite good I would already own it. Emusic was something different, and now you have effectively raised my rate by at least a third. Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but this seems like a big sellout/mistake/disservice/f-u to your customer base. I will give it three months and likely cancel and move on to something else. A pity. This was really working out better than I ever dreamed on the front end.
Mr. Stein: I am not able to add much to the discussion that hasn’t alrady been said. I am really disappointed in the Sony announcement. I think that Emusic is going in the wrong direction, deviating from the model what made them a special place to discover and listen to new music by lesser known acts at great prices.
I realize that you have to increase your subscribers, etc.
But as a grandfathered account I am going from .24/track to .40/track, and that is really substantial. I will be canceling.
I think too many people here are assuming that that the “major” labels sell only bland, uninteresting music. Some of these so-called critics ought to try checking out some of the music on these labels. They might find some real gems. For every Kelly Clarkson, there may be a Thelonius Monk (who was pretty avant garde for his time).
Also, dismissing some of the artists on these labels smacks of snobbery. You may not like the music of R. Kelly, or Bruce Springsteen, or whomever. Keep in mind, however, their fans may not like your music. And there are more of them than of you. That does not make you smarter.
I agree with many of the criticisms: people came to emusic because of the availability of difficult to find alternative music, at a cheap price. That music is still available; just not as inexpensively.
If I’m reading some of the posts correctly, some subscribers were promised in writing that their subscriptions/prices would not change. Sounds like a class-action lawsuit in the making. I’m sure some attorney somewhere is salivating.
I had quit my eMusic subscription once before because I had a hard time finding anything of interest. I rejoined at the 90/month plan once the reference system started becoming interesting. Since then, I have looked forward every month to the delight of browsing collections and checking out recommendations. I’ve had a wonderful journey of discovery, and have lately begun using the Facebook link to share eMusic gems with others.
The main hit to me is the loss of the 90 DL/month subscription rate. Why would you cap your revenue by throttling downloads? While I care somewhat about the effective per-song price increase, I’m more concerned about the greatly reduced cap on downloads, as this really takes the joy out of discovering new music. The best thing about your collections has been the incredible scope of often really good music therein! But to compare the experience to a good restaurant, the expectation of the wonderful odors is diminished by only being able to get diet portions. Don’t just boost me with a little vitamin pack–I’d rather have the hunger-buster option, please!
Well e-music it’s been real. I am canceling my subscription after this month. I absolutely will not ever give you another dime of my money based on principal. The new plan/pricing structure for longtime subscribers is just totally unacceptable from any perspective. Why would you punish long time users by cutting our credits nearly in half? I guess we old timers would cause too much traffic on your servers with all those extra downloads we have. SO INCREDIBLY STUPID. Time to jump on the torrent bandwagon until your niche has been filled by another service. LOL
The thing that made emusic great was that the prices were so low. I love indie music and most everything that I like is already on emusic. Why would I want to lose almost half of my downloads just to have access to music I don’t want? I will be leaving at the end of the month.
I am not pleased about the change in eMusic, but I’ll probably stay and get less downloads each month (and get a bargain, albeit a lesser one). I do have a question about the change in cost per track, though: will the independent artists we choose to download get a larger amount per track? If the artist will make more per track, and this Sony deal made that necessary, I will suck it up with no questions asked. However, my guess is that the rate paid to independent artists / labels will not increase, and when it comes time for those labels to re-negotiate with eMusic, eMusic will tell them that unless they have the pull of Sony, they will see no significant increase in their payments. This is a question I’d like answered by an eMusic staffer.
I like the vast majority of the posters am very disappointed about the price increase. While I might like some of Sony’s back-catalog, I would be more than happy to pay 2 download credits for each track.
Up until my eMusic subscription in 2007, I purchased CDs exclusively. This was because I wanted to buy my music legally, and I hated DRM. eMusic has expanded my visibility in to new artists and music to the point that I only purchase 15% of my music on CD now.
My biggest concern is that the independent artists and labels won’t pickup the delta between the old price and the new, rather it will go to line the pockets of eMusic or Sony. If I had a better understanding of how the artists and labels that I support will gain from the 80% price increase that I get the pleasure of enjoying, then I might feel better about the increase.
Hmmmm…..The only reason why I joined this site was the fact that I could take a chance on a lot of lesser known music I haven’t heard before, by paying a relatively small price. I’ve discovered a lot of great music here, but I’ve also come across a lot of meh. It was generally worth it, though, since I was getting a lot of downloads. My “save for later” list is backed up enough as it is, mostly with stuff that I have no desire to pay full price for – which is exactly why it’s there. I don’t see myself using downloads on many Sony-related releases. So, I don’t know how this will pan out for me.
I SENT THIS MESSAGE TO EMUSIC CUSTOMER SERVICE YESTERDAY:
I feel that, as a member of e-music, it is unfair to treat the members that made your service so popular in the first place so bad. you have nearly doubled the cost of my e-music account doing very little to make reparations. During my enrollment with e-music I have been very pleased, but, at this point I will be forced to reevaluate my decision to continue. e-music is not nearly the value it once was and it enrages me that your company thinks that it can repair the damage by simply offering a 1 time 25 free downloads which is essentially a slap in the face not to mention that your service does not at least roll over your credits to the next month. The members who have been loyal to your service made you what you are today and I hope they attempt make contact as i have. I just have to wonder, is e-music just one more in a long list of shady corporations who would rather make an extra buck than keep their clientele happy.
Honestly, e-music has given me the most satisfaction out of any service that i have been enrolled, but at this cost you will simply turn your members away to torrents.
I thought e-music was here for the little guy. I thought e-music was saving the music industry’s economy by making it cheap to not steal music. I used to recommend this service all the time to friends and family but in this state i don’t think i can do that.
Please do something to repair this damage
AND THIS IS THE RESPONSE I GOT BACK TODAY:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting eMusic Customer Support,
We understand your concern and want to assure you that we truly value loyal customers like yourself and we are very grateful to you for staying with us this long. This is a big change, but not one that was made lightly. The new plans enable us to better compensate all of our labels, plus add new content from Sony starting in July, and even more new labels in the future. In order to offer you more content from Sony and other labels, we simply can no longer sustain the lowest cost plans that some members have, but we are pleased that we can still offer you prices at less than half the average price per download on iTunes and Amazon.
Many of you have expressed concern that eMusic is abandoning our focus on independent artists and becoming like “the big guys”. This is simply not true. We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic — and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it. As you know, we have an exceptionally talented staff of music editors who are excited to highlight the hidden gems in Sony’s deep catalog that will only compliment the collection of awesome and unusual tunes already in your eMusic collection.
So yes, while this is a big change, we believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term. We hope you will have patience and stay with us to enjoy all the new content coming soon.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at eMusic
Regards,
Harold- eMusic Customer Support
JUST THE KIND OF PREPACKAGED CRAP ANSWER I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED
sony’s catalogue??? not exciting. my price per download is going up 50%??? not exciting.
I will be closing my account.
I signed up to emusic in order to have cheap access to music I can take a risk on. I was willing to put up with the occassionally incorrect song labels or album reviews, the sometimes subpar recording quality, etc., because I got a lot of music for cheap.
Now I pay more for this? No thanks. My subscription ends next month. Now it’s Amazon’s specials, used CD’s, and Amiestreet.com.
Good bye, good luck emusic.
F*ck Arista, Columbia, Epic and RCA. F*ck the Strokes, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and The Clash. What has been interesting and exciting to me about eMusic for nearly 6 years has been the artists that I didn’t know and was encouraged to learn about and explore. (Nels Cline, and african music, and James Blackshaw, and space/ambient, and noise, and Phill Niblock, and Tibetan singing bowls, and minimal techno, and Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Derek Bailey, and Sunn, and Boris, and Fathead Newman, and Acid Mothers Temple, and more and more.) Not the artists that I already knew about and owned half their catalog already. AND, now my subscription is being cut nearly in half. To do what? Pay Bruce? F*ck that. This is so wrong on so many different levels. NOT a change that I agree with. NOT a move in a good direction.
Well – we have been disappointed by the rapid coming and going of “major” artists (Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, Zappa, Neko Case, etc.) so it will be nice to have more choices. But I agree that the price increase will hurt the independent artists and agree that a more equitable solution to this would be 2 credits per song for the Sony releases and let the members decide if it is worth the price. Somehow I get the feeling that supporting artists is not the agenda here, though….
I will probably bow out – but I will give it a chance for a month or two. Maybe that is what emusic wants – to get rid of the original concept and customers and join the mainstream. We’ll all migrate away slowly and in the meantime they will market the heck out of their great new catalog to attract a new clientele that is unable or tired of paying too much on itunes for product that contains no manufacturing costs and whose production costs are mostly charged back to the artist anyway.
I have been a member here since the days when emusic was able to list the offerings on a few pages per category (all text listings!) and stayed with it as it grew. It was nice while it lasted…..
I have really enjoyed the value that I’ve gotten from downloading artists that I was not familiar with, and doing so at a reasonable cost. With your new pricing plan, I’m going to pay more and get access to things I already have. Not very appealing!!!
Hey Todd, I wrote to them and got back this response….
We understand your concern and want to assure you that we truly value loyal customers like yourself and we are very grateful to you for staying with us this long. This is a big change, but not one that was made lightly. The new plans enable us to better compensate all of our labels, plus add new content from Sony starting in July, and even more new labels in the future. In order to offer you more content from Sony and other labels, we simply can no longer sustain the lowest cost plans that some members have, but we are pleased that we can still offer you prices at less than half the average price per download on iTunes and Amazon.
Many of you have expressed concern that eMusic is abandoning our focus on independent artists and becoming like “the big guys”. This is simply not true. We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic — and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it. As you know, we have an exceptionally talented staff of music editors who are excited to highlight the hidden gems in Sony’s deep catalog that will only compliment the collection of awesome and unusual tunes already in your eMusic collection.
So yes, while this is a big change, we believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term. We hope you will have patience and stay with us to enjoy all the new content coming soon.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at eMusic
Regards,
Melissa – eMusic Support
Do you think that Melissa and Harold have a thing going on? They seem so much in synch with each other.
Hope emusic sees the writing on the wall and is able to prevent the impending collasol train wreck looming, if they proceed as planned this can only result in the unraveling and eventual demise of emusic as we have come to know it. Consider lala.com for an alternative approach to getting music thru cd swapping. I’ve been a member since in beta form, a great way to get cds but……..the good indie is hardest to find for trade, it is no emusic but the next best thing for music discovery and adding to ones music collection affordably.
I’m incredibly disheartened by this change. I loved being able to download indie music for twnty-three cents a track. This alarming price increase is not worth the access to mainstream tracks available everywhere else on the web. After the change, I’ll probably downgrade to eMusic Lite and start downloading most of my indie music from bit torrent sites instead of here. I was willing to pay $24.99 for 100 indie tracks, but the new pricing system is too steep.
This is just so very, very disappointing.
I can’t believe some of you are so surprised that you’re getting a canned response when contacting customer support. This is a common practice in the customer service industry. There’s not much emusic customer support is going to be able to do about it.
And no I’m not with emusic customer support.
I liked emusic because I could find new, great indie stuff and old, great indie stuff that I can’t find easily in local record shops. I already own the Sony releases I want that are 2 years old, so this change does nothing for me except raise my cost. I used to recommend emusic to people all the time. I doubt I will care enough to mention it in the future, and will just note to people that they can buy drm-free mp3s on Amazon without having to commit to a subscription. Screw Sony, Warner, EMI, and Universal, who as a matter of business practice screw over the artists who produce the music from which they profit. Now, with my fewer downloads, fewer artists will be getting a cut. It’s likely I’ll cancel as soon as I download a few more albums I’ve been meaning to get. I strongly urge emusic to reverse this decision.
I just put my emusic account on hold for 60 days. If you don’t reconsider the price increase, I will probably cancel my membership. The major label stuff is readily available from Amazon and iTunes, so it is an incentive for. The real attraction here were the independent and small labels and the low prices, which encouraged taking chances on new music.
Hmm. I pay more for music, have less downloads per month. There is a big difference between Indie and major: Indie is an adventure in music, major is marketing. I am not sure what makes EMusic so special after this news. It seems to be going from indie corner music store to Tower Records (not the sunset branch). Album pricing will help a little but now EMusic is converging on iTunes I worry that it will lose its reason to be here.
iTunes now has better quality files also (true?). Will this happen here? And if so – how will I be able to upgrade my existing collection?
A lot of the best music is independent.
C
Ever hear of customer loyalty??
It sucks that you are not rewarding long term customers by keeping their accounts the same.
I have been a loyal emusic customer for a couple of years, and you are slicing my account down, reducing the number of downloads by 10. Ever hear of customer loyalty? Yes, you will have lots of great new music, but why charge your existing customers more?????
Not very nice.
Simon- your first post was my favorite by far
My girlfriend was going to join emusic as well but after all this she’s out before she out started
I think the whole company should reformat and figure out what is fair for all of us. They need us just as much as we need them.
something else that nobody talks about is the fact that some artists such as godspeed you black emperor make an album like lift your skinny fists which is a double album in 4 tracks. so are they getting paid less for fewer tracks sold? how does that balance out in the new structure.
The problem here is balance pure and simple, i know changes have to happen…
but not like this
E-music needs restructuring from top to bottom
To Sumita and Patrick (792 and 793 respectively) Yancey has assured us that YES INDEPENDENT LABELS WILL INDEED PROFIT AS WELL FROM PRICE CHANGE. as quoted in my earlier Reply (http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-94172) The new pricing benefits everyone. Existing indie labels, future labels (indie and major), etc. It’s not just for Sony.
to Doug (#608) hey man, i ain’t painting nothing in fact I was just copy pasting because a lot of you don’t even realize there is an eMusic forum much less had (seemingly) read the responses given by Yancey, even though (and rightly so in my mind) he and the rest of editorial wished to allow you all to express your outrage and to remain passive while (as I’ve stated) many of you flew off the handle. Will I miss 50 download, and go back to 30? Yes. Am I thrilled about Sony’s inclusion No (though I do look forward to a lot of the hard to find Columbia Jazz and classical) when I wrote my first post I was unaware of the price/download change. . . but that changes neither the good nor the bad that I presented in post #1. I am pleased to hear that artists (CDBaby, Tunecore) may see greater value in our downloads. I must admit initially I had the same gut reaction you all did when I read the price/download change. but shit guys things change, if you don’t like it do as the free market has told you to do (and as many of you claim you will/have already done) and walk.
I am glad to see that we have all opinions but meter your onions, there is no reason to call people assholes and threaten them with “bags of shit” be adults dammit or you are no better than whinybrittneyfan@mommmyandddaddypayforeverythingfor.us
P.S. I don’t work for eMusic or Sony and am ONLY a subscriber like yourselves.
The corporate S**T-Head behavior and censoring has started. The references to twitter ( #emusicfail ) that formerly appeared in the comments above have been edited and the comments removed. I expect that other posts have as well. Great move emusic. SELLOUT, CENSOR, ROB. Corp credo.
I was with emusic a while ago and canceled my subscription after they did away with unlimited downloads. So, I came back last month to find some great bands I hadn’t heard from before. Now they are going to almost double the price per download, and at the same time are decreasing my download amount by a third. I hate both things. I like the current pricing (no surprise,) but I also enjoy having access to larger amounts of downloads. I am now going to cancel my subscription to emusic again. Maybe I’ll come back in another 8 years to see if emusic is still around and in what form.
I’ve been with emusic a long time, pretty much getting my music exclusively through this site, and my downloads are going to be cut from 90 a month to 35, and you want to know what I think about it? What am I supposed to think about it? Am I supposed to celebrate that I can finally hear the Strokes? Has it ever been that hard to listen to the Strokes in the first place?
oops I said meter your onions LOL silly spell check
mmmm Corporate Cop has a point :/ I ask kindly for the comments section to remain intact for the sake of proper democratic protest. If indeed comments are being removed I would hope that (in the future) they are ONLY removed for being spam or improper links
oh yeah and Onion
I’ll be interested to see what the indie labels think about the changed demographic around here. Changing the target market from hard core music fanatics to casual listeners is bound to have an effect on the usefulness of this site to the small labels.
I’ll miss this service. I used to talk it up to anyone who’d listen as the best thing to happen to music lovers since the phonograph. “90 downloads at a reasonable price, but you have to use them or you lose them. So it’s the end of the month and you’ve still got 20 to go and you were always a little curious about Glenn Branca, or someone, but didn’t want to risk the cost of a CD, emusic is the perfect place.” Good luck emusic.
i keep checking back hoping to find out that this whole thing was just a joke…
*sigh*
I’ve been a subcriber to e-music, off and on, since it was unlimited downloads. I’ve seen bands and albums come and go and received some amazing music during the years. I left originally due to e-music capping my downloads. After some time away, I began missing the selection. You simply couldn’t find certain things in the mainstream download world. I was able to get back in at a reasonable price and, up until now, e-music has honored their agreement with me. There was a reason I came back to e-music, and I think they may have just taken that away. I can’t say I’m surprised e-music is following this course, but I can say I’m disappointed. At a time where many americans are struggling with debt and losing homes, e-music decides to raise prices and try to gain a new target audience. It seems like a slap in the face at first glance, but I will allow a few months to demonstrate their intentions.
Disappointing and ill-considered new business model. I will likely cancel. Nothing personal; the price increase/download cut is too drastic.
I just wanted to check in and add my voice to the chorus. As a relatively long-term emusic subscriber (since Feb. 2005), I was very disappointed with the “Price Change Notification.” Seeing that little text box open up: “On your next account refresh Aug 4, 2009, your plan will change to the new eMusic Plus Annual plan which costs $171.99 for the year and gives you 35 downloads every 30 days”… pretty drastic change for someone who was paying $191/year for 90 downloads every 30 days. “Slight” price change it is not! I will work hard at making my next 180 downloads for my subscription count since I will be cancelling my subscription before the Aug. 4 deadline. I, like others, used emusic in a very specific fashion… to try new artists that I knew little to nothing about. I have continued all along to buy vinyl and CDs of new releases of my favorite artists (props to the Mountain Goats and Lampchop here, please) and highly recommended others… but used my emusic subscription for trials of different music outside my normal scope of interest (some marginal but often finding awesome stuff that I wouldn’t have heard about… leading to more vinyl and CD purchases… ) The new suggested price point (essentially over doubling my per download cost) is too much for what I use emusic for… the streaming internet services (among other sources… music blogs, etc.) will suffice for my “trial and error” music experiences. I will be somewhat sad to leave emusic (as many of the editors and other members have made wonderful, mind-opening suggestions), but there are lots of options out there that will work for me. I am puzzled as to why there has been no comment about emusic’s rescinding of price “guarantees” that have been made in the past in any of their postings or canned email customer responses. This does strike me as a pretty big backpeddle. Once the trust is gone… So, farewell (soon!) emusic.
…more sorry than happy to hear of the changes…and in line with many of the reasons/comments above, will, expect to fold my plan…it’s been a great ride exploring & discovering so many artists at prices that so completely distinguished you from other download companies.
I agree with Ryan Schade….this site to me was about discovering music and there is not much incentive left given the pricing / download structure changes. Basically, under the new structure I can download ~24 less albums a year (I always buy the full album) and I will have the pleasure of paying $60 more a year. I would be willing to pay much more if I got unlimited downloads, but that will never happen. I will be canceling my membership. I’m really disapointed.
That’s fine, but why not have 2 options:
Emusic Plus with the fewer downloads for the $$ (which would include the major labels) and Emusic Classic for the existing rate (which would allow only independent label access).
I come here to find new and undiscovered artists, without the need to sort through all the big chart-toppers and hitmakers. No offense to them- some of my all-time favorite musicians are on the majors, but I subscribe to Emusic for something else…
I currently am a major emusic subscriber. My subscription goes back to 2006 and the They Might Be Giants Long Tall Weekend promotion. I have 3 accounts, and download 690 tracks per month.
My question is this: If the price for tracks is going up substantially, is the QUALITY of the tracks going up from VBR to 256 or 320? Now that higher sound quality if available on iTunes and Amazon these are already competing for my CD budget. My current plan to accept the decrease in my download numbers, and financial commitment to emusic, and try out the new album pricing. Unless sound quality improves I will probably end up downloading less from emusic and more from iTunes, Amazon and Insound.
I’ve always wondered how much money emusic and the artists could make when the cost per track was so low — except for the fact that there are a lot of developing artists here who are looking for the chance to shine.
That diamond-in-the-rough philosophy doesn’t change — but my cost does and that’s why so many people plan on cancelling their subscription.
Sure having Elvis Costello’s new one available the day it’s released is wonderful — but that’s the exception. The artists on here are usually unknown by the majority. That’s why the top sellers aren’t making Billboard’s Top 40. It’s also the draw for us.
College radio is dwindling like the industry itself. Corporate dominance has squeezed out the little guy. This was one of the places where it was cost efficient to experiment — reap the rewards of a discovered jewel while at the same time not be too upset when the risk wasn’t worth the digital space it absorbed.
Taking chances just got more expensive and I’m afraid in this economy — most of us will be risk adverse.
I am really not happy that the number of downloads available to me is decreasing (and therefore the price per song increasing). I really don’t care about back-catalogued music by elvis costello or john mayer. I am one that enjoys trying new things all the time, undiscovered bands that get me to be adventurous. I don’t think I’ll be keeping my subscription long.
So there are 400,000 some odd emusic members. They’re all gonna find out soon enough and we need to make sure they all comment here. I can see the higher ups ignoring 800 or so angry customers but they can’t ignore all of us. Indie music lovers unite! Lets make our voices heard. Post everywhere you can. Don’t let them do this without a fight!
A huge HUGE disappointment. As a loyal subscriber to (and avid promoter of) emusic, this just leaves an awful taste in my mouth. Others have put it better already, so I’ll merely join their chorus: if I wanted iTunes, I’d go to iTunes. There’s a reason we have been such active and dedicated fans of this site, and that’s because it was something different, a true alternative to other models being developed, and it felt good giving money to something like that – and getting great music back in return. With that gone, I’m not sure what the point is, really.
I can’t say for sure whether I’ll cancel my account – though I’m certainly leaning towards that, and am sure I’m not alone with the current economic climate being what it is – but I can definitely say I won’t be actively promoting or guiding friends/readers to this site.
Please reconsider this idea – or, at the very least, allow those of us who signed up way back in 2006 to continue enjoying the same benefits/package we signed on for, as a show of support to those of us who have supported you over the years, if nothing else.
Uhm… Are you kidding me? If I wanted Linda Ronstadts back catalog, I would peruse a semi-legal russian web site ($ 0.09 by the way), go to the library and burn the CD or just walk down to the record store and find a used copy. Man, I thought you had a good thing going, but this price change is unacceptable. Your catalog was ample to say the least and recommendations links were really engaging.
I hope that all you disgruntled people writing these posts have the wherewithal to actually cancel your subscriptions. If not, what a bunch of sheep you are. Get your “celebratory” booster pack (blood money), download, and pull the rip-cord.
I had nearly 400 albums saved for download. That won’t be happening.
Later, E-Music, I hardly new ye.
PS lets get back to the neighborhood record stores. Used CDs and such.
i have been a die-hard loyalist to emusic for years. i have turned friends onto the service. and i have paid out money, excited to download new and interesting music every month. this will end now. i don’t care at all about the sony back catalog. i dig _nebraska_ and _highway 61 revisited_. but guess what? i already have both. and i can easily find all of that stuff elsewhere. your value proposition – charging me more for less in exchange for access to stuff i already have or don’t care about – makes absolutely no sense.
it is clear from the lack or responsiveness to the landslide of negative reaction to this plan that no one is attending to the concerns or criticisms of long-standing customers. which is a shame. danny, you have to know that your most valuable marketing resource is your existing customer base. this is marketing 101. as you yourself have remarked above, emusic’s growth has been due – at least to a significant degree – because of the ‘social network’ effect of people turning on friends, family members, and other fans of music they love. now that marketing engine is toast. this bone-headed decision and they way in which your company has handled it will likely cause your subscriber base to crater and new subscription rates to sputter. that cannot be good for business. it certainly spells the end of mine with emusic.
Twitter:
#emusicfail #emusic
I am impressed by the solidarity and eloquence of the comments so far.
I too am distressed by this change. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Sony’s rootkit DRM debacle and fear any content related alignment with them. I may well cancel my subscription when it comes to it. Near the end of August my annual 30 DL/month $95.90/year plan renews. To be replaced by a 210 DL/180 days $95.90/180 days plan. A 71% incresase per download on my ‘grandfathered’ plan since 2007 – not long I know compared to many commenters here, and not as much an increase as many apparently. That said, I am still in the ‘may cancel’ camp.
I want to give eMusic a second chance. I want them to come to their senses and respond to this outcry against their change. I want them to see that this is the time for transparency in corporate policy.
In that spririt, I am going to be transparent about my probable actions. If this situation doesn’t change, that is if eMusic doesn’t respond with details of how this will really improve the lot of independent artists in the next week or so, I will go out and buy a few 100 download cards for $29 each and clean up my Saved For Later list before cancelling my account when it is due to renew. Of course I will take my ‘celebratory’ 15 DLs as well.
I may even download some early Simon and Garfunkel and Dylan on the relative cheap. If I can get Sony product for 29 cents a song when they want 40, I will call that a victory in one small battle.
Of course, now that trust is out the window, I will look into whether or not eMusic is going to still honor those download cards…
One last thought – back around comment 676 or so someone said that the probable 600 individuals that had posted so far represented such a small fraction of the alleged 400,000 total eMusic subscribers that their departure wouldn’t even be noticed.
I tend to believe that each person that posts a comment here represents many stable subscribers who wouldn’t choose to submit a comment if they had decided to click the link to the article. I’m no statistician, but I can’t help but think that the overwhelming majority opinion here represents the overwhelming opinion of the entire eMusic subscription base.
So, eMusic, are you listening to your subscription base? We want to hear from you…
Just to add my voice to the chorus– between the disingenuous way the price increase was broached, and the uselessness for my purposes of adding vast reams of mainstream major-label content that I most definitely do not need eMusic for, I too expect to cancel my account at the switchover. It is so frustrating– I’ve referred at least three other like-minded music fans to eMusic in the last few months. Which I now regret doing, of course.
After the change I will be getting a little over half of the downloads for the same price. This is not great news. This is bad news. This is “Get out, we don’t need you” news – unless you up the quality of your downloads substantially, like to 320kbps, to keep up with other download sites, and allow redownloading of what we have already paid for with the new quality. Otherwise, its “so long.”
And now, to add insult to injury, I find that while I wont be kicked off, you will be banning anyone from my country (Australia) and numerous others signing up. **Why?!**
http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=176871
This is a major dis to all the loyal eMusic fans. I’m here for the specialized music selection that I can’t find on itunes. I rarely buy anything from itunes and almost never from major retailers because they don’t carry what I want. A great case in point is the recent addition of the Black Saint/Soul Note catalog. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was when I saw that. Nobody here needs the Sony catalog. I do not want what I’ve already got (or had on LP and gotten again on CD ).
My downloads are going down by half and the inventory of music that I want has not gotten any better. Does this change mean that now the dreaded “one or more tracks from this album are not available for download” will disappear?
I know that my musical taste is esoteric, to say the least. I know because whenever I try to turn people on to eMusic they always say that they couldn’t find anything good for their 30 free downloads. My 100 (now 50) a month are usually gone within hours. I tried Rhapsody, but except for Leo Records, they had squat.
If I wanted “popular” I would listen to the radio.
I don’t know if I am going to cancel, because, quite frankly, this is my main source of avant garde music. Less is not More, but until something better comes along, it will have to do.
Thanks for nothing. Four years of customer loyalty flushed down the toilet for a Sony back catalogue that wouldn’t even be available to me here in Australia, and soon nor would anything else, even if I’d wanted to recommend it to friends here (as I have in the past). Way to not understand that the internet crosses boundaries: tell Sony that I’ll just download their music illegally instead. That way everybody except you wins. emusic fail indeed.
I am sure I’ll be flamed for this but here goes anyway:
I agree that this has been handled very poorly by eMusic. It would seem that Mr. Stein deliberately left out the fact that prices would be going up in the SONY announcement. The timing of the announcement and pricing increase could only lead people to believe that one caused the other. However, in reading the obviously canned responses to subscriber’s emails, I am not so sure that prices were not going up anyway.
I’ve already written a few posts voicing my displeasure with adding SONY tracks that are over two years old to the mix. I think it served no purpose and left people wondering if eMusic is abandoning indie. Obviously I too am unhappy about the increasing costs.
Now let me play devil’s advocate. Suppose this increase is necessary to keep indie labels that were going to leave because of the existing prices? Or it is necessary to get additional indie labels that currently will not sign with eMusic? Or it is necessary to simply keep eMusic in business? Would this change your opinion?
I understand that the price increases were, in some cases, up to 100% and this is hard to swallow. However, where else can you legally get these tracks for $.40? And yes, I have looked at Amie Street. There is very little content there compared to eMusic. A similar selection to eMusic can be found at Lala but at $7.49 or more an album. Amazon will occasionally run a sale but their stuff is usually $8.99 an album.
Again, let me say that eMusic owes all of us a better explanation of why the price increase was necessary. If it was just to add SONY (or other Majors to come), it was wrong; if it was to keep providing the music we love (and perhaps to add more), it may deserve a second look.
So I just opened an account at amie street, an indie music site recommended by a poster here. It looks pretty cool. Hopefully it will fill the emusic shaped void I’m going to have after next month.
It was fun while it lasted. Goodbye.
Hard to find the downside really,
Frankly there’s a lot of pop crap on emusic to begin with. And there is lot of good to be found in Sony’s back catalog.
indie/major/whatever.
The beatles were major. So were the who, the stones, etc.
soon enough ALL the major labels will go the way of GM–bankruptcy followed by balkanization into smaller niche labels. Hooray for that.
In the meantime, I’m psyched by the possibilities–and encouraged by major label recognition that to survive, they must compete with the pricing and availability of the indies.
Some things have me VERY excited.
For example, if I can get Sandinista for the price of 12 downloads—woohoo! I have the vinyl, but I’d love to be able to jog to it on my ipod.
As for the price increases.
Seriously, is the expectation of subscribers that the prices will NEVER go up? Emusic, like everyone else, must do what it needs to do to survive this economy. It’s still the best legal deal around.
Reasonable price increases over time are always going to happen. And if you can find a less expensive site, you are free to cancel this service in favor of it.
I agree with you John G. I think that emusic handled this poorly, but they don’t seem too upset about it. Their response is basically, “trust us, we know better than you do.”
When talking about our money, that’s quite a response, “shut up and give it to me…” Really, emusic?
For me, I’m not really looking to replace emusic right now. I can quit and be happy. Yes, I’m a music junkie and I love getting 90 download a month for the last 5 years. That’s a lot of music. A lot of music that I’ll be reviewing for the next 5 years or until emusic at least owns up to the fact that they screwed up. The price change isn’t my big issue here– I may be wrong, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a lot of people’s issue here. The big problem for me is that they’re doing it and making us feel like they think we’re stupid by trying to convince us that it’s a great thing. It’s a crappy thing and they know it.
Simply, be honest and I can stick with you. Lie to me, and the dude cannot abide.
This amounts to a HUGE price increase for me, i.e., a more than 100% price hike. It’s neither fair nor reasonable. When my old plan is retired, I’ll find somewhere else to purchase my music.
“eMusic Introduces New Coke, Doubles Price.”
I agree with the majority of the comments here. I didn’t sign up for eMusic to be able to buy Major Label Music. Now as a result of eMusic’s inclusion of Sony/BMG, everyone’s pricing structure is changing. It is a bullshit move, and poorly timed.
Bad idea, eMusic. Very bad. Righteously bad. Stunningly bad, horrifyingly bad. Monumentally bad, stupefyingly bad. Bad. Bad, bad, bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Bad bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
It’s the end of eMusic as we know it. My prediction is that some like me who love the indie stuff but also dig on the symphonic works may stick around awhile because of the 12 track per album cap (and who decides which “selected” works come in under that cap?) but everyone else will waft away like so many dead leaves in a gale, and new users will stay away in droves.
Bad idea. Bad. Bad, bad, bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad…etc.
I’m very disappointed that the plan I’ve loyally stuck with since September 2004 – even when the price rose last year – is being slashed from 50 to 30 tracks as of July 4. On many occasions, when looking for ways to reduce expenses, my eye fell upon the e-music subscription. Then I’d discover some new artist I’d never heard of and, upon reflection, think “even though I sometimes don’t spend all my tracks, it’s worth it to know that I can grab several albums a month if I take the time to enjoy e-music’s diverse offerings.”
I can’t say that I’ll be able to rationalize it any longer – especially with Amazon and iTunes routinely offering free indie-sampler albums and greatly reduced prices for back-catalog albums (some as low as $2.99 for a whole album).
I understand the need for change and the desire to have some “more popular” music, but I’m just not sure that so effectively alienating your long-term subscribers is a good business move given that your competition 1) already has the Sony catalog and 2) has been actively lowering its prices.
I enjoyed the past 5 years. I don’t see another 5 years in our future any longer.
Can we get a response from someone at eMusic just to let us know that they’re hearing all this? This is a massive amount of bad feedback. I hope they don’t just ignore it…
One more to the chorus, here. I’ve posted everywhere else but this seems to be the thread that’s getting the most attention. Suffice it to say this whole thing has been a huge disappointment. The combination of a huge price hike AND having my downloads cut almost in half hurts. The lack of forthrightness about from this man, Danny Stein, hurts. The suggestion that eMusic subscribers are supposed to be excited about Springsteen’s Nebraska, or Dylan’s Highway 61 — that’s just plain insulting. We’ve all got those records and played them to death.
I’ve been a member since late 2005, but I canceled my subscription after fully considering what this new announcement means. The numbers don’t favor eMusic: I can now get more albums for less money through Amazon, Lala, Amie Street, and occasionally iTunes. So, from a pure business standpoint, this move doesn’t make any sense on eMusic’s sense. The fact that they chose to roll it out in such a conniving manner is just salt on the wound.
Adios, eMusic.
Wow, you are “offering” me a plan that nearly doubles the per cut cost. If I want Pop or Major Labels I go somewhere else now. Still, I get 80% of my music here, but that’s going to change when you up the price. If I calm down I’ll go with a lower plan, probably I’ll cancel.
Why do you HAVE to charge the same price for everything? If you must improve the bottom line with more a more popular and pricey catalog why not charge those that want that stuff?
What’s up with you guys deleting Twitter comments? That’s laughable.
You make a business decision that many of your customers don’t like, so instead of addressing it head-on, you delete comments and try to sweep it under the rug as if it didn’t happen.
Instead of trying to play cover-up and making yourselves look foolish, have you considered the possibility that you’ve made a poor business decision and your customers will make you pay for it by not using your service?
For being a digital music service, these tactics seem like the same rubbish that the physical media distributors would use. What’s next? You going to try and get the RIAA to sue your former customers for canceling service because you raised the prices and acted shady when people balked at your changes?
Well, I have to add my displeasure to the many who are unhappy with this change. One question, why not have 2 different pricing levels for music. One group of artists (mainly indie) would be 1 credit the other larger labels would be something like one and a half credits per download. Will these indie labels who have been willing to supply music at a lower price for years be receiving more from e-music for downloads? Shouldn’t there still be a grandfathered exception for long time subscribers?
That said, I have been having a hard time finding good music in the genre I focus. Occasionally I find some gems. I do not understand the recommendations on the main page. They never seem to jive with what I’ve been buying all these years.
Very very disappointed in the increase! I may consider canceling as well.
It’s sad to have to say goodbye to emusic, it was quite a ride we had together.
By being limited to small labels, I discovered some amazing music. By being given 90 downloads a month, I felt free to explore different and obscure music. Some bands ended up being winners, others did not… but the key was having the freedom to explore with little financial risk.
On the rare occasion I did need something from a major label, Amazon has great MP3 prices, actually not too different from eMusic’s new rates — and without any long-term commitment required. I can tell you with certainty, all of the Sony bands that you said you’ll be adding are either a) irrelevant to me or b) I already own. Yawn.
From a business perspective, it would have made a lot more sense to tier your major label catalog at a higher price — say 3 credits per song for major label artists and leave the others alone. Am I now going to spend my far more expensive credits on an obscure Fela Kuti album any longer? What about investigating, say, the back catalog of Spoon, which IMHO got much stronger as they went along? This investigation process happens (er, sorry, happened) for me every month.
So to sum up: Independent bands lose new fans/customers. eMusic subscribers lose the freedom to explore new, obscure music. eMusic loses me (and from the looks of it, many other long-time users) as a customer.
P.S. Maybe, because I was a long-time subscriber, your accountants thought I was too expensive and wanted to force me out. Too bad that the intangibles of my loyalty and unprompted evangelism about the wonders of eMusic do not appear on your monthly balance sheet. I’ve got one month before this new deal kicks in. I’ll be open-minded to any pricing/credit changes you wish to make in the meantime. Please advise.
eMusic is a bunch of sell outs
eMusic can suck a llamas dick
eMusic can really eat a horse’s ass
eMusic is a magic Hellride.
Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you, Fuck you.
Fuck you, Fuck you. Fuck you, Fuck you.
The eMusic subscribers transferred their money.
The eMusic subscribers went to record stores.
The record stores were an awesome time.
They were really the best.
Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you, Fuck you.
Fuck you, Fuck you. Fuck you, Fuck you.
Rock over London. Rock on, Chicago. eMusic– we’re fucking stupid.
I would suggest everyone make all their purchases now and bring your account balance to “zero” to show emusic that you are prepared to cancel. #emusicfail
http://twitter.com/#search?q=#emusicfail
Ken999 above summed up my feelings (and my situation / experiences) exactly:
It’s sad to have to say goodbye to emusic, it was quite a ride we had together.
By being limited to small labels, I discovered some amazing music. By being given 90 downloads a month, I felt free to explore different and obscure music. Some bands ended up being winners, others did not… but the key was having the freedom to explore with little financial risk.
On the rare occasion I did need something from a major label, Amazon has great MP3 prices, actually not too different from eMusic’s new rates — and without any long-term commitment required. I can tell you with certainty, all of the Sony bands that you said you’ll be adding are either a) irrelevant to me or b) I already own. Yawn.
From a business perspective, it would have made a lot more sense to tier your major label catalog at a higher price — say 3 credits per song for major label artists and leave the others alone. Am I now going to spend my far more expensive credits on an obscure Fela Kuti album any longer? What about investigating, say, the back catalog of Spoon, which IMHO got much stronger as they went along? This investigation process happens (er, sorry, happened) for me every month.
So to sum up: Independent bands lose new fans/customers. eMusic subscribers lose the freedom to explore new, obscure music. eMusic loses me (and from the looks of it, many other long-time users) as a customer.
P.S. Maybe, because I was a long-time subscriber, your accountants thought I was too expensive and wanted to force me out. Too bad that the intangibles of my loyalty and unprompted evangelism about the wonders of eMusic do not appear on your monthly balance sheet. I’ve got one month before this new deal kicks in. I’ll be open-minded to any pricing/credit changes you wish to make in the meantime. Please advise.
For me the issue has nothing to do with indies vs. majors. In that, Stein is right. I don’t care who I’m listening to, I just like good music.
My subscription with eMusic comes down to pricing. I liked that I was getting 30 tracks a month for $10. When my rate went up to $12 a month and my downloads increased to 50, I was thrilled! $.24 per track is better than $.33 per track! Hurrah!
But now my rate will remain constant while my downloads drop back to 30 per month. Yes, $.40 per track is still a better deal than most other places, but it’s more than either of the previous incarnations.
Before, it was no big deal for me to try out the music of a band opening for an artist whose concert I’m attending. At $.24 per track, I could afford to grab a few tracks, or even the whole album. That’s where eMusic’s relationship with indie / underground / unknown / undiscovered artists thrived — in the sense that it wouldn’t hurt to take a chance on something new. Can the same be said at $.40 per track? I’m not sure.
I appreciate the addition of major labels, and undoubtedly (if I stay on board) I’ll download from them, but I didn’t need them. While I’ve searched for artists many, many times only to discover that they’re not on eMusic, I’ve never had any trouble in using up my 50 monthly downloads without them. In fact, my “saved for later” page is overflowing.
So if what Stein says is true — that “the distinction between indie and mainstream music simply does not matter” — essentially, he’s saying that eMusic is charging us a higher price for the same thing.
Today’s prices for Sony product at Amazon:
Bob Dylan/Highway 61 Revisited: CD $7.97
Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run: MP3 $7.92
Miles Davis/Kind of Blue: CD $6.99
And we’re supposed to be excited and grateful for $5 eMusic downloads?
Sony is the past. eMusic was the future. Now you’re doubling what I pay so Sony (I don’t know why you spell it with so many letters) will let you offer me a few records I already have and a million records I don’t want.
“What do you think? Do “major” and “indie” mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon? ”
I think that’s pretty far backwards to bend over to pretend that you’re not selling out.
I guess I’ll just echo the sentiments of everyone else. I feel betrayed and will be leaving emusic when my subscription expires.
I hate that emusic has made this decision and I hate that I have to cancel my subscription (Premium Annual).
As much as I love the Boss and don’t like Alicia Keys doubling how much for we pay records I already have or don’t want I don’t agree with. I wouldn’t mind a slight price increase for the indie label’s and artists but doubling the price for Sony BMG, sorry.
They didn’t even offer us roll over downloads. I thought this was a place to find indie and new music? I Have all the Foo Fighters and Miles Davis records I want from Sony BMG. I want the music that they tend not to put out.
Peace,
Howard
what the hell Emusic? this is how you reqard your long time memebers? but slapping them in the face with almost a 45% rate increase in the price per download?
who gives a flying f**k about major lables. Emusic is not about major labels and I think almost everyone agrees with that. Very bad move, very bad.
Not only that, you also cut the 300 and 200 downloads a month plan and replaced it with 100 for about twice as much as it was before…
I will be leaving one I finish off my SFL list (currently at 76 albums T.T [better then the 260 it was 2 years ago i guess]).
seriously, your going to take a huge hit from this one, I am not overjoyed that you have the major lables, hell this was one of the reason I used to pirate music. Then i found your site and stopped because it was REASONABLE. now your prices are not reasonable, I feel like imma be pirating music again soon.
way to fk off your customers emusic, good job, your on the fast track to itunes and rhapsody land now, and there’s not going to be any turning back, likely to be your down fall or downsizing.
Hey Emusic, just as angry today as I was 3 days ago, just thought I’d let you know! I would rather have logged on and found out emusic went out of business, and took the rest of my annual subscription money with them, than see you as “sold out” still angry, still sad
We saw the Techdirt post this morning about the deleted Twitter tag. We just want to emphasize what we’ve said earlier: we are absolutely not deleting posts. We’re even combing our spam filter to try our best to get them all through.
We did post a response to the discussion on the eMusic message boards, which some people may have missed: http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=175230#1061560.
We do continue to monitor the thread, although it is difficult to respond to every concern. We have also posted an expanded FAQ here: http://www.emusic.com/help/faq/catalog-expansion.html
This is such a stupid move – such a HUGE price increase for what – Sony???
Bite me – I’m gone soon.
While being a subscriber for over 3 years, I have enjoyed exploring new music on emusic. It has been a very rich experience, with enough credits to download about three albums a month, I’ve tried out a number of lesser known bands, some have been great, others not so much, but having the album, I’m able to give them a few listens to find out. Some albums I don’t even realize I like until I put it on months later, and then I have to go out and buy more of that groups releases. I’ve supplemented my emusic subscription with amazon for bigger label stuff, that I have on the radio or from friends.
With the new pricing scheme that I just read about when I logged on today, this whole system breaks down. Almost doubling my per-track price means I’m now paying nearly amazon prices up front, and I’ll be much less likely to take a chance on a “maybe” album. Also, having a subscription no longer make sense, as I’m not sure I’ll always have a bunch of tracks that I want for the price emusic is now charging, while that threshold was lower with my existing pricing scheme.
Needless to say, when my current subscription is done, I’m out of here, I’ll find my new music somewhere else.
-Jonathan
Just adding my $.02 (which is now worth substantially less by eMusic standards). I don’t care about major labels, that’s not why I joined eMusic and am not happy about the new pricing structure. I hope you are successful in recruiting new members to make up for the loss of loyal customers.
Goodbye and good riddance. This is a terrible move.
Still no response from the CEO? What’s up with that?
What a pussy.
EPIC FAIL.
You suck for taking away my downloads! I am not sure I want to continue this relationship. I have been a member since 2005, and I have loved your service, until now.
I guess it’s cool for some people, that you will be hosting major labels, but I don’t really care, one of the main things I like about this site is that it is all independent labels, if I wanted to download that other stuff I would go through a different company, I love being able to type in something obscure that I could never come across at my local store and find a whole catalog of items to choose from. Nothing about this benefits me, a loyal customer who pays timely for over 3 years, so what do I get, the oppurtunity to download crap that I can hear on the radio everyday, not cool. This may attract new people but what about the existing customers? we get screwed, I mean why do you think we are customers of emusic to begin with, I am sure it’s not because I can dowload bruce springsteen, pearl jam or whatever, it’s because you have 23 skidoo, betty davis, malaria!, os mutantes, and really I don’t know if I can justify this relationship any longer. And if my memory serves the last time you changed my subscription you told me that I was grandfathered in and that my deal would be 50 for $11.99, so what happened to that? you are making this change right now, and then what, in a few months are you going to come back and give me less for more? It just doesn’t seem right, why should I remain a customer? and really I am offended at the way you guys chose to tell us, I never go to the homepage, I saw a discussion on another wedsite and had to check it out. I don’t know if I will remain a customer, I love your service, so I am torn, but really is it worth it, I don’t know.
I joined eMusic two months ago to GET AWAY FROM buying music from the same old bands year after year. This was a chance to focus back on indie bands and music that I had not heard 10000 times. Now I get fewer downloads and more temptation to buy the same old suff.
I think that the Sony stuff will keep some people and replace the many who will leave (esp. long term customers)
I always subscribed because I found here rather obscure or out of print tunes for a really good price. Being able to purchase songs that I can probably find at Amazon or iTunes doesn’t really interest me especially when the price is going to increase so much. I’ll probably drop my subscription.
I am not happy at all! I love eMusic because you have all the independents at a great price. I’m not interested in the major labels. That’s fine but I just learned that I lost 20 songs a month for the same price I’m now spending. I am not happy about this at all!
Wow – glad I have had emusic for a few years, and gotten my moneys worth out of it in the time being. I have been getting 90 tracks for 19.99, and now I am only going to get 50. Thats stinks. No special programs for long time subscribers? How about a plan that is like the price I have now, but DOESN”T allow me to download Sony or your other new albums that caused this price hike. Don’t know how long I will be staying at that price. I joined due to the price and the fact you had so many independent artists, and lot of stuff you just WILL NOT find in stores. You are going to have a lot of people leaving. I still need to decide. Not looking good though. Back to the used cd stores and ebay? We will see.
Emusic: “Itunes’ cheaper, cooler cousin” no more……I’ll trade you Yo Yo Ma for my soon to be retired download plan. No deal? Oh well…what’s the name of that Russian site again?
If the eMusic patrons wanted major label stuff (that includes both a price hike and limited downloads per month) they would just hit up a digital competitor. Why not give folks the option of the “old” plan, and a way to opt in to the new one should they want the Sony stuff.
I have all the Clash, Springsteen, etc. I need. I came here for indie and obscure music at reasonable prices. I’ve been a subscriber for over 5 years and will probably cancel soon.
What is the reason behind not accepting new customersd from outside UK/US/EU/Canada?
Remember when eMu added the Decca era Rolling Stones? What a great week that was.
Seriously, now that I think of it, they’ve got a really long history of hamfisted acquisitions.
I will say this, whoever from eMu wrote their “Welcome Rolling Stones” article added a playlist of great songs from the Decca Stones catalog; I still listen to it. I’m just really glad I moved quickly on that one; but compared to the last week, that was a huge success.
Count me as another loyal subscriber of 3 or 4 years who is very sad to learn of these changes. Like many others, I sought out eMusic for indie music at a good price, and I’ve been happy to have been grandfathered into the old 40/month plan. Now, with the more-than-doubling of the price, I’ll be cancelling at the end of my subscription, unless I’m given the choice to opt-out of the Major Label catalogue and keep something that resembles my current plan. And furthermore, I guess I’ll stop telling my friends to sign up.
I just downloaded my 90 tracks for the month and canceled. Vote with your dollars or don’t……but whining and keeping your subscription tells Danny Stein (who’s probably at home thumbing through his Simon and Garfunkel discs right now) that you like the spanking he’s giving you.
I hate this.
There wasn’t any lack of availability for this stuff elsewhere. There were places we could go to get it. I subscribe to eMusic because they carry the great unknowns that I can’t get elsewhere, and I’d been getting 65 downloads per month for just $14.99. My price per download is now being almost doubled just so eMusic can add a bunch of music I will not purchase.
What saddens me most is that this is clearly a business move that proves eMusic is no different than any other online music provider. I was naive enough to believe that eMusic was different– that they were committed to bringing independent music to the masses at a kick-ass price, and that they recognized that their customers were people who recognized and wanted to support that ethic.
This move is certain to alienate many of your most loyal subscribers, including me. I bet it will make more money for you because you’ll pull in more than enough of the hoi polloi to make up for people like me leaving. Had you cut my downloads to 55 instead of 65, that would have sucked, but I would have probably stayed. Cutting it to 37? Ridiculous. Show me any subscription-based company who has nearly doubled its price for its most long-term customers and managed to retain most of them.
Like I said, I’m sure the calculations have been made and eMusic expects to make more money regardless of losing people like me. Maybe the worst part is that this means the independent musicians will suffer, because you’re driving away the customers that bought their stuff in order to bring in the people who want to download Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen.
Mick Cullen
Host, Subterranean
–The best in underground rock–
11pm-1am Central time, Thursday nights
WRLR, 98.3 FM
http://www.wrlr.fm
subterraneanradio.podbean.com
To the guy that thinks he will be able to get Sandinista for 12 downloads, put the Kool-Aid down, it’s not going to happen, that’s for “selected” albums.
eMusic didn’t just decide to “retire” my (several times renewed) account. They retired their mission. This is less about cost per download than respect for your loyal customers. I will “retire” my subscription when it’s up.
eMusic – you sh*t the bed with this deal.
Well, who the hell is gonna read all this stuff?!?!?!
Quick notes:
1) Price change stinks but no surprise.
2) Major Labels will help me convince my 14 year old and all the other lame people who i can’t get to subscribe because they don’t want to actually discover music they never heard before to join. kudos
3) Please stay true damn-it!!!!! I love finding weird gems that no body knows because only e-music has them. As a DJ its great to hear, “What the hell is that?!?! I love it!!”
4) MOST IMPORTANT TO ME: I cannot wait to see if your new customer tracking system works better than the current setup, which presently seems rather arbitrary and rarely gives me anything I want to buy.
All right, Emusic is a capitalist enterprise with no real difference with so-called major labels, except perhaps allowing artists more creativity and hopefully direct money from their work, but the down side of that is you guys have a lot of crummy stuff I have to wade through to find the gems (no offence intended). Nonetheless, you people kick ass!!! Long live creativity and artist controlled music!!!! Several of my friends have joined and they all love it. If I could have just gotten those rascals to give me credit for my tip, I would have gotten some downloads:)
Good luck. Stay true and I’ll keep my subscription until the day I die. I have never had this much fun collecting music.
Well Dave – It looks like you’ve made a very unpopular decision by adding that dinosuar, SONY BMG, to our membership at the new increased rate. Emusic was cool – until now. Sorry but I, unlike you, are sticking with my principals. I don’t want to cancel but I have to – it’s the right thing to do. Hopefully someone will create a new site for indies like the old eMusic.
I’ve been a subscriber since 2004, and I’ve spent countless time telling everyone I know about how great eMusic is. (Literally-just yesterday I wrote a lengthy post on a popular message board about how much I love eMusic and how htey should all join.) I love that I can organically find new music here without stealing from the artist or breaking my bank. in fact, I’ve spent 100% of my music dollars on emusic pretty much since 2005. I love how little risk there is n trying something new-I always have 25 or so extra tracks at the end of the month, so I search around, and try things I’m not sure of. This has led to many happy accidents, such as The Mountain Goats, Criteria, and White Whale. With the new plan not only will I not have those 25 “extra” tracks, but I will have barely enough to cover what I already know I want. I’m in sales, eMusic, and I negotiate contracts every day. I also know the story of having a client who pays less than the market rate for your content. However, if I tried to tell my client that they were facing an 81% increase in their price per asset, they’d tell me to take a hike. Honestly, it’s not our fault you undervalued your content before. It’s also not our fault that you told us all, back in 2006, that so long as we continued paying you monthly, our rates would stick indefinitely. It’s one thing to raise rates incrementally along with the cost of business-it’s another to go back on your word, and lie to your most loyal, and fervent base.
PS-you’ve effectively erased all of the incentive we have to keep our accounts current. I’m going to maintain this account through my last day this month, hoping you change your minds and come up with some sort of compromise-how about a 20% increase, year on year, until we’re up to market rate?-if not, it is with GREAT sadness, that I will be saying goodbye.
It’s been real, eMusic. Take care.
Ironic:
Guess how I happened upon this unfortunate development? I went to my account page to double my account– after I had increased it once already this month. Even though this would have greatly expanded my music budget, I was willing to sacrifice because I was so impressed with what eMusic had to offer. When I arrived, however, I was shocked to see that everything had changed.
Now, instead of increasing my plan (and looking forward to retaining it for years into the future), I will at the very least drastically reduce my plan (but most likely cancel altogether). This week alone I had already told no less than ten friends about the spectacular service eMusic had going. Now I just feel silly.
The combination of (a) the dramatic price hike and (b) eMusic’s forfeiting its unique mission and identity, have caused eMusic’s role in my life to drastically change. I no longer see it as a treasure trove for the exploration of some 10 new albums per month. Now it is a mere Sony bargain bin. The majority of the new customer base will most likely treat it as such; after seeking out their 5 favorite Beyonce singles and saving some chump change in the process, they’ll part ways with the new eMusic and look elsewhere for the next bargain to exploit.
I have serious doubts my subscription will continue past July. I wonder how many silent voices I represent with this post– silent because the previous 800 posts have already plainly stated the obvious, because they didn’t happen to find their way here, or because they simply haven’t signed on to eMusic yet since June 1st to discover this baffling news?
As nearly everyone else has said, this is a bad idea. Who cares about getting “major” label artists on Emusic when you get can that anywhere else, if you don’t have it already. So in return for access to music that I already have or don’t want, Emusic cuts my downloads from 90 to 50. Which means less “indie” music for me to check out and support. Terrible idea.
I’m not saying that this would assuage everyone, but it would be helpful–to me at least–if you were to give us preview access to the catalog and the 200,000 tracks ahead of time so that we can make a more reasoned decision as to whether or not we want to stay in. There’s a number of Sony artists that you don’t mention in the teaser that I would like to have access to, and I’m wondering if they are included in the deal or if this is a selective thing.
Here’s something which I haven’t seen discussed in the previous eight-hundred-something comments: before the price restructuring, I was grandfathered in, and I would have fought to keep my 90 downloads/month because I would have lost the rate if I’d canceled my account. Now there’s no advantage to keeping a plan which offers me no benefit from having been a member in good standing since 2005. eMusic, can you tell me why I shouldn’t cancel my account, expressing my distaste at the way in which this whole debacle has gone down? If I decide later that there’s nothing else out there, I could always come back. Of course, I could just as well find that I’m doing fine getting my new music directly from labels and from local record stores. Seems like a nightmare situation for a company, which will always have to pay much more to acquire customers than to retain them (I learned that from Michael Scott), but that’s why I don’t make the big bucks like Danny Stein, right?
Way to screw the pooch on this one emusic. Here is what I want:
A complete list of the “new” music coming to the site, before the price hike happens. This way I can see if it is worth it to me to keep my subscription with this absurd increase in price.
Also, I want to know what CD’s will be counted as “album rate”. If nothing I listen to fits under that “selected” group, then I am cancelling my subscription, or dropping it down to a lite subscription. Shit, I can buy a used CD online for less than $5 from Amazon. I won’t be recommending emusic to anyone anymore, that’s for sure…
CathyHN, (Cathy Nevins) of emusic and post #865 (for now, until it mysteriously changes to some other number… see below), is LYING.
“we are absolutely not deleting posts”
BS. You absolutely ARE deleting posts. At an absolute minimum, there were two comments that I can state with CERTAINTY appeared above for at least 8 hours (perhaps for a day or more, as I don’t know exactly when you removed them), that are now GONE. They were from “Tweet”, and both contained the twitter hashtag #emusicfail. One (or both) contained the URL for searching twitter for this hashtag, http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#emusicfail , and contained some sort of brief text encouraging people to use #emusicfail in voicing their discontent on twitter so that there would be a venue outside of emusic’s control for discussion (which proved to be quite on the mark, at least concerning posted comments from “Tweet”). These two posts were made on or around 6/2/09 (perhaps as early as late 6/1/09) and they appeared for some time *IN THIS LOG OF COMMENTS*, until you deleted them. They were not eaten by some mysterious captcha problem. They successfully passed your spam checker. They were successfully POSTED RIGHT HERE. They stayed there for (at least) many hours. Then they VANISHED. They were REMOVED. They were CENSORED. I bet there were others (for instance I do remember other #emusicfail references, but now there are none that appear before comment #800).
Anyone else remember seeing two comments from “Tweet” (I’m guessing somewhere in #400 – #600 range) with the hashtag #emusicfail and short messages sometime on or around 6/1/09 or 6/2/09? If you did, post confirmation. I bet some of you remember them.
Now, regarding the renumbering of posts… you have stated publicly to outside bloggers ( http://chrisyount.com/?p=44 and elsewhere) that it is technologically impossible to renumber posts. Again, BS. Look at the post of “Corporate Cop”, who called you out on removing #emusicfail posts (all of which, BTW, are now GONE *above* the “Corporate Cop” post… search this page for #emusicfail and you will find NO instance of it above the “Corporate Cop” post). Corporate Cop’s comment was originally posted as comment #811, and it stayed that way for many hours. It is now, the next day, currently #813. One thing is certain… posts *ARE* being renumbered. Did you perhaps *restore* some deleted posts this morning, Cathy? You apparently didn’t restore the two posts from “Tweet”… that might have been embarrassingly obvious.
Is it really necessary to outright LIE when performing the job of PR? How about admitting you deleted the two “Tweet” posts containing the hashtag #emusicfail, as a start? Because you did, and stating “we are absolutely not deleting posts” is a LIE.
Love the fact I’m losing essentially 120 downloads per year Chalk me up to the current subscribers who will be jumping ship as of July 1st.
Well I agree with just about everyone here and will be deactivating my account. The only opinion eMusic will listen to is the opinion you make by canceling your account.
My proposition: if you are upset by this but still plan on keeping the service, cancel it for a month to send a message. You have nothing to loose by canceling since nobody will be grandfathered in. (Well, your saved list will be gone)
I’ve subscribed to E-music for years, and was on the old ninety download a month plan. I liked E-music and spent a good portion of my music budget here because it introduced me to a lot of new music that I may not have otherwise found.
My subscription expires in August. When it does I will be able continue my subscription at over twice the price per download (17.7 cents now vs. 40.9 cents under the “new and improved” plan), while the only upside will be access to a bunch of old albums (showing my age with that word choice) that I either already own or have no interest in owning. My decision is already made: in this economy I’ll pocket the $190 I would have spent on the old emusic and be able to see about twenty local shows and have a draft domestic or two at each, to boot.
If emusic were to give me the option to “grandfather” in and deny me access to the “new” (actually, “old”) music from Sony and other dinosaur labels, I’d gladly stick around. The beauty of E-music was that the relatively low price-point made it easier to take a chance on downloading music from an artist I had never heard of, and hearing what they were all about. When it was something I really liked, I’d gladly go out and buy a CD (or two or three ) of theirs from a local store. When it wasn’t music that tickled my fancy, I wasn’t all that upset because it is not like I plunked down $13.00 for a CD I wouldn’t listen to again. That is no longer the case at over twice the price. Now, if I must, I’ll check out the thirty second preview clips available just about everywhere and spend my money elsewhere, i.e., somewhere other than E-music. My local independent CD store will be happy to take a slice of the money E-music would have received – and they special order for free.
I hope they reconsider.
I am tremendously dissapointed. I see nothing of value added, and no mention of any impact on the artists themselves — will the truly independent label artists be paid twice as much as before? I may stick around for the gratis downloads in August, but after that I’m moving to Amie St.
I have subscribed for years at $19.99 for 90 tracks. Some months I have not downloaded anything, others very little. It was worthwhile keeping my account because I had a better deal than I would have if I quit, then came back.
When this change goes into effect, I will have no incentive to remain an active subscriber. Maybe that is a good thing; I have so many albums I have downloaded but not listened to yet.
I’ll be interested to see how the content availability changes. One thing I would like to see is higher bit-rate downloads. CD-quality should be bottom line.
I was all up in arms and ready to cancel. Turns out that eMusic was taking a loss on us old timers getting tracks for less than a quarter and chose the most disingenuous way possible to let us know.
Heads need to roll in eMusic marketing/corporate over this incredibly bone headed timing on the announcements. You should have upped the price first and appealed to your loyal and independently minded customer’s sense of artistic patronage. You should have told us you were taking a loss on us, and that you needed to charge us more to pay the awesome independent artists and labels you already have and to make the math work. A few penny pinchers would have gone back to bittorrent, but most of us would have been right behind you. Then later you should have added the Sony label stuff and just said, “enjoy, we’re giving you more music.”
Offering the Sony music as some sort of adequate compensation for cutting 40% of my tracks was incredibly insulting and reeked of selling out. I can’t believe you are so out of touch with your customers and would pull such a weaselly corporate stunt. We looked past the radio and the pop charts and iTunes and we sought you out eMusic. Your clueless CEO even calls us rabid, smart and adventurous. All this while insulting our intelligence and taste.
I’ve loved my time with eMusic. I think I am going to keep loving it, even though I’m paying more and will have to wade through all the Sony turds to find the good stuff. Please, just treat us like adults the next time you need to change your pricing.
Gotta agree with virtually everyone in this thread. Bad idea, emusic. You could have – still could – handled this better. Give us a price tier option – how hard could that be? Start your new prices for new subscribers who might sign up for the Sony stuff. Keep the grandfathered accounts, or maybe with a smaller, inflation-indexed price increase. There’s a recession on, you know. Price increases mean I have to cut back on luxuries – as emusic certainly is. You’re going to wind up like the car companies going bankrupt. Sent all their jobs overseas and then wonder why all those people who have no jobs aren’t buying their cars. Take the high road like Obama: say “I goofed”. It’s not too late.
This just boggles my mind. Why would anyone who belongs to eMusic have any real interest in Sony? I could care less. Why not try to get Sub Pop, Epitaph or Up Records before you go for Michael Jackson? Its like jumping from “The Toxic Avenger” to “Titanic.” It makes no sense to me. I have 152 albums currently in my Saved list that I WANT. I don’t need/want Sony. Why do I have to pay for it? Also, the lack of info about the new album pricing makes it seem suspect. I assume its not for Sony albums (fine by me) but will it be available on a wide variety of albums? How “select” is “select?” Will I find out before the new plan takes place?
Just a side note: That CEO letter is the most condescending thing I have read in some time. Raising people’s rates without warning for something many don’t want and then trying to have some cute discussion about indie vs. mainstream just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess “more of the good stuff” is a relative term because I don’t find many of these new acquisitions to be very “good.” In fact this whole thing just reeks of another company screwing people over. And to think I used to recommend you all the time.
Perhaps you should have asked eMusic subscribers if they were interested in getting major label artists in exchange for higher rates & less monthly downloads? I bet the answer would be a collective NO. I hope you can retract your plans and keep eMusic true to its core concept. I’ll really miss eMusic if you don’t.
This really sucks, Emusic. I was actually considering downgrading my account – not because I don’t love Emusic, I adore it, but because my current financial situation is making $19.99 a month somewhat of a stretch. So imagine my dismay when I logged on today and discovered that I’m about to start getting even less for my money. I have been a loyal Emusic subscriber for some time and I think it’s awful that you are rewarding your most loyal supporters by screwing them over in this way. I couldn’t care less about getting major labels. What I have always loved about Emusic is that the good prices allowed me to experiment and download things I had never heard before. I love the indie feel to Emusic. I love feeling like I’m digging around in an independent record store and discovering things that most people don’t know about. You announce that now we can download Kelly Clarkson and act like that’s a good thing?? I don’t want the kind of people who would download a Kelly Clarkson album taking over this site. I always thought Emusic was about giving exposure to lesser-known artists and now you’re going to be selling things you can go buy at Wal-Mart. And it pisses me off that you’re sugar-coating everything, like referring to the free booster pack you’re giving us to make us feel better as a “celebration”. Whatever. I’ll stick around for a few months and see how things go because for the time being your prices are still cheaper than iTunes, but trust me, I will be looking for something different in the meantime.
I have to say that I am absolutely furious over this decision. I have been a loyal subscriber to emusic for years and years. I cannot believe that you are not grandfathering existing customers into the “new” emusic. This “improvement” is cutting the 90 tracks I currently get for $19.99 to just 50, a decrease of almost 50%!!! This is a defacto price increase, in essence this increases the cost of my current subscription from $19.99 per month to about $35 per month. If I wanted big label music I would not have become a emusic subscriber. This price increase is a major slap in the face to long-time customers. I am having a hard time time justifying my continuing subscription, especially when a company I trusted tries to screw the customers that have supported it for years!
Also, I forgot to add that I am extremely upset by the way in which this news was delivered. I logged on here by chance – normally I don’t log on to the site when my downloads are gone for the month. I can’t believe that you haven’t sent out some sort of email to your subscribers. I wonder how many people out there don’t even know about this yet? I’m assuming you’re just afraid of the giant backlash. So Danny Stein can spare a minute to talk to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/technology/internet/01sony.html?_r=1&ref=media), but not to send an email to all of his loyal subscribers who are about to get shafted.
I will add my voice to those feeling ripped off after, in my case, 5 years of service. I was grandfathered when you changed your pricing but now I am not. So my net cost is nearly doubling. You sold out your loyal customers to the majors and it sucks. I will stick around for a month to get my exciting consolation prize of 25 downloads and then I think I will likely leave. Like many others, I have no trouble using my downloads on new, independent music. I don’t need old Springsteen or Clash. Those of us that appreciate that music have owned it for years. Allow me to stay at my current rate and block my access to the back catalogs. Please.
THIS BARES REPEATING FOR YOU FLAMERS WHO ARE JUST POSTING AND NOT REALLY READING
839 John G. on Jun 4th, 2009 said:
I am sure I’ll be flamed for this but here goes anyway:
I agree that this has been handled very poorly by eMusic. It would seem that Mr. Stein deliberately left out the fact that prices would be going up in the SONY announcement. The timing of the announcement and pricing increase could only lead people to believe that one caused the other. However, in reading the obviously canned responses to subscriber’s emails, I am not so sure that prices were not going up anyway.
I’ve already written a few posts voicing my displeasure with adding SONY tracks that are over two years old to the mix. I think it served no purpose and left people wondering if eMusic is abandoning indie. Obviously I too am unhappy about the increasing costs.
Now let me play devil’s advocate. Suppose this increase is necessary to keep indie labels that were going to leave because of the existing prices? Or it is necessary to get additional indie labels that currently will not sign with eMusic? Or it is necessary to simply keep eMusic in business? Would this change your opinion?
I understand that the price increases were, in some cases, up to 100% and this is hard to swallow. However, where else can you legally get these tracks for $.40? And yes, I have looked at Amie Street. There is very little content there compared to eMusic. A similar selection to eMusic can be found at Lala but at $7.49 or more an album. Amazon will occasionally run a sale but their stuff is usually $8.99 an album.
Again, let me say that eMusic owes all of us a better explanation of why the price increase was necessary. If it was just to add SONY (or other Majors to come), it was wrong; if it was to keep providing the music we love (and perhaps to add more), it may deserve a second look.
This is a TERRIBLE IDEA. I have encouraged so many of my friends to come to this site, but no longer … and yes, I’ll be leaving as well if this change goes through. Mr. Stein, there’s a reason why the major labels and FM radio are dying: they don’t care about music … I pay your company $240/year because I DO. Like most other people who faithfully use this site, I don’t view music as something that plays quietly in the background while I drive. It rules me, pushes me forward … it is the most important form of art in my life. We don’t care about the back-catalog of The Clash because we have it on CDs, which have been burned onto our computers long ago. Adding the Majors now is just contaminating your catalog with a bunch of garbage. I hope you can get John Mayer’s full work … that way I’ll be able to easily download the songs that make me want to shoot myself in the grocery store every week.
As the top manager of this company, your job is to steer this ship in the right direction. Why in the world would you think that imitating the FM radio-Major Label axis would in any way be the best decision for this company??? These are businesses that are struggling to survive because their business model is predatory and they’ve become greedy. You have cornered this fabulous niche market of folks who will be faithful to you and recommend others to you wholeheartedly. Why do we love eMusic? Because it has provided us a reasonably priced service for the interesting new music that WE LIKE– NOT the crap that we hear when we accidentally hit the “FM” button on our car stereo. We are reliable customers who, by and large, buy entire albums at a time …WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO COURT THOSE WHO WILL ONLY DOWNLOAD 1 (MAJOR LABEL) SONG AT A TIME?? (THEY HAVE ITUNES, REMEMBER?).
This is an absolute shame. Go ahead, make this terrible business decision, in spite of this and so many other protests on this blog. We’ll all leave and some intelligent person will start up a download site for these smaller labels with reasonable prices, and we’ll all go there. You’re just the conduit … we’ll gladly go somewhere else.
Finally, I’d like to echo what others have said about the -40 grandfathered move. If you had told me this was to get more Drag City, Secretely Canadian, etc, I would have been okay with that. BUT RCA??? This company deserves to go down. And it will.
bull$hit.boo.hiss.
so long, emusic. it’s been swell.
The problem with Blaming either Captcha or Spam blocker for the removal of the Twitter tags
is that I saw them come through iirc comments are not shown then removed but go into the spam box until the user is approved 
Sorry guys I’m about it being kept honest here on both sides
this is a dreadful, dreadful business decision. played out in a dreadful, dreadful way. man, does emusic/Danny Stein deserve the backlash they’re getting—and will continue to get. the cutesy, aw-shucks-how-’bout-i-posit-this-inane-”indie-v-major”-argument-in-a-vapid-blog-post-as-a-half-assed-attempt-to-distract-from-the-sound-of-thousands-of-loyal-customers-getting-schtupped crap is, well crap.
it’s always hard when one of our “favorite things” spontaneously(?) combusts. years later, we’ll muse “whatever happened?” but in this case, we won’t.
This is a bad decision. You are pushing me out for good.
There are plenty of options for free dls but people like me enjoyed emusic because you introduced us to the indie and hard to find music and let us share. Now I’ll have to wade through the promotion of the latest Boy Band or Lipsyncher and get 44% fewer downloads. WTF? Where is the improvement?
We are music lovers. Don’t you think we already have the easy to find or popular stuff if we liked it.
And get rid of the expiring quota. If I come on the 30th day I’d like to get what I paid for.
Disgruntled and wary of shifty marketers.
THIS IS BAD NEWS DANNY!
I’m losing almost 50% of my downloads for the same price.
Why would I ever stay? It may be good for newcomers but bad for those who have been loyal to eMusic (5 years).
I WILL FOLLOW SUIT AND CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION LIKE MY FELLOW SUBSCRIBERS IN THE SAME SITUATION!
I wasn’t expecting this at all and am very disappointed.
IS NOTHING SACRED. I GUESS NOT WHEN YOU WANT FAT POCKETS.
SO WHO’S COMING WITH ME?
Your PREVIOUS loyal fan and recommender to what seems now to be too many friends.
BAD MOVE BAD CHOICE
THANKS FOR THROWING US UNDER THE BUS
Congratulations on selling out, eMusic! Guess you’re in the big leagues now!
Majors/indies…who cares. Good music is good music. Now, cutting my downloads nearly in half for the same money? Unacceptable! I’d say I’ll at least downgrade my plan if not drop music downloads altogether and just do audiobooks only. It’s a foolish move by eMusic, especially since like so many of us, I’ve been around supporting eMusic since the beginning…it’s a bit of a slap in the face. I guess you’re getting ‘too big for your britches’ as they say here in the South!
I realize I’m on a grandfathered plan, but:
My plan is about to change from FIFTY downloads per month for $11.99 to THIRTY for $11.99. I guess it’s a good thing I’m getting FORTY PERCENT FEWER downloads, because the PRICE PER DOWNLOAD IS GOING UP SIXTY PERCENT.
I’ll take into consideration the fine customer service I’ve received from eMusic, and I’ll acknowledge that it has been a bargain, but I’ll still need for you to explain to me how I can not be unhappy about this turn of events.
I second the suggestion that you have a higher download price for this high-dollar catalog, which will be of no interest to me. Leave the rest of us alone.
My eMusic subscription has been an indulgence. We’re about to find out how unnecessary it is.
I can’t say much more than what’s already been said in the last 48 hours by the rest. Been a happy subscriber since April ’04. Friends have joined at my recommendation–even before the days of the referral bonus. I’ve given eMusic downloads as gifts a handful of times even.
June 31. It’s marked on my Google Calendar now. “Cancel Emusic Subscription”
Nice work alienating your best customers and destroying your niche market position. Good luck trying to compete with iTunes and Amazon.
I give eMusic 9 months, tops.
It’s been fun, guys.
I have had time to cool off from my other post (#894 right now). Here is my new optimistic view of emusic:
1. I still can’t get cheaper music on itunes or amazon, and I refuse to use pseudo-legit Russian websites. I want the bands I love to get some profits! I also don’t think any company should sell at a loss and it is completely unreasonable for us to expect them to. THAT is bad business. They shouldn’t want customers that expect everything for negative! Next time though, I hope they use a little lube when springing this type of thing on us! Make it go down a little easier
2. I think the “top 40″ Sony trendwhores will probably never consider emusic anyway, because they won’t have current radio music available and they won’t want to buy a whole monthly subscription for a few old songs.
3. I am hoping that with Sony will come Metalblade Records, who are distributed by Sony in the US. I also hope that other indie labels will come with the more competitive price they will be offered (HydraHead, Epitaph, etc…).
4. If the 12 download album rate applies to a good number of albums, then I can make this deal come out pretty close to what I was getting monthly anyway. I hope for emusic’s sake that is the case.
I think we should all stick around for a few months to “hear emusic out” and see if it is as great as they claim. I wouldn’t mind downloading a few of the older Sony CD’s. They are ones I would have never paid full CD cost for, but I think they will still be cheap enough on here to justify. I think a “smart” system that can better bring us recommended music (I’m guessing like what Lauchcast had?) will be great. I am sad though, that I can’t afford the higher cost to get back my same number of downloads.
What do you all think?
Price increases happen, but nearly double at once? Ridiculous. I’m sure there will be some music in Sony’s back catalogue that I’ll like, but not enough to justify the price increase or the thorough warping of the site that you try to claim won’t happen as a result of dealing with a corporate behemoth. I subscribed back in the unlimited days, left for a bit when I had no internet or spare cash, and have had my current subscription since 2004. Despite a few rough patches, I have been a huge fan of the site, and I get almost all of my music here, but I am considering cancelling.
This seems like a move that will eliminate a lot of existing customers without enticing that many new ones, but I guess time will tell. And the PR letter here is absurd and insulting. There are a few nice things in this change, but overall it’s a huge disappointment.
This all sounds great except for the minor detail about the price I’ll (maybe, if I don’t cancel) be paying per song almost doubling.
Rotten news. If I wanted that stuff I would go to ITunes or Amazon. I’m here because I want the things most people don’t. This really is awful news. Very sad. I’m going to make sure I have a copy of everything I’ve downloaded and then that’s it, goodbye.
Joe Strummer is turning in his grave, while Sid Vicious could care less what you do. Did you ask your user base first about the “trade-offs”? No? I didn’t think so. The new pricing plan is an utter loss of value to the end user, many of us very long-time eMusic customers, a fair amount no doubt to become x-customers. I was told in what amounts to a plastic smile customer service paragraph that I would be going from 90 to 50 downloads a month for the same price. In an era of successful grass roots protest of social media “upgrades” (when they make no sense), I am of the strong opinion that eMusic will suffer the loss of a fair percentage of its core subscribers – their bread and butter – in order to entice more mainstream users. Worse, this loss is probably cynically calculated in to the equation of the new pricing in advance, with the whole swindle labeled progress and collateral damage. Time to get out your old copy of Adorno & Horkheimer’s _Dialectic of Enlightenment_. Study it. More true today than ever. Your Sex Pistols and Clash street cred of an earlier era is plastic smile marketing hot air today.
I’ve been a loyal e-music user for a long time, and I’m sad to see this radical price increase. Bad busines. We don’t need another iTunes 2. Guess I’ll use my June credits and head for another site. CDs are getting cheaper, anyone noticed?
I’ve been a member for a very long time, and this is now the third major change in terms. This is the first time I don’t see any upside to the decrease in service. As others have said above, the new categories of music aren’t why I come to eMusic in the first place, and now I have to pay about twice per track for the indie stuff I like.
At only 24 tracks a month, it’s hardly worth logging in. And thanks to eMusic’s infamous use ‘em or lose ‘em downloads, I am not able to “save up” for a reasonable downloading session.
Danny says “We’ve been requested to carry major label titles for years” … I suspect that’s from those people who tried the 50 download coupons stuck in every magazine in the world, and couldn’t find their Beatles or Brittney. I don’t think you’ve heard it from your loyal customers (like me) who are feeling very much like their loyalty is being tested to its limits.
A sad development for me.
You know, I’ve never heard so many people complaining about losing their cheap rides:
“I was paying next to nothing for my music; now I have to actually pay a few more cents per track. Not only that, but I’ll now have more choices than I can deal with! I can’t handle it anymore, I’m going back to limewire/paying retail for stuff!”
Honestly, folks…that’s what I’ve read for over 900 posts, give or take the occasional thought-out reply.
Now, as for my personal thoughts:
1: Now will the extra cost/dropped downloads hurt? It has, and it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe the best thing to do in the past would have been occasional increases for the grandfathered faithful; some of the losses ARE massive.
2: As for the Major Label(s) being added on, Sony/BMG is probably the worst one/two to add on. The biggest one, and the lamest one (imho). Still, there’s a sizable selection of stuff to pick up, and you have to admit that $2.40 for “White Light, White Heat” is a bargain (it’d be a bargain at $4.80. Amazon has it at $7.97 for an MP3 download.).
3: Was this handled well? Not in the least. A letter you have to click to read and a surprise price increase/download drop hardly counts as good handling. Plus it doesn’t do well to remove emails telling of a “IHATEEMUSIC” channel developing, even if you were right about it (negative comments is one thing, a movement to bankrupt your own company is another thing entirely and something you shouldn’t be forced to support).
4: Here’s a thought: ever think that maybe you don’t have to make a special purchase for something you might want elsewhere? I won’t have to go to Amazon.com for a special purchase (assuming that certain artists will be allowed here anyway…). A bit more convenient, if things work out well enough.
4: I’ll stay on, for now. I will be watching how things go…the Sony/BMG addition, while hardly a dealbreaker for me, may be the beginnings of one. And if so, it won’t be the first time I’ve ridden a horse past its “use by” date (nor the first I’ve jumped off of as well).
Disappointing to go from 65 to 24 for almost the same price, I have never had trouble using up my downloads, the huge–and sometimes eclectic–range of e-Music has allowed me to try many different things and experiment a lot. So I am not sure I see the benefit of this new model. e-Music was a great deal, and I talked up the service a lot with friends who knew only of iTunes or Rhapsody. Now it doesn’t look nearly as good to me in comparison. I’ll have to figure out what I do when my current subscription falls due, and I can’t say I’m delighted by this news.
I too was grandfathered in by being a member since 2005. I am not happy about the price increase. I would have been happier if the prices had stayed the same and emusic had not acquired the non-indie labels. It is now not worth it to me to keep my subscription. I will be cancelling when the new pricing comes into effect. Looks like a lot of folks are jumping ship.
This completely blows.
I can’t believe in this time of economic strain, that emusic is raising their prices. I was having a hard time justifying 15 bucks a month. Now that they are going to take away 15 of my downloads, I’m really going to have to reconsider whether or not I’m going to stay.
I have no idea why you want to know our opinions when you’ve obviously didn’t care enough to ask our opinions before you made the decision.
All of us who joined emusic, joined knowing full well that it was a place to purchase independent music. We all knew that major labels wouldn’t be available.
Emusic is becoming just another rhapsody.
Bummer
Truly, this has been an entertaining read. I really don’t have the time to go through all your delightful diatribes, but the ones I have perused have been, for the most part, captivating.
However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. I find it amazing how many of you don’t know the difference between “could” and “couldn’t” and its application with respect to “caring less”. Out of the 16 of you (so far) who could or could not “care less”, a full *10* chose to use the “could care less” construction.
That’s not a good percentage, people. That’s a lot of frivolous caring.
Please, when ranting, take care to know what you care about and for what you care naught. Because if you *could* care less, then you do care at least a little, and all your righteous indignation is moot. To me, at least.
Kind regards,
-shaug
This is bunk! My wife and I both have grandfathered 90 songs/month 2-year accounts, which will be ‘improved’ to 35/month. The cost per song goes from 17 cents to almost 41 cents. And for what? Bruce Springsteen? Michael Jackson? I don’t think so. (If I wanted that crap, I’d borrow a CD or go to a torrent site.)
Needless to say, when our accounts come up for renewal, we will be ‘voting with our feet.’
Shame on you, eMusic.
I know that no one is reading this anymore, but I just wanted to add that I’m unhappy with this massive price increase for little added value, and canceled my account. I simply can’t justify the luxury of a subscription service at these prices. So long, it was great while it lasted.
This is terrible news. Basically I’m now being charged more for less so you can carry all the crap I’m assaulted with at the grocery store, when I turn on the television, all the meaningless noise I try to avoid. I’m sure you will make a mint from it, so good for you, but this is bad for people who like independent music.
This sucks big time. I have two accounts of 90 downloads each. For quite a while now. I have to weed through so much crap as it is to find anything good, tons of miscatagorized bands and genres. Sorry, Im not impressed by aerosmith or springsteen or sony, none of which justifies the devalued subscriptions. I did find some cool stuff i admit. But id rather not spend twice the amount for half the music. This is a shitty decision on emusics part and not at all considerate of your long time subscribers.
Yeah, I’m leaving as well. To go from 100 tracks for $25 to 50 for $20 is silly. Since I imagine we’ll be at $1/track within the next year, I’m just gonna cut to the chase, cancel my account. I can use Amazon for the big players and CDBaby for the indies. No need to stick with the sellouts.
This is a really awful idea and has been accurately described by many other commenters as a sell out. One look at your charts should show you that your customers aren’t on emusic for the same washed out stuff you can get absolutely everywhere. The real alternative to a music site where you pay for music is for many people a site where you don’t pay – what this means is that people who use emusic WANT TO PAY for this music because it’s a way to support the independent artists who aren’t already rolling in the dow. That’s not gonna hold true anymore for many people if you force them to pay two or three times as much just so the fat cats on the majors can continue to have their champagne parties. Unless you switch course on the pricing and instead charge double downloads for the “more valuable” major label tracks (for those who really still want/need this stuff – most of us have the good bands on these labels on our shelves for 10 years now), I too will be cancelling my subscription once my current plan runs out and will be looking for the site that picks up your pieces. Shameful indeed.
The thing that cracks me up are the positive posts ever 25 or so with enough “slang” included to sound like real live subscribers. Is anyone fooled, really?
And to the self-righteous fucks poking fun at people’s GRAMMAR of all things (!?!?!), stay on, have fun, cash your daddy’s check. The reason why the rest of us are canceling/have canceled our plans is not over spelling– it’s over money. And principles, which, hmmm, i think you are missing if you’re willing to act like a teenage poster on Gawker. Way to go, Shaug. You win the asshole award. Thanks for your kind fucking regards.
Realistically, eMusic isn’t even reading these posts at this point. They’ve calculated the percentage of customers they’ll lose against the profits that they will make from the rich customers who will stay on. Have fun, folks. At 42 cents a download, i can find better deals pretty much anywhere i look, with the satisfaction that comes from knowing i am not supporting SONY. Be realistic– do you really think a corporation would buy a small company without pushing their own agenda? Do you think eMusic is going to recommend that you listen to OOIOO, or Kelly Clarkson? This whole ordeal indicates the answer pretty clearly… oh you like Hot Snakes? Then check out Sony’s THE CLASH! A record company that owns this service is going to push their own artists, period.
I’ll take my record stores in town. I’ll wait for the next eMusic. I’ll listen to Pandora all day long if i have to. All of y’all can stay and pay twice as much so that you can feel smug. I’m out– i’ll take my money elsewhere.
Oh, and wait until WalMart buys eMusic from Sony next.
Big, big mistake eMusic.
I come here to try complete albums from emerging bands. Effectively doubling the price per album will make me much less likely to take a chance on these bands. As your prices grow closer to those of Amazon or iTunes what’s the point of keeping my subscription if the catalog is still sorely lacking? The whole beauty of eMusic was that it gave unknown or smaller artists a venue for people to try out their music without risking too much money. And yall are going to throw all of that away form some old catalog titles from Sony subsidiaries?
I sure hope your bean counters know what they are doing because it looks to me like yall are throwing away the goodwill of your loyal customer base just to make a buck.
I’m not happy about going from 90 to 50 track per month. I could have handled a gradual loss of tracks, but losing 40/month overnight is crazy. I’m outta here too…
I hope one day Emusic will rise from the ashes of this fiasco. Can the CEO and management be any more ignorant of the wishes of its customers. And by the way, international customers which don’t get the Sony back catalogue, even if they would care for it! It will take a while for the many indie labels to find a new viable venue.
The two features I like best about eMusic are the variety of music available and the lack of DRM.
While I’m not happy about having my monthly downloads cut almost in half for the same price I’m currently paying, I would still consider being a subscriber in order to download albums that I’ve lost or ruined in the past; however, if the eMusic catalog shifts to mp3s with DRM, I can just as easily cancel my subscription and go without my old records. DRM hurts no one but the honest buyer, and I am not interested in supporting a company that would choose to support the use of it, never mind one that would do so without properly notifying its subscribers first.
Yeah, for my plan it’s a 64% price hike and drop in number of tracks I can download/mo by 2/3. I’ll be cancelling, will check back on emusic’s evolution down the road. Oh well, emusic was just starting to be a great co with affordable interesting catalog. So it goes.
WHY HAVE YOU CUT MY DOWNLOADS FROM 100 TO 5O, SURE I PAY 5.00 LESS , BUT LOOK AT ALL THE DOWNLOADS YOU TOOK AWAY!!!! SO INSTEAD OF 24.99 FOR 100 DOWNLOADS, I WILL BE PAYING 40.99 FOR 100 DOWNLOADS!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW THAT ALL I HAVE SAID WILL JUST GO IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM JUST TALKING TO A BRICK WALL!!!!!!!!!!! AND AS FOR THE 25 DOWNLOAD BOOSTER PACK I WILL BE GETTING JUST FOR TRYING YOUR PLAN. BIG DEAL!!!!!!!!!!!(SARCASM) THATS ONLY FOR ONE MONTH, THEN IT DROPS BACK DOWN TO 50 DOWNLOADS AT 19.99!!!!!!!!!!! IT PISSES ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH I HAD YOU BY THE BALLS THEN YOU WOULD FEEL THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
Another grandfathered subscriber is done! I’ll be leaving too, I knew this was too good to be true. I subscribe to this because I don’t have to wade through Sony’s crap…I like real music and will find it elsewhere. Its gotten to the point where I just buy straight from the label, at least that way they get the money.
I AM GOING TO WAIT AND SEE IF EMUSIC SMARTENS UP IF THEY DONT I AM GOING TO CANCELL MY SUBSCRIPTION AND GO BACK TO BUYING VINTAGE LP’S AND CASSETTES AND ARCHIVING THEM ON MY COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@shaug
“However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. I find it amazing how many of you don’t know the difference between “could” and “couldn’t” and its application with respect to “caring less”. Out of the 16 of you (so far) who could or could not “care less”, a full *10* chose to use the “could care less” construction.”
You’re an idiot. “Could care less” is in fact the correct form of the saying. (Ever heard of a thing called sarcasm?) Look it up if you don’t believe me.
I’ve been a member for a little over six months, and when I tried you out as a promotion through a product I bought I found so many “walks” down the music memory lane. I found so many tracks that I had been looking for that I had to keep buying booster packs –stuff that I can’t find anywhere (except P2P), and I believe in paying for what I get. I actually don’t like download sites because even at the high bit rates you don’t get a physical product (CD, album, etc) and although it is said the Mp3 loss on high rip rates is hardly noticeable that’s a lie. When I was “spinning” in one of the hottest clubs in Vegas I could hear loss. As far as buying back catalogues from major labels and raising prices that is a joke. So I shop at the most evil place on the planet called W*l-M*rt and as guilty as I feel knowing I’m feeding Satan I still shop there because of the pricing. They also have pretty much everything I need under one roof. The one thing they don’t have heart because know they got us on the hook and all they have to do is reel us in. Now you guys are trying the same thing. (By the way they only edit CDs that are expected to perform well, so mostly hip-hop records. Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” had the F remastered and reduxed I bought a couple Megadeth CDs there and all the F’s were there as well as all the other alphabets. Pearl Jam must have either made a major deal with S.O.N.Y. (Sell Out Now You) or they are up for contract renewal to put out three different versions of the same CDs seems a bit extreme ans it isn’t even an anniversary of the recording. Sony seems to have off loaded their catalog in Hell-mart too. It seems that we, the consumers aren’t the only ones being double dipped. This site was a like going into the indie or used record store when you leave you know you got a good deal. Now we just got secondhand smoke because you can already buy all this stuff online in CD form for under $5. How many times can we be sold the same crap. Remastering the remaster that will be dropped down to a bit rate that needs to be remastered. I once remastered a turd and it didn’t smell any better. We have staples–pioneers in music who have turned from bands to actual brands such as The Beatles & Pink Floyd (these are premium products people). The day I saw in the little girls section of Wally-Mart a Pink Floyd shirt for a pre-teen I thought move over Hannah Montana. You rarely see these artists in the discount bin unless in six months the new round of remastered remasters come out. The artists are slaves and the producers are the trustees with record company being the plantation. Everyone thought the ARTIST (Prince, Jimmie Coco, Camille, Jamie Starr, etc.) was crazy when he was ranting about being a “Slave” to WB (Why wasn’t there a PR25 –Purple Rain anniversary release). I’m talking about the shelved original versions of all the songs. Along with every song that was featured in the film (Time, Apollonia & Dez Dickerson’s “Modernaire”) It seems now they (record companies) are wanting Zomies to buy anything and eMusic wants to help them. I think eMusic needs to be REMASTERED!
I’m glad that emusic is making strides to broaden its selection, but the price is the breaking deal. Which will probably be OK with you guys because you’ll gain more new subscribers with this expansion. It’s just too bad because I’ve been a subscriber since 2003. And I think it’s done. Taking my account from 90 to 50 downloads, while still paying the same price is dishonest and unfortunate. I thought more of you guys, like you were on my side in the music wars. Those extra downloads allowed me to be adventurous with my downloads, find those new, weird bands. That was the beauty of it. And that’s what I told many friends about. We had a good ride. I’m sure you have to do what you have to do in these trying times. But so do I. Best of luck guys.
Regarding the removal or censoring of posts about twitter tags, referenced here: http://techdirt.com/articles/20090603/2329075118.shtml as well as post #813 by “Corporate Cop”, post #865 by “CathyHN” (of emusic) and post #895 by “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING” (all post numbers are current as of 6/5/09 at about 0730 EST) …
There is obvious evidence right in this log of comments (unless it is subsequently edited, which emusic could do) that posts have been removed and comments renumbered:
——–
1.) Consider post #493, by “Aaron”:
“Everyone should read post 404. Someone claiming to be director of online marketing at sony has said the following in an email to Danny Stein …”
The post with purported email to Danny Stein is now numbered 403, not 404. This means that some time after post #403 was made, one post above it was removed and post #404 was renumbered as #403.
——–
2.) Consider post #481, by “Geoff”:
“Hey Luke #478 —
I don’t see any evidence of being grandfathered to anything…”
The post by “Luke” that he is referencing is now numbered 476, not 478. Sometime after post #476 was made, two posts that were above it were REMOVED and the posts shuffled upward and renumbered two less than they previously were.
——–
3.) Consider post #624, by “mike esq”:
“hey dave, # 621, if you have that email about a “GUARANTEE” …”
The post by “dave” about a GUARANTEE is now numbered #617, indicating that some time after these two posts were made, four posts that were previously above #621 were removed and the posts shifted (and renumbered) four less than they previously were.
——–
There are probably other examples, but I would say there is clear evidence that indeed posts have been removed, and that this evidence is consistent with what is described in post #895 “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING”. Probably not the best idea to vanquish numbered posts and then not be thorough enough to edit each and every written reference to those post numbers that are subsequently made incorrect. Perhaps more importantly, it was probably not the best idea for an emusic representative to then make obviously false public statements about posts absolutely not being deleted and that it is technologically impossible for posts to be renumbered.
I really can’t imagine why twitter tags would be considered so frightening as to risk getting caught removing customer comments from a public forum where you asked for comments.
In regard to the censoring or removal of posts about twitter tags, referenced here: http://chrisyount.com/?p=44 as well as post #813 by “Corporate Cop”, post #865 by “CathyHN” (of emusic) and post #895 by “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING” (all post numbers are current as of 6/5/09 at about 0800 EST) …
There is obvious evidence right in this log of comments (unless it is subsequently edited, which emusic could do) that posts have been removed and comments renumbered:
——–
1.) Consider post #493, by “Aaron”:
“Everyone should read post 404. Someone claiming to be director of online marketing at sony has said the following in an email to Danny Stein …”
The post with purported email to Danny Stein is now numbered 403, not 404. This means that some time after post #403 was made, one post above it was removed and post #404 was renumbered as #403.
——–
2.) Consider post #481, by “Geoff”:
“Hey Luke #478 —
I don’t see any evidence of being grandfathered to anything…”
The post by “Luke” that he is referencing is now numbered 476, not 478. Sometime after post #476 was made, two posts that were above it were REMOVED and the posts shuffled upward and renumbered two less than they previously were.
——–
3.) Consider post #624, by “mike esq”:
“hey dave, # 621, if you have that email about a “GUARANTEE” …”
The post by “dave” about a GUARANTEE is now numbered #617, indicating that some time after these two posts were made, four posts that were previously above #621 were removed and the posts shifted (and renumbered) four less than they previously were.
——–
There are probably other examples, but I would say there is clear evidence that indeed posts have been removed, and that this evidence is consistent with what is described in post #895 “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING”. Probably not the best idea to vanquish numbered posts and then not be thorough enough to edit each and every written reference to those post numbers that are subsequently made incorrect. Perhaps more importantly, it was probably not the best idea for an emusic representative to then make obviously false public statements about posts absolutely not being deleted and that it is technologically impossible for posts to be renumbered.
I really can’t imagine why twitter tags would be considered so frightening as to risk getting caught removing customer comments from a public forum where you asked for comments.
In regard to the censoring or removal of posts about twitter tags, referenced here: http://chrisyount.com/?p=44 as well as post #813 by “Corporate Cop”, post #865 by “CathyHN” (of emusic) and post #895 by “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING” (all post numbers are current as of 6/5/09 at about 0800 EST) …
There is obvious evidence right in this log of comments (unless it is subsequently edited, which emusic could do) that posts have been removed and comments renumbered:
——–
1.) Consider post #493, by “Aaron”:
“Everyone should read post 404. Someone claiming to be director of online marketing at sony has said the following in an email to Danny Stein …”
The post with purported email to Danny Stein is now numbered 403, not 404. This means that some time after post #403 was made, one post above it was removed and post #404 was renumbered as #403.
——–
2.) Consider post #481, by “Geoff”:
“Hey Luke #478 —
I don’t see any evidence of being grandfathered to anything…”
The post by “Luke” that he is referencing is now numbered 476, not 478. Sometime after post #476 was made, two posts that were above it were REMOVED and the posts shuffled upward and renumbered two less than they previously were.
——–
3.) Consider post #624, by “mike esq”:
“hey dave, # 621, if you have that email about a “GUARANTEE” …”
The post by “dave” about a GUARANTEE is now numbered #617, indicating that some time after these two posts were made, four posts that were previously above #621 were removed and the posts shifted (and renumbered) four less than they previously were.
——–
There are probably other examples, but I would say there is clear evidence that indeed posts have been removed, and that this evidence is consistent with what is described in post #895 “CathyHN (Cathy Nevins) is LYING”. Probably not the best idea to vanquish numbered posts and then not be thorough enough to edit each and every written reference to those post numbers that are subsequently made incorrect. Perhaps more importantly, it was probably not the best idea for an emusic representative to then make obviously false public statements about posts absolutely not being deleted and that it is technologically impossible for posts to be renumbered.
I really can’t imagine why twitter tags would be considered so frightening as to risk getting caught removing customer comments from a public forum where you asked for comments.
This new scheme is a disaster. I was paying $16 for 90 tracks. Now I will get 35 tracks for the same amount. Emusic is operating like a slow motion bait and switch scam. I find the corporate babble in Danny Stein’s post about independent artists being on major labels to be particularly dishonest and foolish. I doubt that I will still with service.
My original post number was 472… now it is 470
I’m sorry, but cutting my available downloads by nearly half for the same price does not strike me as a way to maintain value. If I want Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, I can find them at any used CD shop.
Count me in as another long time loyal subscriber who is extremely disappointed with being charged twice as much for half of what I had. I have no use for the major labels either. I am just echoing what a lot of other people have said, and will probably cancel my subscription as well. So sad as I’ve told so many people about what was once a great site!
Awesome news! Now I get to download 1/3 of what I was downloading before and pay just as much! If emusic thinks this is the way to succeed, all I can say is – they’re wrong. Why not a plan where “major” (Sony) label stuff costs 2 dl credits? I’ve paid my $20 every month for 4 years, loyally. I’ve downloaded hundreds of great jazz, world, and reggae albums I never would have gotten to listen to otherwise. If I needed something from a major label back catalog, I’d buy it used for a few dollars at a local store or amazon. Now, when I cancel my subscription next month, along with everyone else I know who subscribes, I lose, emusic loses, the smaller labels lose, and Sony gets nothing. Way to go!
Thought this might be of interest to some folks — text from an email eMusic sent me on 10/31/06.
On November 21st, 2006, eMusic will begin offering new plan options to new members. While the price of our eMusic Basic, Plus, and Premium subscription plans will remain the same, the number of downloads in each plan will change:
If you are happy with your current plan, simply do nothing. Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing. However, if you wish to upgrade to a plan at the current download levels, you must do so before November 21st, 2006. We recommend that you upgrade your account now to lock in at the lowest price per download available. After Nov 21st, if you want to upgrade, you’ll no longer be able to upgrade into the older plans. All the more reason to upgrade now!
For the serious music fan, we recommend that you take advantage of our annual subscription plans to get up to 25% off of our month-to-month prices. Lock in your plan today!
Privacy Policy
Please DO NOT REPLY to this email. To contact eMusic Customer Service visit our Contact Us page.
© 2006 eMusic.com Inc
I will be sure to shop for another place to get music. I wasn’t sure about signing up for this in the first place and this just adds to it. what a disappointment this has become.
I’m not so much interested in the corporate music collection and even less interested in having my downloads cut in half. I’ll likely be saying goodbye.
We’re wasting our breath here. The die is cast, the fix is in.
If you think emusic didn’t foresee this causing customer outrage you are deluding yourselves. Emusic probably spent a million dollars just to hire some douchebag corporate marketing firm to create damage assessment and control action models that predicted how much blood they would lose to within a couple rolls of quarters accuracy. All this outrage is completely expected and if they act hurt and shocked by it then be assured it is an act; an act that they have been rehearsing for months.
This is not a win/win, best of both worlds scenario for emusic users, it is a win/win, best of both worlds scenario for Itunes & Amazon users- that is the where the plasma is going to have to come from to make up for the blood letting that will come in the next three download refresh cycles. Emusic expects to lose plenty of current subscribers over this and that’s OK; they knew it was going to happen, the douchebag corporate marketing firm told them it would (I have already pulled my plug: transaction #1024522015).
Now here is the tricky part: Getting New Blood. This is where corporate douchebag marketing firm no. 2 comes in, you know, the one that told emusic how to steal customers away from Itunes and Amazon by offering them Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson and Simon & Garfunkle and that’s who this deal is for- them (Itunes users) , not us.
So you see, emusic is looking really sell out and repugnant to us right now but to the poor saps who’ve been sucking off Steve Jobs’ hind teat for the last five years emusic is looking like a freaking oasis.
The good news: Itunes has real competition now and they get to fight it out with emusic for the world’s biggest music pimp title- which should be interesting. I’m predicting emusic is gonna take em down- that’s OK, Apple has really, really been grossing me out.
The really good news: Someone will fill the void created by emusic’s betrayal and they will be 10 times better- surely I am not the only emusic customer who hasn’t been totally gaga over them? Emusic was great (notice I said “was” like it is dead to me- it is) but it could have been sooooooo much better and that is yet to come- you’ll see.
: )
I also have the email I received on 10/31/2006 which I took as a guarantee that I could keep my subscription plan as long as I kept my account active. I am not a lawyer but could this be considered a contract they were offering us that we accepted by maintaining a steady stream of revenue to eMusic.
For those longtime members that were guaranteed a grandfathered subscription plan can this be the basis of a class action lawsuit?
(I never thought I would ever say such a thing).
You guys just ruined emusic with this. Now that you have doubled the cost of my subscription I am cancelling, after 4 years. The great thing about emusic was that it was all indie music and it was a good deal. Way to go, see you later.
i am upset about th price hike. i was very happy with everything the way it was. for jazz and classical there was an excellent selection. i dont want to pay higher prices and will cancel my membership after 4 good years. larry
Wether I stay will depend on how much of the back catalog becomes available. If you are just salting it with a few nuggets I’m gone. i would have prefered staying with my old plan and using additional selections to access CBS and RCA material but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for a month or 2. If the catalouge becomes unavailable after then, I’m gone
Emusic just got better. This is hands down the best place on the web to find the music I love. You know the music that isn’t mass produced for the masses. I look forward to the new emusic.
For me, it’s not even about the price hike/download cut anymore (which I was against, for the record). It’s now become about emusic saying absolutely nothing regarding what is going on here. Even the idea that posts are disappearing and being re-numbered leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Clearly being ignored by the Powers That Be is pissing me off more than the actual issue. I was willing to change my subscription to a less expensive one and let emusic be, but now I am not so sure. So way to go, emusic. Not only did you disenhearten a long-standing paying member of your community, you’ve made them lose respect for you as well. Customers have long memories – perhaps a few people who run this site should remember that.
Many people have already articulated why this feels like a raw deal for long-time subscribers. I’m not a subscriber to get the black crowes and other big labels. I’m a subscriber to get the odd and cool stuff. I was already thinking about trading eMusic for the Zune marketplace; this will probably push me over the edge.
I agree with what Rong said! I was here the last time you hiked prices and you were at least kind enough to grandfather in your longtime subscribers. Now I’m losing 1/3 of my downloads because you signed up with a major label. I could care less about the new music being offered. I’m here for new music, and now I will be less likely to take a chance on that new music because my downloads are now more expensive. Who loses? The consumers and the indie artists. BAD MOVE!!! I’m not sure if I’ll stick around.
I too have had an earlier comment removed. It was around 252…not there anymore. All #emusicfail tags have been removed prior to the point at which the media starting listening to the fact that Cathy at Emusic PR is flat-out lying about the comments that have been deleted. Comments don’t accidentally get deleted from a database once they have been posted. Twitter your thoughts about this – #emusic would work fine too.
Why I left emusic now, in the end, is not the price hike, or the addition of sony, but that emusic’s business ethics are extremely questionable.
Very nice — adds a lot of value for me. I like artists like Elvis Costello and The Clash, just like I like artists like the Pixies and the Cocteau Twins. And I’m certainly looking forward to having the Blue Note and Verve jazz catalogs on top of the good ones already here, such as Prestige/Fantasy.
The main thing going forward is simply who the target audience is. If you start dropping ads into Seventeen and Sports Illustrated about signing up so you can download hot singles from Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, something has gone horribly wrong. If you keep focusing on an indie-oriented target audience, and don’t mind if they also have an embarrassing fondness for cheesy pop or whatever, then I think things will work out fine for everyone involved.
WE’VE BEEN SOLD OUT!!! RISE UP, OLD EMUSIC FANS….
I think it’s a bunch of BULLS–T!! This was a bastion for INDEPENDENT ARTISTS!! You are saturating a market that is already heavily saturated by the majors… and are you telling me that Bruce Springsteen and Outkast are NOT majors? I like both of them, but the fact remains: they have corporate MACHINES to promote them. Not us indies! I am an independent musician and was hoping to get noticed on eMusic more than anywhere else, but I believe that hope is gone. I have found so many cool indie, home-made albums here, but those days are apparently over as the flood of 20000 songs that can ALREADY be found EVERYWHERE.
You sold us out and HOPEFULLY something like eMusic USED TO BE will take it’s place as eMusic becomes the same as Napster and Rhapsody… both of which suck balls. You can find anything there EXCEPT independents. This was my favorite site… I got tremndous joy that sunday morning after my 100 songs refilled and I could spend the day finding new music. Now I can’t even do that with this lousy new pricing structure. I have a hunch that the ARTISTS will not benefit from the rate increase either, which by the way, was the most impressive aspect of eMusic before the green-eyed monster got it’s talons around it’s throat.
Danny Stein, you should be ashamed of what you are doing and I hope there is time left to change your mind. Please, for the good on indie, home made, DIY artists around the globe, stay real… keep things how they were… AND LET ME BUY MORE MUSIC, DAMMIT!!
You just ruined a perfectly good day. Sucks.
you know, i have to say that i am really happy that e-music is getting more titles. i sincerely hope that it will change one of my biggest peeves: emusic letting new releases lag for months after they come out and call them new music when they are finally available on here (like you did with animal collective, the last grizzly bear and probably the new one, and a several others), and all the while they came out on itunes on their actual release date.
that being said, i price hike is foreseeable and only if it stays with it’s independent nature (if you guys start carrying david cook or the fray or whatever, it’s not worth paying the higher price to me for mainstream top 40 garbage that puts the costs the rest of us. it’s the reason that i prefer emusic to the high prices to download from itunes). BUT A NEAR 75% HIKE IS SO WRONG! if it was like a 5¢ or something maybe but for me to pay $25 bucks for 100 downloads and then $31 for only 75 and be okay with takomg a 17¢ increase is ridiculous. if this would have been a gradual increase over the years that’s understandable but i can’t believe you guys think that in a recession where a good percentage of the the population has lost jobs or taken pay cuts to keep them and indie artists, regardless of their notoriety make pennies to the dollars that major artists do you guys are going to lose a lot of support, encourage people to use illegal downloading where those smaller indie artists that get exposure here don’t get any royalties, and from what i’m reading by these comments a lot of dropped memberships.
I haven’t been on the site as long as the other veterans who have posted here, but I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of people who are railing against this change. If you had to raise prices because of economics, fine. But be truthful instead of insulting my intelligence and saying that me getting half the downloads for the same amount of money is a good thing for me.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
ccf–”Emusic just got better. This is hands down the best place on the web to find the music I love. You know the music that isn’t mass produced for the masses.” The point you are missing is the NEW MUSIC that you are so looking forward to is 1) Sony’s back catalog (nothing new…it’s all at least 2 years old), and 2) SONY IS THE MUSIC THAT IS MASS PRODUCED FOR THE MASSES.
Sorry, didn’t mean to speak so loudly…your comment just seemed to be completely missing one of the major points that people are upset about.
A sell out, plain & simple! Good bye eMusic, been nice knowin ya…
Another frustrated subscriber here. I’ve been on emusic for about a year. My plan is going from 50 a month to 37 a month for the same price. I can handle small price increases, but this is huge! A 75% increase in cost-per-track?! I may stick around for a month or two to see if the expanded catalog is worth the cost, but count me out (and unsubscribed) if I’m not quite impressed.
I still don’t get it. Why alienate your educated, 20-40 yr old, creative class, captive fanbase? Did anyone at e-music take a business class in the last 5 years?
The heart and soul (and hence monetary value) of the site is in the fan network or many fan networks, not the downloads. The downloads just lay the groundwork for fan interaction and water cooler talk (whether you have a water cooler or not).
Good luck, e-music, in captivating the attention of soccer moms and high school kids everywhere.
Further proof of comment tampering, which would have been fine -really could one actually expect people to keep comments up that could tear down their reputation with the masses – but emusic once again decided to lie and tell half-truths about the situation, hoping the intelligent emusic subscribers wouldn’t notice:
991 Responses to “More of the good stuff” at the top of the comments at the time of this post. Yet only 978 at the time of this post are showing. Evidence of at least 13 deleted posts.
The name above is a quote from response #882, the poster of which makes an excellent point. While the close to 1000 objections to emusic’s terrible new directions are quite effective in terms of voicing your opinions about this unfortunate turn, an even more effective approach will be to simply cancel your subscriptions. In the world of business, money often talks louder than words. I therefore encourage those of you who feel as strongly about this disaster as I do to follow through and cancel your subscription(s). Such a wave of cancellations should tangibly convey exactly what Mr. Stein et al. can do with their Celine Dion and Pearl Jam.
I’m in! More choice is more better in my opinion. I do understand that cost will increase to have access to some of the major label music. Hopefully some of this additional cash will ge to the indies. I’m am certainly no fan of iTunes, so hopefully this will keep you around and keep you competitive. Thanks for all the great music!
You told me four years ago you would provide me with 90 downloads each month if I would pay you $20 per month. I agreed. Because of my membership and thousands of others that agreed, you have grown and, I assume, prospered. You tried to get me to change to a more expensive plan several months ago. Thanks, but no. (I passed THAT IQ test.) If you want to raise your price to new customers, fine. If they agree, go for it. That wasn’t OUR agreement. Now you tell me you’re going to cut my downloads to 50 per month. Barely 1/2 of what you and I agreed to. AND you have the gall to focus in your public announcements on the price increase from the $9.95 package to $11.95. For me this is 180% price increase—almost DOUBLE. AND you insult me by trying to change to topic to a discussion of “indie” and “major”. We had an agreement. And after four years, you’re breaking it. I’ll head over to Amazon and pay more. They have a good service, no DRM, and top artists. May cost more; I can afford it. What I can’t abide is a company that says to loyal customers, “We’re breaking our agreement with you because, basically, you don’t have a cheaper alternative.” I hope you’re wrong and customers leave you in droves. Better yet, I hope someone has the time to organize a class action law suit against you. 180% is not a price increase, which every company is entitled to try. That magnitude of a price change is bait and switch.
I’ve been a member of emusic for many years. I love discovering new independent music and the 65 download a month plan allows me to try new music without having to worry about making a significant monetary investment. Once my current annual plan ends, I’ll get almost half the downloads per month for a slightly higher charge. If I wanted major labels with the requisite higher prices, I would never have joined emusic. I think that the current set up is great, and I will strongly consider ending my membership once my current plan expires. A very sad turn of events. Any chance you could grandfather those of us who want to stick with our current plans and then just block us from downloading any of the major label stuff? The technology to do this would be easy to implement.
I am going from 90 downloads to 50 downloads!!! Upgrade? Then I called customer service and the lady hung up on me! Ended up getting to a manager when I called back. I am not happy and I think emusic needs to know. The customer service number is (866) 240-9271… push (1) when they give you the options. The main phone number is (212) 201-9240… push (0) when it goes to options.
Why haven’t you sent out an email yet?
As others have already asked, will independent labels be making more money per download? Or is the extra being skimmed off for Sony?
How can we be sure that we won’t be subjected to rootkit-style tampering?
What percentage of 12-track-plus albums are actually going to be available at a discount? Because I’m imagining a couple of good ones you can point to and a lot of stuff that used CD stores won’t even pay money for.
I’d like to add my voice to the chorus of boos about this change of policy. I didn’t join emusic to download major label artists. I joined it to find interesting new music at a reasonable price. A price hike to have access to tracks I’m not really interested in, and which I could easily obtain elsewhere? Not really great news.
I will be canceling my subscription come July.
Once again, the major labels get their way. For years, they have sold overpriced CDs to consumers, purposely marking them up to no end.
I thought emusic could change that. But it appears that the labels have done it again. Now, we are paying more just because Sony decides to give emusic 2 yrs catalog albums?
This is not a fair deal.
Give me 95 tracks for $25. Block all of the major label stuff from my account, because I don’t want it. I refuse to put more money into greedy men’s pockets.
I will be using my downloads for this month and cancelling.
It was nice doing buisness with you while it lasted.
Back to downloading free torrents.
Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted. When I first signed up for eMusic I couldn’t believe my luck. 300 downloads for $74.99 a month?!? I’m in, baby. I easily spent that much on iTunes every month and the depth of indie, jazz and classical artists on eMusic was duly impressive for a music junkie like myself. Virtually everything I wanted was right here, just waiting to be plopped into my player and away I’d go in indie/jazz/classical music bliss. I virtually stopped using iTunes, unless it was to get a major-label release, and could hardly wait for my subscription to renew every month. I was hooked. It was like indie-music-crack. I was wishing I could get 500 downloads a month and wondering if even that would be enough!
Now, my plan is gone and the prices are up just so I can buy some Sony back-catalog albums that I can get at virtually any yard-sale, in any city, on any given day? Blecch. No thanks.
You already had more of “the good stuff.” Now you have more of the same stuff.
I’m another long-time subscriber who is disgusted by this, and then had the temerity to call customer service to complain. I got yelled at by a rep, and then was hung up on. I called back to speak to a supervisor, who was pleasant, but castrated.
This is a money grab, first and foremost, and that’s fine – I appreciate the economic status of the world and how things are. But, you’re going to tell me that you’re going to cut my 90/$19.99 to 50/$19.99 and placate me, a 3 year subscriber, with 25 free downloads? Zippity Doo Dah! That’s still a 44% cut! You couldn’t even give me 40 to make me whole for 1 month? Can you not do math?
That is simply terrible customer service. If you wanted to cut it to 75 (16% cut) or even raise the price somewhat, I would probably have gone along with it, but a 44% cut in content because you decided to add Sony? That’s your fault, not mine. I don’t want any of the major label stuff and I know I never asked for it.
I have 90 more downloads, which I was eagerly looking to using, but I guess they’ll likely be my last with Emusic. Now, would I have paid more if I were given notice and warning and options? Probably. However, this horrific way they have chosen to treat their loyal customers just shows that they don’t care, and that they want to take a service that I loved using and flush it down the toilet.
It matters, Danny, it matters. Major label deal and new higher prices. Wow, I can get that anywhere.
*cancels newly overpriced membership*
Well, I’m another long-time (member since 2002) emusic fan who is mostly unhappy with the change. I think the increase of titles coming from a major label is not going do much for me. And being dropped from 50 to 30 downloads for my subscription rate is pretty galling.
But then again as is mentioned way up in the page, perhaps it makes good business sense to weed out the old members like me. Shame, I’ve learned about a huge amount of good music on this site.
More than doubling the cost of downloads so that I can have access to the Hall & Oates and Kelly Clarkson catalogs? Sorry, not for me. It’s digital gentrification, like when the brand-name chain stores take over the formerly hip neighborhood and drive out the struggling artists who made it cool. I will be canceling after my last refresh under the old plan.
The real problem, I think, is not so much what eMusic did as how they did it. I can understand if the current pricing model is no longer sustainable, but they made two major mistakes:
1. They never should have made promises they weren’t absolutely sure they could keep. Upon enrollment (mine was in 2005) they sent an email that said, “As a valued eMusic subscriber, your annual subscription rollover plan will not change. If you are happy with your current monthly or annual rollover plan, simply do nothing. Your selected plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.” They never should have sent that — perpetual promises are never a good idea, except in marriage, and I seriously doubt they would have lost one potential customer if they hadn’t sent that, whereas now they are predictably facing losing many of their most loyal customers.
2. Given that they did do it, and now faced the necessity of breaking their promise and reneging on their guarantee, they should have contacted their loyal, long-term subscribers by email, been straight with us, explained the situation, and asked for our support in order to keep the company we all loved afloat. In addition, they should have offered some special arrangement for long-time subscribers, perhaps a rate lower than that offered to everyone else but high enough to produce at least minimal profit for eMusic. That way many of us would have felt that our loyalty mattered, rather than feeling betrayed and lied to, and conned by this bogus “more of the good stuff” nonsense.
This is basic PR-101. You don’t want your customers to feel mistreated. It was all completely avoidable. And it’s still partially retrievable. They’ve lost many customers for good, but they could still save some of the rest by emailing an apology, and explanation, and a special deal for long-term customers (and I don’t mean some lame booster pack — I mean a lower monthly or annual rate than new subscribers get).
Or, as some have already suggested and some other services already do, keep the subscription prices the same but create tiers of credits — new or less popular songs still cost 1 credit, increasing to 2 or 3 for the more popular or major label songs.
C’mon, guys — you can still fix this. Admit that you screwed up, be straight with us, and make us a deal that will keep you profitable and us (relatively) happy.
This news sucks!!! I have been an eMusic subscriber for about 4-5 years now. I’ve been getting the 90 tracks per month on the 2-year plan. For the most part, the majority of music I get from eMusic is pretty poor. I spend a lot of time trying to find new music, but being able to listen to only 30 seconds of a song often is insufficient. So, I download songs that end up being really bad. Then, the recommendations I’m given, based on my download history almost NEVER are things that I like.
Now you’re telling me that you’re adding some old crap that I have no interest in listening to, already have, or could buy at almost any yard sale or used CD store for pennies. And, to top it off, you’re going to charge me 246% more per track. Fuck that!
Unless there is a change to this bullshit, I will not renew my subscription.
4 year member here. I’m sure I’ll keep my plan for a month or two, but not so sure I’ll be continuing after that. I’ll try to refrain from stating what’s already been said here, and I’m sure eMusic will be just fine for people who want to download major label back-catalog material. But eMusic represented a significant value for me in terms of allowing me to discover new music at a fair cost — I hope what they plan on adding is going to make up for the lost value! Why not keep the current plan, and sell me “premium” music at AmazonMP3 or iTunes prices? That’s what I do now when I need a major release anyways. I feel like I’m getting charged more for something I don’t care about or particularly want.
What a damn shame! I’ve been a member for over 6 years and this is a horrible way to treat long-time customers. Charging nearly twice as much just so some other fool can get their Journey? No thanks!
>985 Amanda on Jun 5th, 2009 said:
>Why haven’t you sent out an email yet?
What email, it’s explained here and on eMusic Proper
>As others have already asked, will independent labels be making more money per >download? Or is the extra being skimmed off for Sony?
READ THE FUCKING COMMENTS HERE IT HAS BEEN ANSWERED AT LEAST 3 FUCKING TIMES
>How can we be sure that we won’t be subjected to rootkit-style tampering?
Because eMusic does now and will probably continue to Rip their own Mp3s and even if they didn’t (AS HAS BEEN WRITTEN HERE ALREADY) eMusic isn’t just up and changing their philosophy their adding Music that they love from the Sony back catalog.
LOOK PEOPLE IF YOU ARE GOING TO COMMENT AT LEAST SKIM ALL 1000 FUCKING COMMENTS BEFORE BLOWING YOUR WADS. AND STOP FUCKING CRASHING MY MS OUTLOOK WITH UNRESEARCHED BULLSHIT LIKE THIS 985 COMMENT. ASSHOLES !!!
Love
Nergal the grumpy-because-it’s-Friday-after-a-long-work-week-and-has-been-confronted-with-~200/day-idiots-who-don’t-even-take-the-time-to-read-the-eMusic-and-17dots-comments-(from subscribers and staff)-before-getting-all-peepee-wet-about-shit-that-they-don’t-even-understand Demon
This will be your downfall. Canceling my subscription next month.
Fucking Finally someone realizes what part of this deal means
920 Megan “I am hoping that with Sony will come Metalblade Records, who are distributed by Sony in the US. I also hope that other indie labels will come with the more competitive price they will be offered (HydraHead, Epitaph, etc…).”
I have been a member since 3/2006…and I understand that every so often you need to raise your prices…and I know that this has been repeated several hundred times…this is highway robbery. The last rate increase was just a few pennies…so what! I guess what pisses me of the most is that there was absolutely no warning. If there had been some information posted in a newsletter letting me know that pricing structures/tiers were going to change…I might have been OK…this feels extremely sneaky…in a Bush/Cheney sort of way.
I started slow with you and then ended up at your old premium of 90 dl’s for about .19 a song…eventually moving to your new tier of 300 for $74.99, or about .25 per title…and still added booster packs. Like so many others have said…the price alllowed me to explore new music without feeling guilty. ‘More of the Good Stuff’ my ass!
To quote what I sent to a friend that gave me the heads up on this issue…”The(new)”PLAN” seems more of a ‘fuck you’ than anything else. No notice and no mention in any of the newsletters. Then, boom, you login and ….oh by the way our pricing has changed and this is all you can have…fuck you, have a nice day…oh, but we will give you a free 25 song booster pack in August for your inconvenience…and we will allow you to download free songs on SELECTED albums(all four of them?) that have more than 12 tracks…big whoopee!!”
From what I can tell, I may be trapped for 3 months…I will just see how things play out…in the meantime, as a music lover,
all of you at e-music and Sony, need to check out this song…by Lily Allen from her latest album ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’…called ‘Fuck You.’ Fuck you, fuck you very, very mu-u-u-u-uch! That’s what I feel you have said to me. Drake Haley in Atlanta….a very pissed and formerly loyal member!
@ptolemyclark re Post 975 I think he was being “ironic” bud
I’m assuming this one is about me
“The thing that cracks me up are the positive posts ever 25 or so with enough “slang” included to sound like real live subscribers. Is anyone fooled, really?”
Hey asshole, I’ve got 316 post on this site (Nergal MiDoJo) so I think I’m probably Not fucking a “real subscriber” oh btw that was sarcasm, which I have to tell you because of your reading impairment
Ok that’s my last post for the day. . . unless a ton of you piss me off again LOL
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81281012678
I couldn’t care less about your indie cred. You’re offering me twenty fewer downloads for the same price? That’s a hell of a way to treat a long-time subscriber. I don’t know if I’ll be canceling, but I’m certainly considering it. As an earlier commenter said, there’s no reward for loyalty, nor penalty for leaving and then coming back. As for the idea that you’ve been providing those of us who have grandfathered accounts with music at a loss, I find that hard to believe. In any case, you’ll lose a lot more when a significant number of us cancel our subscriptions.
I’ll cancel and let them woo me back if they can and if they want to. That doesn’t seem likely.
Too bad. I was addicted to exploring a new batch of semi-random stuff every month. And I would never have gotten the kind of stuff I’ve gotten if I was paying per download.
Eh. eMusic saw this coming, they chose to do it anyway, good luck to em with their new customers.
This is corporate skulduggery at its lowest. I guess it was too good to be true to be a discerning music fan and have a site that catered to our tastes and demands. Now you pull a Judas with Michael Fuckin’ Jackson as your silver, while fucking your loyal customers up the ass. Consider my subscription canceled.
Seriously? Sony music? You’re reducing my account by nearly 2/3 for basically the same price so I can download Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion? Um… no thanks. I hope it wins you some new customers, because I’m done.
In the past I used my 50 per month to explore new music and develop my tastes in various music genre. Emusic was a good value for that.
Now I”m at 30/month for the privileged of adding Michael Jackson? Yeah, I’m disappointed — hugely so. Consider on top of that the job hassles which have gone with the recent economy, and this removal of value is striking.
Really, awesome timing.
When I wanted more mainstream I’d just go over to other sites, say Amazon, and purchase various albums, then come back here to explore and discover. Now I’m just thinking drop Emusic, go back to surfing music blogs to discover stuff, and spend money when/if I feel the need.
(Also, you’re not fooling anyone by putting corporate shills up at the top of the response stack on this page. It’s an old trick and utterly played.)
You’ve really corrupted your brand here; your blindness in so doing makes you a caricature of every go-go A&R slick hepcat (as your marketing washed “open letter” proves) which drove so many music consumers to off-mainstream outlets in the first place — a space Emusic used to occupy.
Way disappointed. And amazed.
And curious: What is the cost of one’s corporate soul?
Wow, talk about a sucker punch! Here I am clicking my eMusic bookmark with the usual intent of discovering something new and underrepresented in the vastness of the music world, only to find eMusic is instead castrating my account for the sake of something old and overabundant. This big label “deal” is of absolutely no interest to me if it means my 90 downloads per month are being slashed to a mere 50. Like many above, I’m a multi-year eMusic supporter whose thoughts have suddenly turned to account cancellation, and who will have a hard time recommending eMusic to others in the future. I have to say this whole situation was handled very badly on your part, eMusic; I really do hope you find a way to make amends with your longtime customers before the exodus commences.
Here’s what I don’t get. By cutting the number of downloads of your 400,000 subscribers, doesn’t that mean potentially less money going to ALL the labels that remain?
I know Sony starts from zero downloads, zero dollars. Nothing but a gain in their future.
But now, Daptone and other great labels have to fight for the remaining downloads — and there are fewer downloads available among the 400,000 subscribers because those downloads were slashed.
That means management must assume 1) it can maintain the current subscriber base, and/or 2) replace the subscribers who leave to keep all labels happy.
I’m not sure where the flood of people willing to pay in advance for music they may or may not like is going to come from. Isn’t a customer far more expensive to attract than maintain? I guess we’ll find out.
Will “album pricing” also apply to full-length albums with only a few long tracks? That would be fair. I also hope you will improve your service by replacing flawed tracks, instead of simply removing them. The price increase is fine with me, as long as the artists benefit from it. I’m here to support the artists!
Wow, this feels like a giant slap in the face. Look, we’re giving you more labels! (Ok, yawn) And oh, by the way, we’re increasing prices 35%. Wha!
I’m relatively new here, just since January, and I immedately fell totally in love with emusic’s selection. I could sample lots of music, even complete albums at very low-risk prices. I found some new styles I had no idea I’d like.
Haven’t you guys heard, there’s a recession going on? At best, my salary is frozen this year. I’ve got to cut some fat out of the budget and with emusic not nearly as much of a bargain as it was before, this is looking like a likely place for a cut after August.
Major label back catalog isn’t going to make any difference to me. I’ve been happy enough without them. And if it represents a change in focus towards carp-40 music here it’s noting but a bad, bad, bad move. If that’s what I wanted I’d go to Rhapsody or Zune market or iTunes or Amazon.
If you want to throw us a bone, how about giving us higher bit rates? (Yes, I can hear the difference between -v2 and lossless) That might make me feel like I’m at least getting something in value for the price increase. Maybe enough to keep me around. Maybe.
The new pricing scheme is horrible. Too few downloads for the money. I have been a subscriber for many years and it seems as if emausic is fast becoming just like other sites out there. Over the years, I have discovered a lot of great music at a reasonable price but I fear that will be no more. Emusic must reconsider its new pricing scheme.
Come on, e Music!
Have you been reading any of these posts? The ratio of lovers/haters is staggering. I, like many, was drawn to this site because of the indie labels and a great price. I only purchase death metal, grind core, black metal, and a splash of progressive metal. Does Sony even carry bands in these types of genres? Of course not! And even if they do , I am not going to pay that much for the same type of music. I am really disappointed in this new direction that you are headed in. You guys need to allow us to choose an optional plan omitting Sony or any other major labels you bring into the fold. Rethink your choices because I definitely am.
I think what saddens me most, is that I was not even thinking about going elsewhere. You had the best music selection with the best prices and now you are pushing many of us out.
By trying to be all things to all people you now will please fewer people. A massive price hike in bad economic times makes NO sense. You had a niche and now you lost it. You cannot win a war with Apple and ITunes. Bad decision.
I’ve been a subscriber for a few years, long enough that I still get 65 tracks for $14.99 a month. And now I can only download 37 for the same amount? I’m happy supporting indie artists at the current price point, but I won’t pay nearly double to subsidize the higher payouts that the major labels apparently scored. I will savor my last 65 tracks and them I’m outta here. You had a great model and you just broke it. Adios!
Assuming anyone will read this (to be honest, I can understand people’s wish to vent their anger over this) please get some things right:
1: It’s a deal for eMusic to distribute Sony/BMG stuff, not Sony/BMG buying up eMusic.
2: The people who promised you “No More Price Increases, Ever, If You Grandfather Yourself In” are not the same people doing this. There has been a changeover in leadership. Bad enough to the promiser to be stuck with a promise made; imagine the person who came in AFTERWARDS.
And in case anyone’s reading this, my earlier opinions are pretty much unchanged. The anger is now understood (it was awfully crappy the way it happened…) but I still think people are overdoing it. I’m still planning on waiting and seeing what happens.
I’m an indie music fan who’s been here at least 4 or 5 years, and I love, or at least used to love E-Music. After finding out that I’ll be losing 20 of my 50 downloads in July, I’ll be one more of your subscribers who’s saying goodbye.
I don’t see why I should have to pay for the additional royalties you’ll have to be paying to the major labels when I’m not even interested in this music. If you want to cater to me, bring me more indie music.
You can keep Sony, etc.
Bummer, I came to emusic for the indie. I can get all the other big 4 stuff somewhere else…IF I want it, I don’t. I like emusic because it allows me to discover new indie stuff at a great price. Paying 40% extra is not a good trade-off for access to stuff I do not want.
crash the site…here is there customer service site…just bombard it with complaints…
http://www.emusic.com/contact/index.html
we shall see if this post makes it thru
Rude awakening this morning when I logged in to fulfill the last 7 downloads I have before my deadline.
I’d have to agree with what appears to be the consensus here; that this is pretty crappy. I expected much more from eMusic. Changing the terms of service on us is out of line. This is the same kind of stunts the major CC companies pull on their ‘customers’. Perhaps we were all living in a dream world thinking here it would be different. Or perhaps we bought in to the eMusic. What happened, guys?
I would like to keep my plan at $20 for 75 downloads of NON MAJOR LABEL releases, please. Thank you for asking. That is what I signed up for, by the way.
Just like the last poster said…more indie music, not this mainstream crap. I have been with eMusic since 2004 and loved the indie artists they carried. Now he says there is no distinction between indie and mainstream? What planet are you from??? All this crap is added to eMusic and my 90 downloads are reduced to 50.
No thank you.
Bye.
GREED COMES TO EMUSIC
I guess it was only a matter of time where the Majors would dictate and force eMusic to up their prices and turn a successful non-major artist site into a “me to” player.
Sounds like Mr. Stein is getting ready for his Golden Parachute.
Can’t wait until Sear’s and Macy’s buys out EMusic.
Charging customers who have helped make eMusic twice as much per month (1/2 the downloads at the same cost) is all due to Mr. Stein wanting to go mainstream and suck it up to the Majors.
Why would anyone download a non-major tune for nearly 50 cents a tune. Plus there is no consistency in the audio quality on eMusic. If everything was 320kbps – I’d understand, but most of the songs are in 192-224 kbps MP3 format.
After 5 years, I’m out of here with this lack of consideration for the original subscribers that helped keep this company afloat and equating them to the new 14 year old teenage users.
Why make people who don’t want major label tunes pay the price for others who do want major label (high royalty fees) music. So much for justice in this world.
No integrity. What a shame. Is all coming down to Greed.
I’ve been with eMusic for years; what’s kept me here is the great customer service, and the fact that all the cheap downloads let me experiment and try new things. I’ve found a lot of great music over the years. It’s nice to see the additional music (Leonard Cohen!), but not at this expense.
I’m not naive enough to think eMusic’s prices will never increase, but a jump this huge all at once is insane. There’s no way I can afford to pay double my current cost just for the same amount of downloads, and if I’m left with half as many downloads, I won’t be able to experiment as much – that, combined with the lack of communication prior to this move (poor customer service), leaves me wondering where the real eMusic is.
Someone else mentioned, and I think it’s worth repeating – those of us who have been with eMusic for years, stuck with it, and brought all our friends in deserve a bit more consideration than this. If you’re expecting/hoping for new members with the increased catalog, why not charge *them* more money, and acknowledge the contribution the existing customers have made by grandfathering us in again, at the same price structure – maybe adjusted upward a bit, if necessary, but not twice as much for fewer downloads!
I’d love to stay with eMusic, but once the new prices go into effect, I don’t know that the cost will be worth it for me.
cancel
I know most folks will think I’m a crank or a troll, but I’d counter most of the comments above and argue that eMusic has been charging too LITTLE for the music for too long. .20-.30 a track is obviously unsustainable. Prices go up; I can deal with that. The mistake eMusic made at this time was to assume that adding major label catalog would be seen as enough of a “value-add” to counterbalance the (dramatic) price increase.
Don’t get me wrong: I love to pay the least amount for music as I possibly can, being a “quantity consumer” with 1000 of LPs, CDs, cassettes, MP3s, etc.
But the one thing that’s become clear to me from the announcement of the “new way” is that eMusic, under the guise of being “indie friendly,” is perpetuating the myth that indie music is less valuable than major label music. Indie artists and labels have been getting shafted like this for years, and eMusic (despite being good on many fronts) is not exceptional.
At the current price points, indie bands on eMusic barely make anything from the sale of their work. eMusic takes half of the sale of each item (I suppose that’s ok; they provide the infrastructure), but that means that only .15 or so per track get passed on to the labels and artists. If the band has to split the .15 with their label then they’re down to about .07 per track, or under $1 per record sold.
At that rate you couldn’t sustain yourself as an artist if you ate dirt and slept in a hole in the ground (assuming that you set aside the majority of your royalties for beer).
So then Sony comes along, demands a higher royalty rate (I’m projecting here because I have no facts to back this up) for items that are already pure profit, and everybody else in the ecosystem ends up paying for that “benefit.”
Are the royalties for the indie bands and labels rising to equal those in the Sony catalog? Now that’s an interesting question…
The addition of Sony catalog really lowers the value of eMusic for current artists and labels by sucking oxygen out of the room and taking tracks away that would otherwise be used on indie bands and labels.
So everyone currently involved with eMusic pays a cost so that Billy Joel can get paid (again). Honestly, is there anyone associated with eMusic who doesn’t think he’s anything but a big pile of stinking dung?
But don’t kid yourself. The people on this page who are threatening to unsubscribe aren’t that concerned with the artists. It’s funny how quickly the “buy indie” rallying cry becomes a whimper when the wallet gets threatened. Hey, nobody said the entertainment industry was going to be easy, and we all just want to get away with paying as little as we possibly can for our canned entertainment, right?
We all should be threatening to unsubscribe for the opposite reason. We should unsubscribe because we want to pay MORE for each track so that independent artists are able to sustain themselves from their work. And we should unsubscribe because we think the recent eMusic announcements are a bad deal for everybody, but especially for the indie labels and artists who made eMusic what it is.
One more against the major label deal that does nothing for me.
it’s all been said, double my cost, making me less “musically adventurous” and giving me a ton of crap i can get on amazon or itunes anyway.
they don’t care about the people who’ve been with them for a long time though. if anything we’re a minority to the new corporate face of emusic.
good luck making the big bucks, i’m sure there will be plenty of new accounts itching to dl the new JT album. congrats on losing your niche, pissing off your customers, and selling out.
i’m so angry! i feel like i’m losing one of my most valuable tools in the hunt for new *innovative* music.
Canceling! Half as many downloads for the monthly fee? And a catalog of mainstream titles that I came HERE to avoid? No thanks!
It’s been a great 8 years, Emusic… unlike most of my friends, I held on with you when you abandoned the unlimited downloads model, but this is just uncool. I’m outta here!
NO OTHER (INDIE) LABELS HAVE THE POWER FOR A 100% PRICE HIKE, BUT A MAJOR LABEL. eMusic IS GIVING A BIG SLAP ON ALL INDIE LABELS’ FACE.
10 Years later, eMusic crushes its brand values in 1 day. The perils of not having a Community Manager http://bit.ly/emusicfail #eMusicfail
Let me add something to my above post.
I would gladly pay an extra $5 a month for my current download plan to support INDIE artists who deserve to be able to eat better. I have friends in the music business; I know how brutal it is.
However, I am simply not willing to pay this drastic price increase, nearly double if I want to keep the same amount of downloads, to support major artists who do NOT need one more penny of mine.
This is just so sad.
Lest anyone think that Sony BMG is anything other than an evil corporate piece of dogcrap, remember that Sony BMG, the very company that emusic is getting in bed with (or of which it may become a subsidiary, as some have speculated), started planting a hidden, self-installing and self-hiding spyware-malware virus on their music CDs in 2005. It violated laws in multiple jurisdictions, brought multiple lawsuits, and in the end Sony was forced to remove it from their CDs. The wikipedia page on the Sony BMG rootkit disaster is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal
It self-installed when you inserted a Sony BMG audio CD, just a regular music CD you’d buy at a record store, modified OS files and behavior to cover its tracks, was uninstallable (one of the legal violations in some jurisdictions), and worst of all, LEFT GIGANTIC SECURITY VULNERABILITIES ON YOUR COMPUTER. It was significant enough that the US Department of Homeland Security issued a directive about it (quote from wikipedia, reference URL below the quote):
“On November 16, 2005, US-CERT, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security, issued an advisory”
That directive is still in effect, and available here:
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/archive/2005/11/17/archive.html#xcpdrm
To me, the words that this sort of intentional malicious criminal behavior conjures up are “cyber terrorism.” If not in intent, certainly in tactic.
And these are the people that emusic is forcibly raping their customer base on behalf of.
emusic should BACK THE HELL OUT OF THIS DEAL!
Long time supporter of the indie music scene (through multiple music purchases and shows attended) & of this site…& I cannot begin to express my amazement and disappointment at what has transpired in the last several days. I have given it a few days to “let cooler head’s prevail” and see if my opinion changed on this seemingly asinine “deal” that is being shoved into our collective orifices. Granted I am sure the “bean counters” have taken our response into account & deemed us both “unworthy” & “replaceable” but I feel our collective voices need to be heard, albeit unfortunately with e-music’s bottom line…the almighty dollar. What ever happened to loyalty, sticking to one’s word (just reference the e-mail all of us received a few years ago when we were begged to “re-up” but given a “guarantee” of services rendered for our continued monetary commitment)? I apparently am deemed to be without the capability of understanding the typical legalese which releases E-music corporate, et al (& let’s not kid ourselves that this has unfortunately become a corporate entity which is most concerned with $) of the contract that we all entered with them in committing significant funds to allow them to grown.
Everyone’s music tastes can be subjective and so we can all have our “guilty pleasure” album that one man reveres, is one that is freely able to use as coasters for their beverage of choice for many others. Most sites (I’m looking at you iTunes) are more singles driven by what everyone heard on The Hills during the big staged dramatic scene this past week than true commitment to the dying art form that is the album. This is what makes music and the discussion (or more accurately debate) a beautiful thing. Many people will potentially find several worthy back catalogue items worthy of their download credits. However, these items can all be obtained through other sources, including your friendly neightborhood garage sale for $1 that you go to with your grandmother on Saturday with a tasty cup of java! I already own my MAINSTREAM copies (whether it be mp3, cd, collecter’s edition or vinyl) of the Boss, Michael Jackson, Foo Fighters, etc. There is a time and a place for all of this many of grand additions to the emusic cataloge which have justified these abrupt changes.
And yet, I still have the freedom (this is still America right?!?!) & choice to go to my mom & pop vinyl store, Corporate America store (i.e. Best Buy or Wal-Mart…hello Gn’R & AC/DC) or iTunes (best wishes Steve, & hope you are feeling better..) This is not the niche that emusic filled, not their true competitors, nor why I originally joined and committed my monetary support to this endeavor.
That being said this site has always given the subscriber (note I said subscriber which insinuates a legal, binding agreement) the ability to be adventurous, test the waters and try out a lot of the band that we had not heard of or did not originally care for, a chance. One could always lend their monetary and download support to a relative unknown without fear of consequence of significant monetary commitment. Ultimately a lot of these purchase have resulted in me convincing several friends to purchase the same album, attend a band’s live shows, travel to other sites to obtain live shows and purchase back catalogue CD/Vinyl/etc. I honestly am fearful that this egregious decision is ultimately going to adversely diminish the indie scene of emusic and a lot of these band’s profit share from emusic. We are all assured that this decision was pressed for by all of the indie labels and yet it is highly circumspect that it come at a time that the Sony label’s addition is announced. I find it hard to believe that the indie labels and band can demand or receive the same compensation as big, bad corporate Sony. And that’s i ultimately what a lot of us most disappointed in….not just the number of download credits that have been sliced from our pie.
Incremental, timely, honest, & forthright discussion of these changes would’ve been the way to address this with your loyal fan base. Like it or not, your supporters are not corporate America and are not your typical consumer for music products. Maybe that is the direction you are trying to distance yourselves from, & if that is the case then I am truly saddened. Honestly my guess is that an upfront, early e-mail to all of your loyal long-time subscribers detailing your desires and changes & a guarantee of a continued SITE -WIDE & MONETARY COMMITMENT TO INDEPENDENT LABELS AND ARTISTS (caps intended) would have avoided a lot of the controversy which has since surfaced. We won’t even get into the topic of censorship and editing posts… You have unfortunately decided that you can recoup the loss of your committed, loyal independent-minded (& typically educated & wealthy) fan-base/subscriber with Joe public iTunes user with this calculated move. Don’t get me wrong, I buy from iTunes, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. also…but I am the exception rather than the norm. The typical music listener still devalues the product of the artist and is willing to illegaly download the recent release from the latest band of the week. This does not hurt the Green Day’s', Eminem’s or the Dave Matthew’s Band’s of the world (to name the #1 albums of the past few weeks)…but take a look at your recent top 20 & I would venture to say that short of Elvis Costello, all band’s appreciate your site’s support and benefit from legal, adventurous downloads of often underappreciated and unknown music/bands.
You dropped the ball e-music and pseudo-CEO Mr. Stein and for that you deserve all of the vitriolic and colorful speech used to describe your “mission statement” and site at this juncture. Thanks for the timely & apologetic responses to all of the above posts, you have truly shown your commitment to your fan base and to independent music in general (sarcasm…drip, drip)
Granted your recommendations section/search engine is still lacking when compared to Netflix (I know apples to oranges, the motion picture industry has not been hit as significantly by the down-turn in the economy) but I have still found some phenomenal music from your site. I have had to search for it and have been directed multiple times by your music community (which you have again underestimated as a powerful, valuable source which few sites can rival…13 year kids preaching the virtues of the latest Miley Cyrus’ album is not what you were founded for…) based upon their collective musical experiences and desire to enrich other’s music experiences.
I have been grandfathered into a previous great deal, based upon my long time loyalty and agreement to long-term UP FRONT disbursement of funds (i.e. annual commitment of money, something you are not going to find in too many other business models…you were able to take our up-front funds, and invest/make interest as you saw appropriate or fit for your corporation as opposed to wondering if you were going to be able to make payroll every month). This model is significantly different from paying 2.99 for the newest album deal on Amazon or paying the typical 9.99 for an iTunes purchase. You have effectively devalued your product and have aliented your primary investors that saw this venture as more than just receiving some relatively poor quality mp3′s in exchange for monetary support. There truly was a sense of comraderie, support and hope that this venture would succeed.
Apparently we have gotten too big for your britches..unfortunately remember how long the touted Rolling Stones roll-out lasted. If Sony is unhappy then this rug could also pulled out from under you and my guess is by that time you will have lost a substantial portion of your long-standing, valuable members of your community.
Unfortunately, success has gone to the big corporate heads & the small time investors that allowed you to succeed have been royally screwed. Oh, at the very least you have acknowledged the up front “investment” in your corporation and for this I appreciate the fact that you are willing to atleast recognize and begrudgingly accept our annual agreement & honor my dowloads until October. This is all predicated on me having payed a fee up-front for your services in 2008. I understand the economics of the situation & the logistics of an agreement/contract with big time corporate America (hello Sony) but I think you will find this ultimately backfires. This site is about more than just the ability to dowload music & I think you will find the community and recommendations section will be severly affected by these changes.
To quote Neil Young, “‘ ‘Bout my dreams, they all seem to fade away, as soon as I put my money down, truth be known…”
I think will find that most of your loyal subscribers and long standing customers don’t care about your association with the big labels (that means you Sony) & ability to now provide us Michael Jackson tunes at a substantial price increase. Give me Matador, ATO & work on getting Sub Pop any day of the week over the Sony artists. I can buy their selected artists which I care about at any local store. Shame on you e-music, we expected more from you. Most of us have obtained the majority of the Sony artists that we wish to own in previous years, & did not join this site with the intent, expressed interest of seeking out the latest teeny-bopper for our music collection. If you haven’t noticed already based upon the multiple fan posts in response to this colossal screw up, you are not dealing with your typical musical fan. You are dealing with a passionate fan base that will take their business elsewhere…
We could probably all accept this if we had been told up front and honestly of the plan changes and guaranteed that the artists and the small labels were going to see some financial benefit from this “deal.” A brief timely email would have probably taken a lot of bite out of the “hidden message” trumpeting the additions to the catalogue while downplaying the rather significant pricing changes. I am more disturbed with the logistics in how this was handled. I have loved this site and will truly miss the independent spirit and ability to “test-drive” certain bands that I would not have otherwise been adventurous enough to try (one can do that with 90 relatively inexpensive d/l per month & plenty of collective fans that will trumpet their favorite band as worthy of your downloads). The disappointing thing is how you have responded (or more accurately not responded?) to long time SUBSCRIBERS such as myself that have invested in your product & a system that we all believed in. These are not people that only buy the Hot 100 singles (hello Black Eyed Peas) or the latest song from last week Grey’s Anatomy heart wrenching finale. We all actually live, breathe and love our music and unfortunately for you, are probably going to speak with our collective money transfers into your account.
Notwithstanding the verbal (or actually written if you want to be technical and count the e-mail guarantee we all received at “re-up” and corporate change-over time a few years ago), it is disappointing how you have pushed us all to the side in deference to the Britney Spears’ fans you hope you can lure from iTunes by making your site more mainstream and “popular.” And yet you are still going to be two years behind the times…it is a business model that does not make sense and a collective direction that certain corporate executives will eventually lose their jobs over. I honestly am a huge music fan/collecter, have directed several friends to your site & have bought vinyl or CD’s of several artists that I had initially just obtained lower quality mp3′s that your site had allowed me to discover (My Morning Jacket, Animal Collective & Ryan Adams just to name a few…)
I apologize for the long note…honestly I doubt anyone in corporate is still reading after 1,000 posts of overwhelmingly negative posts. Mine is unfortunately no different and will undoubtedly not change your minds… you have crunched the numbers, drawn your supply/demand numbers, projections & graphs and determined that we long-time, loyal subscribers are no longer sustainable, nor important. Realize, that it is with great disappointment that multiple members of your community (& yes that is what it was, a community) will no longer be able to support your mission statement or corporate direction. I have already paid for my yearly subscription, but come re-up time you can count on me not committing to my annual subscription as I have for several years and canceling my subscription. As outlined here and by several members of our collective, this is less about the diminishing return of our hard earned dollar/# of downloads and more about the lack of respect, loss of commitment to the independent music scene/”little man” & just an overall lack of vision…
sorry emusic, you were like to old high school girlfriend that you just outgrew & realized was no longer willing to work on your relationshiop…goodbye, we loved ya when you were great!
I have been a member since 2003. I am here because of the music, well, I was here because of the music. Now I get 1/3 of the downloads for 2/3 of the price. I get bad tracks that never get fixed, well maybe never, but not after four years. I hope your new marketing plan falls on its face. You have done this to me three times. Taking more from my wallet for less downloads. Sucks to be me, ha ha ha. You could care less about your long term loyal customers. Major music labels? Why would I want that when I came here for the obscure, indie, REAL music? Not the Britney Speers peer pressure shit stuff, See ya…….
Bad news, for sure. I suspect that many of your current subscribers may do as I plan: I will likely stick around to try things out and pick up a few Sony albums, but I’m less likely to remain a subscriber over the long term.
Additionally, I too would point out that the combination of higher-per-track prices, many less downloads per month, and major-label presence will drastically hurt the “tiny” artists we love to find and support, and it will likely take an utterly massive growth in subscribers before this is offset.
Don’t change the downloads per month for a given plan. If a premium label requires a higher price, then charge more for those tracks. Use a credits scheme to balance the budget between mainstream and indie. This would require some investment on eMusic’s part to implement, but your existing user base would not be alienated, and the mainstream labels would get the price they want.
Personally, I would like for eMusic to carry mainstream artists in addition to the independent artists. If eMusic is cheaper than Amazon, then why wouldn’t I buy it here? The higher you jack up the price the greater the opportunity you create for your competition. Oops.
Gyz
Since I signed up for emusic a few years ago, I have never been disappointed by the choice of artists offered. I love the independent feel of emusic- and I’ve discovered so many new artists through its recommendations. However, this change is deeply upsetting to the point where I am considering canceling my membership. One of the aspects of emusic that first attracted me was the reasonable pricing. Now, for the same amount of money, the number of downloads I’ll be receiving each month is nearly slashed in half. I don’t believe this is a way to treat loyal customers.
Secondly, along with the many who’ve also posted, I don’t really care for the artists under these major labels. I certainly do not think that the huge change in prices is worth being able to download Kelly Clarkson’s latest album, and if I ever cared to purchase it, I would just go to iTunes. Personally, I also think that some of the artists, like Justin Timberlake, just do not appeal to most of the customers, who are mainly looking for under-the-radar bands, and it seems like emusic is abandoning its independent feel, another aspect that attracted me from the get go, in order to appeal to the mainstream. I also do not believe in paying more money in order to support major artists who already have money coming out of their ears. Yes, I would gladly shell out more for up and coming artists, but not for giants like Alicia Keys or the record labels to which they are signed. I understand that prices at emusic must increase. However, this huge leap for this so-called “benefit” of its members is ridiculous.
It is a pity that emusic is selling out, alienating its loyal customers, and attempting to change its old, much-loved image. Although Danny Stein claims that independent music will still be its core, I find that hard to believe, with such huge changes happening already. At the end of the day, emusic is a business, and I suppose whatever brings in money is what goes. Hopefully, a negative response from its users might make a difference, but otherwise, I mourn the loss of this emusic as we know it. Thanks for the great years, emusic. Maybe you’ll get your act together one day and see the error of your ways.
To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. While having the Sony back catalog could be worth it, is disrespecting those subscribers who have been with you for many years worth it? I have been a member at the 300/$75 level since I joined. Now, my downloads are being cut from 300 to 100 at a price increase from $25 per hundred to $41 per hundred, an increase of $16/month. I haven’t decided whether to remain a subscriber of emusic yet. I hope that you would think of grandfathering those of us who have been loyal subscribers for long periods of time. We are the ones who built your company. Now you’re telling us that we don’t matter. I hope you seriously rethink this decision.
Great. A price increase in a down economy, when I’ve already had to cut subscriptions to so many things. And to add “major label” content? WTF? Give people a budget option. Segregate the high-price downloads, so if it’s something you really really want, you can cross over. Otherwise, leave it alone.
Did you think people would LIKE this? Seriously?
If it ain’t broke – Don’t fix it!!! Bend over Beethoven.
Well I understand but of course am dissappointed. I have seriously enjoyed emusic – finding music I wouldn’t have downloaded and spent time with specifically because of the pricing structure. So thank you for the past – and after coffee I’ll think about the future with emusic – do the math, and wait to view the catalog to make any decisions – Should I stay or should I go?
What a dirty rotten shame! While I will undoubtedly download some of the new music you’re adding to the catalog, this feels like a major loss.
For me, the whole beauty of having downloads as cheap as they WERE on emusic was that I was willing to chance all kinds of artists and genres I was, prior to joining, unfamiliar with. A lot proved disappointing, but the vast majority opened my ears to some of the most amazing music I’ve ever heard.
At these higher prices, I won’t be able to afford being as adventuresome. I’m losing about 65% of my downloads! Ultimately, the unknown or lesser known artists will suffer as fewer people take a chance on them for the higher prices.
Why is it that the Corporations ALWAYS win out?
add me to the list of the upset. I’ve been with Emu since ’03. I’ve been happy with the service and selection. I don’t have much interest in Sony’s catalog. My joy is new, independent music. I’m disappointed that I’ll be paying the same price for 1/2 the number of tracks.
Wow. I’m bummed. e-Music was a place where I got tons of quality indie tracks at a fabulous price. Now it’s going to be another iTunes? Listen, downloading indie tracks is a hit or miss proposition, but with the low prices – I didn’t mind. Now, we’re creeping up in prices where I’m going to be a lot more choosy. Be careful with these price increases – you might push me away. I’d save money just sticking with what music I know I like on iTunes; rather than experiment on eMusic.
“We don’t need no stinking major labels on emusic”!
Extremely disappointed. As a longtime subscriber, I’ve been able to explore huge amounts of little known music at low cost — good for me, and good for artists who are not big names, but who still should be heard and supported. It’s one of the things I liked best about emusic.
But now, by doubling my cost per track, you’ve making emusic almost worthless to me. You’re doing a great disservice to everyone here. I’ll be cancelling.
No! Tell me it isn’t so. I’ve been on eMusic (off and on) since nearly the beginning (even in the unlimited download days). This was the one place I could go to get great music from all genres that was almost impossible to find anywhere else. With the new pricing I will have to reevaluate (and it looks like I’ll be opting out). Oh well, good things don’t last forever. Here’s hoping there will be a new alternative. . .
It’s kind of funny. That’s probably the most disingenuous communication I’ve ever read. “More of the good stuff!” Left out a few details there, I’d say.
I really hate to see this happen. It will be interesting to see the long term fallout. I couldn’t care less about the Sony catalog, but if e-music could get some other labels to offer more at the increased rates, it would make me feel better about the whole thing. For example, would Alligator add it’s other artists for a better payback? I’m on an annual subscription, so I have time to see how it plays out before I make a decision.
SONY BMG are corporate scum. Get out of this deal with them NOW.
Is it April 1 at emusic HQ? This sure feels like an April Fools prank.
Do you people realize there is a major recession out there??? Or don’t you care???
The price hike is RIDICULOUS!!!! If you people go through with this, I WILL QUIT!!!!
Right now I ma paying $95.00 per year for 40 downloads per month (480 per year). That works out to $0.20 per track.
But I get this message:
“On your next account refresh Nov 17, 2009, your plan will change to the new eMusic Bi-Annual 210 plan which gives you 210 downloads for $95.90 every 180 days.
“We’re sorry that we’ve had to retire your current plan, but we’re confident that you’ll find even more music to love among the many new additions to the music catalog.”
You’re sorry??? Not.
LET”S DO THE MATH for the “new” plan:
What a surprise!! IT seems I’ll now be paying $191.80 per YEAR for only (an average of) 35 downloads per month. That works out to paying $0.46 per track, all so you can peddle Sony’s tired old music.
THAT IS A 129% INCREASE IN MY PER TRACK COST!!!!
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING??? DO YOU THINK WE ARE STUPID????? DO YOU THINK WE CAN’T DO SOME ELEMENTARY MATH??
And, no, I WON’T “find even more music to love among the many new additions to the music catalog.” If I wanted Sony’s music, I would have gone to Amazon.com or iTunes or Rhapsody.com. (On Rhapsody.com, I can pay $14.95 per month — versus your “new” price of $15.98 per month for 35 tracks — for Rhapsody To Go and have access to more music than I could ever possibly listen to during my lifetime.) I could go to mp3Fiesta.com or mp3Sparks.com or numerous other of those shadow Russian sites (the spawn of AllofMP3.com) where I can buy a WHOLE ALBUM of Sony’s music for the price of TWO tracks on eMusic at the “new” price.).
If I want to listen to Indy music or the music for which your site is so famous, I would check out the sites listed at http://www.ecauldron.net/musicfree.php and check out the sites listed.
I wouldn’t have any problems paying an inflation adjusted price hike in my subscription. But a 129% price hike so you can peddle Sony’s tired songs that I would never buy in the first place is just RIDICULOUS!!!!
I DON”T WANT TO BUY SONY’S OLD MUSIC from eMUSIC!!! I WILL NOT BUY SONY’S OLD MUSIC FROM eMUSIC!!!! WHY SHOULD I BE PENALIZED WITH A 129% PRICE HIKE SO OTHERS CAN BUY IT????
THINK, you people. JUST THINK!! You will kill your own business with your ridiculous new price hike for your current members who will desert you in droves. You need to seriously look at grandfathering in your older subscribers, who MADE eMusic, with inflation-adjusted price hikes, not 129% price hikes.
Or charge people more for Sony’s music.
Fix this mess, or I’m outta here.
What never ceases to amaze me is the sheer stupidity of idiotic business people who think their customers are stupid.
Pretty disheartening news, Danny. I joined this service because of the non-mainstream music selection and reasonable pricing. NOW you’re telling me, I get 25 fewer songs each month for the same price, and if I want to maintain my current level of 75 tunes, I have to pay another $10 a month? Just so I can have access to old mainstream crap I can find on iTunes or anywhere else, for that matter? Two words: Blow me.
As soon as the price increase hits, I’m outta here like $hit through a goose.
Is this a boneheaded move? Probably. Much as it heartens me to hear the voices of so many ardent music lovers, though, it strikes me that the battle is lost.
Let’s put the rhetoric aside: self-help books and sloppy thinking excepted, no one starts a company because they love the product; they start a company to make money. Are the owners and management of eMusic trying to maximize their profits? Probably. That’s what businesses do. Excoriating a business owner for being a capitalist strikes me as a variant on the frog’s surprise at being stung by the scorpion–it’s what they do. But I think it’s kind of sweet that love of music often makes us forget that.
On Wall Street they like to say people vote with their dollars and their feet. Canceling your subscription effectively registers a dual negative. My cost per song just went up 66%. That’s absurd unless I seek out 12 track albums and there’s no saying they won’t change that.
But eMusic only controls eMusic. So another answer is price arbitrage. There are lots of alternate choices–not just iTunes and Amazon but Lala and others including cdbaby which is the best choice if you care about the artist getting the money you spend.
You can probably get what you want at the lowest possible cost and seek out new stuff at a lower cost or at least the same cost as eMusic. If eMusic wants to play with the big guys the name of the game is market share and no one is under any obligation to spend all their music dollars with eMusic. We all know that if you’re an eMusic subscriber you buy more music than the average bear anyway.
So spread the wealth around and hit the capitalist pigs where it hurts, right on the bottom line. It’s like the song says, “Capital, it fails us now/Come and let us seize the time.”
Slainte.
“Less of the Good Stuff!!!”
Sorry guys, but I have to agree with a lot of the other responders. Those of us who have been long time subscribers would prefer the lower pricing and sticking with indie labels vs. adding Sony, etc. and being charged more. I also agree with those who said that a multi-tiered pricing scheme would make a lot of sense. If your adding Sony’s music to your catalog is what is causing the pricing increase, let those that download those tracks pick up the extra cost and leave us “indie lovers” out of it.
I haven’t decided about leaving yet, but your decision is certainly driving me in that direction
This news is very disappointing. I can only echo the sentiment expressed by many other longtime eMusic customers…
Let’s see, I go from $0.18/song on my current annual plan to over $0.41/song? All for an expanded catalog of music I already have or do not want? I’ve loved eMusic for its ability to introduce me to new music on harder-to-find labels at great value. I did not ask for and do not want this “exciting” new expansion.
Fortunately, I have four months remaining on my current subscription. Unless some option is offered to opt out of the new catalog and the price increase that goes along with it, eMusic will lose another customer.
I, like many of the previous commenters, am extremely disappointed in this change. I’ve been a subscriber since 2005, & eMusic has had a profound effect on my growth as a music fan. I can’t tell you how many new (or new-to-me) artists I’ve discovered through this service, or how many albums I’ve downloaded on a whim that are now among my favorites. I owe a lot (including my reputation among my friends as an indie music buff) to eMusic.
I’m not sure I have much to add to what people have already said. I’ll just say that I’m not at all happy about paying the same price for 40% fewer downloads per month. & I’m not happy that this change is taking place without warning & without any kind of input from subscribers.
Like many other subscribers, I use eMusic to discover new artists & to purchase music that might not otherwise fit in my budget. If I know I want music from a major-label artist, I’ll go to Amazon or iTunes or–gasp!–the record store. & after I’ve gotten a first taste of an artist on eMusic, I go to the record store to purchase more of his/her/their work. I know I’m not the typical college-aged music consumer–I download whole albums & much of my collection is in physical CD format–but eMusic has been an invaluable resource to me. In the past, I’ve always felt like a valued customer (thanks to the grandfathering) & like a member of a community (thanks the wonderfully knowledgeable group of subscribers the site has). It’s different this time. To say that I feel betrayed might sound slightly melodramatic, but it’s true to the extent that I feel this change has altered the fundamental relationship between me & eMusic. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to continue as a subscriber after this month; it’s a reevaluation I never thought I would be considering. Like I said, I’m disappointed.
Talk about taking the last reason to stay with emusic away from me. No reason to continue when I’ll only get half the music for twice the price just so you can bring in labels I care nothing for.
Hope you guys choke on this decision.
R.I.P.
Disappointed? Yes.
Emusic is a great site for indie fans like me – Adding Sony’s catalog won’t change that.
I don’t want to pay more for less, but I’m certainly not canceling my subscription – emusic still offers one of the best deals in digital music.
I just wanted to add my name to the list of disgruntled, soon to be former e-music subscribers. In what universe does e-music think that this is a good deal for me? For the last three years I was a hugh advocate for this company, now in August I’ll be gone. Sad
Oh Great – another ITunes… just what we need! What a sad day for eMusic.
I have already commented here, but after living with this news a few days, I have these observations:
1) My replacement stylus came in the mail the day I learned of eMusic’s new plan. Looks like it’s back to the record stores for me.
2) I can still use all of the things I love about eMusic without giving them any of my money. I can search the catalog and discover and even sample new music for free, and then go download it somewhere else. This is somewhat satisfying.
3) Getting 90 downloads a month for $191.90 a year probably was too cheap. I only wish that its rectification wasn’t such a thinly veiled jump in the sack with big business.
I’ve another comment on the grandfathered plans that were guaranteed the plans would not change. I’ve seen comments that eMusic is/was charging too little and that the current owners did not make the guarantee. I do not have any sympathy for the current owners not being able to make a go of it at those subscription prices. Those guaranteed plans were as much of the eMusic business as the brand name, relationships with the labels and subscriber lists. If they did not preform due digilence before the purchase of the business then they are at fault. In purchasing a business you not only get the assets but the liabilities. The grandfather plans are as much of the eMusic business as anything else and in purchasing the business they purchased these obligations. I believe eMusic would have objected if I had decided that my guaranteed payment was too much and cut it to 1/3rd but expected the same service.
That sucks. You traded away the best part of your business model. I already have all of the albums that I want by the major artists you list as highlights. I joined emusic for NEW MUSIC at an unbeatable price.
While I am happy to see the additions, I am totally ticked that the prices are jacked up. I am going to pay 11.99 for 30 downloads where that used to get me 50. What was a great price is far less reasonable now.
Wow. What a deal. I’m still trying to ascertain how back-catalog swill from Sony and RCA constitutes “indie” material. A quick perusal of the artists and titles suggests that these “upgrades” are the $4.99 “hundreds of titles” sales that litter department stores and shopping malls from here to Patagonia. To raise account costs in a global recession (or depression) only twists the knife. The “Independent” persona on that you wrap yourself in loses much of its allure thanks to shitweasels like you guys. So here’s what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna be a loyal subscriber long enough to collect the “bonus” downloads, then I’m gonna kick your page into the recycle bin where it truly belongs.
Major labels are nice, but what about my legacy subscription?!? I’ve been a loyal subscriber for two years now, and my 50 tracks are dropping to 30? That’s two to three albums for $12 a month . . . still cheaper than Amazon or iTunes, but the selection needs to increase DRAMATICALLY to justify the price increase.
Everything that the majors touch turns to overpriced sludge. I’ll try a month at the new rates, but you’re going to have to earn my continued subscription all over again.
What a shame, a real shame. A subscriber since 2002, I have trouble finding the right words to express my amazement at this decision. I am all for capitalism and corporations making profits from the act of pleasing many people. What is painful to watch is the capitalist system being slowly taken down not by revolution but by incompetence (banks, car companies, music industry). Some thoughts:
1) Emusic will NOT gain more new subscribers from this plan. People who are not very interested in music (i.e., 98% of the population) will NEVER join a subscription model where they are forced to buy a certain amount of music each and every month — they will balk at that idea and stick to itunes.com. It is inconceivable that there is a large enough number of folks who are sitting at home thinking, “If only emusic had a lot of older songs from a major label, THEN I’d join up and start buying way more music online.”
2) I wonder if this derives from a poorly-thought-out marketing survey where people were asked, “If emusic had music from the major labels, would you join up?” Because the verbal answer will be “yes” but the real-world behavior will be “no.”
3) After having read David Pakman’s power point presentations to various groups about emusic, I have to wonder if anyone at emusic understands the business anymore.
4) I am NOT going to experiment with new or unusual at a price point of $4.80 and album. The little labels are going to see their checks go way down.
5) How could any independent label be demanding more money per track? The money they receive from emusic is pure profit. There are no manufacturing or storage costs. The production costs have been paid by the artists. Marketing is a sunk cost. The alternative to having your music on itunes or emusic is not getting any money at all from digital downloading.
6) People who say “price increases are inevitable” are simply wrong — price increases are not inevitable. Personal computers are one excellent example, where price increases have basically never happened. No matter what the price per track is, emusic makes at least half of it as profit. Unless something has changed about the way they pay labels, that is. And what would the excuse be that they are losing money? What are their real costs? Do they pay rent? Insurance? Medical benefits? My understanding is that overhead is deducted from the pool of funds to be sent to the labels before any other accounting takes place.
7) Fewer downloads per customer = fewer downloads total, and that means less money to the labels, unless emusic can more than double its current subscriber base.
9) My first prediction: in one year emusic won’t be telling anyone how many subscribers they have left, or bragging about how many downloads per month are taking place.
10) My second prediction: within 2 years Sony will be gone from emusic.
11) My third prediction; within 3 years emusic will be sold, at a much lower price than it is currently worth.
Others have said it, but maybe it counts for something if more people say it. The reason I have bought nearly all my music from emusic for years is the price structure encourages me to try stuff I’ve never heard (or heard of) and would hesitate to shell out the price of a CD for, and experience the delight of obscure discoveries. I do NOT need 200,000 more tracks; what I need to stay using emusic as my music source is this ability to explore widely without worrying about sinking too much money into tracks that might not turn out to be that great. If the price is going to double I might as well buy CDs from ebay. A modest price increase is only to be expected as time rolls on and would be fine – but close to doubling the price so that some folk can download tracks that can already be accessed everywhere else is just stupid. The key point for me is this: This has nothing to do with being ideologically committed to “Indie” or “Major” – it’s about what kind of price structure makes it attractive for me to use emusic to explore new artists. If that disappears, all I’ve got is a slightly-but-decreasingly-cheaper itunes.
I will just throw in my voice to the crowd. This is a very dissappointing move with a massive lack in communication on behalf of the company. To think that thousands of people will see the value of there dollar cut in half, and just stand by is bonkers. I hope to see Emusic listening to its customers. I have been recommending emusic to everyone I know, but this just isn’t that good of a deal.
I don’t think that we, as consumers, should accept that 20 cents is to little for a song. I think we should believe that $9.99 for a digital download is too much! No longer are you selling me a CD that I can rip to my Ipod, through in my car for 6 months then pass off to a friend and a case with a (potentially) artistic album cover. It’s just downloads. I hoped Emusic would be a venue for encouraging the model of music distribution to change and getting the money into the hands of artists faster. I have asked artists about this at shows, none really having a concrete answer.
How about allowing us to keep our downloads as credits and pandering to the major labels demands costs 2 credits. This is the biggest lack of creative business thinking ever. I hope emusic either changes this, or goes bankrupt. I am insulted.
Reid
So much for loyalty to the long time subscribers. Now I have to pay more to get access to music I don’t want or can get elsewhere. Smart move to raise prices in the deepest recession since WW11
Just want to weigh in and let you all know that I, too am very unhappy with this unfortunate change. If I want Springsteen, Alicia Keys, or any other major name, I certainly have my choice of places to get it. Still, I think it’s fine to include this catalog with yours, so long as the editorial content and music discovery focus does not cater to these names, leaving indie acts out of the main spaces of the website.
However, after paying $11.99 for 50 downloads for over 3 years, I simply cannot see paying that amount now for 30. I agree that it’s still a good price, but decidedly a lesser value. This is definitely not the time to offer your long-time members a lesser value.
Some others have offered you good wishes with this change, hoping that you attract many newcomers to make up for what I hope is a massive loss of old subscribers, but I have no such goodwill. I feel betrayed by what I used to consider the best music site available. I hope this move fails. I feel you are abandoning your base to get into bed with corporate bigwigs.
OH HURRAY. I get to download simon and garfunkel. YAY. Of course I won’t, since you’re slashing my plan from 90 songs to 50 while charging me the same money, and I have to be a sight pickier. I might even be picky enough to stop my subscription.
For this, you suck.
Add me to the list of members that will be canceling their accounts as soon as this goes into effect. This is a horrible decision by emusic and I hope you quickly feel the financial pains that this will cause and see the error of your ways. Stupid move. Very stupid move.
I’ve been a subscriber for years and loved the music selection and the price. I couldn’t care less about the major label stuff as those albums and artists are not why I am here. So eMusic thinks it should be competing against iTunes and Amazon? Good luck.
I’ve quit buying from both because the RIAA is a terrible set of criminals bent on destroying themselves. So now you want me to pay higher prices? More than double? So I can subsidize those who want stuff from the majors? I will be saying goodbye at the terminus of my account and never downloading from you again. Instead of competing the the other systems with your social networking links and recommender engine you have simply lost a customer.
So long eMusic. It was good while it lasted.
“On your next account refresh Jan 14, 2010, your plan will change to the new eMusic Plus Annual plan”…..On Jan 13, 2010, I will say goodbye to emusic. No hard feelings. You’ve been a great service, and this is what you feel you need to do to stay viable. But you’ll no longer suit me.
I would welcome the addition of the majors to eMusic on just a few conditions:
- Pricing would not change subject to major label whims, nor become fragmented
- There would be no way to over-ride natural recommendations via paid promotion
- Editorial focus remained to promote the best, most interesting music based on tastes not marketing spend
That’s pretty much it. There are many artists I keep trying to buy on eMusic who don’t have a presence, and eMusic’s prices are far better than the competition’s.
It’s like showing up to your favorite Chinese restaurant and finding out they’ve added twenty Taco Bell items and raised all the prices while assuring you that nothing’s changed.
I’m upset about the added catalogue as much as I am about prices. I don’t want to slog through a bunch of top-40 crap when I’m browsing. I could not care less about probably 90% of the bands that are being added. This does change the tone of eMusic, no matter what they say.
Nice while it lasted.
Ditto to everyone, this is a major disapointment. It’s a move that is unappealing to a HUGE amount of your fanbase (see above) and yet makes everyone suffer the consequences.
I also will be cancelling my account.
Wow… I logged into my eMusic account today and read the terrible and sad news. More selection would always be nice, but not at the expense of what I valued about eMusic: the reasonable pricing that spurred me to try out new artists. Doubling the cost of downloads will make it too expensive to do that now (which is a real blow to the smaller labels and artists which eMusic nurtured). And, since eMusic still won’t have the selection of an iTunes, there will be little draw. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Hopefully another enterprising company will fill the void.
It has all been said before, but this is disappointing for those of us that have been with eMusic for a long time. I’ve been a loyal subscriber since 2006 and for years I have talked about what a great site eMusic is. I supported you because you stood up to DRM (to which I am still thankful for), but now that is no longer a differentiation. I stayed with you because you offered the opportunity to explore great indie music at a great price. After the change, I will certainly sit down and reevaluate if I see the value in remaining a member.
So let me get this straight. I get roughly 50% less music for the same money? I download jazz, classical, alternative. Go to itunes for the other stuff. I’m sure some term of service says emusic can cancel me at any time or double my price or cut my music with no thought of loyalty.
Cancel? Probably. Telling everyone I meet how great emusic is: not anymore.
Whose business model is this? GM? AIG? A very sad day. Very.
Like many other long-time members I will be forced to cancel my membership. The new plans will essentially cost double what they do today. Given the economic status of the world today one would think we certainly wouldn’t be paying such a huge increase in track purchases.
Thanks for the ride.. it was fun while it lasted.
The best part about the “old” e-music was finding bands I’ve never heard of it and wouldn’t come across anywhere else. I don’t need need to download the back catalog from bands such as the Clash, Sex Pistols and Modest Mouse. I already have them in my collection. If the new e-music offers new tracks and new bands at a better place than itunes than great but if the catalog is old albums that I bought five or ten years ago then this change isn’t going to be for the good.
overall, i agree with the majority in here. For me:
member since: 2003
opinion on price & sony: i’d rather have my old plan than the sony catalogue
will i quit?: i’ll probably give it a couple months and see. i hate the price hike / downloads drop and the apparent middle finger to those that are here for the indie tunes, but the deal is still a little better than amazon $5-or-less sales and the cheap stuff i can find at used cd stores & ebay/half. However, another 10 cents -or-so price hike north and the margin will close.
big FAT suxors
1064 David Callahan Wrote “I’m still trying to ascertain how back-catalog swill from Sony and RCA constitutes “indie” material. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_BMG_labels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RED_Distribution
http://musicians.about.com/od/companyprofiles/p/SonyBMG.htm
It’s a wonder what alittle search of http://justfuckinggoogleit.com will get you (tool)
The whole indie/not indie debate seems pointless to me. What has me concerned is the pricing. Like a lot of people, I am watching my budget these days. I’ve honestly been on the fence with emusic and wondering how necessary it is for me. I’ve been a member since 06 with a 90 downloads for $19.99 plan. Now, suddenly, you are cutting out 40 songs a month so that I have the opportunity to download Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen? Honestly, the only reason I am probably going to hang around for a little while is to test out this new album pricing, though even here I’m cynical that it says “some albums.” If there are enough albums with more than 12 cuts I want to download (fairly common, actually) then it may balance out the loss of downloads from my current plan. We’ll see. The clock is ticking.
Looks like I’ll seriously consider canceling my subscription. Why couldn’t they just charge a premium for the ‘label’ music and leave the prices the same for the rest?
I’m going to cancel too. If you’d just created a higher tier of pricing for the new major label material, and left the indie stuff alone (or a reasonable price increase, I don’t begrudge you your profit), I’d be right with you. But this just destroys what was great about eMusic, the ability to check out any band, and I loved all the way-under-the-radar stuff I’d fine there, at a reasonable price. That is now gone, and, with it, me.
I am very disappointed. Every month I always find interesting music, always. If I wanted to buy major label music for major label prices, I would go to Amazon or iTunes. But I don’t buy major label music, I buy what’s on eMusic. But not for very long.
Was there a management/ownership shake up recently at emusic? Because this smacks of some corporate marketeer’s genius attempt to shake things up and maximize profit. But as with most thinking in modern, corporate America, it’s more scorched earth/short term/maximize profit/get a big bonus/get out/leave smoldering heap thinking rather than building a successful business plan for the long haul. It seems quite the opposite of the kind of company emusic has philosophically been up to this point. So some marketing team was brought in to do market research, and probably a lot of their focus groups told them they needed more mainstream selections. So, desperate, emusic jumped at the first big name label who was willing to get into bed with them, which happens to be the train wreck that is Sony, a company equally desperate and now willing to mine their back catalogue for a cheaper rate than itunes, but not quite as cheaply as the existing emusic pricing structure. I am sure emusic is thinking that if they have success with Sony, then they can use that to pitch to the other major labels, and soon they will be the next itunes.
But as others have said, who doesn’t have any portion of this back catalogue that they already want? I’m guessing the majority of emusic customers tend to be younger than the general demographic for the Sony back catalogue. If emusic wanted to attract a more mainstream demographic in that same age range, then they need the modern hits, not the golden oldies. The Sony partnership is probably seen as stage one in that master plan. But it’s a master plan that won’t work, because the current customer base will hemorrhage away before they can get the rights to the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.
I currently pay $11.99 for 50 tracks per month. At the end of this month, that’ll change to $11.99 for 30 tracks per month. You are *removing* 40% of the value I was getting form eMusic, and I’m supposed to be happy? I have hundreds of tracks in my “saved for future purchase” list, so I’m not hurting to find stuff.
I’m sorry, but this sucks. I mean seriously sucks. I’ve been a huge eMusic fan since it started, and I joined shortly after that. I’ve highly recommend it to my friends for years. Now I find myself feeling like I’m being screwed over.
You can talk all you want about how great this is, and maybe for some people it is. But all I’m seeing is that I’m paying the same amount for *SIGNIFICANTLY* reduced value, and I’m wondering why. I don’t see myself keeping my eMusic account in the face of these changes.
I’ve been a subscriber since November 2002. The availability of jazz here had been an unmatched value, with fantastic selection from the great artists of the past and the emerging artist of today. The so-called “major labels” have abandoned jazz, so adding the likes of Sony does little to add value for me.
I am angered by the decision to break faith with long-term subscribers. For years I have encouraged my friends and acquaintences to check out the value of emusic rather than throwing money to iTunes and the like. That won’t happen again.
By removing 40% of the value of my long-term subscription, emusic probably has made itself 100% expendable. I have a number of superior alternatives here in San Francisco, including Amoeba Records and Rasputin Records, that do not require me to locate and create album notes – information that has great value to jazz fans. I put up with the hassles associated with emusic because the value offset the inconvenience and allowed me to take a chance on unfamiliar material.
This pricing change removes that value, and unfortunately removes any desire to remain a subscriber.
Well. IO would like to know if you are even listing
I wonder how over 1.000 a your subscriber affect your pocketbook book /
Nows there a question,
I am not happy with this change at all. I have very little interest in having access to mainstream artists that I already have easy access to (I work at a library). I loved discovering under-the-radar bands every month and did not miss major label stuff at all. I haven’t decided to quit yet, but my subscription is going on serious probation. I’ve only been subscribing for a couple of years- I can’t imagine the frustration long-time subscribers with even cheaper plans must be feeling. Bad move, eMusic.
Perhaps 1100 flames aren’t enough to turn the titanic around, but I’ll never forgive myself for not speaking out against this terrible decision.
The shock of the price rises was one thing. The ignomany finding that behind this ridiculous move is Sony’s back catalogue (which I can buy anywhere, from any bargain bin, in any store on the planet). Then the utter disbelief that eMusic will no longer be available in New Zealand (http://bit.ly/adaX8) because Sony can’t be arsed negotiating rights for it.
My love of poring over your site discovering new bands is OVER. The simple joy of finding a great new band is FINISHED. To comfort me I can now download Billy Joel’s greatest hits.
Screw you eMusic.
I too pay 11.99 for 50 tracks and have absolutely no interest in the mainstream music catalogs you plan on adding.
I have been a loyal subscriber for many years, but sadly plan on canceling my subscription when this change goes into effect.
Why would I be pay the same for 15 less tracks when what you are adding is of little interest to me?
As said above… “we had a good run”.
I predict that Mr. CEO Danny will re-emerge on Sunday and tell us how intently they have been following this and spout a bunch of corporate businessbabble and buzzwords and express how they regret that some subscribers are unhappy but please just stick it out because it will be great. But of course WITHOUT answering any of our questions or relenting or reversing or honoring their prior guarantee that our plans would stay the same as long as we kept our accounts in good standing. Sorry, but you just don’t understand your customers. We don’t want this Sony stuff if it means the price increases you have put in effect. Most of us don’t even want this Sony stuff at all. I for one will be canceling as soon as my current package is set to renew at the new rate. Keep my pricing in effect as-is (I don’t care if I don’t get access to the old Sony tracks BTW) and I will stay. Simple. Just don’t throw more verbal shit in our faces and tell us it is a refreshing exfoliant.
Hey, you know what is a great way to find out about how a prospective business partner or contract partner behaves? Search for them on wikipedia! Try this… it is very enlightening: Go to Wikipedia, search for “Sony BMG copy” and then click on the first article in the list of search results. Pretty interesting, isn’t it? Is this a company YOU want to download files from and put on your computer? Is this a company you want to subsidize by paying the increased rates that start in July? Not me. Go away Sony, and leave us alone in our one refuge from behavior like yours. Anyone else like to comment on this?
Well, I think this is just rotten. I’ve been a longtime eMusic customer (and a happy one until today when I saw the news about your new policy), and I feel like you no longer value my loyalty or patronage. I’ve been getting 50 downloads per month for $11.99 and now you tell me that I’ll only get 30 per month for the same fee.
You have positioned this as a good thing–now I’m going to get access to more popular music and the Sony catalog. That is meaningless to me. I joined eMusic because it had music beyond the bland pop pablum–music from around the world, from emerging artists, and genres that are hard to find anywhere else. If I wanted to by pop music I would have joined iTunes.
You can consider me an unhappy customer who is going to look for alternatives to eMusic. I may very soon become an ex-eMusic subscriber.
I am stunned by this betrayal and your sad lack of concern for your most loyal customers.
Like so many above me, I’ll be rather seriously considering whether eMusic is worth my money anymore. I’m being cut from 50 to 30 downloads per month, while staying at the same price? That’s some bullshit, there.
I’ve been a member for three and a half years, but with this change my money is better spent in the used bin at the local thrift store (where I just picked up two Genesis CDs for $4 two days ago. At 8-9 tracks each, that’s the same as my old download price but for real media). I use eMusic to explore music that I wouldn’t buy otherwise, and I’ve hooked in to a lot of great music here, but being told to smile about losing 40% of my downloads is a slap in the face.
So I am choosing to leave you another comment(previous comment 1001). I was a loyal customer/member since 3/2006. I will wait until this Wednesday to see whether I refresh to my 300/$74.99 connoisseur level or convert to the new tier of 100/$40.99 connoisseur level…my account page does not clarify what will happen…it actually says both will happen. If the latter happens I have to stay with you for 3 months…yay.
Regardless of which transpires I will be changing my subscription to your ‘emusic lite’ option, and will only use you for research, and will then go elsewhere for my downloads. From a financial standpoint…you will go from $1000 plus a year from me to about $78…love ya, mean it…bye! Another lost loyal customer!
i’m canceling tonight.
it’s a little embarrassing when you have to eat your words, but just last week i was evangelizing about your greatness to a few friends … i’ll have to correct that later today. and i think it was last month that i was writing to a little indie label thanking them for uploading more stuff to emusic. i used 60 of my 90 downloads on just their catalog in may (even though i already owned physical copies of most of that stuff). i’ll be writing them an apology letter as well, seeing as how i was one who always nagged them to “put up more!”
*sigh*
i gotta say it’s been a pretty lousy week for me. first my girlfriend dumps me and now you guys.
sonofabitch.
No one should quit. Instead, we should all protest by placing our subscriptions on hold for July, and then come back in August to pay for one month’s worth and grabbing the free booster packs we were offered. If their policies haven’t changed or they haven’t compromised, then it may be that moment to leave for good.
We need to do this in solidarity. Alone I am but one; together we are strong.
A smart business template doesn’t downgrade loyal existing customers.
…’hard to believe you’re this ignorant.
@gerrrg (1102): I’m down. Anyone else?
Here is a short list of bands I would never have known about if it were not for eMusic – The Fall, Frog Eyes, Belle and Sebastian, Beat Happening, Arcade Fire, Black Lipstick, Camera Obscura, Frightened Rabbit, Super Furry Animals, Aphex Twin, Swan Lake, Hal, Ra Ra Riot, Mates of State, Les Savy Fav, Balla et ses Balladins, The Ponys, The Clean, Acid House Kings, Bad Brains, of Montreal, The Rural Alberta Advantage….the list goes on after two and half years. You get the point.
Here are some of my concerns – all of these bands, and all of the independent music I still have to discover out there, get pushed to the side lines. The album cover mosaic on the home page becomes a Sony ad. The top ten lists become dominated by back catalog music. The editorial focus shifts away from indie to a promotion of the new 200,000 tracks.
I skim the surface at other music sites (itunes, amazon). I dig deep with eMusic and it is a far more rewarding experience. If I see that change, I’m out of here.
Hey EMusic!,
Man I’m pissed!
I have been a subscriber for almost five years, starting Sept/2005! As a loyal subscriber I am not all happy with your pricing change. As nice as the Sony catalog may seem, most of the material I have already or do not want or can be downloaded from iTunes or Amazon. I have valued my eMusic subscription, and I would not consider having subscriptions with those services, even if offered. Emusic has been my go to site for that which I cannot find on iTunes or Amazon, as well as rare and surprising new offerings. Your service has been a great value and adventure. But obviously my worth as a long time customer was not taken into consideration as you made this policy change.
Bad move, I will likely put my account on hold in July in protest and reconsider lowering to a most basic rate and rely on the occasional booster pack.
Unhappy,
Jerry
So you expect me to pay the same for almost half as many downloads for music that I probably already have.
I don’t think I’ll be around much longer.
Wow. This is awful news for long time users and fans of eMusic. I first started using eMusic because of their focus on independent music at a respectable price. Sure, the monthly subscription burned me a few times but it didn’t bother me too much considering the bargain I was getting. Also, I’ve endured a few price hikes but was understanding considering the overall improvements in service (e.g. eMusic Manager software, new artistis) and the continuation of providing some music I couldn’t find elsewhere. However, adding mainstream music that can be found anywhere at the expense of all the music seems counterintuitive. I’m sure there have been many requests over the years to offer a greater selection, often music on the major labels, but those requests were likely at the current prices. If you raise the prices that changes everything. Sadly, this latest move is just another step away from providing a service in a niche market to what every other music retailer provides (see the economics literature on Hotelling’s placement model). In the end, we (consumers) get more of the same: big labels largely determining the prices and selection.
I haven’t made a final decision about my eMusic account but I see only two options. Either close it out of principle or switch to the cheapest subscription so I can still use it for research purposes. In other words, I lose and eMusic loses, too. Truly a sad day in indie music…
I’m with gerrrg!
No difference b/t mainstream and indie?
ok– tell you what. Put your money where your mouth is.
Prove to me that all indie bands, the ones whove paid your bills for the last decade, are getting a slice of this pie. we all know that chicago wants 50 cents a song. Whatever. but show me that the Sea and Cake will now get 50 cents a song too.
Do that and i’ll stay.
Do that and you’ll also see that no one gives a flying f ck about your Sony catalog.
I would have loved an opportunity to share my thoughts in advance of this move (customer service survey anyone?), but I will instead share them now. I know that you guys have had a ton of people get your free downloads, not find popular music, and walk away. You see these people as potential customers and you need to grow your business. While I like many of the artists that you are banging your drum about in this announcement, the fact is, its all catalog stuff that is available at low prices in every used CD store in the country. What I have always liked about emusic is that is has challenged me to think of music in terms of discovery and not familiar ground. I have grown my music collection leaps and bounds due to your subscription service, and the low prices have allowed me to take a chance here or there. Now, with prices being higher, I am not so inclined to find out who this Bon Iver dude is or follow the recommendation chain to discover Cut Off Your Hands. These bands stand to lose with the reduction of downloads.
I am not a major-label hater. In fact, a lot of my favorite bands (Springsteen, REM, Pearl Jam) are signed to huge deals with mega-labels. But, quite honestly, I do not need you to get that stuff. I will not increase my monthly subscription to get these downloads from you, I still use itunes, amazon, and my local record store. You guys were a welcome addition to the music buying experience and frankly, I have no interest in making you my #1 source.
Dude, I lost 35 songs a month and somehow this is good news? That’s 3 albums. I do see the advantage of entire albums only counting as 12 downloads no matter the number of songs, but there is no way that will make up the 35 song difference.
And as for your “intellectual content” and recommendation engines making the difference….come one, really? Welcome to Chapter 11.
Hello, eMusic… are you LISTENING?
Do you hear the nearly unanimous negative reaction you’re getting to your “big news”?
You have sold out on the very thing that sets you apart from all the other music sites out there: INDEPENDENT music at a great price.
You’ve got dollar ain your eyes thinking new subscribers will be drawn in by old-news mainstream Sony catalog selections that no one cares about anymore anyway (Wu Tang Clan? Please…) The new subscribers you do manage to lure in will kick around the site for a day or two, complain the catalog is a bunch of crap and there’s no Britney or Eminem, and then quit — just like the rest of us are now prepared to do.
Maybe this wouldn’t feel like such a total burn on your devoted fans if you weren’t pulling this off the way you are: grandfathering NOBODY on their existing pricing plans…. giving us NO advance warning… and even shafting us out of the ability to buy some last-minute boosters at the current pricing. Way to slap the people who’ve kept you afloat in the face.
You’ve just sunk your own ship with one of the most foolish marketing moves I’ve seen in a long time. You had a unique niche, and now you’ll just be an anemic wannabe iTunes.
My prediction: either you’ll be scrapping this entire plan in 9 months, or this is the beginning of the end of eMusic.
My suggestion: listen up. Fast.
I’ll keep it brief:
1. I have really loved my emusic account.
2. I couldn’t care less about Aerosmith or Alice in Chains or etc.
3. The price hike is a big deal to me, especially considering that I feel like I’m paying more for the addition of albums that I don’t care about, and that the extra money is going to businesses that I despise.
4. Don’t forget that your customer base is sort of here as an optional thing, since they could almost as easily just be stealing all of this music. I come to emusic because I like paying independent artists, artists like me, for what they make, and emusic is a convenient way to do that. If the prices go to high, or I have to start wading through a bunch of Sony advertisements to find what I’m looking for…
What is up with the rage on this board?
Emusic has been too good to be true for a long time. Full albums for $2 or $3 – come on, that was bound to end.
If you can’t handle the price change, then cancel your subscription. Emusic will be fine, and you can support indie bands by trying to download directly from their website or label.
I don’t want to pay more from less, but I’m also realistic. Emusic is still a better deal than amazon or itunes. I’m not canceling my subscription.
Well- my subscription rate has effectively doubled as a result of this new plan (monthly downloads go from 65 to 37), so naturally, I am pissed. I can’t imagine ANY business doing this to a loyal customer and expecting to keep them as customers. eMusic, we’ve had a great relationship for four years, but it’s going to end. Too bad.
Couldn’t you have picked up more small or indie labels instead without taking such a hit to the customer? We’ve been fortunate to this point, getting great music at insanely low prices (especially those grandfathered in). And in reality, it’ll still be a great deal to be able to get some of Sony’s artists for, say, $5 an album…for those who want them. The thing about it is, though, that my downloads were being used up entirely every month, truly discovering some great artists that I wouldn’t have had easy access to at such great prices anywhere else. Where else could you pick up a Booker Ervin album for the equivalent of a buck, or the majority of the Small Faces catalog for about ten? Now, everything is shifting to a level much nearer to where Amazon or iTunes or any other mp3 download site is at. Its a shame. People will have to allocate their downloads more wisely, even if they have no interest in what Sony’s partnership has to offer.
One of the previous posters had my sentiments exactly….I’ll give it a few months to feel the new setup out, but suspect my subscription won’t last through the fall.
I’m torn, honestly. On the one hand, since I’m newer to the indie scene (just within the last few years that I discovered much of it), I like that I’ll be able to find some of the older stuff that has indie roots but got signed to major labels, like Kings of Leon and The Strokes, for less money than it would cost to get through iTunes or Amazon. It’s a little disappointing to be losing some tracks (though not as painful a loss for me– I’m on a grandfathered plan of 40 a month for $11.99, originally up from 30, and that was a pleasant surprise when that happened. So I’m basically just going to be right back where I started, but it was great to have the extra music while it lasted!) I guess what I’m most concerned about is that this will change the nature of the site– the big draw to here, for me, was the chance to explore new music. The email newsletters and daily freebies have been a great help in finding new stuff to listen to, as have the links between artist pages to find things in a similar style to the groups I already know I like. It seems like it could have the potential to turn into another big push towards talking up the major releases that I could hear about just about anywhere else. I know times are tough economically and sometimes things have to change in order to survive– just please, don’t sacrifice the spirit of eMusic to save it.
After reading this thread one thing is clear: No one will have a plan where tracks are priced at less than 40 cents per DL. It’s obvious to me that this was the magic number that Sony/BMG dictated (errrr…negotiated) with eMusic in order to bring their back catalog to the site. We were sold out, and that’s what angers me the most about this debacle.
I’m disappointed as a 5 year annual subscriber and proselytizer for eMusic. My downloads will go from 90 per month for around $190 a year to a measly 35 a month for around $170 a year and for that I get to have access to John Mayer and Alan Jackson and the Dixie Chicks? Anything else worthwhile mentioned in the highlights I already own. And if you get anything remotely major, you still have no Sub Pop? What I loved about eMusic is all the the indie labels like Bloodshot and countless others. Why can’t you have tiered pricing so that people who want access to that major label crap can buy it like they buy it on iTunes and Amazon for $10 a record? I’m not interested. When my account rolls over in Feb. 2010 I will be cancelling.
Maybe emusic’s hard-core fans are really into indie music, but that’s not why I’VE been a subscriber for a few years.
I like mainstream music and some non-mainstream (e.g. blues), but not current top 40. For me, emusic is a place to get good, often classic music at a good price. A place that allows me to try new artists out for a cheap price and round out me collection with classic music that due to it’s age SHOULD be priced much less than 99 cents a track.
Notable, more mainstream artists I’ve found on emusic that have made me stay:
- Aretha
- Ray Charles
- Stax catalog
- Alice Cooper
- Kinks
- Rolling Stones
- Dwight Yoakum
I’ve also loved dipping deep into blues and country labels: Blind Pig, Rounder, etc. that offer some of the “cream” of the current blues crop. I don’t consider these artists “indie” although maybe they are.
Much of my current music tastes are in classic rock from the 60′s to 90′s – stuff I CAN’T FIND on emusic. Given that, I’m hoping that in the future I’ll not have to scour emusic for so long to find music POSSIBLY worth downloading, but will easily find things that have been on my “wish list” for a long time. I’m happy to pay A LITTLE BIT MORE for access to a better collection of music.
As far as “indie” goes, I’d like emusic to find ways to recommend indie music that fits in with the mainstream things I’ll naturally tend toward. I’m guessing your recommendation engine will do that kind of thing.
Finally, all you have to do is read the comments from users frustrated by finding poor quality remakes and live recordings from major artists to know that this increase in selection will be welcomed by many. Of course, you may need to find ways to reconnect with people who left in the early days, expecting what you may now finally be delivering.
It looks like eMusic has pissed off a lot of members – how many more posts do you need to get before you reconsider? “More of the good stuff” just isn’t worth it.
This is a bad idea. I get 45% less for my money in exchange for stuff I can get anywhere, or already have. If you needed to raise prices, say so, but don’t pretend to be doing us any favors.
I would suggest that you all reserve judgment on the value of the additional music that will be added to the eMusic catalog by this move. I mean 200,000 more tracks is quite a lot of music and I certainly am not going to summarily say that I won’t be able to find anything I like in all that just because it’s not from an “indie” label.
As far as the price increase, well… I’m not happy about it either. But then I’m not all that happy about the fact that the cost of my lunches at the resterants around my workplace have increased by 2 or 3 bucks a pop in the last 10 years or so either! The point being that has it occurred to any of you that maybe this cost increase was necessary for eMusic to continue doing business?
I may cancel if I decide it’s not worth the new price, but as I said I reserve judgment till I’ve at least checked the new situation out.
My current plan apparently isn’t supported any more, and the new “automatic refresh” plan has prices about twice as high per track (in addition to costing 33% more in real dollars – $200/year instead of $150). At that cost, I’m not sure that it will be worth it for me any more; I certainly won’t be choosing the suggested plan to pay more for less music.
Pay 33% more for half the number of downloads? No thanks.
I’m disappointed that prices are going to be going up because of the addition of the Sony catalog. I feel as though Sony should have sacrificed their pricing to be a part of the eMusic community rather than the community sacrificing cost for Sony. It all seems a bit backwards. I’ll be thinking about my subscription and whether its still worth being a part of eMusic. Thanks for allowing me to discover music and take risks over the past 5 years without having to worry about my wallet…Taking the same risks I have in the past surely won’t be as easy come July. I may just go looking for new music elsewhere.
This is the MAJOR stepdown to eMusic in years.. I’m a subscriber since 2000 and this is the fun place to get legal music on the internet… Why we need Major labels like SONY here ?? Jeeezzz you can find any albums of Alicia Keys in dozens of forums, blogs, etc.. for free…
The price increase put eMusic on the same roll of pathetics mp3s stores sites like Amazon and iTunes… I’m certainly will cancel my subscription… why ?? see below..
TODAY..
Pay U$ 24,99 for 100 tracks = U$ 0,24 PER TRACK
NEXT MONTH WITH THE ”IMPOSED NEW PLANS”..
Pay U$ 19,99 for 50 tracks = U$ 0,39 PER TRACK
RESULT..
I’ll pay closely two times per tracks and limited to half of the tracks that I usually download every month… GREAT DEAL eMusic….Maybe eMusic thinks all the customers are DUMB…!!
One world..
S-T-U-P-I-D-I-T-Y!!
how is an 80% increase “good stuff”???
I have been a subsriber since 2006.
I used to get 90 tracks for 19.99 $
Now i am supposed to get 50 tracks for 19.99 $
That means i get 44.4 %percent less the amount of tracks (50 instead of 90)
THAT MEANS AN 80% PERCENT INCREASE IN PRICE PER TRACK!!!
(price jumps from 0.2221 $ to 0,3998 $)
What a bad business decision! What a shame and what a scam!
If you follow through with your price increase i will cancel my subscription and activelt encourage other users to do the same.
This is how you make a loyal enemy out of a loyal customer.
Most of the catalog stuff I would want to own, I already do…
I go from 100 tracks for 25 bucks a month to 50 tracks for 20
Not good news.
It doesn’t matter how you dress it up, you are inflicting a major price hike on all your subscribers so why not just come right out and say you need to make more money? You would at least retain some credibility that way rather than blowing it on a bunch of major label mediocrity which, as has been pointed out, you can get pretty much anywhere. I will be closing my account and removing all affiliate links from my website and I would urge anyone else reading this to do the same. It was good while it lasted…
I cant’ believe you expect your members to be happy about a change where you cut our plans by as much as 40% and then reward us with an expanded “Major Label” catalogue that, if we had wanted it, would could’ve had from itunes three years ago.
I’ve been an emusic member since 2006 and what I’ve really loved about your site is that emusic isn’t itunes. Nothing good lasts forever but we had every reason to hope. This September, it’s Ciao, Baby for me.
I think Paul’s post (1121) effectively sums up my problem with eMusic’s approach to this change of terms: “If you needed to raise prices, say so, but don’t pretend to be doing us any favors.” Yep.
@wes (comment 1097) – you mean this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal ???
Amazing. Sony BMG put malicious code on their music CDs that installed secretly and left your computer with security vulnerabilities. Dispicable. No wonder multiple state’s Attorneys General went after them. Don’t need that sort of s**t here.
… which is more aggravating: the reduced downloads/increased price or the presumption that I’d be interested in some debate from 1994 about majors vs. indie.
Later on, eMusic …
Awesome, you cut my downloads in half per month for the same price. Peace, EMusic, it’s been nice knowing you. What a joke.
-Jacob Thompson
eMusic may add the Clash to their catalog, but we all know who’s working for the clampdown now.
What a joke! I didn’t see anything in the select picks section that I want and don’t already have. I am not interested in Sony’s back catalog. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll pick up new subscribers with all the new garbage you’ll have on here in a few weeks.
To go from 90 tracks a month for $190 to 35 for $170 implies you are quite willing to shaft your establlished subscribing base in the hope of garnering more mainstream customers who will think its a good deal to get 2 year old major label back catalog discs, much of which could be had at the public library.
I would have supported a reasonable increase, but 200% is not in that category. Once my current subscription ends in October, you will have lost my patronage. Good luck with your new business model……
1 longtime subscriber with a grandfathered plan who’s not happy. There’s gotta be a better way to acknowledge the support of your most loyal customers than by raising their subscription rates sharply and throwing them a one-time 15-DL sop. Also, like a lot of others here, if I want the majors I’ll get ‘em from iTunes. What’s kept me subscribing to eMusic and touting it to my friends is the indie tilt of the service.
I have been a subscriber for 3 years. Six months ago I upgraded my plan. Under the new pricing structure, I will receive 13 fewer songs (approx 1 album) per month and pay the same amount. With a baby on the way, I was already looking to cut costs but had planned to stick with eMusic because of the great value.
Yes, there’s still great value but this is a slap in the face to a dedicated customer who has helped you grow your business by spreading the word about eMusic. I’ll cash in my free booster pack in August and cancel my subscription after that.
I’m disappointed in the new changes. For me it means fewer downloads for the same price, and I doubt that I’ll be interested in many of the new titles. I occassionaly buy something “popular” from Amazon or itunes – but really 95-98% of my music I get from here.
I looked at the list of new coming titles. I will never dowload a bruce springstene song or anything similar.
I’m undecided as to whether on not I will stay with emusic after the price change. One of the attractions for me was the low price point – the other is learning about new music and rediscovering older stuff I used to own on vinyl.
The number of downloads I am getting will be reduced by nearly 2/3, and the plan price will go down by a whopping $10/year. This is the thanks I get for being a loyal eMusic customer (and promoter, as I’ve told anyone who will listen to sign up) since the early days. All so more major label crap can be made available. Thanks, eMusic. Hopefully you’ll be able to draw enough new customers to make up for the ones who leave in droves.
I can’t say I disagree with the majority of what has been said here. However, instead of continuing to bitch about it and say the same thing everyone else has said about a 1000 times, I thought I might offer a positive solution. Why not continue to give your loyal subscribers the same deal they always have had, simply because you “appreciate” them so much. That way, not only will you get a lot of new subscribers who will probably gladly pay the new price, but you will keep the old subscribers as well. This is just good business people! Think about it.
Yeah, this is really disappointing. I’ll be losing almost half my downloads to get artists who generally fall into one of two camps, viz., (a) those I’m not interested in or (b) those whose back catalogs I already own. I’m not sure I’ll continue with my subscription.
I remember the whole Sony BMG root kit espisode, Wes (comment #1098). It was on TV news repeatedly. Sony announced a recall of the CDs they infected, but then didn’t actually recall them and a number of state AGs started with legal action, then Sony actually started pulling the CDs. But this was after months of selling them and infecting peoples computers. Sh*tty behavior for Sony and their attempts to install Dee Arr Emm on customer PCs without notice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal
is the article about it, which, interestingly, was last edited on… 30 MAY 2009 ! Funny coincidence, isn’t it?
Sony is really wonderful. They are the greatest company in the world. They really care about their customers, just like emusic does! They love them so much that they put special things on the CDs to make people’s computers better and you can read about it here http://bit.ly/CsbTB . I just love Sony. They are the best company in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
Seriously? You’re screwing over your long-time customers to add “Off the Wall” to the catalogue? And who on god’s green earth doesn’t already own “London Calling”? Is this a joke? F A I L, eMusic. F A I L. Thanks for reminding me that there is no sphere that corporate America can’t come in and ruin.
LIke many others here, I’ve been raving about you guys on my blog for a while now (I’m a jazz guy who loves the access to all kinds of hard-to-find stuff), and, like those same people, I have to ask, “What were you thinking here?”
Just consider a few things:
1) Most of your “indie” fans here don’t care about the likes of Sony, or any other cog in the Big Music Machine, at all. This is more of a bug than a feature.
2) Implementing a price increase like this (or a value decrease, if you wish) with such short notice is a slap in the face to a whole lot of longtime customers. I bet that the money you’ll lose from customers who cancel their subscriptions over this is more than what you would have lost if you’d grandfathered in existing customers at the old rates for six months, a year, whatever.
I think it’s a bad idea to associate with Big Music (i.e. anyone whose company is entirely run by talentless corporate suits and refers to CD’s as “product”). When you wallow in the mud with pigs, you’re gonna get dirty…
I agree with everyone that has said that you should allow your current subscribers to keep there same price/download level. My plan gets cut 50% with this new structure. I can’t justify the same money for half the value now. I don’t care about the big label stuff.
My 2 cents… or 10th of a download.
No longer will I tell people about your website,BOO emusic.
big label stuff does not interest me. I subscribed cause of the great deal and had my friends do so too. Now that the price is going up I actually have LESS available to me. I’m very disappointed that a site that carries stuff that not everyone else does is following the streets paved already by other download sites…. BOOOOOO!!! You had something unique and people that I was turning on to it (as well as myself) had no complaints. Major labels are not what we want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! give me my old plan back PLEASE!!!!!! thank you.
Count me among those who will cancel when the new plan begins.
It makes it much less likely that I’ll continue to subscribe to eMusic once you new pricing structure starts. It’s been a great value for me to explore new artists…. at about 25 cents a download, I could be adventurous. I think that a more generous plan for long time subscribers would have been a kind tip of the hat.
Not a good way to keep the customer satisfied.
Jim
I’ve been a huge fan of e-music for the last few years and have turned multiple people on to the site, and while I know I’ll still be able to find the same quality stuff I can’t really get too many other places, I too am discouraged about the price increases. Times are tight, and unfortunately, I don’t think it will be worthwhile to continue my subscription moving forward. If there’s something mainstream that I really have to have, I would go to ITunes or another vendor and fork over the buck, but for the money e-music was always the best deal around on the indie stuff I love. Hope it works out for the best, but it sounds like you might lose a nice segment of your previously loyal customers to the changes. Still and all, I wish you the best of luck- you’ve provided my library with some amazing stuff over the years.
I agree with many of these posts in regard to the different pricing options. I don’t want the content they are talking about; I can get that stuff elsewhere. (It’s probably in a box in my basement.) Emusic should just let us keep the plans we have and let the new account holders deal with the new pricing. If I lose half of my downloads in order to have access to content that I wasn’t originally here for in the first place, I will cancel my membership. Why would I stay? This is a typical example of how a loyal customer is shoved to the side when all is said and done. “Eat your peas; they’re good for you.” Well, I don’t like peas and I certainly don’t like them at twice the price.
Well, I really don’t see how this is a good thing for anybody. Emusic adds a bunch of stuff from the MAJORS, ie Capitol, Sony etc and the loyal customers have to change their plan and get 1/3 of the music as they did before. As I have read the majority of users will not continue their subscriptions after this month. I think it is safe to say that I am going to follow suit and close both of my accounts.
This was a place to get a great deal, now it’s a place to just get more mainstream crap that I can get anywhere else.
I will just dump more money into my indie record stores.
Good luck, methinks you’ll need it!
Yeah, this is too bad. The “catch” of emusic was always the subscription – you had to spend your downloads whether you wanted to or not that month(or lost them if you forgot, which I did a few times). But the low low cost per track made the inconvenience of the subscription service worth the hassle/risk. Not so anymore, though – the price is just too high to justify it all. Face it: there are other ways to get indie stuff, and I’ll use them (itunes, record stores, amazon, etc.), I guess. Count me as another customer lost.
Well, I’ve been with emusic since 2003, and it looks like this will be the end of my membership. For six years I’ve been downloading indieDRM-free music from a site I was proud to evangelize on my blog and by word of mouth.
Suddenly, we get a bunch of mainstream back catalogue music that pretty much no long-time member of emusic cares about and in order to do so, you almost double my music cost to make up for it?
I guess I’ll support the rarer local and indie musicians who will still “get it”.
What’s next for you, emusic? DRM? Major-label pressure much?
Meh.
If all 1,157 of us take our business somewhere else I think that might get thru to you to folks
I just pulled all my reviews and artist ratings. I strongly suggest anyone upset do the same. Sorry emusic, if we want a community we can trust there’s other places to hang out during our musical geek fests…
I wonder how I would feel, as a CEO, to see that I may be loosing more than a thousand customers. Make that a thousand and one, because I definitely joined the ranks of the disgruntled customers, and want to make my voice heard. Doubling the price on your best customers like this, is such a stupid business decision. I guess at Emusic, the customer is not king. All this past year, I kept my subscription going more by loyalty than anything else. Some months I would download mostly classical music or spoken words, just to keep it alive. It was such a good deal at 22 cents a song anyway. But now that the price doubles, I don’t know anymore, Ok, it is still cheaper than the competition, so what they are coming up with better be great to me (I download mostly latin-jazz and latin), I am not wasting 50 cents on some decade old spoken word stuff.
…..another one bites the dust (sing along…)
I down load 200 tracks per month, now that gets cut in half for a 10 dollar discount!
Pure shit !
Current cutting edge artists….YES, back catalog……NO
……ok here is what we do:
1-cancel your subscription
2-buy used CD’s on ebay. With the new control on shipping costs i can buy a CD for less then e-music charges and the best part is after i rip it to my PC, I re sell it on eBay for the same cost! If not, you get to keep a real CD with all the art work and stuff…`eh !
3-word of mouth is golden and hell if your on the wrong end……e-music is on the wrong end!
I will cancel my service in June.
Sad, so very sad….how greedy do you need to be and at what price…….
I’m a subscriber from New Zealand. emusic is a means of accessing great music that will never get a release in this country. Now I will pay around a third more in order to have the privilege of having Sony tracks on the site that I will be blocked from accessing. And you’re saying this is a good thing? Come on!
.
Sophie @1159 makes an excellent point. We have contributed, freely, willingly, and free of charge, to a great deal of the salable content that IS eMusic. It is in the form of the user reviews and ratings we have contributed, which increase the value of the service greatly, as well as our buying habits. Danny’s wonderful new recommendation engine that we are supposed to be so excited about would not be very useful without the associations made through your preferences… what you rate, how you rate it, what you view, what you listen to, and what you buy with your credits. This is the data that makes a recommendation engine work… I like artist A, B, C, some tracks from D but not others, etc. What other things would I like? Whatever can be clawed back, reviews etc, would constitute about the highest leverage you can apply if you decide to cancel… by removing all you can before you leave. It won’t be a huge effect, but if you feel like they have just kicked you in the guts with these changes after you have supported them for ages, it is an option you should consider.
It’s interesting to see how some of the earlier posts here were at least sitting on the fence, if not fully supportive of the changes. As the thread progresses there seems to have been an almost united reaction against the pro-corporate/anti-consumer plans. There isn’t anything I can think of to say that’s not already said here, apart from adding my voice to all of those longer-term members who is not happy and probably not renewing.
Elen in post 1031 pointed out that it was Sony who stuck rootkits onto their CD’s that installed onto computers with no warning to users, that is worth remembering in all of this. I’ve not bought anything Sony since and won’t change that approach, rootkits are evil, as are those who try to sneak them onto peoples’ machines.
1163 Dubdance is right. The 2005 Sony BMG CD affair was in every sense of the word a damn V – I – RR – UU – SS. But guess what? eMusic doesn’t want you to know about it. I guess it frightens them. Just like the tag they tried to keep out before getting busted.
TRY POSTING THE WIKIPEDIA URL FOR THE 2005 SONY BMG CD FIASCO HERE. Just search for it on WikiP – when you get a page that talks about software installing on machines from CDs and legal actions and re calls in 2005, you’re there. Then try posting that URL here. Boom. After passing re-captcha, your message gets sent for approval instead of posting. Then it NEVER APPEARS. Really.
Go ahead, try it and post your experience here. Until they remove the URL from their mod er a tion filter, it won’t appear (or maybe this will embarrass them and they’ll do it pre-emptively, which would be fine because it would defeat their attempt to keep it out).
This is pre-meditated. They knew most of us had forgotten about what their new partner had done, how incredibly anti-music-fan it was, and they definitely did not want it to be brought to your attention.
Fun fun fun. Also interesting that the wik article was edited on 30 May of this year… Hmmmm.
Dubdance is right in comment number 1163. The Sony BMG CD 2005 affair was in every sense of the word a damn V – I – RR – UU – SS. But guess what? eMusic doesn’t want you to know about it. I guess it frightens them. Just like the tag they tried to keep out of this discussion before getting busted deleting comments.
TRY POSTING THE WIKIPEDIA URL FOR THE 2005 SONY BMG CD FIASCO HERE. Just search for it on WikiP – when you get a page that talks about things silently installing on machines from CDs and legal actions and re calls in 2005, you’re there. Then try posting that URL here. Boom. After passing captcha, your message gets sent for approval instead of posting. Then it NEVER APPEARS. Really.
Go ahead, try it and then post your experience here. Until they remove the URL from their mod er a tion filter, it won’t appear (or maybe this will embarrass them and they’ll do it pre-emptively, which would be fine because it would defeat their attempt to keep it out).
This is pre-meditated. They knew that most people had forgotten about what their new partner had done in 2005 even though it made national news broadcasts in many contries, how indescribably anti-music-fan their actions were, and they definitely did not want it to be brought up here.
It is also interesting that the wik article was edited on 30 May of this year. Very interesting.
Great news for emusic. However, I am going to cancel my account after 7 years. Emusic has always treated it’s long-term customers with respect in the past, but apparently not any more.
I guess I don’t fall into the angry crowd. I had already downgraded my subscription from my 90 a month grandfathered in rate to the 30 track subscription. Why? Because I find myself with less time to manage updating the mp3 tags on 90 tracks, to run the tracks through peak level software and I guess I’m just not an unemployed indie nebbish. (I want to be different just like everybody else) Frankly I find some of the “indie” music that they crow about incessantly to be whiny, tuneless, crybaby crap (IMO), but I digress.
Since the BMG Music club was closing this month (they still have yourmusic.com same catalog same 6.99 CDs no shipping) I figured they would be showing up online somewhere. I seriously doubt though that this will enhance my eMusic membership, as I’ve already picked through the sony/bmg back catalog and own pretty much anything I ever wanted from them. There may be a couple of jazz cds I may have missed but that will probably be about it.
As for the conspiracy theorists I still have a copy of the Velvet Revolver cd with the rootkit. I figured since so many returned them for a refund it might retain a little extra value even though the disc itself sucked.
But even at 11.99 for 30 tracks it’s still half the price of Amazon or that other site for wannabes, iDrones. So I won’t be cancelling just ordering less. I’ll let the others cut their noses off to spite their own faces. Really what subscription product out there hasn’t raised its rates?
What would give me more value from eMusic? Lossless tracks, cd liner notes, accurate mp3 tags and get rid of the tons of k-tel styled re-recordings.
I guess I don’t fall into the angry crowd. I had already downgraded my subscription from my 90 a month grandfathered in rate to the 30 track subscription. Why? Because I find myself with less time to manage updating the mp3 tags on 90 tracks, to run the tracks through peak level software and I guess I’m just not an unemployed indie nebbish. (I want to be different just like everybody else) Frankly I find some of the “indie” music that they crow about incessantly to be whiny, tuneless, crybaby crap (IMO), but I digress.
Since the BMG Music club was closing this month (they still have yourmusic.com same catalog same 6.99 CDs no shipping) I figured they would be showing up online somewhere. I seriously doubt though that this will enhance my eMusic membership, as I’ve already picked through the sony/bmg back catalog and own pretty much anything I ever wanted from them. There may be a couple of jazz cds I may have missed but that will probably be about it.
As for the conspiracy theorists I still have a copy of the Velvet Revolver cd with the rootkit. I figured since so many returned them for a refund it might retain a little extra value even though the disc itself sucked.
But even at 11.99 for 30 tracks it’s still half the price of Amazon or that other site for wannabes, iDrones. So I won’t be cancelling just ordering less. I’ll let the others cut their noses off to spite their own faces. Really what subscription product out there hasn’t raised its rates?
What would give me more value from eMusic? Lossless tracks, cd liner notes, accurate mp3 tags and get rid of the tons of k-tel styled re-recordings.
Apparently some folks are saying it’s impossible to put this link up here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal
Personally I don’t think rootkits will be a problem with the new Sony rollout because by signing up with emusic I think they’ve agreed to forgo any DRM. But I am curious to see if this post will go up; I’ve never had anything blocked here before.
So it’s there; it worked. Let’s dial back the paranoia a little bit.
What?!?!? The increase in price and decrease in credits is totally not worth the Sony catalogue. Either emusic takes care of their current customers, who didn’t need to be enticed by major label music, or let the exodus commence.
Now, this price increase is just ridiculous. The people who requested major labels probably wouldn’t have requested it if they’d known you were going to negotiate this severe of a price hike. I’m currently paying $24.99 for 100 songs, now it’s going to be $30.99 for only 75 songs? WOW, eMusic, way to look out for us customers here and not succumb to major label pressure. How much of this percentage are indie labels going to receive, huh?
Needless to say I’m canceling my eMusic account once this goes into effect. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m not paying more for music I don’t care about.
Basic Annual 40 per month changes to 210 per 180 days at the same rate. I lose 5 downloads per month and double my payments. All for music I already own on LP and CD.
But, they are “giving” me a 15 booster pack as a way of thanking me for helping to build this bloody empire.
Good Bye.
Frankly the main reason I subscribed to eMusic was the ability to sample a wide variety of indie music for a good deal (in my case, it was 9.99 for 50 downloads–later changed to 11.99). 11.99 for 30 just isn’t what what I signed on for, and I could care less about Sony Music or their artists.
You’re going to lose a lot of your once-loyal subscribers over this. Dumb move.
We had an agreement.
You are forcing your loyal customers to suck it up while you goof up your collection with a bunch of stuff we can get on other services. You are forcing your loyal customers to take half for the same price. You are forcing your loyal customers out.
This loyal customer is going elsewhere.
Sorry, man, but you forced me.
Do you think it is a poor business decision? Have you done a price elasticity analysis? Where is your new product impact analysis? Where is your members buying retention analysis? I am curious.
I am looking for a job. Hire me, I will do the analysis for you.
I know at some point you have to increase prices. With the new plan I will be getting 40% less downloads for the same price. It is not acceptable. It is too much of a hit.
I hope you re-examine the plan and set up a two-tier membership or two-tier download credits for those who wants to download Sony label.
Otherwise, I will be cancelling. I have no problem in getting my music at another source.
I agree with others that said “if I wanted major label music, I wouldn’t have become an emusic member”. There really needs to be some sort of tiered-pricing here. Why should I be penalized with account shrinkage if I have no intention of pulling down the “latest hits” from the major labels?
Well, it was fun while it lasted. See ya.
Many, many posts ago I was angry about this change, but on the fence about canceling. I wanted to see how this played out. But now I’m more firmly on the side of quitting, and it has nothing to do with cost, Sony, lost downloads, etc., as aggravating as all of that is–it’s about the silence from emusic with which all of this anger and all of these questions have been met. I understand that they are probably taking the position of waiting until people calm down before wading in, but I think that’s an awful strategy, one that’s taken a bad situation (which emusic had to expect) and turned it into a disaster.
Business Communication 101: you diffuse anger and manage conflict through regular, active communication, not silence. Does communicating while people are upset mean you have to put up with some nastiness? Sure. But it also tells those people you are actually listening and paying attention, and indeed do respect what they think and feel. And that’s how things begin to calm down and all parties begin to deal with the problems rationally. In this case, there has been extremely little communication from emusic, all of it relatively old, unilateral and vague. The form responses from customer service only make the problem worse.
Silence not only compounds the anger, but leads to rumors and conspiracy theories (see the Sony rootkit entries). Worst of all, though, silence tells your passionate, long-time supporters, the ones who’ve provided you with free and enthusiastic publicity (as well as lots of their money), the ones who have been loyal to you is spite of the many flaws because you had core values worth believing in, that you don’t respect them and simply don’t care. Maybe you do care, but how would we know? What little response we have gotten told us pretty much just to trust you on this, even though how you have handled this from the beginning has been a textbook example of how-to-alienate-your-customer-base.
Is it too late to fix all this now? Who knows? Who knows if you even want to? We sure don’t–because you’re not saying.
The last post is on target. Why no response? Seems disrespectful.
Seconding everyone else’s comments. I will -cancel- my long-standing subscription if this pricing change goes through, and I will encourage the numerous fellow users I know (including those I’ve recommended use eMusic) to do the same.
I don’t care about big-label music, I won’t download it, and I don’t want to subsidize it for eMusic.
I’m canceling, the rate hike is ridiculous. I already get what I want.
See ya!
So sad. My cost will more than double. I can only echo others: I use emusic to experiment, to expand my knowledge, to go digging for jazz performances that are hard to find elsewhere. I would pay more for the service if the pricing change were represented honestly. But I will have to think long and hard when my time is up. Shame, shame, shame.
For those of you who have complimented the idea that albums over 12 tracks will only cost 12 credits, read the description thoroughly. It does not say that, it says “Selected” albums of 12 or more tracks. eMusic will decide which albums, it will not be all of them. It may not even be half of the 12 track albums.
Wow, this is not cool. I get the whole idea, in principle, that there’s no difference between indie and major label rock (most people probably have some artists on both side that they like), but any indie rock fan (or jazz fan or classical fan) who flips through the radio dial will quickly realize that there is a huge difference overall in focus. Right now, emusic has a great core of people who listen to certain types of music, and emusic serves them extremely well. I do not look forward to having the latest major label crap being pushed on the site.
This is especially so when the prices are skyrocketing. I am on a non-standard plan that I’ve been on for a long time, but my price per download will more than double, even at the very cheapest rate under the new plan.
Emusic should learn an easy lesson in business. You don’t try to be all things to all people. You don’t screw over your current customer base in order to attract new customers, especially when those new customers have other appealing options that they are already using.
Not happy about this.
So does this mean I get to carry over any unused credits at the end of the month?
That has long been my biggest complaint. That and the roving 30 day billing cycle that changes the day you are charged every month so it can be a crap shoot if you get to use up those last 6 or 7 songs every month.
I already posted about being unhappy with the price increase. I will not be canceling, though – my annual subscription runs through May, 2010.
For 11 more months, I will continue to use the plan that I was promised I’d have forever – then I will leave. So if eMusic is looking at the number of people leaving over this issue, they need to realize that some of us will stick around for a while due to an existing subscription. But eventually we’ll leave.
I feel bad for the artists who might not get discovered due to eMusic’s change. I’m not sure if some of my favorite bands (The National, The Decemberists) would be my favorites without discovering them here first. And after finding them here, they’ve received much more from me – ticket sales, t-shirts, word-of-mouth praise. There are a lot of other bands that I could include in this list – I just saw Gaslight Anthem & bought a shirt from them – after taking a chance on them here.
And after reading this blog for a long time and coming to respect the opinions of the writers, I’d really like to know how they feel about it. They’re in a tough spot – the execs say one thing but their readers say another thing. Let’s all sit around a table, drink a beverage of choice, and hear it off-the-record.
I will be killing my eMusic subscription for the second time. Back in the day, eMusic was an unlimited download service, one monthly fee, as much INDIE music as you could stomach. I could stomach a lot back then. Then, they limited downloads to subscription totals. I eventually got over the change and came back. I now get 90 downloads for 20 a month, still a wonderful deal. Now it goes to shitte. I can not lose almost half my downloads for the same pricing. I echo the many posts above stating the beauty of eMusic has always been its incredible support of the indie labels but I don’t believe things are moving that way. There is a serious difference between Major and Indie and it isn’t just an attitude.
I believe the best way to deal will be to go straight to those labels and download from them to not give the middle men there slice of the pie because it looks as if the middle men want to much.
Good luck, I am sure you will replace me with a newbie along the way who is looking for major label shitte but you have lost a very dedicated and committed customer.
adios.
eric
I will be canceling my subscription as soon as these changes come into effect.
Please take the following survey regarding the recent eMusic policy changes. Yes, these surveys are informal, but hopefully this will help make a difference:
Cut & paste the URL is the link does not work. I will publish the results once I accumulate a substantail number
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Nsomf8fqad7WFXpDJXSebA_3d_3d
Click Here to take survey
I’ve never had a problem using up my 90 downloads a month here at emusic. Most of the time I’m waiting for the 30 days to roll around so I can gobble up some more. Now my price is almost doubled because emusic thinks I want access to the dixie chicks? I don’t. If I want back catalog stuff (I rarely do), I know where to get it. As soon as I read “In July, we’ll be rolling out a major expansion to our music catalog”, I knew we were screwed.
And emusic customer appreciation used to be quite impressive. I left the U.S. for 9 months a couple of years back and wasn’t going to be able to download any music during that time, so I canceled my account. When I came back they re-activated my account, all my old downloads were still there and they grandfathered me in on my 90 for 19.99. Guess those days are over, eh Danny?
But, I get it. Danny Stein wants to be rich. The whole indie v. major ruse would be hilarious (my god, who came up with that obvious and embarrassing ploy) if we didn’t get handed a bill of sale at the end of it. I wonder if the “indie” bands will now get more than the 2 cents/download that a friend of mine gets when someone downloads his music on emusic. Somehow I suspect not. So, once again, vibrant, thoughtful, expressive artists who push the bounds and pull the rest of the dullards to the next level will get squat because Big Daddy Sony (et al) swoop in and snatch up the coin. Pathetic.
And, unfortunately, it will probably work for Danny. Because word will get out that you can get major label stuff for 50 cents a download here instead of a buck or whatever, elsewhere. Our loss is someone else’s gain. I’m just not sure why I should subsidize them AND stuff my money in Sony’s pockets. (Perhaps Danny is being altruistic and this is part of a personal financial stimulus package, as I believe Sony is hemorrhaging money these days. Somehow I suspect not.) And I’m sure emusic has crunched the numbers and know they can lose the old-timers and not sweat it too much. I suppose capturing market share is a rough and tumble business — someone’s always going to be mad at you. But you get rich(er). Enjoy your money, Danny. You probably deserve it.
Danny, great news! I’ve been a subscriber since July of ’06 and i am proud to say you carry two of my recordings, It’s Only Roy “Art Is on Vacation” and a live album, Cosmic Lightning Bolts Of Reality, Manifesting On This Plane For Your Enjoyment, “Recorded Live Somewhere On Earth”! (we tried to pick as unpretentious name as we could!) I really don’t mind the downgrade of my subscription if the artists you named will be available…..thanks…..m
I don’t care about the major labels. I do care about experimenting. The new pricing now reduces the value of eMusic to me by at least half when it goes into effect. “Charging more for less” in this climate does not make sense. Goodbye to eMusic in November for me.
So, 1 week later and still no (or very little) response from the people at eMusic, I’ve watched these reponses grow to over 1200 plus, it’s all summed up if you read here awhile but be SURE to read # 1033 CMA jun 6. the #’s do change around so look for it (I’m talking to you Danny, Cathy, Yancey) Another cancelee.
I suggest everyone put their account on hold for 90 days prior to the switch over to new pricing. Let’s see how much Danny has in the bank. We can always cancel later.
I will leave eMusic after the current new pricing occurs because it will no longer be a site where I can download indie music at cheap prices.
eMusic’s original model worked for me. There were always new albums from indie groups that I could find. At their pricing, even if I didn’t love every album I downloaded, it worked out on average. This allowed me to try out lots of new groups and to really expand the numbers of bands I listen to. I was paying $0.24 per download for 50 downloads monthly (i.e. $11.99/month).
eMusic’s new model does not work for me. Firstly, I already own/have listened to most of the major label acts. My fatigue of these acts was a major reason that I started listening to indie music. Secondly, I will no longer be able to take as many risks on new music groups. Because the pricing structure will make each new album much more expensive to download, I won’t explore as many new bands as I used to. Thirdly, eMusic will no longer be that much cheaper than non-subscription services. My new plan will be $0.50 per download for 24 downloads monthly (i.e. $11.99/month). This means $6 per album. Amazon sells most of their MP3s at $7-10 per album with no required subscription. I can get my music legally elsewhere.
I do not fit into eMusic’s new business model.
I could care less if the selection is broadened when my plan is cut in half. If eMusic didn’t already have what I wanted, then I wouldn’t have subscribed, much less bumped up the subscription plan. Thanks for nothing. Now, where is that exit door…
I’ve been an emusic subscriber since the ‘good old days’ of unlimited downloads. When emusic put an end to that I was a bit disappointed, but I stayed on because the new subscription plan was still an excellent value. When I was bumped unilaterally by emusic to a more expensive plan (from 40 downloads/mo @ $9.99 to 50 downloads/mo at $11.99) that was OK because it still reflected an excellent value. But this new, exciting, wonderful, life altering, best-thing-that’s-ever-happened-to-you plan is, to put it gently, bull excrement! I and many of my co-subscribers are at emusic specifically for the kinds of music that you can’t find on the major labels. It seems that Mr. Stein has either struck a deal with the devil or has been overwhelmed by greed or perhaps a generous amount of both. Slashing our download allotment by at least 40% (which is the equivalent of a 67% PRICE INCREASE) is absolutely shameful. Have you no decency Mr. Stein? In your own small way you have elevated yourself to the status of robber baron. I hope that you’re suitably proud of yourself!
You’ve offered your subscribers, who have been supporting emusic all these years, a slap in the face which you have the gall to label a gift. Some present! Emusic and you Mr. Stein earn this month’s Golden BOHICA award (if you’re not familiar with it Mr. Stein just follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/34on9u).
very very disappointing. when the new subscription model starts up, i will stop, plain and simple. sony can keep there back catalog, it doesnt interest me.
With this change I get to pay more for less than 1/2 the amount of downloads, and i only started using emusic in the fall, the was no grandfathering for me, i have just been plain let down. bye bye emusic it was fun while you treated your customers well.
aaaa
It’s likely that this suggestion is so far into this thread that no one at eMusic will ever read it, but I need to mention it anyway. MANY of your subscribers, including myself, are content with our current plans and your current offerings. Why not leave our plans alone, both in terms of price and what is available to us? Then you can jack up the subscription plans of anyone who his interested in the Sony catalog.
I think it’s strange that eMusic will be charging US much more because THEY decided to violate their mission to offer independent music.
Wow! A $30 increase per year for 6 less downloads a month. Fail! All for the dubious pleasure of the Sony back catalogue which I can access from a bunch of other places already. No thanks.
i hope my new account comes with a big, fat, juicy ROOTKIT. The #1 invention for the everyday music lover.
I think andrew said it best “If I wanted big(ger) labels at a higher price, would I be *here?” first my answer: NO. Let me describe the average emusic subscriber (sorry to offend the few people who dont fit into this), emusic subscribers are: people that dont want to pay lots of money for music but want the artists of good music to make money, like to listen to new music daily and could burn through way more downloads if they had the money, and finally are people who could care less about or already have all of the back catalog albums that we couldnt find here.
how about we keep our current plan and pricing and you charge us two credits for “label music”? I am still finding great stuff all the time to burn my downloads on, and i can barely make it half a month with any remaining, with that now cut in half i will get to enjoy less great “independent music”, <- which is the reason i joined. this is an independent music site, your subscribers subscribe because emusic is affordable and efficent at providing great “independent” music! thank you so much for your service, please dont change…ever!
I am also extremely displeased with this 40% increase in price. I will be seriously re-evaluating my membership.
I really fail to see any upside to the new pricing scheme. What, so you cut my monthly downloads in half and then try to divert my attention with the absurd debate over indie/non-indie labels? In addition to being a music fan, I am also a consumer, and I am not so thrilled about having my subscription price doubled in order to subsidize people who want to download Sony artists. These people can get an iTunes account or a library card. Terrific- I get to download the entirety of the Springsteen catalogue. Who cares? Bruce Springsteen has not put out a good record since 1982. Way to go- you are doubling my monthly fees so I can be 30 years behind. I’m going to just start stealing all my online music like everybody else- nice work emusic.
I’m pretty annoyed now. I think adding the family of Sony labels is fine in theory. I have no problem with it not being “indie” with the definition of “indie music” shifting so much in the past 10 years. My biggest problem is the increase in price. I didn’t sign up for eMusic 5 years ago so I could download Born To Run, it’s my favorite album ever, but I already own it on Vinyl, CD, Deluxe Re-Issue CD and DVD set, and as a download. It seems that eMusic is viewing adding the Sony catalog as a “privilege” that we should have to pay about 40% more for our subscriptions now. I’m seriously re-evaluating my subscription to see if this “privilege” is worth the price now?
I’m Free
eMusic has become like a second job, with 65 tracks a month to find at 18.5 cents each with a grandfathered yearly commitment. I spent hours searching eMusic every week. If I did back down to fewer downloads a month it would still cost the same each month I’d just get fewer downloads, so I couldn’t stop.
Now I’m free, thank you eMusic, now I can stop, I think I’ll use the extra time to play with my kids
As I see it this is not merely a question of relationships, this is a matter of law. When we were told that if we maintained our accounts they would not change, we were not just told a nice story.
It was a contractual, binding statement.
Given that they are unilaterally breaking this contract, the most straightforward response must be a class-action lawsuit.
Where good sense does not bring them around, perhaps litigation will.
I think a better option would have been to say, “Hey, we’re adding a 4-letter word that begins with S! Guess who? If you want their stuff, it’ll cost you two credits instead of one!”
I could easily live with an option like that. On my 100 song plan. But cutting said plan in half and charging me more for it? Are you going to pay Dischord more per song now? Because those guys really, really deserve to be paid more. They work hard, have a much more friendly business model, and have an almost psychic way of knowing exactly what music I’d like to listen to next. Yes, I buy from eMusic in part because it’s inexpensive, but also because I could perform one-stop music shopping for local bands and other indie bands, not to mention obsessively indulging my addiction to swing jazz to my heart’s content, plus I figured you were paying the little guy decently. Now a big gun comes on and you cut my plan and charge me more? Am I now underwriting someone who thinks they deserve more, when my favorite labels won’t get more? I understand that you want to offer more music options. But this isn’t the way to do it.
On the positive side – it’s never too late to change back! How about giving us this option and I swear I’ll spend two credits I would usually spend on two bands I want to listen to, to buy one song from those other guys, just to prove it’s possible.
Danny,
First off, I struck a one-year deal for $115 and you want to raise the price and give me less before the year is out. Bad form.
Second, I have all the Springsteen and Simon & Garfunkel I need, thank you very much.
Bad move.
I agree with most of the feedback here. 3 years member and major emusic advocate. I tried to convince everyone I knew to join, and many did. I never even remembered to collect credits for recommending them, I just wanted people to enjoy the experience like I did. I’m very disappointed in these changes and am probably going to cancel. I loved emusic for the Independent music, and a price point that encouraged me to take risks and discover new and interesting music daily. This feels disrespectful to long term supporters/ subscribers.
As a musician myself, i’m all about supporting the artist. But the artists know what they’re getting paid when they sell their music to different outlets. Many musicians realize that giving out their music for cheap will actually bring in more revenue for themselves. Bring in eMusic: For me it was the discovery of music, many of the times the discovery made me go out and support the artist with more of my money. This price hike will be the fall of emusic, im out when my yearly subscription finishes.
Extremely saddened, but all good things must come to an end I suppose. My only regrets is that I was only able to enjoy this site for 2 years.
here lies emusic.
b. 2000?
d. 2009
Count me among the pissed off. A 30% price rise, for 30% reduced service, so that eMusic can deliver what I (and clearly lots of others) don’t want, and can’t even access if I did. Yes, it feels like a bait and switch.
I’ve cancelled my subscription.
I was just listening to an album I D/L from eMusic as I began reading this thread. I’ve been a member since all-you-can-eat pricing. I love taking a chance on a band because I could afford to, and then showing up at their show because I loved them and they rocked.
I buy major labels somewhere else for a lot more money and when the indie goes major I still buy their album, their talent has gotten someone’s attention. But I find new bands at eMusic and D/L their album, buy their t-shirt and talk them up because of eMusic. The major releases will push the new bands off the front page, no point sticking around. I hope a new site will take the place of what eMusic was, my money will go to them.
I work for a Disney-owned company with a subscriber-based, online service…we’ve got around 500k subscribers, and even our most ill-received content — in the often highly polarizing green/environmental space — has never garnered more than 100 comments.
So I’m happy to see this large chorus of displeased customers like me who’ve found out they’ll be getting 50 downloads instead of 90 for the same price. I’ve been a subscriber since December 2003, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed eMusic. But I can’t stomach paying the same price for so much less, especially when it’s insultingly passed off as a benefit to me.
My account re-ups for one last time in a couple days; I’ll be canceling after I use up my last batch of downloads.
Thanks for the past 5 years…
-Mike
The fact that I was grandfathered into the 50 songs/month for $11.99 plan kept me from quitting. I knew I would never be able to get that plan again, so I never considered leaving. Otherwise, my behavior would be to come and go as a customer as I pleased. I have already collected way more tracks than I have had time to truly appreciate. You have given me a great freedom to stop for a while and catch up with some of the great stuff I’ve accumulated since 2006.
Then in a few months, I’ll consider joining again to grab some more stuff. You have the right to do whatever you wish with your rate plans. Just thought I’d point out that you’ve just took away one of the “switching costs” that had forced me to stick with my membership.
Please take the following survey regarding the recent eMusic policy changes. Yes, these surveys are informal, but hopefully this will help make a difference:
Cut & paste the URL is the link does not work. I will publish the results once I accumulate a substantial number of responses
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Nsomf8fqad7WFXpDJXSebA_3d_3d
So does the increase in price mean that all the damaged songs that have been removed from albums already available due to customer complaints in the past are now going to finally be re-ripped and posted so that those albums can once again be available in their entirety?
I’m not holding my breath.
Quality control, people. If you up the price, up the service.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said? Not much.
I’m sad and I feel abused and shafted.
eMusic execs should be VERY nervous right about now. Over 1200 m
I wrote to eMusic about their reneging on their 2006 promise that “Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing.” That’s a pretty clear, unambiguous promise. And a lot of us subscribed because of it.
Here’s the “screw you” answer I got today:
“The changes to your account are in accordance with eMusic’s Terms of Use, which contains a legal explanation of why this is so. To put it in plain language, the Terms of Service (which all customers must agree with upon joining) allow us to make changes to any and all plans, with ‘material’ changes requiring a 30 day notice. The homepage announcement and details page constitute that notice.”
In other words: “That ‘guarantee’ was just sales bullshit — we can’t believe you fell for it! Truth is, we’ll promise you anything, take your money, and then change the deal in our favor when we feel like it! Good luck, sucker — you shoulda read the fine print!”
Reason enough right there not to renew. Sorry i have to leave eMusic with such a bad taste in my mouth. But lying to your customers just doesn’t cut it. I’m outta here.
Like others, if I’d wanted these labels in the first place, I’d have gone with iTunes.
I was happy with the original selection and as others have said, am unbelievably irritated that I need to pay more for the same music so that other people can have ‘their’ labels.
I’ve referred a lot of people to this site, and now regret it. Like most of the others here, I’m probably going to cancel my subscription when this goes into effect.
As others have said, by all means charge more for the more expensive music. Give two levels of membership, our ‘indie’ level we’ve all loved, and the ‘mainstream’ level, for more money. But don’t punish me for someone else’s mainstream sensibilities.
I agree – this stinks. I’ve been a long time subscriber who has talked up emusic many times to others as THE place to find great music at a reasonable cost. My 90/month plan let me explore new artists relatively free of monetary concerns. No More. What about the grandfathered price promise? For now, I’m wavering between canceling altogether and dropping down to the lowest number plan just so I can still get a album a month of something that I really want – which won’t be the mainstream stuff that I came here to avoid. Another thought – I always felt secure that If I had I crash that I could re-download the songs that I’d already bought – do those of us contemplating canceling need to start making backups because we’ll loose that access?
Well, like all good things… This one’s coming to an end. I was hoping that eMusic would remain as it was. Fair prices and an RIAA-free zone. I’ve went out of my way to keep my money out of the RIAA’s hands since they started suing the pants off of anybody and everybody, several years ago. I haven’t illegally downloaded any RIAA music either. I’ve just refused to buy it.
Let me give you this example: After pre-ordering the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss album “Raising Sand” on the Rounder label, which I thought was an actual indie label, I called & cancelled that order after I discovered they were affiliated with the RIAA. I am that serious about not giving my money to the RIAA.
By allying yourself with RIAA labels, you’re becoming part of the machine responsible for not only the exploitation of artists, (for more on this, check out the article by producer Steve Albini, here: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/albini.html) but you’re also forcing me to give money to these extortionists.
And I’m not willing to do that.
These are the bad guys. These are the guys who have sued old ladies for downloading “gangsta rap”, dead people, and basically anyone else whose name they’ve plucked out of thin air. They’ve financially ruined people and taken kids’ college funds. Look it up. You’ll discover it’s fact. And it’s not a couple of isolated incidents, it was rampant. They don’t care who they step on as long as they can squeeze money out of someone. Anyone. Guilt or innocence doesn’t matter.
And that’s not my only concern. How long before eMusic becomes just another iTunes clone? How long before the price jumps up even more? How long before you begin crippling your music with DRM? To me, this seems like just the beginning of a slippery slope.
I’ve always been a jazz and “outsider” music kinda guy. So eMusic was a natural fit for me. You might make a few extra bucks, but I know for a fact there are more like me who would rather cancel their subscription than be part of the big machine.
I would like to thank you for letting me discover and buy so much great music in the last few years I’ve been a steady member. I’ve roughly doubled my jazz & indie rock sections since joining. It was a great resource for me. I saddens me that I can no longer in good conscience remain a member after the new changes take effect.
So thanks for everything, but I guess I’m done at the end of the month.
Please take the following survey regarding the recent eMusic policy changes. Yes, these surveys are informal, but hopefully this will help make a difference:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Nsomf8fqad7WFXpDJXSebA_3d_3d
Kistaro and Ryan Schade are right. You’re forgetting that we’re only willing to put up with the inconvenience of a subscription model if the pricing is right. The old pricing is just right for music discovery. You have to download a bunch of stuff each month or lose it, but then again, if you don’t like it, no big deal.
Once the price goes up, though it will still be less per download than Amazon or iTunes, it will still be just as inconvenient as ever, and it will be a bigger deal if you don’t like something. Amazon and iTunes are a la carte (and now DRM free) and they don’t require you to schedule time to spend time digging through stuff whether or not it’s convenient that month. So, between the lack of flexibility and whatever your time is worth to you, eMusic is really no longer less expensive. It’s no longer a good option for music discovery (particularly with more mainstream stuff on offer, unless you do a VERY good job editorially). And it’s still an inconvenient subscription model.
I’ll be around until Feb when my subscription runs out, and watching with interest. But the chances of my renewing are really pretty slim.
Well, like all good things – I guess this one’s coming to an end.
It’s not just about the money. It’s about you guys allying yourselves with the RIAA. The RIAA has sued old ladies for downloading “gangsta rap”, dead people, taken kids’ college funds away from them, and caused plenty of innocent people legal and financial hardship. Not just a few isolated incidents, but it was rampant. Look it up. It’s fact. They are the bad guys, and you are becoming part of the machine.
And not only do they screw their customers, they screw their artists that they claim to care so much about. Look up Steve Albini’s “The Trouble With Music” article, and you’ll learn plenty. Albini’s no flash-in-the-pan, either. He’s a veteran producer of some of the biggest names in rock.
Ever since the RIAA began extorting the innocent, I have made it a point to keep my money out of their hands. Let me give you this example: I preordered Robert Plant & Allison Krauss’ “Raising Sand” album on what I thought was an indie, the Rounder label. After I discovered it was an RIAA label, I cancelled my order. I’m that serious about not funding the litigation of innocent people by the RIAA.
I’ve not downloaded anything illegally, but I have only purchased music from non-RIAA labels. And I’ve bought LOTS. If I continue to be an eMusic member, I will be giving my money to the RIAA machine whether I download anything produced by them or not. I’m sure you guys pay a flat sort of fee to the RIAA labels that doesn’t depend on what label someone actually downloads from. You’re making me choose between being a customer, and my conscience. Sorry, but my conscience wins.
And those aren’t my only concerns. How long before the price jumps even more? How long before we get DRM-crippled files? How long before eMusic is just another iTunes clone? It seems like the beginning of a slippery slope.
eMusic used to be above that. Those times are apparently over. You may make a few bucks with your new strategy, but I know there are others like me who will feel obligated to cancel.
I’ve been a very happy customer for a few years now. And I’ve recommended eMusic to everyone. I’m sad to say that at the end of the month, I will have to cancel my subscription.
I haven’t read all the responses to this yet — I was on vacation last week, and this is still breaking news to me — so pardon me if anything I have to say is redundant (and awfully wordy!).
After giving myself a day to breathe and think about this in a rational way I have to say that I am not as surprised or concerned as others may be about the price increase. Yes, I will miss my 200 DLs a month at $.25 a track. I am semi-pleased to be semi-grandfathered into a 100 DL plan that is not generally offered. The per-track price difference between my new plan and 50-boosters is narrower, so there is actually more incentive (not less) to add a couple of boosters each month to keep up my 200 crack — er, I mean, track — habit. I know I’ll be paying $90 a month this way, rather than the $50 I have been paying. Still, that’s a massive discount compared to the days when I was buying plastic. I realize that this is not a comfortable price point for a lot of people…. but reflecting on my own spending on music since the days of vinyl, I know that I have been spending well above that figure each month for at least 20 years now. Why? Because listening to music for me isn’t just an idle hobby… it’s a passion, it’s an integral part of my being. And eMusic has served that part of my being very well for almost a decade now. I still have hopes that it will continue to do so.
eMusic is so far ahead of the competition in terms of having a platform for discovering new music and interacting with other people who are equally as passionate about music. I used to spend hours upon hours browsing racks of records & CDs in local record stores… hell, I used to drive out of my way to hit special places (like Plan 9 in Richmond and Charlottesville, VA) on road trips. While those places have been steadily dying off, and my buying has pretty much transitioned to all-digital, eMusic is the closest thing online to what used to be the fabulous funky indie record store. Just without the dust bunnies, free stickers by the register and great posters taped up willy-nilly on the walls. What made those stores great was that they were usually run and staffed by people who love music.
Go to Borders, Best Buy or Walmart… and those people couldn’t give a crap about whether you came up to the register with Surfer Rosa (if even available because of the non-family-friendly boobie art) or a package of Fruit Of The Looms. Same goes for Amazon and iTunes, which actually seem designed to stifle the discovery of something other than what they’ve been paid to actively promote. I still want this music discovery experience and the sort of “in the know” camaraderie that goes along with it to remain alive forever. The fact is: In 2009 record stores and CDs are dead… eMusic still lives.
I think the question of major vs. indie is largely irrelevant… and ignores the fact that there are also “major indies” like Merge and Matador, whose new releases on eMusic routinely go straight to the top of the charts… because they are on Merge or Matador! But great music has been released on every sort of label, large and small. But all things being equal… THINGS ARE NOT EQUAL!! This is where my most significant concerns come in about the bargain with the Devil… er, I mean, major label Sony… that eMusic has made.
Anybody who has a radio or has set foot inside a Barnes & Noble knows that music sales and tastes are not shaped by the inherent quality of the product… but by the promotional heft (I would even say payola grease) of the corporations selling the product. These companies know that the vast majority of people who are even willing to pay for music are going to buy at most 1-3 CDs a year. And they are going to spend millions of dollars to make sure that Justin Timberlake or Beyonce or U2 get as much exposure as possible, and their new albums are going to be among those three. OK, that’s fine…. let the people have what they want. It’s a parallel universe of celebrity culture and stupid rich people that is very easy to ignore.
Fortunately, there is probably more great, quality, intelligent music being made and released now than ever. It does not have the backing of mega-bucks to put it in every toddler and tween’s ear. That’s cool… it’s not for them anyway. I like my music to be grown up and say ‘FUCK’ if it wants to. However, even in the all-indie world of our dear old eMusic, paid-for promotional forces have clearly been at work. I don’t think those little ads that appear all over the site or in email blasts are there for free. It is a business after all.
I do, however, think the editorial content of the site has integrity (that is, not paid for by record companies), but it does bother me that it seems to be bandwagonesque (thanks, TF) at times, which may just be a result of cliquish music critic culture. Or to put it another way, it strikes me as a cog in what I call the “hype machine” that is also part of most well-off labels’ marketing plan. Don’t ask me how this works… if I did, then the excellent record I helped finance and promote last year (available on eMusic… shortlisted for a Grammy even!) might have sold more than a few hundred copies and not lost me thousands of dollars. (Obviously, I did not hang out in the right bars in New York. Hell, I never even set foot in New York… or Chicago… or LA! Lesson learned.)
What I’m hoping is that the increased plan pricing benefits all artists and labels, not just the major label(s) that come on board. But what I’m afraid of is that it will benefit the big labels more. With fewer downloads available to subscribers and the likes of Bruce Springsteen suddenly in the catalog, the big names are going to grab the lion’s share of diminished credits (I tell you, just watch the charts in July and you will know I am right). For most subscribers — even for the avid music nut jobs among us — very little will be left for experimentation and buying a record by a band that most people have never heard of. The little labels clearly lose in this scenario.
I have been very comfortable of late using my 200 download credits on eMusic to stock up on the great indie releases of the month and discover a few new things… and buying the one or two major label releases I may care about (like the new Doves or Bob Dylan albums) on Amazon MP3. So now let’s say the new Bob Dylan album — which is on Columbia, a Sony label — had been released on eMusic as well (this is just an example… I know it is not the type of back catalogue stuff Sony will be offering). Do I spend approx. $5 to get it here or $9 to get it on Amazon? OK, with booster packs, and a per-track cost that is still lower than Amazon… and if more stuff that I would usually buy on Amazon were to show up here… then for me, the answer would probably be yes, buy it on eMusic. But will I, or most people, spring for extra booster packs each month? I think probably not. Will I, or most people, hesitate before taking a “risk” on something unknown? I think probably yes. I’d prefer not to have this dilemma!!!
I suspect that eMusic will be promoting the heck out of the major label stuff… on the site and in their own marketing (the way they did with Paul McCartney)… in an effort to gain subscribers… which is what this is ALL really about. Maybe it will work… kinda… but the message boards will have thousands of more trolls wondering why not-on-Sony major-label-act is not on this swindleee site! And those of us loyal, long-time subscribers will be rolling our eyes and cursing. Some will probably even quit… that is, until they come back.
Let’s just hope that eMusic’s “mainstreaming” quest for new subscribers does not trump its indie-music-loving roots, the artists who will no longer have top billing around here, and its merry band of loyal, loud-mouthed eMus.
I doubt that this price increase is a direct result of the catalogue expansion. A change in online music sales has been in the wind ever since iTunes nixed DRM and made their price points variable. I’ve been waiting to see how this would effect Emusic since then.
I am far more interested in Emusic’s position on:
1. How they went about notifying customers of a major pricing overhaul. I assume using only the website, and not emailing, was meant to stagger out feedback; customers will respond when they next go to download something, rather than as soon as they read their email. Regardless, it gives the whole operation a sneaky, backdoor feel. Emusic has our emails; use them.
2. The allegations that they’ve reneged on the guarantee they gave us all in 2006. While their terms for our behavior (“good standing”) are somewhat vague, the terms for their side of the agreement are quite clear: the plan is guaranteed.
3. The extent of the rate increase. Based on the math many of you have done here already, my rate per track will more than double. To be fair, I am understanding of some price increase over time regardless of a guarantee, however, the extreme nature of this increase has left me incredulous.
4. Their explanation of new price plans seems intentionally confusing. My notification tells me what I will pay every 180 days, rather than the typical 1 year or 30 day pay periods, and does not provide the cost per track that is always listed on the Upgrade page. That omission is very telling. If I want to know the price per track and the difference I will pay, I have to do some math.
5. Their handling of the negative feedback thus far. The sole forum post (that I have seen at least) addressing these concerns has managed to gloss over many of them. I’d prefer no customer service response to one that gives me little to no valuable information.
My continued subscription depends heavily on how they will respond to and handle these concerns. My customer service inquiries in the past have been overwhelmingly poorly handled, so I’m not optimistic, and yet I’m still a customer here because I like the subscription model. The point: keeping me as a loyal customer is much easier than losing me, but they’re well on their way.
Well it’s several days since my previous note. I’m glad to see that I’m to be grandfathered into something that is slightly better than what is available to new subscribers (I will get 30 per month at a rate for which new subscribers will get 24). I’m still not happy about the change, but will give it a try for a couple of months. After having been a subscriber since 2002, I’d miss my subscription.
Another quick note: if you’re looking for a way to blow off some steam and exact some revenge, take it out of their cost for customer service upkeep.
The cost per call for customer service makes a huge dent in major corporations’ profit. Tie up those phone lines for a little bit with some inane questions: 866-240-9271 Monday – Friday between the hours of 9 AM and 9 PM EST
Well, after waiting a week to see if things simmered down, I have decided to cancel my membership. Sorry Billy Joel, but I’m not willing to pay twice as much for you. As Amanda said I could understand a partial increase in cost, but sneakily doubling the prices is below the belt.
Same as the other 1000 something comments, don’t care about the “new” old stuff, I care about prices being doubled. Keep I’m cancelling next month, I’ve been here since the unlimited downloads time.
Late to the party, I’m just reading the news now. I was genuinely excited by the additional content — I really don’t care where the music comes from, good music is good music. Then I saw how many tracks a month I was going to be losing. Like so many people have already said, I’m furious. I’ve been with this service for a very long time, recommended countless people here, and championed its model as being the best blend of subscription and download. Now I’m not so sure. As others have mentioned, too, the deal is still better than getting music from the other major online retailers, but is that enough? Presently, if I’m curious about an artist and I like one track I don’t hesitate to download the entire album — maybe it’ll all be awesome, maybe not. I could afford to take the chance. Now… And that kills a lot of what I loved about eMusic. Will I continue? I’m on the fence, but leaning towards not. I wish there was a better grandfathering-in plan. I understand why eMusic made this Faustian bargain, but when all shakes out I can’t help but feel like they chose poorly.
I never thought I’d do this, but I may actually go back to Rhapsody…
Danny,
You asked an irrelevant question in an attempt to distract us from the major shift in focus that the company has taken.
Music is music, and I like to listen to music. For 8 years, I’ve been coming to eMusic to download music I couldn’t find elsewhere legally. I started back when ska was still popular, though waning, and discovered a wide variety of new music since then. I remember the days of all-you-can-eat – no download limit, no pay structure (because everyone paid the same amount). Some people abused it, downloading everything that the site had to offer simply to boast the biggest collection possible, but most of us d/l’d what we were interested in.
I’m now on a plan that gives me 65 d/l’s a month and I pay something like $130 a year. My new plan – if I keep my membership, which is unlikely – cuts my d/l’s to 24 per month. I don’t want Sony to be a part of eMusic if it means that I’ll pay 2.5 times as much, but I don’t have a choice. Or, I guess that I do – to join the exodus out of eMusic’s wreckage.
So yeah, I’ll prolly give you 2 months to win me over with the new plans and offerings. I’ll at least use that “Free” booster pack, so I can get 39 songs in a month for the same price I was getting 65. But once I snap out of it, where do I go? Maybe we’re stuck here afterall. I’m not buying CD’s, iTunes is still twice as expensive, I don’t want to steal the music…So fellow emusic refugees, what other sites can we turn to for options?
just used the last of my 100/$24.99 and I canceled.
I’m sad, but the last week has proved to me that you just don’t give a shit about your customers. With these kind of Customer Service skills, it appears to me that eMu was on borrowed time from the start.
And I loved you so much.
A$$holes.
Ongoing survey results now available. Survey open until June 15. Take a minute to contribute:
http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2009/06/09/emusic-customer-survey-poll-and-results/
This is ssssssssssssssssssssooooo sad… I’ve been an eMusic customer since 2000, yeah 9 years in a row.. I spent more dollars here than anywhere on the internet… I increase my montlhy plan to 100 credits because fits perfect to me…
But now eMusic cut my plan to 50% what it means that I have 50 credits a month, and some albums have 25-30 tracks this is not more interesting to me, I can’t get even only 2 albums in a single month.. this is a shame…
I’m pretty sure that I’m leaving eMusic, with a pain in my heart because I really love this place… 9 years eMusic.. 9 years and you gave me this in change..???
I feel compelled to give my opinion since it seems almost every other member has. I’m in the minority here. Member since 2004, basic plan 30 for $11.99. My plan didn’t change. Cool. I was having a problem spending my 30 downloads each month anyway since most of what’s recommended to me on emusic is to my ears, “crap”. Sure I’ve discovered some nice electronic music, some jazz, discovered the Weepies and Adele and a few others but nothing I wouldn’t have found somewhere else. I usually spend mine on the few popular artists that emusic carries and sample a few things here and there with considerably mixed results. As some other members have said here, my taste is more mainstream. I’m only looking to supplement my collection with a few indies who also wade into the mainstream. So this deal makes sense to me. I get to pick some older stuff from the mainstream labels for the same price I always paid and now I can use the majority of my downloads each month on music I actually LIKE. I’ve downloaded just about everything I can find that I might want on emusic and was really ready to cancel anyway. I’m tired of sifting through the rubbish in the vitual cutout bins at my “corner record store” (emusic) to find something I might like. This deal makes sense for me and I bet there are more out there who feel the same. Seriously – I am sorry for you guys who are getting hosed in the deal and alot of you really are getting hosed. But face it, things change. For ME personally, it looks like it this may work out. If not, I can quit and spend my $12 bucks at Amazon or iTunes. No hard feelings.
I’ve been here since 06 – this will only hurt smaller bands. I’m out.
From an earlier interview by David Pakman (bring him back)
DAVID PAKMAN: Well, the music industry is basically all-indie all-the-time now. The independent labels are producing the most interesting music, growing in market share (while the majors continue to shrink), and catering to a diverse set of customers. The majors have really become companies focused only on mainstream pop and rap and selling music to teens, who, by the way, have been buying less and less music every year for the last five years. So there is a disconnect at the majors and the indies are exploiting it. Rock has exploded again, thanks to the indies, and eMusic is the one service that really helps you navigate all the great music to be found.
Knowing this why would you take on a crappy major label, stick to your niche.
eMusic has lost it’s way AND they now treat customers poorly (like a major label would)
Inclusion of mainstream corporate music AND a significantly higher subscription price? This really breaks my heart. I have been a loyal customer and huge fan of emusic for years. Now they tell us our beloved service is selling out its (and OUR) principles AND raising the price. Mr. Stein, now more than ever, the distinction between independent and mainstream music DOES matter. It really seems that emusic has lost its way. I don’t know if I can accept this. It’s really sad. I guess they weren’t making enough money…
To #1245 above, Marty:
You appear to be the breed of customer Emusic expects to join to make up for the exodus of prolific downloaders; while you have a casual interest in music, it’s hardly a habit that you have to support. There’s nothing wrong with that (and if anyone insists differently, I don’t want to hear the elitism, sheesh), however it’s not an attitude that represents the Emusic community at large.
The majority here, we who DO have a music habit, are the ones who have helped make Emusic into the success story it has become. We’ve bought a wide variety of music that interests us at an affordable price for years, and in return we’ve been loyal customers who talk up Emusic to our friends.
Now that an opportunity exists to hone in on a chunk of iTunes’ market share, we, the loyal customers, feel we’re being left out to dry. We’ve been loyal, yet the price we were each “guaranteed” is void. The new catalogue expansion gives casual listeners, such as yourself, more incentive to buy a subscription, and so Emusic will be less reliant, therefore cater less to, their original clientele.
A decent amount of music-holics buying in bulk isn’t as good as a lot of casual listeners buying in small subscriptions. So, Marty, I get why you’re not peeved, but I hope you understand why so many of us are.
I’ll give it a couple months, but this new direction doesn’t sit well with me. I feel like you are not living up to our agreement that we entered into together. Grandfather my old plan in and we’re square. You are not offering this. Thus I will probably take my money and leave.
Classical!
It was always about classical!
I wasn’t here for indie music.
Sony has nothing I want.
But then, it’s really not about Sony, is it?
If E-music — which is the site I check first thing every morning — had told its members about its money problems, if it had tried to come up with another plan, if it had even proposed higher rates without this “we need mainstream” nonsense, I think the members would have understood.
I would pay more to keep the account I have.
I would be glad to keep a “Classical Only” account.
This way, I gain nothing and lose big.
Billy Joel be damned
If there is any other music site is out there, considering providing an e-music-like service, please note the number of people ready to bail.
Oh, and one more little tidbit of goodness… Sony CEO Michael Lynton, was quoted as saying: “I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the internet. Period.” You can google it to find the whole story.
Not to mention that incident a couple of years ago where Sony was found guilty of putting malware on customers’ computers via a rootkit in their music CDs. Look on Wikipedia for the whole story.
(I tried posting this with links to the actual articles, but it was flagged as spam. )
And eMusic is doing business with these crooks?!?!?! Seriously. WTF?!?!
I’m considering bailing. Who needs Billy Joel and the other mainstream crap? And we’re going to pay more now and get fewer downloads. This is a huge disappoiintment.
I’ve been an eMusic subscriber/recommender almost from Day 1. The attraction was *precisely* because I got access to independent/small label/eclectic music. No interest in major labels, or DRM, or any of the other easily-replicable commodity junk. So I’m…
a) deeply disappointed in the planned change, and (more importantly)
b) sorry to see eMusic throw away it’s unique niche.
As a result–and painfully–I’m canceling my membership (I never thought of it as a “subscription,” but more like a community). Once again, ‘short-term greedy’ trumps a smarter business model. Too bad Finance is now running the company (and can we spell General Motors).
What a shame.
I emailed customer service and got nowhere. eMusic, you are making a huge mistake. I will download my last 50 tracks in June and then I’m OUT. Did any of your execs think about asking your CUSTOMERS?
I am not happy with this change at all. I will give it a try for one month, but It is HIGHLY unlikely I will continue with my subscription after that. I really don’t care about Sony on eMusic. I am here for the indie artists, and don’t appreciate being forced to subsidize the availability of a major label.
What’s the bullshit about major vs. indie — something to distract people from the face you’re nearly doubling your prices? Nice try.
IF IT WAS METALBLADE RECORDS, INSTEAD OF SONY, I WOULD CONSIDER STAYING ON. BUT TO ADD ALL THAT CRAPPY MUSIC FROM AMERICAN IDOL AND BILLY JOEL AND THE LIKE. BILLY JOELS LATER STUFF SUCKS THE BIG ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
long-time subscriber echoing most of the ‘bad, bad idea’ reactions above, in case anyone at emusic is counting. gripes in particular: the effective price hike and the impact it would have on my discovery of new bands. (and sony, eh, no thanks.)
until now it seemed like emusic understood their subscriber-base… will also probably drop now.
I loved the randomness of the original eMusic as much as I hate you right now. Let’s face it, I might end up swallowing this crap but I also might just switch to another service where I don’t feel like I’m getting screwed.
You could have at least figured out a plan to grandfather people who already bought into what you were selling.
Not happy.
You know, i have loved the cheap prices, too. and there are things I’ve taken a chance on at 20 cents times 15 tracks that i may not at 41 cents. But i’ve also been aware that the indy musicians I am enjoying are not getting all that much out of this deal. If the artists will be getting an equivalent slice of the pie as they’ve been getting (ie their “take home’” will double along with my price), I’m generally willing to pay a bit more. It’s still a good deal. And the Album Pricing is a GREAT step in that regard.
I agree with some other commenters that I hope your editorial content will continue to be primarily, if not exclusively, aimed at indy folks and those great thematic collections that sometimes open up archival material in a way i never would have found. keep all that up and you’ll keep this customer satisfied!
Wow. I think some of the other folks have said it best: “eMusic: how to piss people off.”
I understand it’s all business, and we all need to make a living – I’m in advertising, I’m helping to write the book on swindling folks – but this is a bit extreme, don’t you think?
I subscribed to your service for two reasons: 1)Your collection is (was) the best anywhere and 2)There was none of the “crap” to get in the way of me discovering truly DIFFERENT music, the kind you can’t find anywhere else. Beyond that, I’d like to believe that the model actually helped fledgling artists make money and get exposure; a win-win. Will young bands on small labels get the same cut as The Boss does for each subscriber or download?
I chose to subscribe to eMusic the way that I choose to shop at local grocers, drink local beer and support local music. Now I can no longer vote with my wallet, because my vote is a vote for the types of record labels that are flailing to stay relevant.
I’m not sure who all these subscribers were who “requsted major label titles for years” but I wasn’t one of them. Thankfully now those subscribers can all get that latest Shakira single the second it comes out and save themselves their third trip to the [insert big box store here] that day.
Thank you for not listening.
Bob Allen #1252:
“Not to mention that incident a couple of years ago where Sony was found guilty of putting malware on customers’ computers via a rootkit in their music CDs. Look on Wikipedia for the whole story.
(I tried posting this with links to the actual articles, but it was flagged as spam. )”
Me too. Twice, on different days last week. Both times, instead of posting, it said something like “Your post will appear after being approved by a moderator”. No problems posting unless it had the wikipedia URL. Other URLs were fine, other text, didn’t matter, but if it included the wikipedia URL it went to moderation.
Sometime later, though, someone posted something about what they were doing and I guess they removed the ban because someone did actually post the wikiedia URL. Still, shitty of them considering the PR woman said “We would never do that”
“Sometime later, though, someone posted something about what they were doing and I guess they removed the ban because someone did actually post the wikiedia URL. Still, shitty of them considering the PR woman said “We would never do that”
caalm down guy, this is a normal anti spammer precaution you have to have a certain amount of posts (on 17dots) for links to work. . . not everything’s a conspiracy just cause your pissed at it
Goodbye eMusic, it was fun while it lasted.
I wrote to customer service and this is the response I received:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting eMusic Customer Support,
We understand your concern and want to assure you that we truly value loyal customers like yourself and we are very grateful to you for staying with us this long. This is a big change, but not one that was made lightly. The new plans enable us to better compensate all of our labels, plus add new content from Sony starting in July, and even more new labels in the future. In order to offer you more content from Sony and other labels, we simply can no longer sustain the lowest cost plans that some members have, but we are pleased that we can still offer you prices at less than half the average price per download on iTunes and Amazon.
Many of you have expressed concern that eMusic is abandoning our focus on independent artists and becoming like “the big guys”. This is simply not true. We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic — and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it. As you know, we have an exceptionally talented staff of music editors who are excited to highlight the hidden gems in Sony’s deep catalog that will only compliment the collection of awesome and unusual tunes already in your eMusic collection.
So yes, while this is a big change, we believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term. We hope you will have patience and stay with us to enjoy all the new content coming soon.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at eMusic
“Truly value”? Empty words, my “friends” at eMusic (with friends like these…). Show me the money or, rather, the downloads. Preferably the same number I’ve had since I opened my eMusic account years ago. I’d even be willing to pay a bit more for the plan, just not 2 1/2 times as much. I’m also pretty pissed that I’m now getting the same “deal” that any 13-year-old who signs up today to download Outkast’s back catalogue gets. Fortunately, my account doesn’t roll over until November, so I should be able to clean out my Saved For Later folder by then. That shouldn’t be a problem as I don’t plan on downloading any of Sony’s stuff because I already have it, don’t want it, or will boycott it out of principle.
I think eMusic could take a lesson from one of its biggest champions: Paste Magazine (notice I didn’t say Pizza Hut; christ, that should have been a sign). As most folks know, Paste is struggling and is going from a monthly magazine to a bi-monthly (or so I’ve heard). They recently had a fundraising drive, to which I happily contributed. So it’s not that I’m mad about having to pay 40 cents per song, but rather it’s the way in which this was done. Paste has strived to make its subscribers a part of its changes; eMusic treats us as an afterthought. eMusic may claim to have thought about this long and hard, but that just sounds like more of the same double-speak we’ve all been hearing from them.
So, eMusic, I’ve been thinking long and hard, too, and I think our relationship is at an end. And perhaps you said it best: “So yes, while this is a big change, [I] believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term.”
Could be driving me away if the “expanded” catalog turns out to be fluff I am not interested in. I would like to see even more depth in the “world” music catalogs. There are lots more Indies that are being missed. I’ll take lots of chances at 25 cents. Not so sure at the higher pricing. There is a reason the majors are losing share. The music tends to be more homogenous (“commercial”).
A SOLUTION
Have two plans: one for the majors and one for the indies. And perhaps a hybrid if you want to access both. Then everyone should be happy. Looks like the proposed plan will be alienating many of us. Your marketing and stats departments will have to tell you what is best for your image and bottom line.
By the tone of a majority of the above replies, you guys should be taking a second look.
New pricing sucks and I didn’t see anything on your list of upgraded music I would ever buy. Just because you choose to add some new tunes, doesn’t mean I should pay almost double for my downloads.
To #1249 Amanda – just a quick reply. Totally get your eloquently stated argument and agree with you, except on the point that I don’t have a music habit. I have a 120 gigs is not big enough ipod and nearly 3 times that much music in my library which resides on an external drive that gets backed up to another drive regularly with the backup kept “off site”. I have a habit alright. I guess I’m just not as open minded as the rest of you guys to the indie scene. Went crazy downloading that stuff the first year or two with emusic then realized I wound up with alot of stuff that I just didn’t really like. I wanted to like it, really. So now I have a basic plan with emusic for experimenting and I grab what I really like or what’s new or stuff I don’t have off Amazon and Rhapsody MP3 (which I get free with Coke points).
Anyway, not to get too far off point – I hope that emusic can find a way to satisfy all of us, since we all obviously enjoy the service in our own way. And if Emu is “selling out” to Sony that’s not good for any of us going forward. Regards – MH
Wow, loyalty means absolutely nothing in today’s world. Whether it’s in the workplace or your seemingly cool music site. My suggestion is that we vote with our wallets. Maybe we should return to the struggling indy record store (while we still can) and buy vinyl that comes with free downloads of the album so we can have the best of both worlds.
Fuck sony, where’s SUB POP?
Sincerely,
former subscriber noah
How does emusic go so quickly from being soooooo awesome to absolute suck?
On top of that I’m genuinely shocked at how poorly emusic is handling this PR debacle (I mean the response — or rather, lack of response — after pissing off all its customers, not the initial pissing off). Who’s gonna get fired for this one?
The basic question: why is emusic suddenly so incompetent?
I have never posted to 17dots before.
Nergal (emusic corporate apologist based on his comments above) says “you have to have a certain amount of posts (on 17dots) for links to work”
Well here is a link. It is not a wikipedia link, just a link to cnn. Now, will this automatically post, or not? The last post visible right now (or when I loaded this page to be more accurate) was #1270. We’ll see.
http://www.cnn.com
So, you’re adding music I can get most anywhere else, and slowly- but surely- creeping the prices up to the same as elsewhere. (Don’t kid yourself, with album pricing, special packages and lowering of prices elsewhere, eMusic is not the bargain it used to be.)
Also, you’re forcing me into a plan that is almost half the value of the plan that I have had for years. I do appreciate the “grandfathering” you done in the past, but stopping it now make for a major reduction in the value of eMusic to me.
You can argue about “major” and “indie” if you like, but it comes down to this: eMusic was attractive because it featured, in one place, many interesting and unusual artist that were harder to find elsewhere, at that at a great value. The more you step away from that the more your core customer base is likely to step away from you. We *CAN* find this sort of the elsewhere, it may just take a little more searching; but when we do it can often be gotten inexpensively or even for free; or we can buy direct from the artist and know that he’s getting all or most of the money himself.
Retreating from us leaves you with the more mainstream customers, who have a number of other options for their music, many of which have a lot of other features and conveniences, even if the prices are a bit higher. (Which is not always the case.)
I’m sorry to see things go this way. I may not be tagging along.
So, I am forced to pay more than twice as much for the music I like in order to have garbage like Mariah Carey or George Michael in the catalog??? Big joke!!!
I’ll echo what many have already said – the value proposition has just gone done a lot for me and I’ll have to think hard about staying with a service I’ve really enjoyed.
Think it’s a bad move, but best of luck to you.
I already had the “good stuff”! I don’t care about the major labels, I come to this site to find the great little known bands. I have accounts with Napster, Itunes, Zune, and Wal-Mart for all of the rest. I currently hold two subscriptions: one for myself and one for my brother and I will be leaving immediatley.
goodbye emusic
This is a lousy way to treat loyal customers. The corner music store would know better.
“Hey kid, you want this big shiny nickel or this lousy little dime?”
See ya emusic.
SOLUTION #2
Have a point system. Sony and majors cost ya 4 points. Indies, and whatever you negotiate cost ya 2 points. So instead of tracks, you buy points. Then everyone gets what they want. You HAD a great plan, continue to be creative here to make this work for all of us (which means Emusic’s bottom line too).
So, you’re decreasing my current plan’s value by 33% for non-indie stuff I don’t even want to buy? Y’know what…if you offered a credit rollover feature alongside the price hike, I might’ve considered staying. But, at $0.40 a track, the emusic ‘use em or lose em’ plan structure just no longer works for me. Sorry Danny, at the end of this month’s subscription cycle I’m gone.
This is a really bad news. Music from major labels on Emusic is doing nothing but driving me away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming major labels, I buy lots of music from artists on thier labels. But, Emusic has been my main source for indy music for several years. Now, by introducing major labels and high prices, the value of my subscription has just been reduced by 2/3rds. I will be canceling my subscription, paying more for music elsewhere and in the end buying less music. So, with the cancelation of my subscription, a loss for Emusic. But, because I will be buying less, this means that I will only being buying music that I feel I will really enjoy. This means my purchases will probably be focused on smaller indie labels. So a loss for Emusic and a loss for the major labels.
Hmm, I don’t recall asking for major label content, and I definitely don’t recall begging to have my plan whacked in half for the privilege of having access to Bruce Springsteen or the Dixie Chicks. I’ve been a member since early 2004, and the time I spend each month browsing eMusic to find great undiscovered surprises is going to be a) diluted by a bunch of mainstream crap I already know about at b) twice the price I’m accustomed to. Gee, no thanks. I’ll be leaving the service when this change kicks in. I would actually feel more comfortable going back to illegally downloading the stuff I want than supporting eMusic as it climbs into bed with the major labels.
Let’s be clear: “major” and “indie” may not mean much as applied to the spirit in which an artist approaches the music, but “major” means a very specific thing when it is describing the label conglomerates who have helped ruin the music industry. I always took pride in supporting eMusic specifically because they were working with labels and artists who had reason to band together to find an innovative alternative to pushing product through Wal-Marts; obviously those days are over.
I personally am kind of excited about this. I can’t wait to finally download the back catalogs of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, etc. I am definitely disappointed to have to pay more for less, but there is no way to avoid that with this type of deal. Still better than itunes? Fuck yes, because it will still have the same staff hand-picking rare and off-beat musical gems. I can still review records, make recommendations and create my own playlists, and post comments to message boards! Please don’t quite it!!!
I won’t blather on but just wnated to add my name to the mix. I joined eMusic because the variety of indie label things I couldn’t find anywhere else. It allows me to try out new music without the big hit on something that is just not my taste. Now my cost per has more than doubled. I will not be renewing. For that cost I will go to Amazon or get it from a friend. So much for supporting the indie bands.
I am sad to see that emusic is changing the pricing plans for hard working loyal customers in this tough economic climate. I unfortunately will not be able to justify the new cost of this increase and will have to pass on the upgrade. We had a good run emusic and the original pricing plans were nice while they lasted.
Thanks for wrecking a good thing. I guess it’s Amazon for me.
Fred Pfisterer
Wow, this news BITES!
I’ve been a member since 2002 and I joined because I could find a LOT of cool world music and jazz that can’t be found easily (if at all) anywhere else. And frankly, that’s why I’ve stayed all these years.
I have no — read NO — interest in the Sony back catalog. If you want to excite me with back catalog news, then how about adding labels like ECM, or Universal Jazz Europe. Sony? Come on….you’re really going to charge everyone double for everything just so you can have Sony’s catalog on the site? It seems to me that you’ve lost site of your original mission. I realize the need to compete, but you sure stand to lose a lot of loyal subscribers.
Will I leave? I’m not sure yet. Am I happy? NO! Will I spend as much time on the eMusic site? NO! Will I recommend the site to others? Most likely, NO!
You guys have handled this quite poorly from what I’ve read through many of these posts and you’ve done precious little to calm folks down. If you’re making a mistake (and I think you are), the biggest piece of it is not communicating with those who have been your best customers up to this point.
Bad form, eMusic. Really bad form.
More non-response here.
http://www.emusic.com/about/pr/PR200961.html
Media Contacts:
Cathy Halgas Nevins
eMusic
212-201-9201 or cnevins@emusic.com
Claire Von Schilling
Sony Music Entertainment
212-833-8082
For Immediate Release
eMUSIC AND SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT STRIKE DEAL
Internet’s Corner Music Store to Sell Sony Catalog Starting in Q3
Hi Guys:
We’re still here and still listening.
We’ve developed a revised FAQ which we hope addresses some of your questions. It will be going live on the site soon, but we thought we’d post it here first.
We wish we had better answers about the price changes and we know it sucks, but it was inevitable for reasons Yancey outlined in his message board post.
The new FAQs are below.
Q: How will album pricing work?
A: We expect that album pricing will be available for most albums. Here’s how it will work: most titles will be available for 12 credits, regardless of the number of tracks. Some albums will be offered for less, either six or nine credits. Sometimes no discount will be offered, (in those cases, for example a 17 track album will cost 17 credits). Though album pricing is determined together with our partner labels, we’ll work to deliver the best deal possible for subscribers.
Initially album pricing may be limited to a select group of labels. We have to work with each label individually to make album pricing available so it may take a while before you see it as an option on releases from other labels, but trust us: we’re working feverishly to make that happen.
Q: Why not offer Sony label content at a premium price and leave independent labels’ music at current prices?
A: Keeping independent labels at current pricing would work against what we want to do: pay labels more. Higher payments make eMusic more attractive to labels both large and small, including the independent labels members that have been asking for. Sony happens to be the first label group added under the new pricing structure but the change was not made simply to attract Sony. Sony offered us the opportunity to add a significant catalog with wide appeal at a single stroke; we’re confident others will come soon. Our goal is to deliver a superior value on as much music as possible to our subscribers.
Q: Will you be adding some of the indies you don’t have, like Tzadik and Sub Pop?
A: We would very much like to add more independent labels to eMusic, and we are actively working to make that happen.
Q: Why are prices going up in the EU and Canada since you are not adding Sony catalogue for those customers?
A: The addition of the Sony catalog was not the driving force behind the price increase. As in the US, we are responding to the increased cost of doing business and expect the improved economics will help attract more labels to the service. We urge subscribers everywhere to stick with us and watch for changes.
Q: Why didn’t you give us more notice of the changes?
A: We made the announcement 30 days prior to when the price changes will go into effect. We wish we could have reached out to some of you earlier but that was not an option for a variety of reasons.
Cathy Halgas Nevins
eMusic
Why are you blocking access for users outside US, EU, UK and Canada? And why haven’t those reasons applied before now? And if it is a necessity for compelling reasons, why allow grandfathering?
Why haven’t you emailed subscribers about the changes, knowing that many people don’t log into their account until their refresh time?
Your album pricing answer is rather ambiguous. Will albums with four tracks also be priced at “either six or 9 credits” (or 12)?
Does this vision take into account that lower volume of sales for indie labels will not make up for the higher per track price? Have you done modelling on this? Have any smaller labels expressed concern about this?
Some of the questions people are asking are a tad ridiculous, don’t you think? “Have you done modeling on this?” I mean, are you really asking this? They are a company owned by a hedge fund – yeah, they do modeling.
And all the questions on restrictions and licensing? Are you actually asking questions about this? Music has some of the most complicated licensing and distribution schemes ever. It’s amazing to this day that music can actually appear on the Web at all…adding the thousands of rules, lawyers, and geographic societies makes it nearly impossible. So, no, they probably aren’t able to get the license to sell in Malawi and the cost to get that license is probably not worth the number of people who will sign up. They were probably under the radar for selling in these countries. As a former digital rights lawyer, let me tell you that it’s a mess. We should probably all be complaining directly to the labels and copyright societies rather than the resellers trying make a penny off selling this stuff. Not a business I would want to go into.
Cathy –
You’re not listening…
1. You still have yet to notify me via email of the new changes. I would not have known had I not read 17dots. My guess is you are hoping that some people don’t get the message.
2. You originally said that you are offering album pricing on albums of 12 tracks or more, but now you are saying that it will only be on select labels. Wouldn’t you have worked this out in advance before you starting by promoting more half-truths. I’m guessing now, most of the albums I put off using this months lower cost DLs on, now really aren’t going to have album pricing next month…you just cost me even more money – thanks!
3. You say that the price increase should help you attract more indie labels, well if that is the case, why not announce them?
4. You say that the cost of doing business is increasing, yet we are at the bottom of one of the biggest eras of deflation in recent history. You needed to raise your prices on some customers by more than 100%? You aren’t doing any product enhancements besides the sony catalog: no bitrate increase, no bonus songs, no better song previews, the list goes on….not worthy of a 10% hike really.
5. If the price increase wasn’t made to attract Sony, yet no one else has signed on, who is staying because of the hike that you really wanted to hang on to – given that you have let so many good indie labels go already?
The real truth is that you continue to exploit indie labels and artists with very low profit margins, if your cost of doing business has increased – the motive you state for raising prices – logic follows that you will continue to pay indies and artists low margins, because you are using the extra proceeds to cover your increased cost of business.
You’ve said it in not some many words, as has Yancey – your old subscriber base is not economically viable for you any more. So you say things like we’re listening, but it takes you a week and a half to put together a list of FAQs. How many people work at emusic anyway? Maybe a smarter option would just be to fire inefficient and incompetent people like yourself, and pass the profits along to the people who deserve the money, like your editorial team, the indies, and the artists?
Truth is this will probably still work for you guys. But don’t patronize your intelligent current customer base by pretending to be looking out for the little guys or doing all of this in the interest of indie labels and their artists.
As for PR the only reason emusic is getting any real coverage these days is because of this fiasco. Which does make me sad, because it just seems to prove that through your incompetence we all are suffering, and emusic has become irrelevant in the face of other better models like lala.com, amazon, amiestreet.com, topspin, and calabashmusic that are doing something innovative.
Best,
Sarah Ross
It is not a ridiculous question. I have seen various labels say that they make more money from eMusic’s model than, say, iTunes because the lower per track payments are made up for by higher volume. The whole rationale given for this change is that they want to give labels more money (which we all agree is a good thing) but many people have noted that lowering the volume of sales could end up seeing many labels get less money, even with higher prices. If they have thought about it, it is not unreasonable to ask them to address it since it’s their whole argument.
Up unto now they have been selling (not everything, but a lot ) “in Malawi.” It is reasonable to ask what the reason for the change is. The global structure of licensing hasn’t changed overnight I don’t think, so what it is the impetus for this change, now? Why would you allow grandfathering if it is something you shouldn’t have been doing? Again, reasonable and relevant.
Amanda – will try to get answers on as much of this as I can and post them here.
Thank you, Cathy. That would be much appreciated.
“Emusic has seriously miscalculated.
By my calculations, with 400,000 loyal subscribers
who will do anything they are told, emusic would do
better to restructure the pricing to $24.99 a month
for Zero downloads. Yeah, you’d pay a little
more, compared to what you’re used to paying,
and hey, you’d get nothing.
Don’t laugh, I’ve really thought this through.
See, when you have subscribers who will
do anything you tell them to, well, that’s
your base, that’s the key, see.
With the increased revenues and lower
costs, emusic could then get a lot more
major labels to share their catalogs.
In fact, emusic could probably get every track ever recorded.
Then, they could raise the rate to $39.99 a month
for Zero downloads.”
Just cancelled my account. I can’t believe it. I’m one of those people that would go to parties and tell everybody for hours about the internet’s best kept secret: eMusic.com. Not anymore.
Back to iTunes. Now that they sell DRM-free AAC files that play on my SqueezeBox, who cares? I’m going to celebrate tonight by spending my July $12 on a Springsteen album.
Nuff said.
I am not too thrilled about this turn of events. Clearly, the price is going up (OK technically the price is the same: $14.99, but instead of 65 downloads I will only get 37!) I can get Bruce Springsteen’s back catalog anywhere….usually at a deep discount. I look to eMusic for the crazy stuff that I see mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine or CMJ. I often just troll around looking for interesting titles and discover whole new worlds I never knew existed (For example: Arcade Fire, Apples in Stereo, Art Brut, Bon Iver, British Sea Power, Boards of Canada, Conor Oberst, Cat Power, Calexico, etc etc etc thats just off the top of my head and just getting to “C” in the alphabet!). I don’t need eMusic to tell me who Pearl Jam is. I think this blows and I am likely to cancel after being a loyal member for many, many years.
I was a subscriber when downloads were unlimited. I kept my account when you limited me to 90 downloads a month. I see you are repaying my loyalty by screwing me out of the account I signed up for. See you later. I guess Amazon is going to get my business now.
I feel duped. I understand why eMusic wants to add the mainstream artists. That obviously will make their service appeal to a wider audience. As long as they keep providing the indie labels, I could care less what else they add on top of it.
My problem is with the pricing. I was getting 100 downloads a month, and now I’ll be getting 50 for only $5 less a month. What gives?
Considering the economic times that we are in, most companies are reducing their prices to either keep attracting business, or to give thier existing loyal customers a price break while times are tough. eMusic seems to be doing just the opposite. That’s a helluva way to say “thanks for being a customer”!
You guys really need to rethink your pricing. 50 downloads for $20 is no deal. You can do much better than that at almost any of the other music services. I’m planning to hang around long enough to get the free 25 song booster pack, and then cancel after that. What a shame.
Because eMusic is so sure that they still have a lot to offer “real music fans”, I’ll stick around for a bit. I will watch to see if any new indie labels jump on board, if albums from indies continue to be held back, or if the independent spirit of the site changes with the addition of Sony. However, my account will be on hold — I will do this after my downloads refresh for the last time before the change. eMusic will not be getting my business unless they prove to me that their site is still worth my time and money. If they cannot prove this to me, then I will not reactivate my account.
Like many of the above, the price change is hard to swallow when I already own most of the catalog you are adding. As an older person, the whole point of your site is the indie stuff. This seems to work for people with money- and with the rip offs from the Madoffs and AIGs of this world, it’s a pretty bad time to make a move that goes down smoothly for those with lots of money. I think if you rethought the plan possibilities for those of us who have been grandfathered from early good deals it might keep you in the ball game. Otherwise you are just begging someone to start a new service and undercut you. A chance to be smart? We’ll see.
I won’t let the door hit my ass on the way out, thanks.
Doubling the cost of downloads in this economy is a monumentally foolish move that is sure to be a boon to all of the illegal sites some unethical people already use and a bane to indie labels and artists. This is a tremendously stupid move that seems to indicate no understanding of who uses emusic. It’s about newness and experimentation, not filling in the missing dust of all of our back catalogues. We’re all big music fans. Do you really think that your average subscriber doesn’t own all of the Clash already? Change your planned rate changes now before you doom your excellent website and see it vanish, yet another victim of corporate arrogance and greed.
Sorry to add my name to the list of very disappointed grandfathers who just won’t tolerate a change from 90/$19.99 to 50/$19.99. I’ll be canceling at the end of my current month.
I’m sad, too, to no longer be able to recommend eMusic to others.
Off in search of flacs and 320 kbps mp3s, then.
I cancelled my membership today. Thanks Danny Stein for your stellar management skills. You managed to piss off almost the whole emusic community and still don’t have the balls to come and defend yourself. Great work you fucking vagina. We’d all love to have the old emusic back but we know it’s not going to happen.
For those of you who are thinking about canceling, the good news is that they’ll give you 25 free downloads before you actually cancel. I took mine and I hope everyone else takes theirs on the way out. FUCK EMUSIC.
Mr. Klein – Are you going to respond to your 1,300 subscriber comments any time soon? They have been loyal and deserve a response from you before July. PLEASE do not change over to dark side. Our indie artists work too hard to be shadowed (again) by corporate scum. PLEASE — don’t let them fuck us again.
Wasn’t Sony the company that installed rootkits on the computers of its paying customers? Why would a customer-centric company like eMusic partner with such a greed machine?
I started using eMusic for a couple reasons: 1. Mainstream music has devolved into mindless drivel; 2. The RIAA deserves none of my money; and 3. Major labels deserve none of my money. Now, you have made it so that if I continue to support your site, I become a willing participant in the greed machine that is the RIAA.
I am very disappointed with this move. The pricing doesn’t bother me that much, but the fact that my money will be going to a company that thinks nothing of installing intrusive software on the computers of PAYING customers irks the hell out of me. The RIAA and anyone remotely affiliated with it care nothing about art or consumers. Apparently, neither does eMusic. Hopefully, an alternative springs up that is what eMusic used to be. It was fun while it lasted.
I’m nonplussed about the Sony back catalog add. I don’t feel it’s going to ruin the community.
Like many here, I’ve been a member since all-you-can-eat pricing. I even purchased stuff from eMusic before they had a subscription model. Times change, and I understand that prices have to change with it. I was over the moon when my 90 dl/mo plan was grandfathered in 2006. eMusic didn’t need to do that. I even would have agreed to a small price increase at the time.
Same thing goes for now. Regardless of the Sony deal, I would have agreed to a small price increase to keep my 90 dl/mo. I think most subscribers would have understood if the increases were small, incremental, well calculated and well communicated over time. That would show responsibility, community, and make sense.
However, gouging people all at one go will not make you friends. Hand waving by changing the number of downloads per subscription to downplay the real costs of those huge price increases just adds insult to injury.
Will I stay on after this fiasco? Probably. Why? eMusic still has an excellent catalog of tunes available from artists that aren’t always available elsewhere. The biggest change that this tactic will have is in my approach to managing downloads.
I used to enjoy stumbling across music I had never heard before and felt comfortable downloading an entire album on a whim. In many cases, I really enjoyed the experience and it was always one of my favorite things about being an eMusic subscriber. With only 50 dl/mo all that is now gone. I’ll have to be incredibly stingy about my downloads to make sure I’m getting the best possible value for what I’m paying. By doing that, the artists that previously would have received payment for my impulse shopping are going to be squeezed out. That doesn’t bode well for the goal of increased label compensation.
The other thing that I’m going to be incredibly more critical about now that I’m paying more is the level of customer service. I mentioned this upstream in my initial shock and awe when I first stumbled across the news about all the changes. A 12 dl/album rate is a great idea. However, what about all the albums on eMusic that are missing tracks? There are a ton of them in my Saved for Later list. Heck, there are a ton of them in my download history!
When you come across these missing tracks, there’s a deliberately vague message about them not being available. Now I understand that there may be legal reasons why certain songs are not available. I think most people are willing to accept that if you tell them. The problem is that in many cases, the songs are missing because the files had ripping problems and were unlistenable. I know, because I’ve reported a number of them myself. Some of them several years ago. …And they’re still missing. I’m reluctant to report minor glitches these days because I’m afraid the tracks will never be seen again.
Price increases are all well and good, but show your loyal customers that they’re getting something for it. Take some of the extra money you’re hoping to make out of this huge price increase and put it into making complete albums available again. Invent a quality control department if you have to – I’m not convinced one exists now, in the same way that many folks now have doubts about eMusic’s PR department.
Hmmm.
Interesting that the comments at the top of the stack were all suck-up positive and if you scroll all the way to the bottom, everybody’s pissed – feeling ripped off. Must just be coincidence.
Market modeling is wonderful, but at the end of the day you deliver value or you don’t. At these prices, you can buy 192 KBS MP3s here, or get full resolution CDs with physical liner notes from Amazon New and Used. There’s community, artists pages and all that “corner record store” crap there too. And a lot more value for the same money. Sooner or later, no matter what BS the research consultants think you want to hear, you deliver or wither.
I’ve dealt with your customer service department. That experience made it clear that you don’t feel a need to respect or retain customers. Crazy ones who THINK about value? Better off without ‘em! There’s your mantra. Just keep repeating it as the ship slides under the water.
There are too many crappy-sounding MP3s in my collection already. It was great when eMusic was a place to discover new music. The price was right. You could take a chance on an artist you’d never heard of. Now – why bother. I won’t be around much longer.
-Carl
Thank you CathyHN for the response. You wrote, “Keeping independent labels at current pricing would work against what we want to do: pay labels more. Higher payments make eMusic more attractive to labels both large and small, including the independent labels members that have been asking for. Sony happens to be the first label group added under the new pricing structure but the change was not made simply to attract Sony.”
Why must this be a choice between no price increase and a Sony-sized price increase? Many if not most of the complaints here are not about price increases per se, but about drastic, over-the-top prices increases (the word “gouging” springs to mind). Many of us would be happy to pay an additional 15% or even 20% if it benefited indie labels (and attracted other independent labels). To claim that the Sony deal “happened” to come along when you were about to double your prices is disingenuous. We all know Sony stipulated the terms of this price increase. Because what is the alternative explanation, that eMusic’s accountants are incompetent and just discovered that they have been undervaluing eMusic’s product by half?
A tiered system is still feasible–charge the new rates for customers who want access to the Sony catalog. Charge less (but still a reasonable amount more than the old rates) to those who have no interest in Sony’s product.
Oh my, “CathyHN” (Cathy Nevins of emusic) shows her e-face in public again. The last time you posted here, you lied through your teeth here and also publicly on other blogs and to other media sources such as tech dirt, then you got caught, and then you went completely silent. How about acknowledging that or answering the question of just WHY we should believe a single thing you say, before you expect us to listen to more PR disinformation or spin or whatever you would call couching a near DOUBLING of prices in terms of “the increased cost of doing business” (or the equally laughable assertion that “the addition of the Sony catalog was not the driving force behind the price increase”) ?
Your credibility here is shot after denying here and elsewhere that emusic would *never* remove comments when in fact you did (comments with the twitter hashtag emusicfail were removed), and stating that it was “technologically impossible” for posts to be renumbered when it was shown that posts were renumbered downward after others were removed. What trust do you think we have in you now?
Begin to repair your credentials as a messenger we should have some reason to believe before you jump back into disseminating ‘information’ again.
So for all this wonderful, new stuff, my Oldest account, 50 downloads for $11.99, is being cut for 30 downloads. That’s incredibly STUPID.
You guys are so full of crap. Thank you for treating your LOYAL customers like a bunch of F*cktards!
Expect me to drop my subscription. Piss poor management, if you ask me.
Dr. Michael Crisci
My downloads renewed today (I was grandfathered into the 90/$19.99 month plan). That was the last of it. I am not threatening to cancel; I did cancel. I’m done with eMusic. I haven’t anything else to add that hasn’t already been said in the 1300 comments by other disgruntled subscribers above. I don’t know that I’ll even miss eMusic, but I know I won’t be missing the $240/year I was paying them. I’ll be spending that at Amoeba, getting full quality CDs with full artwork and liner notes. Sure, I won’t be getting the quantity of music I was getting at eMusic, but quality won’t be sacrificed. Good luck getting into bed with Sony, chumps.
my answer to question 2 ARE YOU NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Add me to the list of LONG-TIME subscribers who’s leaving after this change. I’ve been through several periodic price increases before. But a 40% per track price increase to add back-catalog content from a major label is ridiculous. Thank you for fighting the good fight for the last 5 years. I wish you well in your dance with the major labels, but I refuse to stick around any longer.
OUCH, eMusic! You have done it the WRONG way – to BOTH cut the number of songs AND increase the cost of the plan is bad, bad, bad. Because of the current economy, I had toyed with dropping my account, but stopped short because I was addicted to my 100 songs for $25 each month.
I am very disappointed, but thank you for helping to break the addiction to your site. If I do keep my account, it will be at a significantly reduced level.
You’ve got to be kidding! After supporting eMusic for over 4 years, you decide to cancel my plan and replace it with one offering a little more than half the number of downloads? For what? So you can pay royalties to record companies representing mainstream artists?
I don’t subscribe to emusic for mainstream artists. I subscribe for access to indie music, jazz and classical. I think you’ll find that a lot of your subscribers do the same. Why should anyone commit to any monthly fee at all for music they can get on demand elsewhere?
More specifically, why should I pay you 42.8 cents next month for downloads that have only cost 23 cents up until now? That’s a 186% price increase…almost twice the going rate! You’re not selling the gas I need to get to work. You’re selling something that’s a discretionary purchase. Do you really think that a complementary bonus pack is going to make any difference? Seems to me that such an offer will do little beyond postponing the onslaught of account closings you’re bound to experience once those bonus packs are redeemed.
I strongly suggest that you reconsider the changes you’re planning to introduce to the accounts of existing subscribers. You might have also sent out an email to give your faithful followers some inkling of your plans, rather than leaving us to discover it if we just happen to click on the home page.
Ever used your own site? Do you know how rare it is that some of us ever click on the homepage? Loading the eMusic remote app brings you right to where you left off, which is usually the point at which you stopped downloading or browsing, or adding albums and tracks to your lists for future downloads. Home page visits are largely—and thankfully—unnecessary. That was part of the beauty of your site, at least until I found your “expansion” announcement lurking there this morning. It was not a welcome surprise, and you should know that I will be seriously rethinking my whole relationship with eMusic over the next few days.
It’s not so much the price rise that makes me angry – though it doesn’t make me happy.
It’s the fact that after three years of continuous membership with eMusic, persisting with it despite the endless eccentricities, the odd website design (why do I always have to sign in twice?? etc), the limitless pile of $2.99 bargain-bin offerrings with meaningless track titles you have to wade through to find the ‘real’ albums (jazz in my case) etc etc etc, I’ve been treated with complete and utter contempt as a member and as a customer.
Stuff eMusic and their new-found shiny suits. I’m off to find another indie music service.
And wouldn’t yet know it. When I tried to get back into the eMusic site, after posting here, to cancel my sub, this was the message I got:
“eMusic Temporarily Unavailable
We’re very sorry but eMusic is unavailable at the moment. Our engineering team is working to correct the problem as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and apologize for this inconvenience.”
Solidly for several minutes now.
Maybe THIS is why we are hearing from CathyHN again. From
http://www.social-cache.com/2009/06/ten-years-later-emusiccom-crushes-it-brand-values-in-one-day-the-perils-of-not-having-a-community-manager
Which is, funny enough, linked BELOW (as of this writing) as “social cache: we deal in uncommon cents. » Blog Archive » Ten Years Later eMusic.com Crushes Its Brand Values in One Day – The Perils of Not Having a Community Manager”
It’s about the 8th comment, posted 2:27 am Wednesday morning June 10, 2009:
=QUOTE=
# Bill Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 2:27 am
The title may not be “community manager”, but eMusic *does* have someone who is supposed to be in charge of managing consumer public relations (presumably that includes their customers, the most important ‘consumers’ they deal with), and social media presence: (from http://www.emusic.com/about/executive.html )
“Cathy Halgas Nevins
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Cathy Halgas Nevins brings an unusual combination of experience with independent labels and artists, digital music and e-commerce to her role at eMusic. She manages all corporate communications, consumer public relations and social media presences for eMusic … ”
[Note: The next paragraph is a little long winded with the references, but it is to make a point.]
The problem is that she is just really, really bad at it. For instance, after someone noticed the removal of comments posted to the epic 1200+ complaints log on 17dots (comments that many people had read) that contained the twitter tag #emusicfail, and the subsequent coverage of it at techdirt.com and other places, she contacted a few of those blogs and said that it was not true (”Absolutely not, that is not something we would do”), and that it was “technologically impossible” for comments on their blog to be renumbered (see http://chrisyount.com/?p=44 , “Update 1″ as well as the very first comment, from Cathy Nevins). She also posted much the same thing in the 17dot comments as CathyHN and identified herself as with emusic ( http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-95189 ). The only problem was that it was not true. They did remove comments after they had already been posted and seen by viewers, people noticed ( http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-95239 ), and then someone detailed a convincing log ( http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-95378 ) of places in the comments where posts were referenced by number and where that number was now lower. To clinch it, someone noticed that the number of comments listed at the top of the comments was 13 (or more now) higher than the actual number of comments, indicating at least that many comments may have been removed.
So she did attempt to try to do damage control after the censorship was first publicized, but by spreading something that turned out to be untrue, she only managed to destroy her credibility and make emusic look even more disingenuous than it already did with the CEO’s “isn’t this great!” blog post.
She hasn’t been heard from at all in the comments after being called to task for, ummmm, “stretching the truth”, or AFAIK in the emusic forums or on external blogs. I don’t believe anyone has responded at all after the blogs and articles regarding the censorship spread (and re-spread through syndication) around the web.
Basically, another monster mis-handling of of a monstrous mis-handling (removing posts containing #emusicfail twitter hash tags in the first place) that left their purported PR/communications manager essentially self-crippled.
So maybe the point is that they need a *good* community manager who makes really really certain that statements she makes to the public in the midst of a mondo-crisis are true before issuing them. As it stands now, they are completely mute and continuing to let all the anger fester, and it has been 10 days.”
=QUOTE=
Hey Danny, Cathey, Yancey, and everyone else whose first name ends in a y who works at this site,
Where is the new Rhett Miller album that you list as being on the site as of 6/9 (two days ago)? Am I just too thick to find it or are you all too busy loading up that awesome Sony content to bother?
Come on! I need to get rid of my last month of 50 d/l’s before I quit you for good in August after taking your “thanks, now begone!” booster pack exit door prize.
Cathy seems so confident of her messages. I like how she posts them in an entry of their own, so that you can easily know that they are there and find them.
Wait.
She doesn’t. She hides them so she can assuage her conscience and her superiors that she is speaking out and spreading the message to those of us who are troubled and angry about their fucked up decision.
Remember, your customers pay your salary. Except for me, I fired you.
Danny???? Where’s Danny????
Fucking pussy.
I’ve been an emusic-aholic for a long time too – and have the grandfathered deal. I swallowed the bump in price last year – it was a good offset with more volume. I also understand that, to attract Sony, emu has to up the price per track. Does this mean the indy labels get more cash too? This has a major impact on my response.
If it DOES mean that more cash flows back into the independent labels, there on to the artists, then I don’t begrudge the (substantial) price hike so much. If, however, the major is using its muscle to put a price differential between them and the indies, then … Houston, we have a problem… and I’m outta here.
So, Danny Stein, what’s the score? Equality for shark and minnow?
Hi All:
Here are some answers to your questions:
Amanda:
Q. Why are you blocking access for users outside US, EU, UK and Canada? And why haven’t those reasons applied before now? And if it is a necessity for compelling reasons, why allow grandfathering?
A. As the company grows, we are tightening our procedures for territories outside the US, EU, UK and Canada.
Q. Why haven’t you emailed subscribers about the changes, knowing that many people don’t log into their account until their refresh time?
A. We wish we could have, but for a variety of reasons, this was not an option in this situation.
Q. Your album pricing answer is rather ambiguous. Will albums with four tracks also be priced at “either six or 9 credits” (or 12)?
A. You’re right – that’s because it is somewhat complicated. The easiest way to understand the new album discounts is to think of it as similar to how CDs are priced. You’ll see discounted titles, at three credit levels, and titles with no discount. We can’t say exactly how many titles will be available at which credit level but we’ll be working together with our partner labels in order to deliver the best possible deal for full album downloads.
More detail: album pricing will make complete album downloads available for 6, 9, or 12 credits. The cost (credits required) for an album is independent of the track count (just like a CD). A 17 track album may be offered at 12, 9 or 6 credits, (a killer deal compared to individual track downloads). Conversely some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits. Finally, some albums won’t offer album pricing at all, however many songs are on the release is the number of credits required. You can also look at this way: a 12-credit complete album download will ‘cost’ you less than $5 to less than $6 depending on your member plan.
Q. Does this vision take into account that lower volume of sales for indie labels will not make up for the higher per track price? Have you done modelling on this? Have any smaller labels expressed concern about this?
A. We have chosen to grow the business, rather than remain a smaller service. By adding a greater selection of music to the site, we’ll attract more customers and ultimately expose labels’ artists to a larger audience, which is good for everyone. Independent labels will benefit greatly from a larger, more successful eMusic, with more subscribers buying more music and increasing the royalty pool for everyone. We believe we can do this and retain the characteristics that make eMusic special.
Sarah:
Q. You say that the price increase should help you attract more indie labels, well if that is the case, why not announce them?
A. We will announce them as soon as we have deals that are complete.
Q. You say that the cost of doing business is increasing, yet we are at the bottom of one of the biggest eras of deflation in recent history. You needed to raise your prices on some customers by more than 100%? You aren’t doing any product enhancements besides the sony catalog: no bitrate increase, no bonus songs, no better song previews, the list goes on….not worthy of a 10% hike really.
A. As Yancey mentioned in his earlier comment, we simply can’t operate the low-priced plans that some of you had at a loss any longer. That is why the change in cost per download for some customers were so dramatic. Additionally, we have a number of product enhancements that we hope to launch before the end of the year. Please understand that we can’t announce these until they are almost complete.
RE: the deleting of comments:
The response I gave was after checking with all internally who had backend access to this blog. We’re confident that no one here went in to delete posts. Now – I’m sure no one will believe this, but – I was also told it is “technologically impossible” to renumber them by someone on the editorial team. However, today one of our engineers told me that after a post is deleted, WordPress does re-number them. (Apologies for that mistake – I should have gone straight to the engineers.) As no one here has deleted any posts, the other possibility is that COMMENTERS can go in and delete their own comments. Out of 1000 comments, could this have happened?
Lastly, Joe just added a post saying that on Monday from 10 – 11am EST, 17dots will be down for routine maintenance. We know that this is not great timing, which is why we are warning you about it now. As you may have noticed, the site has been running more slowly due to increased traffic. This upgrade will make the site more stable, and will update certain features of WordPress. We just wanted to let all of you know in advance that this is happening, and we hope to have the site back up after maintenance as quickly as possible.
Thanks,
Cathy
eMusic
I’ve been an eMusic subscriber since the very beginning. Back in the ‘all you can eat’ days, it was the best way in the world to discover new music, simply by sampling. I can’t tell you how many great artists i discovered just by browsing through and saying, hmmm, that sounds interesting. As the number of available tracks per month has crept down, that value proposition has continued to decrease. It’s no longer as attractive an idea to grab music from an artist you’re not familiar with simply because you want to explore an new genre or find new artists in a favorite genre. Frankly, your music notes aren’t all that helpful, and with the sudden drop from 90 songs a month to 50 songs a month (or from roughly 6 CDs worth of music a month to just a hair over 3 CDs a month), I’m going to have to reconsider my subscription. Major label stuff can be had almost anywhere, and reducing long-time subscribers’ downloads just so you can become like every other music download service doesn’t make me think that you really value the people who have kept eMusic alive and thriving for all these years. Regretfully, I’ll be canceling my subscription sometime in the next few months, as you have succeeded in taking a shining beacon of how things should be done and managed to dim the light to a flickering reflection of what it once was. I’m sure from the comments above and elsewhere on the web that I won’t be along in this. Good luck in your new sameness.
The FAQ does not satisfy me. This price hike was underhanded and possibly in violation of some states’ laws (I seem to recall that it is often required to contact a customer directly if there is a change in price to any subscription service).
As a business owner myself, I would NEVER foist a dramatic price hike on my subscribers, especially those who’d been around for nearly a decade, especially if I’d put off raising my prices for too long. That’s not their fault. It’s mine. And it’s my responsibility to find a way to regain ground gradually without alienating my core customers. Unless I just don’t care about them. In which case I’m in business only to make money… not a real cool thing.
Right now, customers want to feel like they are getting more value for their dollar. They most certainly won’t feel that way if something is jammed down their throats that they don’t want (old Sony/RIAA dross) at the same time that their subscription benefits are slashed.
With a lot of sadness, I’m out of here after I get my last 100 downloads.
Fuck this. Way to throw a good thing down the toilet and piss-off your long-time customers.
Everything that made emusic great is now literally compromised by this move, and the integrity of the site will be poisoned by big-label pap. Not to mention ridiculous cost increase.
quitting service.
thanks for a good run, but now I’ll just have to start paying through the market or worse, torrenting more music, stealing from very artists that emusic was once championing.
lame, lame, lame. Stein, you’ve just lined your pockets with the enemy’s money.
disgusting.
Shame on anyone enabling this by posting “encouraging” comments about this shitty-ass move.
Last thing here.
Are we really supposed to believe that Indies will get more money from eMu now? Let’s see…
- new subscribers will think they’re getting Sony at half the price they would from iTunes (only they really won’t, considering the tricky 6/12/whatever album download credit confusion) and won’t bother themselves very much with the Indie stuff.
- the FSGs (Formerly Subsidized Grandfathers), the high volume Indie shoppers who’d happily try just about anything, will be gone.
- I’ve read (sorry, don’t have the sources, not too hard to find) that Indies profited more from eMu than anyone else.
- I’ve also read that that the whole “we’re losing money” story we’re getting is an abject lie.
There’s money from volume, and there’s money from high prices. Seems to this simpleton FSG that Indies could stand to lose as much as we do.
OK, I’m done. I never was good at breakups, always foolishly convinced that the other party actually was interested in my feedback.
I wrote, and would like to delete, comment number 18. I would have written it much more carefully if I knew how many people would be stopping by here. Thing is I can’t figure out how to delete a comment I made. Help?
I used to champion your service to anyone who’d stop and listen. Now you’ve nearly doubled my cost per track in one fell swoop I refuse to talk about you.
Not cool. NOT COOL!
I really do not understand why you think this is a good idea.
I will be reviewing my usage after your underhanded changes take effect and will probably be closing my account based on that review.
Way to lose customers and support.
Get a load of Cathy’s answer to one of Amanda’s (thoughtful and legitimate) questions:
“Q. Why haven’t you emailed subscribers about the changes, knowing that many people don’t log into their account until their refresh time?
A. We wish we could have, but for a variety of reasons, this was not an option in this situation.”
WHAT?! THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER!!!
I am completely astonished by the speed at which eMusic has seemed to completely implode. I’ve always sworn by this service, recommending it to many people, but now… I kinda hope it goes down the shi**er. I’m going back to brick and mortar record stores.
it is going to take an hour on Monday to add the Sony logo to the website? your engineers are clearly buffoons.
“Q. Why haven’t you emailed subscribers about the changes, knowing that many people don’t log into their account until their refresh time?
A. We wish we could have, but for a variety of reasons, this was not an option in this situation.”
Not an option because that would warn too many people to cancel before their card is charged for more than they authorized.
YES make no mistake, if you reduce the number of downloads you are charging more, even if the dollar value does not change.
Please, CathyHN (#1327), tell Adamm (#1332, #18) how to delete his own post since you say he could do that. We’re all really interested in hearing your answer!
Do tell!
Well eMusic folks, I hope you at least see how amateurish you were in handling the transition. You’ve done almost (almost) every step in the worst way possible, starting with Mr. Stein’s letter (A 6-year-old does a better job hiding the broken vase from mommy) and those early orgasm posts that appear to be by employees, old buddies or relatives pretending to be part of the eMusic core customers.
Having said that, there is an option already mentioned for those wanting to continue supporting indie artists on eMusic. From what I understand in an earlier post (god, don’t ask me which number. I think it was one by Nergal the employee), the price increase also means higher royalties for the indie/small/emerging artists many of us have been supporting. So here’s my suggestion: Download only those “indie” artists you love. Don’t download a single thing from the Sony “family” (Nergal the employee did that a favor by pointing out that you can find all the sony labels on wikipedia …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_BMG_labels ). Those of you in the “hundreds of downloads a month” club (I’m in awe of youse guys, by the way) could just rachet down to a cheaper plan, keep up a few downloads for now to back the indies. It may impossible to keep every penny away from Sony, but do the best you can.
Sure, this means you get fewer of those indie songs and you will get fewer opportunities to try someone who’s new to you (my biggest complaint), but at least the few artists you pick will be getting more support. Even if I were to come across an old Sony-related album on eMusic that I like and don’t already have, I’ll be heading to the used CD shop to find it.
Possibly the worst thing is how Sony might come to dominate the site. eMusic can yap all it wants about how that won’t change, but the old Sony stuff will dominate sales, so the staff *can’t* ignore them when writing their articles, because sales is what this move is all about, right? (Although I’m one of those who thinks this move may end up hurting eMusic more than it helps in the long run. “We’re like iTunes, but slightly cheaper and lower sound quality” doesn’t sound like a winning campaign to take away ITunes customers.) The least eMusic can do is have a separate indie sales chart with not a speck of Sony on it. (One of the funniest parts of Mr. Stein’s letter is how, now, the writers can compare the classic artists with the new indie gods, as if somehow it was impossible to do that before Sony came on board.) It will be very difficult for Sony not to dominate the site. Sony’s not coming on board just to be kicked to the back room by the Japandroids (that’s a nice album, by the way). If I leave eMusic, it will be because the lack of information about artists I’ve never heard of leaves me with unused downloads at the end of the month. If that happens, I may just download a stray indie song here and there just so the artist gets a royalty (don’t want to let eMusic off the hook for a royalty), but that’s not something I plan to keep doing.
As for those excited about the additions and the new album, well, we’ll see. As pointed out already, a key word here is “select.” …. “Select” Sony albums will be added, not necessarily all the best ones. (Heck, even the indies have, in the past, held up their most-anticipated albums from being on eMusic until a few weeks after their release in the stores, with no good info on whether they would eventually show up on eMusic. Why would Sony be any different?) “Select” albums will cost no more than 12 downloads, but I’m expecting that a lot of the best albums won’t be limited to 12. We’ll see.
Another way this hurts eMusic is that people like me, perfectly happy with eMusic with only an occasional glance at iTunes, have now started to look around for options. I now have downloaded albums from an indie store site that gives some of the profit to my local indie store, but the prices are in the iTunes range (but at least with a bit rate of 320, sweet). I’ve started downloading at Amie Street, where prices start out even lower than many of the eMusic plans but rise as the song/album gets more popular. An interesting concept. (The latest by Sonic Youth and Dirty Projectors – both nice albums – started out at about 3 bucks at the opening bell with, again, higher sound quality than eMusic, but both sold quickly and rose to about 8-9 bucks. Gotta move fast on Amie Street but it is indie-oriented.) A lot of acts I’ve never heard of stay in the 2-3 dollar range, so I may give them a try (and 1-minute samples by the way). Not the most user-friendly site, but worth a look. The point is, where before I was happy just to check eMusic every day, eMusic is, essentially, trying to chase me off, so now I’m looking around and finding sources I didn’t even know existed. (it’s not the price increase, it’s the questionable direction. I think most of us could have tolerated a price increase if it was presented as being good for the indie artists and good for indie-oriented eMusic, instead of coming off as part of the Sony deal, whether or not it is part of the sony deal.)
There’s options, folks. Look around. But I wouldn’t leave eMusic yet until we see if eMusic can do a better job in implementing than it did with transitioning. Good luck all.
Well eMusic folks, I hope you at least see how amateurish you were in handling the transition. You’ve done almost (almost) every step in the worst way possible, starting with Mr. Stein’s letter (A 6-year-old does a better job hiding the broken vase from mommy) and those early orgasm posts that appear to be by employees, old buddies or relatives pretending to be part of the eMusic core customers.
Having said that, there is an option already mentioned for those wanting to continue supporting indie artists on eMusic. From what I understand in an earlier post (god, don’t ask me which number. I think it was one by Nergal the employee), the price increase also means higher royalties for the indie/small/emerging artists many of us have been supporting. So here’s my suggestion: Download only those “indie” artists you love. Don’t download a single thing from the Sony “family” (Nergal the employee did that a favor by pointing out that you can find all the sony labels on wikipedia …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_BMG_labels ). Those of you in the “hundreds of downloads a month” club (I’m in awe of youse guys, by the way) could just rachet down to a cheaper plan, keep up a few downloads for now to back the indies. It may impossible to keep every penny away from Sony, but do the best you can.
Sure, this means you get fewer of those indie songs and you will get fewer opportunities to try someone who’s new to you (my biggest complaint), but at least the few artists you pick will be getting more support. Even if I were to come across an old Sony-related album on eMusic that I like and don’t already have, I’ll be heading to the used CD shop to find it.
Possibly the worst thing is how Sony might come to dominate the site. eMusic can yap all it wants about how that won’t change, but the old Sony stuff will dominate sales, so the staff *can’t* ignore them when writing their articles, because sales is what this move is all about, right? (Although I’m one of those who thinks this move may end up hurting eMusic more than it helps in the long run. “We’re like iTunes, but slightly cheaper and lower sound quality” doesn’t sound like a winning campaign to take away ITunes customers.) The least eMusic can do is have a separate indie sales chart with not a speck of Sony on it. (One of the funniest parts of Mr. Stein’s letter is how, now, the writers can compare the classic artists with the new indie gods, as if somehow it was impossible to do that before Sony came on board.) It will be very difficult for Sony not to dominate the site. Sony’s not coming on board just to be kicked to the back room by the Japandroids (and that’s a nice album). If I leave eMusic, it will be because the lack of information about artists I’ve never heard of leaves me with unused downloads at the end of the month. If that happens, I may just download a stray indie song here and there just so an artist gets a royalty (don’t want to let eMusic off the hook for a royalty), but that’s not something I plan to keep doing.
As for those excited about the additions and the new album, well, we’ll see. As pointed out already, a key word here is “select.” …. “Select” Sony albums will be added, not necessarily all the best ones. (Heck, even the indies have, in the past, held up their most-anticipated albums from being on eMusic until a few weeks after their release in the stores. Why would Sony be any different?) “Select” albums will cost no more than 12 downloads, but I’m expecting that a lot of the best albums won’t be limited to 12. We’ll see.
Another way this hurts eMusic is that people like me, perfectly happy with only an occasional glance at iTunes, have now started to look around for options. I now have downloaded albums from an indie store site that gives some of the profit to my local indie store, but the prices are in the iTunes range (but at least with a bit rate of 320, sweet). I’ve started downloading at Amie Street, where prices start out even lower than many of the eMusic plans but rise as the song/album gets more popular. An interesting concept. (The latest by Sonic Youth and Dirty Projectors – both real nice albums – started out at about 3 bucks at the opening bell with, again, higher sound quality than eMusic, but both sold quickly and rose to about 8-9 bucks. Gotta move fast on Amie Street but it is indie-oriented.) A lot of acts I’ve never heard of stay in the 2-3 dollar range, so I may give them a try (and 1-minute samples by the way). Not the most user-friendly site, but worth a look. The point is, where before I was happy just to check eMusic every day, eMusic is, essentially, trying to chase me off, so now I’m looking around and finding sources I didn’t even know existed. (it’s not the price increase, it’s the questionable direction. I think most of us could have tolerated a price increase if it was presented as being good for the indie artists and good for indie-oriented eMusic, instead of coming off as part of the Sony deal, whether or not it is part of the sony deal.)
There’s options, folks. Look around. But I wouldn’t leave eMusic completely yet until seeing if eMusic is better at implementing than it has been at transitioning. Good luck all.
I have been a member of eMusic since the early days. With the price increase, I will be getting roughly a third of the downloads than I used to get for about the same price. At each change to the service the customer is always asked to pay more for downloads. Like I said, I stuck it through in the early days and now I am getting it stuck to me like everyone else. I will probably be saying so long to eMusic.
I have been a loyal subscriber with eMusic for as long as I can remember at the 90 credits per month for $19.99. plus many 50 pack boosters along the way! Your new pricing will effectively double my cost so you will be losing me for sure, come July. Thanks but no thanks. You sure know how to piss your loyal supporters off big time!!
I have been a subscriber for more than 5 years, and emusic has been happily accepting my $40 every month for 180 downloads.
The “small price increase” for me: 230%
I have a couple months prepaid, then I’m out. Very very sad.
I’m making a list of those whom I have sent to emusic over the years, as I feel obliged to let them know that I must withdraw my recommendation.
I have been messing around on lala.com lately. Pretty neat site. Might find a new home there.
Sadly,
–Mike
Dear Mr. Stein – Blah – Blah – Blah (insert corporate bull shit here) Blah – Blah Blah. I really like the Foo Fighters but that isn’t what this site is about. Or so I thought. Good luck – you’ll need the increased revenues to offset the money you’ll lose as a result of your lost clients. I’ll use up my booster as soon as possible and cancel my subscription. Too bad because it was nice while it lasted. Sincerely, Already Gone (an Eagles song – you gonna carry them too?)
I’m really bummed. eMusic was a great deal, a great access point to the relatively unknowns, and I told all my friends about it. I never had to tell my friends about iTunes. They already knew where to go for their Springsteen. I can’t wrap my head around the price increase, reduction in downloads. I agree with many others that say there had to be another way. Limit my access to the big labels, charge me more downloads if I go for them, something else. Could we have taken a vote? Is it too dramatic to say I feel betrayed? Maybe. I definitely feel screwed though.
Canceling.
I’m out of here right before my plan goes up in cost. Tired of the disinformation from eMusic starting with the unbelievable way this was presented by Mr. Stein as a really good thing for ME, the customer, without mentioning the enormous price increase, and ending with the repeated deceptive statements from the PR mouthpiece Ms. CathyHN, which she astonishingly just managed to do again with the “people can delete their own posts” nonsense.
Look, to keep us from exiting, you should be straight with us and admit that the deal with Sony dictated the level at which the per-track pricing floor settled ($0.41), that Danny Stein publicly stated in late 2008 his goal of drastically increasing revenue for eMusic, Inc in this calendar year, 2009 (rather than the silly notion that it is just about “increased cost of doing business”), and that this deal with Sony and the price increase are simply a money grab to satisfy the investment company with which Mr. Stein is so inextricably linked / co-employed.
What you simply fail, still, to understand is that the utterly deceptive and insulting (to our intelligence) way you have announced and then fleetingly tried to justify this huge jump in prices is a big part of the problem. Stop the BS, suck it up and stop trying to placate us with statements that are simply prima facie absolutely unbelievable.
CathyHN wrote, “Conversely some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits.”
Does this mean that an ambient music album consisting of 1 long track would be re-priced at 6, 9 or 12 credits?
Seriously disappointed. I would be much more amenable to some sort of alternative for those of us interested in titles. For instance, I’d happily pay more than three credits for a three-track Sunn O))) record, but I refuse to pay more to support a catalog I likely won’t be drawing from. Emusic is eliminating the reason that I’ve used it as my primary digital music service for several years now.
That said, it’s unlikely any of the clamor will change a thing. Sad, sad, sad.
Ack… formatting error with my post above… it should read: Those of us interested in titles that are (insert indie/underground/non-commercial/etc.)…”
Hope my point’s been made.
Wow, so you are about doubling the price to add stuff we didn’t ask for and don’t want. I wasn’t sure I made the right choice coming back due to the lack of good jazz being added…..so you just made my decision easier. I downloaded some questionable stuff I would not usually pay for because it was cheap enough to risk, not anymore. Goodbye.
Quoting Cathy:
Q. Your album pricing answer is rather ambiguous. Will albums with four tracks also be priced at “either six or 9 credits” (or 12)?
“A. You’re right – that’s because it is somewhat complicated. The easiest way to understand the new album discounts is to think of it as similar to how CDs are priced. You’ll see discounted titles, at three credit levels, and titles with no discount. We can’t say exactly how many titles will be available at which credit level but we’ll be working together with our partner labels in order to deliver the best possible deal for full album downloads.
More detail: album pricing will make complete album downloads available for 6, 9, or 12 credits. The cost (credits required) for an album is independent of the track count (just like a CD). A 17 track album may be offered at 12, 9 or 6 credits, (a killer deal compared to individual track downloads). Conversely some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits. Finally, some albums won’t offer album pricing at all, however many songs are on the release is the number of credits required. You can also look at this way: a 12-credit complete album download will ‘cost’ you less than $5 to less than $6 depending on your member plan. ”
So basically for every Guided by Voices Album that will be Priced at 12 “credits” (used to be called songs or downloads),
there will be a Sunn 0))) Album priced at 12 “credits”. (FYI there albums are usually 4 tracks) So basically this is of no help what so ever.
I was going to stick around and see how things went but every time I hear something new it sounds worse. I was the first in my circle of friends to join e-music in 2005 and have referred 6 people to the site since then. I’ve talked to them and I’m pretty sure that we are all going to quit after the free booster pack.
I’ll just go back to buying cds and then eBaying them, it will be cheaper and all the money I spend on the cd will go to the labels and artists I want it to go to.
I’m sorry to see you handle this so badly, eMusic. These price hikes are not minor… they’re huge, and they hit your best and most loyal customers the hardest. It’s disengenuous to cloak such a move as an Exciting New Development bringing us the Wonderful Sony Catalog (that I don’t recall anyone asking for). It’s an insult to our community intelligence. Really, I didn’t expect such treatment here.
If your existing model has become unsustainable, the honest approach would have been to suck it up and tell us. Directly, with some warning, and phasing out the grandfathered accounts over time. Then, and only then, you could point to the new catalog offerings as a small form of consolation. Instead, you hyped the stuff we don’t care about and tacked on the price hike as a footnote.
Count me among the group who will stay warily for a month or two, then almost certainly quit. Meanwhile, I start searching for alternatives today.
So sad to see the end of Emusic. It’s been nice knowing ya.
I’m disappointed, but I understand how difficult of a decision this must have been. The annual subscription double the price which is very significant. I hope you have a date set in your mind that you will revert your decision if your goals aren’t met.
I might renew again when my subscription expires, but I’ll be taking a hard look at the pricing/catalogs of your competitors.
Best of luck with the new model, -Chris
I’m currently downloading this months allotment of music. I’ve been a subscriber at emusic since 2002. In that time I’ve managed to download entire albums from 519 artists, not sure how many songs, but it has to be well over 5000. I’ve bought numerous boosters packs.
So it’s with great sadness that I’m canceling my account once my downloads are complete. If you rethink your pricing and grandfather some of us old timers, I’ll be back in a heart beat. Until then, I’ll be stealing my music like everyone else on this planet.
If you think I’m joking, you have my email, check my account.
More of the good stuff? You have got to be kidding. I subscribed to eMusic because it had a fantastic plan that allowed me to explore a lot of music I wouldn’t have heard or taken a flyer on otherwise. Now my downloads are going to be cut from 75 to 35/month, effectively doubling the cost — just so the Sony catalog, which I could care less about — gets added as an option. This was a boneheaded move that is making me seriously consider cancelling my subscription. You had a great service and you’ve screwed it up.
I cancelled tonight after downloading this month’s 50. The new plans are just too expensive, imo, to “take a chance” on music I haven’t heard or read about. (And a short snippet of the tracks isn’t enough to decide either).
I’m not really interested in Sony’s back catalog, I liked emusic as a place to explore and find new music — many times, really great new music. Seems a shame that greed, which is so typical of the music industry suits, has ruined another nice thing. (ya, I’m glaring at you, Sony)
Q. Why haven’t you emailed subscribers about the changes, knowing that many people don’t log into their account until their refresh time?
A. We wish we could have, but for a variety of reasons, this was not an option in this situation.
Pretty much sums up what eMusic is becoming. A company that would rather surreptitiously raise rates. This is underhanded, how many people won’t check the site closely, and have their rates go up without realizing it?
Really, eMusic, you’ve managed to anger and piss off the core that brought you to where you are. Hope the economy stays good to you.
Quote from CathyHN (eMusic):
“Conversely some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits. ”
LOL, apparently albums can get a price increase up to 1200% percent. How come this is not mentioned in the text on the eMusic website about the upcoming changes?? This is such a bad information policy, it’s unreal!
Hmm, since I paid about 20 cent for a track (will be 41 cent), an one song album which cost me 20 cent (ok that’s really cheap), might cost me 500 cent (41 cent * 12 credits) which is 25 times as much or a 2500% price hike. I guess the hyper inflation of the 30s has arrived at eMusic, lol.
Yet another LONG-TIME subscriber (I’ve got the freebie fleece jacket with an old ugly emusic logo to prove it) voicing his disapproval. I was here when it was all-you-can-eat, and i quit when that changed. But I missed you guys and came back, and have been wildly enjoying my 20 bucks for 90 downloads grandfathered account very, very much.
In a way, 50 downloads a month makes more sense — I have so much music I can barely keep up. But what I do with that 90 downloads is experiment the heck out of your catalog. I grab stuff I’ve barely heard of, just to try it out. If i don’t like it, I delete it. If I like it, I download some more of it. These days I’m buying more music than I ever did as a frequent CD buyer. From you, from Amazon, and yes, still from Amoeba. I listen to more music than ever, and am very happy to never wander away from the indies you’ve been featuring.
But this kinda ruins it for me. Sony?! Who gives a shit about Sony? I’ve either got those records, or I can get them elsewhere (usually Amazon). Or, more than usually, I don’t want anything to do with what they’re selling.
I may give this a month or two as a trial, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be gone by September. It’s been fun, but really — who gives a shit about Sony?
A 39% price increase in order for me to keep my current 50 downloads per month? No thanks. I didn’t ask for eMusic to bring this ultra popular shit on board, so I’m not going to pay for their new cost burden. I’m canceling my account if they don’t let me keep my account as-is.
If people want access to this popular stuff, put it elsewhere on the site and let the people who want it pay the premium for it. Leave the rest of us alone! If we wanted that stuff, we wouldn’t be on eMusic.
Say goodbye to your competitive advantage, eMusic. Be prepared to lose a lot of long time subscribers as well.
Yeah, I’m not very impressed. I’m going to lose 13 downloads a month unless I pay an extra $5. That’s an entire album’s worth lost. Then this 6/9/12 tiered track pricing system, it just seems unnecessarily complicated and to me it looks like I’ll lose more from (for example), wanting 4 track EPs but have to pay for 6 tracks.
I know it’s not much, but I’ve been telling everyone I know for a few years about the great deal that eMusic provided, especially because of the non-DRM, high audio quality, and have been recommending you to everyone who’s asked about good, reputable online music stores. I can’t say I’ll be able to do that now.
Once this month’s up, I’ll be heading back to iTunes.
I lose 50 downloads a month to get access to old major acts. If I like them (Clash, Sex Pistols) I already have them. I’ll check it out but will probably check out of e-music.
While I understand the appeal of getting larger artists to Emusic, for myself, and for the larger public, I am of course frustrated with the increase in price. More so than just a general increase is that those of us who have been Emusic subscribers for years (3 years for me) are not even given some sort of discount compared to the overall change. Yes, I’m glad you are changing your format. Good for you. Lots more people will want to join and in the long run, it is probably good for the company. Unfortunately, it’s not good for me. A near 40% increase in music costs is simply not something I can afford. I don’t expect the prices to stay the same, but come on, couldn’t you have built some sort of tiered structure for those of us who have been around a while? I’m sorry emusic, but I hope the growth from your new users is worth the loss of some old ones.
This is a stupid, bone-headed decision. After my 90 downloads are completed, I am cancelling.
Just saw this on Yahoo. Not a big gamer myself, but this just goes to show what type of bedfellows will be soiling the sheets around here.
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/analyst-psp-go-is-a-rip-off/1325445
Yeah, that’s fine but most of those artists featured don’t interest me or I’ve already bought them. I am ****hugely**** disappointed to see my downloads dropping down to a measly number. The thing about emusic for me has been about discovery and with the smaller # of downloads / higher price per track I would have to be a whole lot more selective than I have been in the past. Not sure I’m keeping my account under these terms. I think you’re going to churn your customers…out with the old and in with the new. Very sad.
Tried to put a link up just now, but the site asked me to type the CAPTCHA or whatever it’s called, but then failed to provide one. So, I’ll just copy and paste the article. I’m not a big gamer, but this shows what kind of bedfellows will be soiling the sheets around here.
Analyst: PSP Go is a rip-off
by Mike Smith
Wondering why Sony’s redesigned PSP costs $249, $80 more than the existing model? You’re not the only one. During an interview on Bonus Round, noted games industry analyst Michael Pachter accused Sony of “ripping off the consumer” and asserted that the PSP Go will actually cost less to make than the current machine.
The cost savings, Pachter said, stem in part from Sony’s decision to replace the current machine’s UMD drive with 16 GB of Flash memory.
“The $169 PSP…is a profitable device. They make money,” he said. “The disc assembly costs more than 16 gigs of flash does. So this new device doesn’t cost them as much to make, and they’re jacking up the price $80.”
Pachter — who works for securities firm Wedbush Morgan and regularly comments on games industry news — went on to raise the possibility of a hasty PSP Go price cut.
“I’m sorry to say it. I don’t want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys,” he said, “but they’re ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple million and if consumers don’t buy it then the price is going to come down.”
I’ve been a member since 2007 and my DLs just got downgraded from this change. What I don’t understand is why emusic thinks I’m interested in any of the catalog they just acquired. If anything, I would be happier if they started to get rarer music that I find incredibly hard to find than Ludacris which you can get on any torrent site on the web.
I don’t see the point here, are they trying to get my mom to join? I already have an account with Amazon so that I can buy crappy music. Emusic is where I go to find indie and less popular bands which are far more accessible and easier to discover because you don’t have all the bullshit promotions for mainstream music displayed on every page.
So help me, if I get any mainstream rap artists on my new arrivals page I will cancel on the spot. If I liked the crap they play on the radio and MTV, I wouldn’t have joined emusic.
Cathy,
Since your “response” to our concerns I’m even more disappointed. The album pricing is, as someone recently pointed out “unnecessarily complicated” and also a rip-off!
Why should we pay for 6, 9, or 12 credits on an EP with 4 tracks? That’s just another price hike masquerading as a (bad) policy change.
I think absolutely nothing will come of all of our griping here, however, since there are more mainstream music consumers than there are indie consumers, or there wouldn’t be top 40 radio. So from a purely business perspective, I’m sure eMusic has made the right move. It will essentially pay off to lose all of us long-time subscribers in order to woo new subscribers interested in the Sony catalog. Even so, I feel betrayed and angry about it, since I though eMusic was actually above that. I thought you were a different kind of company; now I know just how wrong I was.
Industry insider Jerry Del Colliano’s take on the decline of both radio and the recording industry. Note number five in his conclusion on the future of the music industry and Sony “convinced EMU “to raise prices and cut the number of downloads…The labels continue to be their own worst enemy.”
https://commcenter.insightbb.com/en/mail.html?lang=en&laurel=on&cal=0…jimbeaux
That’s: http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/domino-effect-of-radio-and-records.html
This is a mistake. I don’t care for the Sony back-catalog. I come to eMusic for different/newer music – small label stuff. If folks want Sony, make that a subscription option.
Good luck, but this pushes me out as a subscriber.
I’m a long time customer. I’ve told all my friends about emusic, many have signed up. Now I’ll be leaving.
Can anyone suggest some other, more independent minded sites?
lala.com is pretty cheap, thinkindie.com is pretty good… I’m looking for a new place to spend some money.
Please help!!
Just to reiterate a critical point that should be pointed out to the indie labels. The lower price point meant a reduced risk to me (the customer). Approximately half the music I download off EMusic, I don’t like. I am willing to accept this situation because the other 50% is music that I love and would not have found without taking risks. By altering the price structure you have destroyed my ability to take risks with purchasing music. It simply is not worth it anymore.
I am very disappointed. Emusic was a wonderful place to discover music. I took advantage of the large number of downloads (and the price) and was able to download stuff I wasn’t absolutely sure I wanted. But, now I’ll go back to only buying music I’m absolutely sure I want from other sources. This is all too bad for the smaller labels. – Typegirl
This whole thing could be resolved if you just grandfather us in…
Like many others here, I’ll almost certainly be canceling my subscription soon after the changes take effect. Emusic had been such a fantastic place for experimenting with under-the-radar music from the last 2-3 decades. I was happy to throw my money this way rather than to other sites, but the economics of the new policy don’t make it worthwhile to take risks any longer. Enjoy your new, expanded, blander audience.
With this news, I’ve already canceled my membership. Very, very lame decision for music that isn’t really worth it.
What other indie music sites are out there that have not sold their customers? Perhaps if a mass movement of emusic customers moved simultaneously to another service, emusic might get the message.
16 downloads left, and I’m gone after being a pretty happy eMusic customer since 2001. Just echoing what other people have said, but figure the more the merrier. I used eMusic as a low-risk way of checking out new artists/genres I don’t have depth of knowledge in. Didn’t ask for the Sony catalog, and not interested in my membership costs going up while my downloads head south. Fail.
I cancelled my memmbership today. I was asked to change from 90 songs for $20 a month to 50 songs at the same price … IN THIS ECONOMY … with what benefit? The chance to download a bunch of “new” music from artists I dislike and to which I will never listen? Count me out.
I’m late to the post here because I haven’t been on emusic for a while and I never received an email regarding my subscription changes. Bad move # 1. While I can appreciate the economic pressures emusic endures with the subscription model, in addition to the fact that folks, including me, have requested an expanded catalog — emusic’s solution is both inconsiderate and unimaginative. Bad move #2. Why not two subscription price models; a continuation of the existing model for the indie catalog and a higher price point for major label content. Based on the details of the enforced (bad move #3) new model, major label tunes would still be cheaper on emusic than main street stores like itunes and Amazon.
While emusic was productive in soliciting our feedback on whether there was demand for an expanded music catalog, it was negligent in learning about what it’s loyal customer base was comfortable paying for a music subscription. I’m personally likely to go back to buying second hand and promotional CDs online for $3 or $4. Well done emusic.
I’d still be interested in seeing what, exactly, is in the new catalogue. I’m wondering if it will look something like the Dada.net catalogue, which features mostly Sony music, although some (Pink Floyd, for example) aren’t listed there. Is emusic’s access going to be selective as well?
The tiered credit thing–6 or 9 credits or whatever, is probably to prevent from getting a good deal on things like the Miles Davis back catalogue, where some of his best albums have 2-4 songs. I never understood why you could get A Tribute to Jack Johnson for two dollars if you download the songs individually, but it will cost 8 bucks or whatever if you click “download album”.
I am really really disappointed at this new addition and change in my plan. I only subscribe to emusic because it’s almost 100 indie now I have to scroll through major label crap? This SUCKS big time. And because of that I have less music that I can download for the price I’m used to paying?
I will probably cancel my account after so many of years of being with emusic I might have to say bye bye.
I love getting so much great indie music through emusic. But I don’t really want major label stuff. I can just get those as one off’s from iTunes or Amazon. I love subscription on emusic only for indie music.
Yeah this might be a bye bye to emusic for good. New download service here I come. Because this place has gone way downhill!
Well, I’m done now eMusic. I let the whole thing settle for 10 days or so, mostly because I had to wait for my last 50 songs from my annual plan’s last month, which just coincidentally happened in June. It just seems like the whole thing was handled so pathetically…
A night or two before the announcement, and knowing my annual plan was coming up for renewal (it of the now-dead 50 songs/month for about $145 plan) I went on eMusic to see what the plans were. As I wrote before I more or less expected a price increase of some sort. What I found was eMusic’s web site in some disarray. No annual plans at all were on the list and things seemed generally broken; the forums were abuzz with a general feeling of “Oh crap, what’s coming?”
No email was ever sent warning of what was coming; none has YET been sent, so in order to find out about this change in monthly and annual plan rates and download amounts, you have to actually have noticed it on the web site. That is horrible.
So then I find out what the new plans actually entail. My 50 download per month annual subscription isn’t even an option anymore. Why not, by the way? Oh well, that’s beside the point. The plan my account would AUTOMATICALLY switch to is some crazy 6 month plan for 95 bucks which raises my per track cost from 0.24 to 0.41. Beside the increase, what is the point of a 6 month cycle? Hoping to sell me booster packs? Like my 210 downloads would last 6 months.
I’m not even going to address Sony because others have and I care so little about their catalog.
If eMusic had come to me/us and said up front that the current prices were unsustainable and prices were going up, I would have evaluated the change in a completely different mind set. Instead the download quantities dropped while the price also went up and this was watered down with the promise of good news. Bad strategic plan, there, people.
I’m glad to see at least some representation of eMusic on here. CathyHN tried a little, answering some questions, but not answering others. One she didn’t and maybe can’t answer is the question of Indie label profits when comparing lower track prices but higher downloads VS higher track prices and fewer downloads. Not sure I believe that smaller labels get as big a chunk of the price raise as *cough* Sony, either.
So anyway, I am done bitching about this. I said I was gonna vote with my wallet back on June1 and now that my last downloads are through, I’m going to do just that. At the end of the day the evaluation of eMusic is cost for plan vs my enjoyment of it (this is coming out of my disposable entertainment budget after all) and it just isn’t worth it to me.
I amused myself greatly, small mind that I am, by using my last downloads on a wonderful little metal band called “Coffins.” hahaha.
Bye eMusic, it was fun. My account is closed.
/Dave in California
No, no, no. This really sucks. I don’t want sony/bmg music to take over all the cool hip indie tracks. This is really awful. I don’t like it at all.
Sad day for indie music. Buh bye!
Reply to Msg 1383 by Dave in CA
Thanks for writing my opinion of this new “plan” Dave! I couldn’t have said it better… This account will not be renewed. Twice the price for less music – oh yeah… brilliant!
Responsiveness score: -10/10. Three ‘contact us’ emails ignored. Two over a year old and one (regarding an acct question) over a week old. Like Eric Cartman says: “Screw you guys, I’m going home!”
… Just as an aside, I find it generally disturbing that canceling one’s account does not actually do that in the way I expected. My annual plan would have re-upped itself into the new structure on July 5th. When I canceled just now it did not actually do it, it just marked it to BE CANCELED on July 5th. All I can say is, it BETTER. I’ll be watching now, my credit card and my account. That is weird web site and eCommerce design. Jebus.
I’m thinking very seriously of canceling.
3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Music Store [etc.]
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ultra-cheap-music-download-services/
They just sent me a copy paste response to an email I sent them last night. They don’t even care anymore. They’ve already made their decision, and they don’t care how many long time subscribers they lose.
If they would have sent an email out to people saying “We can’t sustain these low prices, and a (more modest) price increase is necessary,” I would have understood. But the price increase we are all facing is a direct result of bringing Sony on board. Without these major labels, I think a price increase to 0.30 a track would have been more likely. eMusic could have paid the indie labels more, like they said they want to, and none of us would have to worry about Sony coming on board.
Nobody is going to experiment with unknown indie bands now, so you might as well just dump the indie connection altogether. It is now more costly to experiment, so people are not going to. Basically you just better hope that the amount of people you are going to attract with your Bruce Springsteen catalog will be more profitable than the long term subscribers who helped make eMusic what it is today. You are becoming everything you once stood against.
“Hello,
Thank you for contacting eMusic Customer Support,
We understand your concern and want to assure you that we truly value loyal customers like yourself and we are very grateful to you for staying with us this long. This is a big change, but not one that was made lightly. The new plans enable us to better compensate all of our labels, plus add new content from Sony starting in July, and even more new labels in the future. In order to offer you more content from Sony and other labels, we simply can no longer sustain the lowest cost plans that some members have, but we are pleased that we can still offer you prices at less than half the average price per download on iTunes and Amazon.
Many of you have expressed concern that eMusic is abandoning our focus on independent artists and becoming like “the big guys”. This is simply not true. We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic — and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it. As you know, we have an exceptionally talented staff of music editors who are excited to highlight the hidden gems in Sony’s deep catalog that will only compliment the collection of awesome and unusual tunes already in your eMusic collection.
So yes, while this is a big change, we believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term. We hope you will have patience and stay with us to enjoy all the new content coming soon.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at eMusic
Hank – Regards
eMusic Customer Service”
Dear Dan -
This will sound like a repeated record, but the reduction from 90 to 50 for the same price is a radical reduction in service or a huge increase in price. I have purchased more music through the mainstream because of e-music. I would find someone that I liked and then seek out their other non-included pieces.
Many downloads were to give different music a try, so many were called but few were chosen.
I would think that you would attempt to reward long time customers with some type of continuing program near their current subscription level since these folks through word of mouth passed along good things about e-music.
Again, the benefit of sampling full cuts rather than snippets at the start of pieces was of real value.
I think you should re-think benefits to long time customers rather than the huge cuts or huge price increases.
You have made it a take it or leave it situation which is not in keeping with the rather experimental free form explorations of many music forms that is one of your greatest asserts.
Dr. Timothy P. Scully
Rancho Palos Verdes
Just read the FAQ… eMusic is not going to allow new registration from members in the UK and Canada. Existing UK and Canada members are being “grandfathered in” and THEIR PRICES ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE. WTF eMusic? You are grandfathering in UK and Canada members, not jacking up their prices, yet you refuse to do the same with people in the US who don’t want to pay more for access to a library they will never use? Also, do you REALLY think that alienating the rest of the world from now on, just so you can stay in bed with Sony, is a good idea?
This whole idea is so fucked up, it’s mind boggling.
I have to say that while there is some value for me in the new music, the price changes are absolutely fucking insane. This has be be an unprecedented sudden price hike for a subscription service of any kind for any reason. Double?? I might stay a few months to get the Dilla and Madlib stuff I’ve been wanting but wow. I’m curious to see what happens here. I have a very hard time believing this is a good move, seems like an enormous gamble at least. But what do I know? I’m just a consumer.
I think this is terrible. iTunes exists. My corner record store exists. e-music offered something else, namely lots of downloads for cheap, and lots of independent and more-obscure music that I loved downloading but wouldn’t necessarily buy at the record store (where I shop often and spend plenty of money). And now I’m losing half my downloads to gain access to music that I won’t download here. This will change how I use e-music and ultimately, I figure, after about 7 years of loving this, force me to cancel my subscription. Sorry.
Oh yeah. And f**k Sony. They certainly ain’t worth this.
a 35% increase in song price just so i can have access to major label titles i don’t want!? great job emusic. i’m downloading my last set of songs now and then canceling my subscription.
As a huge music fan, emusic has been my lifeline to independent downtempo electronica music for years. But now the party is over. I get to pay almost twice the price for each track that I download. Since my downtempo music is virtually all indie label I would suppose I’m just helping *other* people download major label music for less. No change to the type or quality of the music I’m downloading, just a huge price bump. As a big music fan, this just wrecked my weekend.
What a shame that you have made the decision to ruin eMusic. I didn’t subscribe to download the crap I can find anywhere. In addition I will now get half the downloads for the same amount of money. I am saddened at the music I won’t be able to find and support with fewer opportunites to download. I am afraid I will seriously have to consider canceling my subscription. Way to take care of the customers who have supported you for years and helped build you into the company you are today…
Why should we pay twice as much for the indie music just because you want to sell major label songs? The indie music didn’t suddenly become twice as expensive for you to acquire — are you suddenly going to give twice the cost to these companies??? Of course you won’t. So the bottomline is the indie labels are subsidizing your desire to sell the major label stuff.
To me, a tiered pricing model is the right answer: Keep the indie music at the current prices, and if you want to sell major label stuff, fine; you can charge twice or three times more for it than the indie music. For people who want it, this will still be cheaper than most other sources. A tiered pricing approach protects the little indie companies while paying the big bucks that the major labels require. Charging the same price for an indie song versus a major label song is inequitable and just means that you are putting profits before both your customers and the companies that have put you where you are today.
I believe you seriously misjudged your customers by changing the business model. The major label additions hold very little appeal (these albums are often offered at Amazon for $5 anyway). The suggested price changes (my own plan will reduce the number of downloads by nearly 2/3 for the same price) is simply shocking. I would have thought you would have at least extended current pricing as a statement of loyalty to your customers. I suspect Apple and Amazon are quite pleased with your decision.
Overwhelmed… by the groundswell, the insights, the force of common sense against corporate double-speak, and yes, the *emotion* of so many of my peer music-lovers. A sense of a community that is not engineered, not designed – spontaneous and raw. Fascinating. Unforgettable. – I hope the eMusic staff is moved by this, in a good way, as hard as they have it now – that the many people who have done (and want to continue doing) great work here for years do not get discouraged, do not turn against this – that they can share in this rather than feel targeted by this. Yes, we are *their* users. Here because of *you*.
Saddened by what I thought was a new direction and I understand now is a lack of direction. By the apparent squandering of a unique community, a *business* community that declines to be mainstream. Saddened this evening as I download unexpected, unknown beauty and know I will not renew and not stay.
And hoping that not just the rest of us but eventually the decision makers will catch on, make sense of this, and think about what really matters here: the music lovers who are pouring their hearts out in blog – and the musicians, awkwardly absent…
wow, thanks for bi^ch slapping members. I can’t get my arms around how this is a good idea for anyone. the members of emusic have made many of the artists on the site; the relationship worked. for a reasonable amount of money and a commitment to discovery, both members and artists BENEFITED, now, you go along and f*ck the members for…what exactly????
i am surprised “smaller’ artists are not as disenchanted and as vocal as all these posts.
READ THIS CAREFULLY..THE SMALLER ARTISTS THAT EMUSIC/MEMBERS HAVE CULTIVATED WILL SUFFER!!! MAKE NO MISTAKE MEMBERS WILL LEAVE, AUDIENCE WILL SHRINK AND FOR THOSE THAT STATY WITH THE BULLSHIT PLANS AVAILABLE WILL NOT TAKE A CHANCE BECAUSE IT COSTS A HELL OF LOT MORE..
LIKE MANY have said before me… I ‘M OUTTA HERE……
By the way, who is the marketing genius who came up with this idea?
You got a customer base of people who download off-the-beaten-track music. So you lump in a bunch of Top 40 stuff those users could find anywhere, and then charge your users more for, essentially, less access to the music they care about. (Because seriously, if someone’s downloading Texas Rockabilly every month, do you really see them lining up for Celine Dion? Really?)
You getting this? You’re destroying your value proposition! If I want some radio music, I can (a) turn on the radio or (b) go to any of the umpteen music sites. For off-the-beaten-path stuff I went to Emusic, which still has that stuff, but is now charging me more for it.
Just breathtaking. You’ve loaded this thing not to the favor of your customers, but to your vendors. Do you not see the problem here?
And you’re destroying the value proposition during a global economic downturn! Wow!
What next? Emusic getting into the SUV business? Putting cash reserves into mortgage-backed securities?
Hey! Hello! 1994 called to tell you your business model has way missed the bus.
Yeah, we’ve all been dying to listen to that Billy Joel album we never got around to buying…LOL. Goodbye.
I have been a member for six years now and I have always been an eMusic fan for one reason, the indie labels. I don’t really care for the music the major labels carry. It doesn’t matter to me. I have sung eMusic’s praises to my friends and have had a number of people sign up.
So, it is with that statement that I can’t express how disappointing it is to see eMusic veer off its path. eMusic’s distinction wasn’t that it was the cheapest online store but that it had such an awesome catalog. Adding Sony’s “select” back catalog doesn’t fit the flavor of the site nor its audience.
I am also infuriated, not disappointed, by the terrible double speak of “what a good deal” this is and the “small price increase”. I am not sure what definition of “small” you are using but almost doubling the cost of my membership plan isn’t any where near my definition of small. Sure, you are still the cheapest in town, but not by much anymore. The new tiered pricing of iTunes and Amazon puts them within striking distance of your pricing now for most of the music I do listen to.
So, what does this mean? I means that the one website I have used for most of my internet life has apparently turned their back on me and sold out. I do not understand why I cannot elect to pay less money and not be part of the Sony catalog deal. No, instead I get to subsidize the Sony catalog for a bunch of deal shoppers. What it means is, can I choke back the bile of my discontent and stay with the service that is still a decent deal, not a great deal anymore, or will I just simply cancel my service out of spite and move elsewhere.
Wow! Imagine my surprise to find out that the music subscription service I have continually promoted to my family and friends as being the antithesis of I Tunes has decided to become a clone of it! Thanks but I have plenty of back catalog of the lables you are taking on as evidenced by the boxes and boxes of vinyl and CD’s I have collected over the last 40 years. The reason why I loved emusic was that I have been able to locate indie-lables and music that was difficult to obtain. I have been introduced to music and artists that I didn’t know existed thanks to the emusic community of users.
A year ago I upped my subscription to 200 per month as my husband was thrilled that I was able to find music he loved. So now I will be paying close to 100% more per cut and only able to download half of my current subscription. According to the announcement, this is supposed to be a small increase?
The “deal” is that anything exceeding the magic number of 12 songs means you will have to pay for the 12 and the rest would be “the deal”. That is great if you are looking to download very lengthy albums that exceed the magic number. So for those of you who are down loading 200 a month now and decide to continue at the “less will cost you more level”, you’ll need to search for 8.4 albums with a minimum of 24 cuts each to approximately what you have now. But for the rest of us who don’t do that regularly, it’s not a deal and you have got to be kidding if you think that it is Anyone with at least one neuron knows this. Will the changes effect the emusic community? You better believe it as it will lose it’s reputation as a serious music site for music lovers. As for me, I’m not sure I will be staying on or if I do…. at lesser level as I will probably be spending money elsewhere……. like my local indie music store…. I guess I’ll need more boxes.
I
I think I have finally figured this out. Sony is a member of RIAA while most, if not all, of the independent labels are not members. So, if Sony gets a foothold in a company like eMusic, the RIAA is getting that foothold. RIAA has always been against downloading of music, legally and illegally. With members leaving eMusic, the RIAA gets what they want; people not downloading. The flaw in their logic is that they will go back to downloading music through any means. What has RIAA accomplished? The ruination of a good business that served musicians and music lovers. I hope you are happy with the way your outdated business models and antiquated thinking has ruined a terrific business. This is where someone plays Taps for eMusic.
I agree with most of the other posters: paying higher prices for Springsteen or Jackson (ugh!) isn’t the best of news. If I wanted major labels, I’d go to Amazon or iTunes. This isn’t progress–it’s a set-back.
Wow! As excited as I am about having a broader selection I am highly disappointed at the drastic price change/download reduction. eMusic has been great for discovering new music and “taking a chance” on a new or undiscovered artist but with the new pricing I will have to think twice about the downloading and even maintaining my subscription. Granted the price for some of the new “Major” artist is quite a deal but for some of the other items I have purchased, listened to only once and then discarded into the depths of my MP3 library is fairly steep. I would very much like to see some grandfathering, or graduated increase implemented so that we can explore the real value over the next 6-9 months and see if this really is a major announcement. Perhaps even offer the old prices on an annual only basis. In any event DON’T just come in and virtually double the price with no options to your loyal subscribers.
what a lame decision- i had a feeling that emusic was too good to be true! i was pumped when i found a music site that had all of this great indie music at a reasonable price (esp during these economic times)…but now i am super disappointed that my plan has been slashed almost in half and i can’t afford a higher priced plan. i shake my head in disgust and i am disappointed i only got to enjoy the ‘old school’ emusic for a couple of short months!!
I just browsed through two weeks of real negative feedback here. Out of curiousity, is there anyone enthusiastic about this change? Or even a little, tiny bit positive?
I was getting 40 DL’s for $11.99 and will now get 30. The price increase isn’t as high for me as it is for others, and I can see why someone is angry if their price has doubled. I still want to see what is offered before I decide “Should I stay or should I go?” I might have a chance to fill in some holes in my collection at a price, even after the increase, that is better than any other offer I’m aware of.
As someone said, maybe this was too good to be true. I’d modify that to say too good to last. So here’s another request. Can anyone suggest a site that provides comparable music at a better or similar price? Can anyone suggest sites to check out other than the standard iTunes and Amazon types? Please don’t hesitate because you think emusic won’t post it. After some of the posts I’ve read, I believe emusic isn’t witholding anything. And sure, call me naive if you want.
One last thought. There must be some of you for whom the Sony music will be new. It may be worth checking it out before you bail. If there is one thing I learned about getting the best from emusic, it’s to keep an open mind.
Thanks,
Allan
This sucks. This nearly doubles the cost per track: $20/month for 50 tracks (new plan) vs. $25/month for 100 tracks (current plan). I buy the more popular music on Amazon and get the more eclectic/independent music here. eMusic you are destroying a very good thing. I will be cancelling my account after I download my June allotment. If you want to sell mainstream music then start another site. I was PERFECTLY HAPPY with the selection offered on eMusic all these years. So long and thanks for all the fish….
Totally lame sellout. As if I didn’t already have 10 million options to purchase mainstream music. Screwing up a good indie thing by creating room for the over-priced music of the past is a worthless philosophy. What a shame.
I’m very unhappy with this decision. I’ve been a member of emusic since 2004 and have always been fairly happy with the service, but I will be leaving after using this month’s downloads. It’s not so much the price increase that bothers me; It’s what the price increase is apparently for. I enjoy indie artists and like to support them. If you were adding more indie labels, I probably could have taken the price increase. I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but I could have taken it. But paying more for Sony? Really? You want me to pay more so someone else can download Billy Joel? The Dixie Chicks? That’s not going to happen. I’m no business genius like the person who came up with this idea almost certainly is, but I would think that customer loyalty would be important, especially to a subscription based service such as emusic. You had that kind of loyalty from people like me, indie music lovers. I can only hope for your sake that you manage to get half as much loyalty out of the new major label crowd you appear to desire so much. So, good luck to you and farewell.
I will also be canceling my subscription after I get my June downloads. I enjoyed eMusic for the indie music. I was never afraid to try something new and heard many great artists. However, the price increase is unacceptable. I currently get 100 downloads for $25. The Sony catalog is not worth doubling my price. In fact I have over 18000 songs that I bought. I bet I already have all the Sony ones you are adding that I wanted. The Sony catalog would not make me stop downloading the dance music I do now. It just doesn’t make sense to me to pay double for it.
I don’t like the new pricing structure. It penalizes those of us who have been loyal for so long and who appreciate the indie catalog. Where’s emusic’s loyalty to US?
How about this–keep the same monthly quantity and charge 2 “credits” for the new, more mainstream catalog and 1 “credit” for your current catalog. That way, we keep the same subscription, price for the indies and can pay a bit more for the “mainstream” songs if we choose.
emusic, you’re about to lose huge revenues when your established customer base quits and denies you the monthly revenue stream. You’ll only pull a small percentage of iTunes users with your slightly lower price structure. Give iTunes a few months and they match price with the better catalog and emusic will be hurtin’ for certain.
My prediction: you’ll lose many more accounts than create and your net income will fall.
I strongly recommend that you reconsider this plan.
Update: As per my previous post I have downloaded my June tracks and cancelled my account. If you are unhappy with this change by eMusic, the most effective way to have your voice heard is to cancel your account.
High art/low art, indie/mainstream, a million different mini-genres … it’s all crap, really, isn’t it? Music is music. Art is art. I get tired of the hipster insider crowd proclaiming their favourites as more “authentic” or “original” or “quality”. Whatever. You just prefer it.
No hate, people. Let all artists share their work, and choose what you like for your own collections.
this is like that time you learned to play chess.
you see a move and it looks perfect and you make it.
But then you realized you just left your king open and it’s too late…
You guys are amateurs at best, go spend some time
on the streets or in one of those corner music stores you keep
referring to. They would never fuck their customers like that,
maybe because they can see them face to face. You guys
have lost touch with your fan base and i’m sad that
you won’t listen to reason, only dollars.
I just hope the real artists pull their shit after this fuckery
This is incredibly disappointing news. For years now I have been very happy with my annual 90-tracks-per-month subscription. Every month I found great new music. I discovered many new independent artists here. This bizarre decision to announce a 130% price increase makes considerably less sense than Apple’s recent, ill-advised decision to raise prices at the iTunes store.
Presumably you know what you’re doing, and you have concluded that having the Dixie Chicks and Celine Dion in your catalog will bring in enough new business from drive-by casual-listeners to offset the wholesale walkout of your veteran subscribers. I cannot imagine renewing my subscription under the proposed terms.
Regardless of whether this ends up being a net-profitable decision for eMusic executives, it is unquestionably a tremendous loss for independent musicians and their fans.
I have stuck by emusic primarily for the “other stuff” for quite some time. When I wanted something in particular I would go elsewhere. The monthly “search” for new stuff has become a ritual that I will miss.
Based on the new pricing structure, I will be canceling this month.
Such is life.
I am hugely disappointed too.
I have LOVED the time I have been with eMusic – all the music I probably would have never discovered if not for eMusic.
I guess all good things must come to an end.
Not much chance they reconsider, huh? Too bad.
I don’t care if I have access to major label stuff. I don’t like the higher price (or fewer credits, same thing) just so other people can have access to junk I don’t want.
Time to shop around for a different music source. If there isn’t a good replacement, it’s only a matter of time before one comes along. Emusic has abandoned its niche, and someone else will eventually fill it.
Have to echo much of what’s been said here…been a member since 2004 and have a grandfathered plan as many do…while I do undersatnd economic pressures to increase the cost…this price jump will probably cause me to bail on my subscription. The whole reason I love emusic is the underground indie music…I really could care less about 2 year and older Sony backcatalogs so essentially my cost doubles overnight. I can understand emusic wanting to maybe compete directly with iTunes or Amazon but I fear the subscription model vs. pay-by-the-drink may be emusics undoing. I’ve always accepted the subscription model because it’s so cheap and let’s me take changes on bands I never normally would…like someone else said…this results in lots of hits and misses but it all comes out okay in the end. Double my price and this becomes expensive fishing…my thinking right now is I will reluctantly cancel my subscription after 5 good years and look for alternate places to get my indie-fix…I do wish you well emusic but am sad about your direction change…
Been a member for 2 years, so I don’t have the ridiculously low prices some of you long-timers have. Hope you reveled in your good fortune while it lasted. My price-per-track doesn’t change that much & so I’ll probably stay on. Honestly, sounds like this is really just a way to weed out some of you that have had ruinously good deals over the years. Sucks, but that’s business, innit?
If you really want to get back at record labels & their mp3 pimps like eMusic, iTunes & the like, I suggest supporting your local Public Library–they often have amazing music collections–and they let you listen for free. I know, I know, it’s not the same, but good things never last.
Seems like this new plan will attract a lot of new users who will join, stick around long enough to download the entire Springsteen back catalog (or Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, etc.), then leave. Don’t see how this would be a good thing for most of the indie labels that have been here all along. Maybe all that new traffic will compensate for the mass exodus of your existing subscribers, but I doubt it. I plan to stick around as long as it’s worth it to me, which will largely depend on how much of the new content I want badly enough to pay nearly double for my monthly subscription.
I, too, will be canceling when I use my last 90 downloads this month. In addition to my local record store, Amie Street and Amazon will now get my monthly music buying business.
Did eMusic get bought out. Something most of happened because this is not what I signed up for. What I signed up for was reasonably priced access to unique and interesting music across all genres that supported musicians like me who play for the love of it and continue to push the envelope and shape the musical landscape. I love what eMusic was and I am very sad to see it go. I will certainly not give a dime to a multi-billion dollar industry that would love nothing more than to see independent labels disappear. Im sure you will get the new revenue you are counting on, but it wont be from me. Does anyone know of another site that truly supports independent artists and is not full of corporate greed? Please post!
Name: aaron
Member Since: November 2001
Sex: Male
Location: SF
Count me among the cancellations. This was a major strategic blunder. The hordes at iTunes aren’t interested in monthly subscriptions. Trying to compete for the dollars of the casual, ADHD-riddled music consumers there is a losing battle. You should have focused on satisfying your existing customer base, not taking it for granted.
I don’t think that the eMusic managers are so stupid as not to know that the latest move will alienate many existing subscribers. I think it is a move out of desperation/frustration from the eMusic investors.
The problem for eMusic is, that it is stuck in it’s niche. After offering completely legal DRM free MP3 files for 10 years for the lowest prices by far, having only 400.000 subscribers must be a big disappointment for the investors.
eMusic also laid off staff recently and lost Indie labels like ‘DragCity’ (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Smog, …) due to their low royalties. Therefore, some kind of price hike certainly had to come anyway driving more people into the hands of P2P & Co.
But instead of a moderate price increase, they did choose to go for ‘All or nothing’ by acquiring the rights to the Sony catalogue and raising their prices a lot in the hope of acquiring more mainstream customers in order to grow.
The whole move is obviously a gamble. I think the heads of eMusic are just tired and probably say ‘either we manage to break out of our Indie hole’ or we die and it’s finally over.
Also the way the whole move was communicated with all the half-truths and held-back information also shows for me that they might be exhausted and probably don’t care too much anymore.
I don’t think that the eMusic managers are so stupid as not to know that the latest move will alienate many existing subscribers. I think it is a move out of desperation/frustration from the eMusic investors.
The problem for eMusic is, that it is stuck in it’s niche. After offering completely legal DRM free MP3 files for 10 years for the lowest prices by far, having only 400.000 subscribers must be a big disappointment for the investors.
eMusic also laid off staff recently and lost Indie labels like ‘DragCity’ (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Smog, …) due to their low royalties. Therefore, some kind of price hike certainly had to come anyway driving more people into the hands of P2P & Co.
But instead of a moderate price increase, they did choose to go for ‘All or nothing’ by acquiring the rights to the Sony catalogue and raising their prices a lot in the hope of acquiring more mainstream customers in order to grow.
The whole move is obviously a gamble. I think the heads of eMusic are just tired and probably say ‘either we manage to break out of our Indie hole’ or we die and it’s finally over.
Also the way the whole move was communicated with all the half-truths and held-back information also shows for me that they are exhausted and probably don’t care too much anymore.
I personally believe there will be unintended consequences that will hurt e-music. This move puts e-music in competition with other services that they never really competed with before. I doubt if they’re up to it. Prior to this change, it was a “no-brainer;” e-music was my first choice for anything they carried. Now sites like Amazon, among others, are directly competitive with their daily discounted downloads and their 50 for $5 each month. Even used CDs in their marketplace are now in play from a cost standpoint. And with a little effort you can always find stuff at a discount – the beauty of the internet! It’s just that I wasn’t motivated to look before. I just found a site that has all the Blue Note discs discounted for $6.99!
The last poster is probably right. A site like this can make you feel like you’re part of a community and you can become emotionally invested in it, when actually it’s a business and decisions are made accordingly. Whether or not this was a good business decision – time will tell. I’m skeptical, but if I knew for sure I’d be offering my services as a financial consultant.
Grandfathered plans are not permanent. During the last big pricing change that happened two or three years ago, I was grandfathered in with a great plan and kept my low rates. Not so any longer. Current members will get the same rates as everyone else when this new plan goes into place.
Though I am not happy about the price increases, I don’t know how I feel about the overall shift. I’ll have to see what the new catalog looks like. Frankly, I’ve been troubled by the disappearance of a number of indie labels here over the past couple of years (including the disappearance of quite a lot of music that I had previously purchased here), and I hope to see your indie catalog expand as well. I don’t know that I really need increased access to Springsteen and the Clash; it’s the lesser known indie bands that I’ve always found here.
Yep. Add me to the list of people canceling their subscriptions. I always thought eMusic was a good deal and it supported the bands and music I liked. Now, it’s not a deal, and I don’t want to be part of Sony’s profit margin. Nearly doubling the prices for the same service is ridiculous. Customer service at eMusic was always something of a joke. Now it’s plain customer antagonism.
My main concern, beyond the obvious price increase, is the charts. I use the charts often to find new indie music. Will I now have to sift through all the big record label releases to find the popular new indie stuff? Hope you plan to separate the charts somehow for us long time eMusic subscribers, who care more about the small label releases.
I am not sure access to the major label stuff is worth halving my download access at about the same price. I’ve really enjoyed my subscription to eMusic these last few years, but feel like without better price point options (a 50% spike is a pretty big hike in price for about anything) or grandfathering terms for loyal members who signed on for the original independent concept, I doubt I will maintain my subscription which is really disappointing. It would be different if I was clamoring for this additional catalog access and willing to pay for it, but that’s not the case. It’s not what I signed on for at all, and I am sad it has to go the way of the buffalo…
Major label stuff is crap. Nothing new in your ‘highlights’ for the big change. Instead you should work on letting subscribers download all of the good alternative stuff that has it’s distribution blocked and getting labels like Drag City back. You should dump irrelevant wanks like Paul McCartney post haste. I am completely and thoroughly out of here right after my free booster pack… It started off sooo good, and has now gone into the dumper.
I always thought you paid these artists by if their product was downloaded not just to be able to download it. So the cost to us the customer should remain the same so then the price increase makes no sense.
Besides if it’s mostly back catalog don’t most of us have that already?
I’ve been teettering on cancellation since the economic fallout. I’ve had to take a paycut (like many others I’m sure) now you take even more. I’ll hang to check it out but I’m pretty sure you may have pushed me off the cliff with the price increase.
When I signed up it was because some early albums were available on here. Once I got signed up they were gone. (Lita Ford, Peter Criss) You did the same with Black Label Society but after some complaints got them back.
Most of the stuff I have downloaded has come from major gone indie acts anyway. There is mno way I have any time to listen to all the indie stuff you have on here so maybe I just didn’t belong from the start.
We’ll give it a try but I’m guessing it won’t last long.
I’m amazed at how during this recession every subscription I have is going up, and dramatically; I’ve had to cancel several local museum memberships already because their dues increased significantly during a time that I can’t afford any increase to my entertainment budget. When my current eMusic subscription expires in February, then, count me among those who will cancel my subscription rather than pay double per track what I’m now paying, and with access to less than half my number of monthly downloads. I can’t imagine that you or any of these other organizations are doing yourselves any favors by alienating longtime supporters, and losing what are usually considered the most valuable members — and their subscription revenues — altogether. I guess you just assume you can make up the cost of losing our loyalty indefinitely, since you only need to get one new customer for every two of us that leave. Good luck with that.
I downloaded my last emusic tracks today and put my account on hold for 90 days. If emusic doesn’t reverse this decision I am canceling. With iTunes being DRM free and http://amiestreet.com/ for independents I’m not sure I will really even miss emusic.
Honestly, I have been wondering if Emusic’s current management has actually ever MET one of their customers.
The 1440 comments above mine seem to indicate no.
I’ve saved all my eMusic emails and there is no notification there for a price increase. I logged into eMusic and I’m still on a 50 song $14.99 price plan since Feb 2007. I’m baffled. Where do I find the official published eMusic policy about this? When are the prices supposed to go up? Thanks!
I’ve been a subscriber to e-music since the good old days of 2001, this is complete bullshit – I could care less about emusic offer major label stuff – and charging double? triple? for the subs.
the bonus 15 track booster in august is more bullshit.
That’s it for for me, I guess. I’ll complete my sub as far as it’s paid for & cap that shit for good before the new pricing kicks in. as is in, kicks in the balls of all subscribers. Sorry ladies – please substitute something you don’t like being kicked in as well.
BOO.
I will definitely be cancelling once I’ve milked my remaining downloads. I will not stand having my rate raised, especially when I don’t care in the least about those new bands being brought in in exchange. I’m very disappointed in emusic.
An echo to the crowd: member since 2001 feeling robbed. Cutting my dl’s in half means I can effectively get more songs buying the cds directly from the indie labels and still support the artists. What service is emu really offering here, beyond being just a smidge cheaper than iTunes? I’ll cancel if this continues.
Wow. You build your business on small independent music and then sell your core subscribers to expand your appeal. I’ve been a member for three years and have loved this service so much that I don’t even know what else is out there. Does anyone have any suggestions once I cancel my subscription in July?
Emusic,
Half the download for twice the price: Are you insane?
Because now I can download more mainstream music I 1)probably already have 2)Don’t really care about 3) Can find anywhere?
But you give me a 15 song booster pack in August? Why?
What do I do with it, download a Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits?
And you don’t send me a formal email with the new plans? You don’t give me the option to extend the plan I already have as a preferred customer (after all the new plans and catalog are really not there for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have been with you for so long already, right)?
Emusic, read the 1500 comments above (and the 1500 that will follow) and do the right thing. Apologize and come up with new plans.
Thanks for reading.
I specifically choose NOT to support MPAA-affiliated labels, which used to be easy by exclusively using eMusic. Now it’s going to be harder. Can we have an option to subscribe to basically the same catalog of labels, because with the very, very rare exception I don’t even want to look at a major-label album.
Very disappointed and frustrated by this pricing and catalog change.
I’ve been a member since 2006, spending $50 for my 200 monthly downloads. I’ve found some great indie artists, long lost jazz legends, ambient, electronic, reggae and world music on eMusic for three years at a price that seemed fair and honest. Thats why I was completely saddened to see that you’ve ditched your long time loyal subscribers in order to become a whore to the major labels. And while artists like “The Clash” deserve to be viewed as “INDIE”, they were a major label act who garnered major label money. In times of economic turmoil, people will focus on their needs; and what I DON’T NEED is a bunch of retread tracks from artists I didn’t miss. If I want to buy Springsteen’s “Born To Run” for the 3rd time, it will be from the Super Savers cds @ Target for $6.99. And while I’m sure you won’t miss my paltry $600/yr, considering the huge influx of new subscribers you’re banking on, I doubt that many will stick around as long as some of us ‘Old Timers’. By effectively doubling subscription rates in order to appease the majors, you have done a disservice to me as a customer, as a staunch supporter of artists’ rights, and I am certain that in the long run, you have done the greatest disservice to yourselves, as is evidenced by the fact that I am not alone in my rejection of eMusic’s new policies.
This is a bummer! After downloading albums from artists that I was familiar with I would always take chances on new artists with my remaining downloads. It is very difficult to get a feeling for how an artist really sounds with a 30 second soundbite that is usually picked from the worst spot in the song. So now I am worried that I will possibly miss out on a lot of potential good stuff.
I have downloaded a lot of crap after listening to these 30 second samples, so I will be reluctant to branch out into new stuff
Just adding my to the chorus of disappointed voices over the pending changes at eMusic. I am seriously considering getting rid of my membership, since the price increase makes it much less appealing. But where to go? I love the sense of musical discovery eMusic has afforded me and I appreciate it as a haven for independent artists. As others have noted, these changes make me feel angry and abandoned.
If anyone has tips about where to go for what eMusic used to be, please contact me. My email is emusicrefugee (at) aol (dot) com. I have heard of some of the alternative sources listed here but not others, and would appreciate advice.
Thanks.
Emusic is still the best place to go for what Emusic does.
Okay, so it’s going to have a larger selection of fluff that attracts some mainstreams. That isn’t going to turn me overnight into a pop junkie. Actually it doesn’t effect my taste in music at all. I buy from other sites all the time, and honestly, for the selection and the price (44 cents a track is still a hell of a deal!) this is pretty good.
So good that I actually think I don’t mind forking over $480 dollars a year to maintain my current plan and support the artists I’m buying. If I don’t want Sony getting my money then I don’t buy Sony albums. And now the independent labels will earn enough to keep them in business.
Not happy after many years of good music. Now if I want the same plan I have now, I have to practically double the amount I pay? And why is that? Because you want to add major label bands?
I can get major label bands anywhere. I loved eMusic because it helped me find bands other than what the majors were shoving down our throats. And it did so at a good price. Now you want me to pay more for bands I can get anywhere. Let me repeat that, ANY-FUCKING-WHERE!
What is the point of keeping my membership now if it’s worth less, much less than it was? I see that you will grandfather me in for oooo 6 whole extra tracks/month. And I get 15 “bonus” tracks for being a loyal customer in this change over.
Not happy, not happy at all. I will have to rethink my membership with you. As it stands now, if I want to keep what I have, I will have to pay more. In this economy every penny counts. I may just have to say good-by to a long time friend.
this is sad news for the e-music lover.
top 40 & mainstream music lacks so much.
we come to e-music for the alternative diamonds in the rough.
now we are going to incur a higher fee because the big, unwanted names are
hungry?
no thank you.
sincerely.
Thanks, emusic, for the good finds this last year and half. Through your site I found some of my favorite new artists, and, with the deal you offered, branched out into classical, hip-hop, and techno. Unfortunately, your new rate structure and the addition of major labels will change our relationship. As of July, we are no longer an item.
Best,
Greg
Hey, Brad Zebal:
Re: 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Music Store [etc.]
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ultra-cheap-music-download-services/
Sweet! I’m outta here, eMusic. You have no one to blame but yourselves.
PLEASE RECONSIDER!!!
…downgrading the plans who have been loyal subscribers and LOVE eMusic the way it is!!!
It seems like we are being punished for our loyalty. I am sure the new stuff will be great – and I am sure new subscribers will be happy to pay the new pricing. But I am more than happy with things NOW, so it seems like I get to pay MORE to make someone ELSE happy.
So please! Leave existing price plans the way they are, and charge the new pricing for NEW subscribers, the ones who are attracted by the new additions.
This decision had to be driven by emusic’s investors – they’re sick of the niche and want to see growth (although “growth for the sake of growth is the idealogy of the cancer cell”). The exec’s at emusic KNOW that they’ll lose over 50% of their subscriber base and have PLANNED for that. The hardcore music lovers at emusic probably HATE it, but they have no choice. The plan is to offset the loss of “old” subcribers with MANY MORE new subscribers paying twice as much. Obviously most posters here feel that those new subscribers will not be long-term customers, and obviously emusic is betting otherwise. Time will tell. But the bottom line is that emusic is no longer willing to play host to a relatively small and unprofitable community of rabid music fans. We’ll miss it, but the die is cast and we gotta move on.
Add me to the list of longtime emusic customers who are wondering how badly they just got screwed. I love this bit in the announcement: “We’re sorry that we’ve had to retire your current plan, but we’re confident that you’ll find even more music to love among the many new additions to the music catalog.”
I NEVER had any trouble finding 90 tracks worth of fascinating and exciting music to listen to in the course of a month, and now you’re telling me that you’re cutting my plan in half but you’re sure that I’ll find EVEN MORE music to love in your catalog.
No, what you’re telling me is that you DON’T value my nearly ten years of being part of your service. Regardless of all the great “indie” music you’ve given me the opportunity to hear, you think that what I’m really pining for is the back catalog of the major labels. Well, in a word: NO.
Regardless of the financial windfall you may reap from this, in the long run, I think you’ve just killed the fiercely independent spirit which made you my favorite place to get music. When I close my account, and I probably will, let the record show that it was this decision that did me in.
Sorry, emusic. I’ve enjoyed the service, and a lot of the updates to the web interface have been very nice, but pricing is key, and you’ve just given me a black eye.
I’m leaving emusic also, can anyone recommend other sites where I can get great music?
eMusic had a very nice market differentiator…lots of great music at a reasonable price. A great site for those of us who like to listen to lots of different music and want to try new stuff without dumping $10 on a disc that might get one or two listens. Now they’ve decided to join the herd and carry a bunch of dinosaur acts from labels that have bitterly fought the digital age and done everything they could to keep the music buyer from having any real choice. And in adding all this stale music, I’m supposed to be willing to pay twice as much??? Sorry eMusic, you’ve lost me. I can get better selection for about the same money at Amazon or Rhapsody (don’t compare the per track cost…on a per disc price, other sites are often cheaper.)
More news from Danny on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/q-and-a-music-ceo-explains-controversial-price-increase-sony-deal/
Personally, waiting for a “catalizing event” seems a poor business choice. If your margins are growing, it’s never a good idea to put off the price increases until the last minute. People tend to be a lot more forgiving if you are up front about the reasons for the increases (especially in this community where so many are interested in promoting the independent labels) and if you can make them incremental, reasonable and palatable. A little bit at a time is always easier to swallow then all in one go.
I believe that the Sony deal is independent of the staggering price increases. I also believe that it was a poor decision to ask the eMusic communty to take both things on all at once and expect them to be happy about it.
Hi, eMusic. I canceled my membership today, after downloading my 100 tracks on the old plan. Just wanted you to know that the cancellations are still coming strong.
Also: for those of you that are waiting for your free booster pack before you drop eMusic, I’ve got some info for you. When I went to cancel my account, I was offered a free 25 track booster pack to consider staying, no strings attached. I took it, downloaded 25 final tracks, and canceled immediately thereafter. You don’t need to wait for a month of the new pricing system, it seems to get your booster pack and go.
I already have over 100 albums on my “Save for Later” list. I am not hurting for more great music here. However, despite whatever babble there is about getting bruce springsteen tracks (amid a faux devotion to “indie”), i’m being told i have to pay more than 50% more to get 15% fewer downloads. The plan that has what I used to pay, or rather the equivalent slightly more expensive subscription gets me 40% fewer downloads. Despite emusic apparently being swarming with folks with plenty of disposable income, I absolutely am bummed out and will probably be ending my subscription when my current one runs out. This news marks the death of the cool indie download site.
Hey everybody… if you want that big Miles Davis or Bruce Springsteen or Clash cd, go to ANY record store, they all have it. And a lot have ‘em in the cut-out bins. If you want to pay emusic’s $6 for a 12 song cd, with marginal mp3 quality and no artwork when you can get it at full cd quality and full artwork/liner notes, your local used cd store for less, then more power to you. Some people prefer never to leave their house, and that’s a shame.
Please rethink this new policy, emusic. “Major” vs “Indie” question. Well, for instance, Columbia records briefly signed a crappy little Iowa band that I used to love, called HOUSE OF LARGE SIZES. They RULE. If you had their album available and i didn’t have to wade through Whitney Houston’s 17 greatest-hits comps, then great. Perhaps you use your “indie moxie” to seperate the wheat from the chaff. If you were able to say to mister giant record company lizard “we would like to license these 47 albums that to us adhere to our aesthetic, but NOT license these 1,429 albums,” then that would be GREAT. One of the worst things about the “brick-and-mortar” used record store is flopping through one crappy major-label release after another to find something good, please don’t let that happen here. One of the bands I play in gets stupid requests all the time (“hey can you guys play ‘brown eyed girl’??), but that doesn’t mean we have to honor them. stick to your guns. don’t stick it to your customers. if you want to cut a deal with the major label devil, don’t do it on my dime.
I will cancel my subscription. Period.
I will leave eMusic. Period.
Recommend Napster 5$/month streaming with a voucher to get material for $5 a month.
Emusic WAS one of the better experiences online, but this sudden “retirement” of plans, increasing price and slashing downloads per month by almost half is volatile move. I too will be among the members ending their subscription. This WAS a great, burgeoning community and service. What a terrible move and even worse a backhanded action to your customer base. Shameful and greedy Daniel.
What the hell? you are reducing my total music downloads by 100? so it will cost me 9 bucks less a month for 1/2 the music. You are basically doubling my costs in favor of more mainstream crap.
Reverse your changes or grandfather in existing account holders. If neither of those things happen I guess I’m just going to have to quit eMusic.
I think you are going to find that if you drop the big catalog, keep the independents, keep the current prices. You will keep more customers than you will get new customers with your new “Big Changes”.
Don’t be stupid eMusic.
I love emusic but think that the change sucks. I am grandfathered in on a 90 downloads a month, I now drop to about a third for about the same money. I’m not sure what I’ll do because I love the service, but I’ll change my subscription from annual to monthly while I decide whether I’m going to bail or not. The major label additions don’t mean much to me. It seems like you are loosing the inde niche you had so nicely carved out. Damn shame I was so happy for so long.
I will not go into great detail as this issue has been covered adequately above. I too will not renew my subscription once the current one expires. Very disappointing.
Personally, if the price is to go up I’d rather see a better bit rate than Sony.
Because if I have to pay more, why not just download a better quality mp3 from Amazon?
Wow. Emusic appears to be ready to ignore its customers and run itself into the ground. At a time when people are strapped for cash, their celebrating the arrival of a new plan to give their customers a major slash of what they signed up for. It’s not good news that Sony is being added for those of us who have been subscribers without Sony’s presence. Grandfather us in and it’s great news! News so great I’d tell my friends. But gutting my subscription for the same price is just such a dumb business move I’m stunned. Give me the option of keeping my plan and not having access to Sony if you want to keep my business! I feel my bank account getting $20 fatter every month in the future. Do they even read these posts. There’s still time avoid a mass exodus!
Bad move. Double the price and screw over those outside the U.S. I’ll be leaving just for the principle of it in solidarity with world-wide eMusic users. Yours is not a formula for success… it’s more of what’s wrong with the music industry today. Shame on you!
I hate to sound like a skipping record, but I, too, will most likely be canceling my eMusic account due to these changes. I’ve always avoided music services because of the price and their lack of music I liked, and I can’t express my excitement when I stumbled upon eMusic. I’ve been singing their praises ever since to anyone who will listen (and gobbling up 100 tracks a month at a price that allowed me to experience many artists I would have never investigated otherwise), but now I see little reason to continue my account. I will not be partaking of the new music available, and I can’t afford to pay $41 a month (nor would I want to pay that much if I *could*!)
If eMusic were to offer an “indie music only” plan at the current price, I’d be more than happy to continue supporting them. But forcing everyone to pay a premium so new customers can be attracted is not the way to grow a strong customer base. It’s a great way to purge your current customers and gain new ones, but don’t expect to see any of your early supporters hanging around to see it.
So long eMusic. I won’t bother repeating what’s been said so many times before. Suffice to say I’m disappointed with this move.
I’m finishing up my quota for the month then canceling my account. Best of luck.
This is extremely disappointing. I’ve been a member since 2003 and God knows how many months I was too busy to even download a single track but figured, whatever, I’m donating to a good cause. That you won’t grandfather in VERY long-term customers at their
old rates is an insult. I don’t give a care about all the major-label junk you have at long last acquired. Good for you, bad for me who foolishly believed emusic would never take the path of the sell-out. I owned an indie record store for 10 years so have been through it all and know of what I speak. If you had no choice but to sell out then I guess you’re just another sad story of the modern music industry. If you were already making adequate money and chose to sell out anyway, then shame on you. Others have eloquently expressed my other concerns so I will not repeat them. I am seriously considering kicking you to the curb. Please reconsider your actions and save your reputation while you can.
I’m just worried that you’re positioning emusic to be bought out by a mega-online music distributor.
GREED. and just when the economy is in the crapper! You want to make points, turn it around, give us more downloads and use it as “marketing” against the other greedy who don’t believe in anything but the mighty “dollar”. Bring the world of art and blessed by the muses to tose who have nothing and losing more.
Big label vs. indie label, who cares? This question about “mission” is just a smokescreen for a money-grab, plain and simple. Would it have been so horribly expensive to grandfather in existing subscription plans? I don’t need big label access, I like what I have now. Go ahead and block my access to the big label material if that will make you feel better.
I have been a subscriber since the Vivendi days, but I don’t think I will be continuing. Through the recent economic hard times I have resisted giving up my Emusic subscription because to me it was a great value. I dropped my cable channels rather than give it up. Now you have made the decision easy.
Finally! I’ll be able to find all those obscure Dixie Chicks tracks I’ve been searching for to make my life complete. Golly gee, where would I be without Sony?
I haven’t decided if I’m going to use this price increase/music decrease as a catalyst of my own or not. I’ll probably wait and decide in August. It doesn’t seem likely that I’ll stay on at this point. I’ve discovered a few interesting bands by virtue of being able to gamble a few DL credits. I don’t like throwing them away, but if they’re cheap enough, the chance of finding a great new band is worth it. Not so much after this. If you really were half the price of Amazon, it’d be different, but you’re not. I can buy an album from Amazon in June and not buy another track for 6 months, and all it costs me is what I paid for that one album. Emu is use ‘em or lose ‘em. If I can’t find anything compelling for those 6 months, it doesn’t matter. My credit card is still getting whacked every month anyway.
Oh well, it was great while it lasted. Thanks for that much at least.
Gee, great. Now I get fewer downloads, and they cost more, and all because a bunch of crap that I never want to listen to has been added to emusic! Rejoice in the streets! When I listen to Springsteen, or the Sex Pistols or whatever other ‘authentic’ major label artist you want to mention, I don’t think ‘indie’ or ‘major label,’ it’s true. I generally think, how about I put on something better? The best music has always been initially introduced by ‘indie’ labels (which the partial exception of Columbia Jazz), and only taken on by the majors when it had already proved itself profitable: contemporary classical, post-bop jazz, punk & hardcore, experimental electronic/dance, hip-hop… which of these was introduced to us by a major label? And please, don’t quote exceptions to the rule, or bring up bands which got really, really popular. That does not mean good.
I don’t blame the artists, they deserve a living wage like the rest of us. But the best, most interesting music is put out by labels which don’t have to worry about, e.g., shareholders reports, and don’t care about copyright restrictions. Instead, they actually *like* the idea that people will listen to the music they release. Imagine that! Instead of liking the idea that people will pay for it. It’s not about ‘selling out,’ but an actual opposition to the business practices of massive corporations. Sony, for instance, has a tendency to invest in military technology. For the connections, see
http://cstrecords.com/cst_images/cst024addart1.jpg
The reverse of an album available on emusic. I wonder how Godspeed! feel about this change?
Here’s an idea: just charge more for the Sony stuff, and leave the rest of us alone.
Lotta comments here. Lotta Indie snobery too. I think its i brilliant move; hate to see the rates go up, but still very affordable. The biggest pain in the arse about this service is finding an artist you like, take the band Low, and then having their catalog stop at the moment they put it out on a major. That drives me bonkers. I don’t care if I can get Metallica or Beastie Boys, but half of an artists catalog (or even 99% of it) is shameful.
Otherwise, I love my account, this had to happen, and keep up the good work.
S.E.T.H.
I am another one that has been grandfathered in at 90 downloads which I thought was great move on emusic’s part since I was a member for so many years. But now I am very disappointed because going down to 50 downloads for the same price is a drastic change. I admit, like some others have noted, that I would not complain if the downloads went from lossy MP3′s to a Lossless format like FLAC. Unfortuantely this is not the case. Emusic, please keep the grandfathered members at 90 downloads or give the option to download a lossless format. At this point, I am not sure I will keep my subscription.
Dear emusic CEO,
it’s not about ‘major’ vs ‘indie.’ It’s not about ‘selling out’ to the man. Either you’re remarkably ignorant about anything outside online music retailing, or Sony’s pulled the wool over you eyes: it’s about massive companies which fund research into military weapons vs those of us who don’t support such insanity.
http://cstrecords.com/cst_images/cst024addart1.jpg
The artists you purvey know about these things. Read up.
Sorry, this just stinks. I could care less about this major label crap from yesteryear. I’m getting my downloads cut in half for the same price so some drunken sorority chicks can download Meatloaf? Gimme a break. This is the equivalent of having your favorite neighborhood dive bar taken over by sports fans. blech.
This stinks. I’m getting my downloads cut in half so some drunk sorority girls can download Meatloaf? Gimme a break. This is the equivalent of the cool neighborhood dive bar being infested with sports fans. Blech. Nobody wants this major label crap from a bunch of has beens.
Not happy. Not happy at all. This price increase does not sit well, and the ‘expanded’ selection does not assuage me much. I’ve never had much difficulty finding what I wanted. And the price kept me coming back for more. I’ll be doing a serious re-evaluation of the eMusic value proposition.
UNSUBSCRIBE!
I wanted to state that I’ve read every last entry here. I am amazed at the (mainly) urbane and well-thought-out responses thus far. I’ve only been with emusic for a couple of years and, as such, haven’t been enjoying the same generous cost per track that a lot of the old-timers have, but none-the-less have canceled my account as a show of solidarity.
The garbage that Mr. Stein was spewing to kick start things here was the slimiest bit of corporate chicanery that I’ve witnessed in some time. I was using Russian download services prior to proudly hoisting the emusic standard, and I’ll gladly return now that Mr. Stein and his cronies have shown themselves to be soulless smiley gladhands eager to grease the palms of the equally soulless stooges at Sony.
This may turn out to be a sound business decision on the part of the suits at emusic, but it sure smacks of betrayal to those of us in the trenches, who up until now, had been spreading the gospel of emusic to the somnambulant masses enslaved by itunes. I never figured emusic would play the part of Judas, but it’s happened.
THIS SUCKS.
I’ve been a longtime ‘grandfathered’ customer – $24.99 for 100 downloads/month – and I have to find out via an article on wired.com that my supposedly “locked in” rate plan has summarily been dumped and I can now enjoy the privilege of half the downloads for nearly the same amount of money. With the justification that we’re getting all this great new Sony content that we can actually get at lease a half dozen places online already.
eMusic, you LIED to us, you greedy weasels!
I’m canceling as of July 30th.
The internet really is an awesome thing. In this article cited in an earlier post:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/q-and-a-music-ceo-explains-controversial-price-increase-sony-deal/
you’ll find a nice quote about eMusic being sold to JDS Capital Management. A quick search will reveal that JDS is the parent company of eMusic run by Danny Stein. It will also reveal a link to a business article analyzing JDS Capital Management:
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081029/emusic-cutting-10-of-staff-still-looking-for-ceo/
In there you’ll learn that JDS is, like virtually every business I can name, having a bad year. What’s interesting is why. The article reports that online traffic has remained high. Business at retail partners such as “Best Buy or electronics companies that were bundling eMusic offers with their products” is cited as “the specific problem the company is seeing”. The article does not directly quote eMusic representatives, but the implication is they are the ones that provided this information.
I really wish eMusic would say the same things to its customers that it says to potential investors. Specifically, eMusic is not popular enough in Best Buy and other mass market electronics shops. It’s not a big leap in logic to infer that adding Sony and other mainstream labels might help correct that. So eMusic folks, did I get it right?
I am extremely disappointed by the upcoming loss of my 90 songs/month plan. Only downloading 30 songs a month is rubbish because I won’t have the opportunity to explore new music/artists like I can now with the higher download limit. If adding Sony means this higher costs, then we don’t need Sony nor want their back catalog. If people really wanted that music, they can find it elsewhere.
I’m not really sure eMusic would be worthwhile to keep at the new pricing structure. I don’t really use the “value added” things that eMusic lists as such a boon. Give me more downloads instead. In the end it would be cheaper to buy second hand CDs and then you also ahve something to resell. Well I guess this means I’ll be going back to the local stores (not a bad thing for sure) or Amazon second hand.
I really liked eMusic and was very much a “raving fan” but I won’t be doing that from now on. You guys seem to have lost the plot. Such a pity.
Terrible news. I signed up to emusic to get rare music, like all the wonderful Indian and Middle Eastern music that you carry. Now that you are adding Sony, I will pay twice as much for my music. Real progress!
Bad bad bad. After my subscription runs out I’ll probably not renew. It will be cheaper to buy used at local stores or Amazon – and I could resell them too.
What possessed you to think that the Sony catalog was worth the drastically reduced number of downloads per month. Really stupid. At least give us an option to keep our current plan (90 per month) with no access to Sony catalog – I won’t miss it, why should I suffer for it. People can get that stuff elsewhere easy enough.
Dumb dumb dumb.
Just another long term subscriber here…. No way to spin this as ‘good’ news. 100% agree with the others, probably won’t renew unless I can get grandfathered in at my current rate. Many times I download songs on speculation and felt it was a bargain, even if most of it was not that great. But I discovered lots of great new music here. The majors are crap, and who cares about old back catalog, I can get that stuff at a library if I want to. This is what I would call a ‘sad’ mistake. eMusic was really special, now what? A better ‘competitor’ to Amazon and iTunes? Do you think you can really ‘compete’ with them? Doubtful…
I’m so very excited about you adding product that I already own four times over…gee whiz, another chance to buy a Billy Joel record? Yippee! And because of this wonderful “expansion” of your catalog, you’re cutting my plan nearly in half, giving me 50 downloads for the same price I’ve always paid for 90? What are you: a fucking airline? How ’bout keeping the same value proposition to the LOYAL people who have been supporting you all this time and save the screwing for your new customers?
emusic, what a terrible idea! You were unique and awesome. Now more money for major label junk? I never wanted it in the first place. Please grandfather us old timers in, without the new stuff.
Regards
A loyal subscriber
For a music company, eMusic is clearly tone deaf. Raising prices when the economy is in the toilet? That’s a stroke of genius. NOT. You can’t paint this turd gold, but it’s still at tured.
You picked a lousy time to raise prices. I could care less that eMusic decided to offer someone’s (Sony’s?) back catalog. I could deal with the lousy bitrate because the price was right. If I’m going to pay more/song, I want a better-quality MP3s.
I won’t renew my membership at the end of July.
Get the message Joe CEO whateveryourname is. You’re ruining a good thing. I suggest you let all of us old subscribers, the PEOPLE who helped build this site, keep our old plans– at least for a few more years. And the presumptuosness of the title of your letter makes me dislike you as a person, not just a dude doing his job. Did you ever see the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill? Remember the scene with the yuppie landlords?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how large a salary ( and any bonus) Mr. Stein is paid for his services?
#1 – You are adding tons of old music that your core group doesn’t care about.
#2 – You are shit canning your core groups old plan(s).
#3 – See ya’.
Just adding another voice to the chorus of folks who are extremely disappointed in this decision. I too will be canceling my subscription, after one last recharge on the old plan.
Whether you come down on Indie vs. Major as industry jargon or not, emusic, the service that I and others have signed up for will change with this new strategy for sure. It was bound to happen. Too bad, this service was great. Back when you changed the service plans the first time, you grandfathered every old plan in place. Now your not. This is the first sign of the “Majors” influence.
I read a comment by someone else in the thread about not letting the big labels take over the emusic charts and unfortunately they will come into emusic and use their incredible leverage “$$$” to get emusic to conform. I’m not paranoid or anti big corporations, I like many artists Warner Brothers carries, I just thought that emusic was offering a unique and different “product” and I like that product.
It is not always about Quantity and Price, sometimes it is about Quality.
I hope you rethink your strategy. Nothing like a 100% price increase to alienate your current customers.
I think you could have made the transition work with a little creativity that would preserve your existing market while expanding your customer base. Why don’t you offer new plans that give broader coverage with a higher cost, while preserving the limited coverage with a lower cost. Also, you could charge different prices on the broader selections—ie, the download costs 2 credits instead of one–on the new catalog.
Frankly, I find it will be more economical for me to simply buy a used copy of an album from Amazon. Please add me to the list who will be canceling their membership.
After reading some of the interviews, it’s ridiculous to see that you guys (eMusic) mention the monthly downloads being decreased, but appear to never have thought about maybe increasing the monthly rate, while keeping the same amount of monthly downloads.
I’m sure this would have assuaged plenty members as their monthly allowable downloads wouldn’t be affected.
It’s clear that amidst this terrible business decision, there were OTHER bad decisions.
I have been an emu subscriber for some time now. I have never posted a comment on this message board. I wonder how many other people in the silent majority will simply disappear from the ranks of the subscribers without a complaint or even a whimper, and what that will do to the bottom line? To many, the lure of adding major-label artists to the emu bill of fare is a non-issue. With the proliferation of shareware and freeware programs to capture music from any internet content, I would imagine that a lot of people with less honor than me will go to grooveshark or myspace music and the like and capture popular song titles at no cost whatsoever. I think the emu staff has blinders on if they think this new deal is a good deal for anyone.
I have mixed feelings about this…expansion of the catalog ostensibly is a good thing, but the drastic subscription plan change (cutting my monthly downloads in half) leaves me slightly peeved.
As music director and weekday afternoon music host, I use eMusic to supplement my radio program music mix (supplement, hell…nearly 85% of my program comes from what I download through eMusic…as an independent, non-commercial radio station with a shoestring budget, WOJB doesn’t offer a music purchase budget, so it comes out of my pocket).
Up to now, eMusic has been an invaluable tool to me as a radio programmer, as I am able to offer airplay to independent/unsigned artists and offer WOJB listeners music they (probably) never would hear otherwise.
Isn’t there a way to “grandfather” current member plans, or at least offer the same subscription plan to current members for a reasonable fee increase? I don’t know if I’ll cancel my subscription…even with the per-track fee increase, eMusic still is the most reasonable service.
Indie vs. major means nothing to me when it comes to the music.
But it does mean something on the business end. Bringing in SONY and the RIAA with their clout and disregard for music fans means things are only going to get worse for customers. Look at the price increase already. Unbelievable. It’s probably going to get worse for indie artists and labels as well. Now they are competing with the majors with fewer downloads to go around. EMusic will either fail or become just another download site.
I already have all the back-catalogue major stuff I want. All I know is that my downloads are being cut by 40%. Sad day.
Mr. Stein,
We get it that this decision is probably necessary for eMusic’s bottom line, but why not just tell us that eMusic isn’t making it, and you need your loyal fans to step up, instead of trying to spin it as a “eat Sony, it’s good for you”. You could have taken a note from Paste’s successful campaign, public radio style.
Don’t you know that most of eMusic’s customers are passionate music listeners who already have an extensive back catalog on record and cd?
There is something special about discovering new indie music that isn’t mainstream, and knowing that eMusic has it, as well as excellent listener reviews, and a top notch recommendation system that doesn’t include mainstream titles.
But with this move, you’ve just lost your coolness factor, and while I’m reserving final judgement, I’ll probably make a move to buying most of my music from Aimee Street.
Obviously, this is a take-under by Sony to kill the emusic service. By pissing off the thousands of loyal, independent-minded customers that love emusic, they’re forcing us to flee one of the best sources of independent music in the world. If emusic folds, there’s a much smaller marketplace for independent music than there was before, ergo less competition for Sony products. If emusic manages to stay up, they’ll have to front-page and promote Sony products at the expense of independent music. Either way, Sony wins at the expense of indie labels everywhere and the customers who love them. It’s a sad day for good music. Thankfully this is the Internet, where someone else will step up to fill in the gap for us eventually, and the major labels will continue their inevitable decline no matter what, but it’s still disappointing to see this service die. I’ve put up with a lot of crap from emusic in the past, but now it really is time for me to go.
It’s more than a bit disingenuous to claim:
a) that the price increases are slight or small
and
b) that you “can’t sustain yourself on the lowest priced plans” considering that you bumped ALL the plans up a SIGNIFICANT amount.
At the very least you should grandfather in you existing customers– you know, the ones who have been with you for years and who you are now bending over AGAIN.
I don’t care about indie vs. biggie or access to Sony’s label.
Currently, my $14.99/month gets me 50 downloads ($.30/download), which I’ve always felt was a very reasonable price. The new basic price for 50 downloads is going to be $20.79 ($.42/download). But, if I interpret this correctly, as an existing subscriber I will be getting 37 downloads/month for the same $14.99 ($.41/download), a 39% increase in price.
That seems like a pretty big jolt to me. The price of gas is going up again, but I can’t quit buying gas. However, I can quit downloading music and use the savings to offset the price of gas.
eMusic has every right to raise prices. Doing so is naturally going to chase away subscribers who came here because of the low prices. I imagine the fan is going to get really messed up in July, when a whole bunch of people who still don’t know about this log in and see the new Music Downloads number at the top of the window.
New subscribers will mostly never know about the old pricing structure; they’ll either subscribe or not, depending on their own desires and abilities. But it’s a shame that eMusic feels no need to offer existing, long-time subscribers anything for their loyalty. They get the same deal as everyone else (apart from the FREE! 15-track booster pack you get AFTER you accept the new deal).
It’s been suggested repeatedly in the comments that existing users be granted the right to continue with their current subscription in exchange for not downloading from the newly-added labels. I don’t think that’s unreasonable, but probably unlikely to happen.
But here’s another idea: Why not allow existing users who elect to stay in the program to roll their unused credits over to the next month? These people deserve to be rewarded in some way for their loyalty.
I love what E Muaic HAS been, a grat place to explore new & adventurous music. I have been a prepaid plan person for years fronting $191.90 for 90 tracks per month (1080) or .177 per track. THe change will send me to $171.90 for 35 tracks per month (420 annual) or .411 per track.
The music I liked here was stuff you wanted the whole album to get the experience of the msuic. You will drive people to key tracks only or much much less exploring. The indie bands making some cash on this will get less and less. Therefore less music will come out, and we all lose. I lose because there the pricing increases by 132%
I did not mind paying for some short intro tracks and such because the costs were low and I wanted the entire experience of the artist’s recording.
Other services give you a break on an entire album…something of that nature might help here.
I will have to strongly consider leaving, especially as the indie exploring music gets driven out because people cannot support as much at these prices.
I know prices go up…but not 132%. I give business to fair fair deals.
Maybe an option is we keep our old deal if we don’t buy major label stuff (which I will not)
I’m not very happy about this. E-music has been the first time I’ve been able to afford to take a chance on music I’ve never heard before. Adding The big lables is great, but I feel like if people want that stuff they should be charged a premium rate, while the rest of us who will never use it are charged the same rate.
Sonic Youth ‘Eternal’ on Matador – Not Available in the U.S.A.
Grizzly Bear ‘Veckatimest’ on Warp – Not Available on the site any-damn-where.
eMusic can’t even serve up the good music on labels it has agreements with. No way am I gonna pay even more for even less.
I think some major label product would be good if it falls in line with indie music (i.e. The Clash, old Springsteen, etc). Not all major label music is slick and overtly commercial.
Regarding major vs indie labels:
1. The majors have the weight to have an outfit like eMusic substantially raise the prices for everyone.
2. The majors have been terribly slow to adapt to the way technology is changing their business, and have used lame tactics to attempt to prevent these changes.
I have mixed opinions about emusic changing to include major label content. I have myself asked emusic for some mainstream from time to time, but I didn’t realize that the inclusion would change the pricing so much for me (having had a grandfathered plan, the pricing wiill almost double).
Thank you Emusic. I have only been a subscriber for a little over 2 years and have greatly enjoyed the wide range of independent label music I was able to explore and download legally. I want to very sarcastically thank you for trashing all this by adding Sony of all companies to your roster.
I am curious as to how many rootkits you will be providing to your customers free of charge with the new catalog. A couple of years ago Sony was kind enough to trash my computer with a rootkit when I foolishly thought I had the right to rip a legally purchased and highly overpriced Sony cd so that I could play the mp3′s in my SONY?>?>_)*(_)(& mp3 player. It took me weeks to get my computer back into good operating condition. I have not bought a Sony product since and never will again.
Once again, Thank you for ruining a good thing for your customers. Price changes are one thing. Corrupting your catalog with product from an unscrupulous malware provider such as Sony will ruin your name and business.
I feel duped. eMusic found a market niche and mastered it. If you were someone who preferred independent artists, and were weary of all of the DRM associated with the major label sources, this was your place. So they built a loyal following, amassed a large enough customer base to be taken seriously, and then suddenly and unceremoniously abandoned the niche. Now, every loyal customer of the service is paying more money for less songs so that this site can be just like the sites we were trying to avoid in the first place. The CEO’s letter was insulting, frankly, not in what it said, but in what it didn’t say, and the snake-oil-peddling tone it was delivered in. Your really good with lipstick and pigs, Danny, but at the end of the day, you’ve glibly forced on us exactly what we joined your service to avoid. If we’re being honest, that’s what is happening here, and no amount of bureaucratic tiered-plan shuffling or punk-band name-dropping will change that.
But, it’s not like they aren’t going to continue to offer the same music I have been downloading, and so far it’s still worth it. I’ll stick around for a couple of months and see how it goes, but color me disgruntled.
There appears to be an overwhelming majority of resounding disappointment with the changes being made at emusic so I wont bore you with more than my 2 cents. This sucks big time, I’ve been with your company for eight long years. A grandfather clause for previous members is the only way I’m going to stay, I’m afraid to say.
Can we opt not to access the Sony catalog an keep our current price structure? I’m paying for something I don’t want and didn’t ask for. Sorry eMu this just isn’t going to fly…
While I see some of the benefits of expanding your catalog to include more mainstream artists, I find it disingenuous for you to position this as a member benefit. Artists like Miles Davis and Bruce Springsteen are readily available on others at music sites. As for Michael Jackson, his situation is just because of the talent and time he has wasted the last few years. I have over 30 years in advertising and like many of my clients, can “smell a rat” and know when I’m being hoodwinked and placated in the cause of ever increasing economies. It’s a shame that you feel your subscribers are not intelligent enough to recognize this, because they are. Sadly, like many other subscribers, June will be my last month as a subscriber.
If you ever want an example of how a great company alienated its core client base, look at Quark versus Adobe InDesign. Quark thought it had everything locked up in the desktop publishing market and treated its customers as if they were a never ending oil stream. Eventually every well dries up unless you look to the future and it is obvious that they did not. as for Emusic, it has always been for the true music fan who are not interested in the mainstream or the manufactured, but true artistry. Plus you would think with the current economy you’d consider that for some your subscribers, this is their one guilty pleasure in a otherwise depressed environment.
Perhaps another service will pick up the mantel of offering great independent music with fair pricing and respect for their customers.
Fuck you guys. I’m out.
Well, I just read the interview with Danny Stein, and the man doesn’t give a toss about music, but doesn’t have the balls to steal money through sub-prime mortgages.
To hell with this.
It’s sad to see a formerly great site for discovering indie artists heading off in this direction, and handling it as poorly as they are. Seeing as their “new” music can be found through so many other venues with more convenient pricing structures (a-la-carte at Amazon/iTunes/etc, all-you-can-eat streaming services like Rhapsody), I have to wonder if they’ll have a subscriber base after everything has settled down. I can accept that my grandfathered plan may be unsustainable and could accept having to synch it up with a more current pricing structure, but it’s hard to stomach a 3x price increase to get access to something I don’t find attractive in the first place like the Sony backcatalog. Maybe they didn’t want to go to the effort of programming it, but I think it would have been a much nicer option to give subscribers the choice of an indie-only or a indie Sony subscription plan and let us opt-out of the Sony add-ins to stick with the older price structure.
I may think differently in a month when I’ve used the last of my annual subscription and have to decide whether to re-up or cancel, but at this point I’m inclined to go elsewhere for my music needs.
In an interview with Wired magazine, Danny Stein said, “Our new pricing is simple. It’s 12 credits per album, and that’s if the album has 12 songs or more. Below that, it’s by track.”
“Below that it’s track by track.” I was surprised to read this, given that Cathy Nevins has said that “some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits.”
Which is it?
Wow. Returning to this thread after a couple of weeks reveals to me that eMusic has really alienated a lot of its subscribers! My plan expires in February and, at this point, if corporate doesn’t change their disappointing re-structuring of subscription plans, I’m certainly out. Staying would leave me with a nearly 60% cut in purchasing power. What a slap in the face! This wouldn’t hurt me so much if I didn’t enjoy the eMusic experience so greatly. I was a cutout-rack junkie at record stores and later at CD outlets for many years; seeking new, untried, and “anonymous” material. I have had the same type of experience on eMusic mining through the mediocrity and striking a number of nuggets. Very satisfying!
I’ll miss that kind of fun………………unless someone at eMusic cares to keep me.
I’ve been an Emusic member since the very beginning… I deserve to be treated better. Answer Phil Gs question above:
‘In an interview with Wired magazine, Danny Stein said, “Our new pricing is simple. It’s 12 credits per album, and that’s if the album has 12 songs or more. Below that, it’s by track.”
“Below that it’s track by track.” I was surprised to read this, given that Cathy Nevins has said that “some albums with few tracks will carry album pricing of 6, 9 or 12 credits.”
Which is it?’
I have loved the way eMusic has operated up until now. The fact that I was able to get 100 downloads for $24.99 was the main reason I was attracted to this site rather than subscribing to a few of the others I tried out. I’m constantly searching & discovering independent artists that I would have never known about. At this price I could afford to try out artists I’d never heard of at little risk.
I’m very disappointed about the price raise & will definitely be looking elsewhere. It is sad, but true. The new “big label” stuff you are about to offer that is in my interest is music that I already have in my collection (all of The Clash, Patti Smith, Iggy etc), so none of this will be worth the price raise to me. The whole reason eMusic is appealing is because of the obscurity factor, the price point & the exploration & discovery factor.
I will unsubscribe. 192kpbs VBR files, far less downloads, does not compute.
Has the new Virgin “unlimited MP3″ download plan been mentioned yet? Details are slim but this might be an emusic(and iTunes) killer. Look it up on Yahoo news. It’s just been announced so you can’t join yet. I’m not even sure if it’ll come to the US since the UK is mainly mentioned.
The big pull of the plan is the fact that you can download DRM free MP3s and keep them. This isn’t like those other subscription plans where you’re basically renting the music.
This is disappointing. Yes, having my number of downloads reduced by more than 50% is a drag. But I am actually more disappointed in the changes this means I’ll be seeing in the music turning up when I come to the emusic homepage every day. I came to emusic because of the price, but I’ve stayed because I’ve had an amazing experience finding new music from bands I hadn’t heard of before joining the site. I *like* not knowing at least half of the bands I come across here. It’s this sense of discovery that keeps me coming back. To think that sony back catalog selections are going to start showing up in the place of cool new bands I might have discovered makes me sad.
Sure there are great major label acts, but the differences in marketing and variety of repertoire are huge. If you don’t think believe me, go check out the itunes store homepage and compare it to what you’re used to seeing here.
eMusic is raising prices to include catalogs I don’t want?! I am going to cancel my account and just go back to buying stuff on iTunes… at least they have the Sub Pop catalog!
Incredibly, Danny Stein, CEO (self-appointed) of eMusic, actually tries to blame INDIE labels for the price increase in an interview (funny that he hasn’t bothered to respond to his actual CUSTOMERS here, where he started this ‘debate’ ).
Fortunately, someone with credibility in the music world (unlike investment company goon Danny Stein) reports that Mr Danny is full of shit ( Article is from hypebot DOT com, URL reference to come in next post, unless they censor it as they have others) :
———————-begin
“eMusic CEO Blames Indie Labels For Price Increase
Emusic When eMusic recently added major label Sony to its previously indie only music subscription service, it also increased prices per download. Still cheaper than iTunes and others, the reaction from many eMusic fans was strong and negative.
Since the initial announcement, the company has been on a bit of a campaign to clarify why the price hikes happened; and in an interview with Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk, eMusic CEO Danny Stein said that it was the independent record labels and not a deal with the big bad Sony that forced the price increases:
Danny stein “Our existing labels, for the most part, have been asking us to raise prices for a long time. What I told the New York Times is that we were looking for a “catalyzing event” to do it. And really, the catalyzing event is adding catalog, adding more content. We used this as an opportunity to do it, but we didn’t do it because of Sony…
We did it because in order to sustain the economics for our label suppliers and their artists, we needed to do it.
…The price change is something that all of our labels have been asking for, for a long time, and it’s really a necessary move for us to maintain a viable business.”
But several indie entrepreneurs that have spoken publicly since the announcement and others who have talked to Hypebot privately paint a very different picture. It does not appear that eMusic consulted many of its indie label “partners” before the Sony announcement and price increase.
While any label wants more revenue, some members of the indie community admitted, a major strength of eMusic was low price music discovery and that equation has changed with the price increases. Another often mentioned complaint is that eMusic’s uniqueness as an indie only community has been destroyed with the addition of Sony.”
———————-end
Note the most important paragraph: “But several indie entrepreneurs that have spoken publicly since the announcement and others who have talked to Hypebot privately paint a very different picture. It does not appear that eMusic consulted many of its indie label “partners” before the Sony announcement and price increase.”
Or in other words, Danny Stein cannot open his mouth without several blatant, self-serving LIES leaping forth.
The URL for the hypebot article cited above is:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/06/emusic-ceo-blames-indie-labels-for-price-increase.html
Well, I’m another very disappointed customer, here. I will be cancelling my account once the current term is up. Like many others, I love how eMusic allows me to sample things I would be hard pressed to find so easily elsewhere.
Really sad about this.
Consider me another long-time, grandfathered, eMusic apostle who will be gone if a major course correction is not made. Reduce my downloads, okay. Increase my fees, okay. Both? No way. I’ll go from 20 cents a song to 40 cents a song. A 100% increase.
Salt in the wound: I didn’t even get an email about the changes. I get several emails a month from eMusic pimping the tunes, but change my plan and I have to stumble on it here on the site.
Good-bye, eMusic. I was unpleasantly surprised to find what I did when I logged into my eMusic account today to do my usual mid-month browsing and downloading.
For years I’ve used my eMusic subscription as a way to explore and find new sounds to be delighted by, in a relatively low-risk way. When I wanted something from an artist already known to me, or from a major label (even when it came with “indie” flavor), I went to a store where it was easily findable, and bought it. When an album or artist has major label backing, it’s a known quantity with high visibility and availability…making it a low-risk purchase. (e.g. When I want Franz Ferdinand or the Mountain Goats, I go to my local music shop and buy the CD. I do this because I already knew enough about the artists and the albums to know I probably won’t be disappointed by it, and that I’ll easily be getting at least $12 worth of entertainment out of it–and doing my part to support independent retail in my neighborhood is important to me.)
The way I used eMusic was much different. I knew I could pick up albums from artists completely unknown to me, because I was really only “risking” a couple of bucks on the purchase. I can squeeze three bucks of entertainment out of almost anything–even if it’s just to mock it heartily with some of my music nerd friends.
With this latest increase in price [Really, you expected me to happily pay more for fewer downloads?], you’ve raised the level of risk. And lowered the value of your service. You’re no longer a vehicle for musical exploration, at least not at a cost that’s acceptable to me. (The good news is that I’ll gain back an entire afternoon a month that I used to spend on the eMusic site looking for goodies to download…maybe my house will be cleaner as a result.)
Ah, well. It was fun while it lasted, no? Thanks for all of the great discoveries you helped me make over the years. Sorry we won’t be continuing on together.
I did spend my afternoon on your site one last time. I used all of my download credits for the month today, grabbing up a couple of bands I’d considered in the past but hadn’t tried. Upon clicking that “Cancel Account” button, you presented me with 25 free downloads to reconsider my decision. I took them. Picked up a few more things. And then I promptly canceled.
Consider yourself dumped.
So long!
Dex
With the constraints (and inevitable losses) of a subscription plan without roll-over, bitrates that have not increased for years, often incomplete albums and non-previewable tracks, and an outdated user interface, eMusic has few claims to implement a price hike of this magnitude.
Sad as I am to say so, this is one of the most horribly managed transitions I have seen. Corporate double-speak (admirably dissected by Trea in post 1522), zero direct communication to subscribers after… 17 days, and an all but total withdrawal of the corporate voice from this blog… It’s amazing that the blog is still here.
Pity the eMusic staff and the thousands of musicians who will be hurt by this.
Just unsubscribed – and determined to find better, both in terms of audio quality and user environment.
i’m going to stay for one more month. test out the waters, get some miles davis. if anything, i might keep this account just to download albums with fewer than 8 tracks.
While this move may be a great thing for eMusic and for folks who will enjoy the bigger label selection, it means that my 90 tracks a month just went to 50 tracks a month for the same price. I’ve now unsubscribed from eMusic after being a subscriber for years.
Business rule #1: It costs more to get new customers than to keep old ones. (Didn’t they teach you this on the first day at MBA school, Danny?)
Business rule #2: Customer loyalty and word of mouth (esp. in the Internet age) combined with straight talk to these customers from management can keep even a shaky business model afloat. (See Paste magazine for a case in point.)
Business rule #3: Never devalue your product and raise its price at the same time. (See newspaper industry for a case in point.)
Business rule #4: Don’t BS or lie to long time, loyal, paying customers. (Many of us were told that our subscription plans would remain the same as long as our accounts remained in good standing; now we are told “oh, didn’t you see the fine print in the agreement? we didn’t really mean to say that you could keep your plan forever”.)
Business rule #5: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” – Hunter S. Thompson
I will be canceling also, tripling the price is absurd.
A badly handled sell-out and rip-off scheme. And I’m insulted by the fake “major vs. indie” blog post distraction. Let me know when you change your mind and I’ll maybe consider reenlisting. In the meantime, I’m sure I won’t be missing out on reading reviews from all the corporate rock fans who’ll flood the site.
Thanks for degrading my membership and reducing my song limit – talk about ‘welcome to the brave new world’. After over 3 years of continued membership I’ll be cancelling as soon as I use up my songs. If you guys can screw around with my membership then I have no faith that you’ll not degrade my membership again whenever you feel like it.
I’d rather support Mondomix than you guys. You have no integrity and operate under the same ethics as any greedy financial institution.
And thanks again for rewarding my continued membership and support by degrading my membership.
Danny, I am not sure who came up with this ferkakte plan but I have to tell you that your subscribers are not a bunch of shmucks who will accept this. Look for a huge ammount of lost revenue and good luck getting us back.
Thanks for degrading my membership and reducing my song limit – talk about ‘welcome to the brave new world’. After over 3 years of continued membership I’ll be cancelling as soon as I use up my songs. If you guys can screw around with my membership then I have no faith that you’ll not degrade my membership again whenever you feel like it.
I’d rather support Mondomix than you guys. You have no integrity and operate under the same ethics as any greedy financial institution.
And thanks again for rewarding my continued membership and support by degrading my membership.
I am VERY unhappy with the change in pricing. Going from 65 downloads to 37 for my 15 bucks is extremely unreasonable. I loved things the way they were.
I see this as eMusic caving in to all the idiots that we’ve heard say “I can’t find any artists I know on eMusic.” There’s plenty of alternatives for them. Leave them to their iTunes and keep eMusic the way it’s always been.
This is all really baffling. In earlier interviews on 17dots and elsewhere (after one of the indie labels left) it was made clear that emusic felt it was offering a fantastic experience by allowing and enabling consumers to sample affordably and thus be exposed to a wider more diverse range of music. The low price (and royalties) perhaps didn’t yield high per-consumer payout to the label, but the point was that there was opportunity for many more people to discover artists and contribute – thus a higher aggregate consumer base.
Increasing prices will simply stop encouraging that discovery.
I’ve been a subscriber for a long time and I’m not sure I understand why I should stay so. Does emusic not want me to resubscribe by making each track approximately 2.3 x more expensive ? What is my incentive ? I have access to more music that I didn’t come here for in first place ? What is the downside of continuing to support my plan ? It would seem to me that you will get zero money from a large number of subscribers versus a grandfathering price (quite high in my case). Why would you choose zero ? Is this because the new labels have forced you to pump up per-track royalties and you are passing that along? How about you let me keep my plan and I don’t get the new labels ? Or some sort of dialog along those lines.
Anyway – I’ll stay until my old plan expires, then I’ll look elsewhere unless something else happens I think…
You have a very odd business model that seems to be reliant on alienating all your existing users to swap in new replacement users who will pay more and expect an experience similar to itunes.
Well, some ‘Indie’ labels like DragCity (which pulled their catalog from eMusic recently) certainly think that they don’t earn enough from eMusic:
Here is a quote from a Seattle times article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2003983861_webindie.html
Is $7 an album enough to keep an indie label in the black? Not according to Rian Murphy, sales manager at Drag City Records. Murphy’s label decided to pull its catalog from digital subscription service eMusic because it had to sell three times the amount of songs to make the slim profit iTunes already provided. The service provides plans that can whittle the price of a song down to 27 cents — appetizing to consumers but nauseating for artists.
“Keep your eye on the bottom line, and if it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it,” Murphy said. “Things become known eventually. You don’t really have to force them down people’s throats.”
Murphy says it’s up to independent labels to resist slashing their own prices just to fit someone else’s corporate business model. Drag City albums sell for $9.99 on iTunes and $8.99 on Amazon, though Murphy says Amazon is swallowing the difference.
“There are too many people out there who don’t value their own exposure, who want (their music) to get to the maximum number of people and they don’t care what they have to do,” Murphy said. “This is the reason, as far as I’m concerned, that the industry is in trouble.”
Danny,
In your letter you fail to address the cost of these changes. For me, the new cost will be almost double after July. It is a slap in the face to us, your customer base, that you did not address this issue.
You appear to be chasing a more mainstream market with your new catalog and price scheme. However, I don’t believe you will be able to compete with amazon and itunes. They offer access to almost every song you can imagine for $1, while you are offering a relatively limited collection at prices that will be way too high.
In the meantime, if you suddenly double the price for subscribers like me, we are going to unsubscribe. Your business model was working before; have you planned for the major loss of subscribers when they find out about the new pricing scheme?
I hope emusic survives- it has been a great place to find international, electronic, bluegrass, indie rock, etc at affordable prices. Apparently that is coming to an end for now, but I hope someday emusic will return to us, the customer base that got it started.
Fare well
Looks like my post got deleted. It was on the site for at least a couple of days.
It basically questioned why eMusic didn’t go to a flexible pricing approach and it outlined such an approach.
Instead of lowering everyone’s credits eMusic could have increased them by a factor of 5 and based the credits per track or per album totally on what their partner labels were comfortable with. If a label wants to charge only 3 or 5 credits per track to undercut Sony’s 15 or 20 credits per track, let them.
Similar thoughts on this are here: http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=180530#1093239
It’s hard not to react in an emotional manner to this. I’ve been a huge fan of eMusic since I subscribed 4 years ago. I loved being able to find cool new indie music at a price that let me explore new artists without facing a lot of risk if I didn’t end up liking all of them. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of the subscription idea, but I ended up liking it combined with the prices since it forced me to discover new music every month and I found a lot of really great stuff. And when I found artists I really loved, I’d turn around and order their CDs and other merch directly to further support the artist.
I can understand that the financials of my grandfathered plan weren’t sustainable, and could accept some price increase to possibly keep up with the times assuming it was the result of deals with new indie labels (SubPop anyone?). But granting me access to mainstream stuff from Sony’s backcatalog for a 3x increase in my price? That’s a hard pill to swallow. I can’t see how eMusic’s subscription model can work if you’re going to go after the mainstream market. If you look for deals at a-la-carte shops like Amazon/iTunes, you can get prices that are very competitive with eMusic’s cheapest per track costs, and without the steady burden of a subscription. Then you look at the other mainstream subscription services (Rhapsody, Napster, etc), and you get all-you-can-eat streaming for that monthly fee.
So I have to say I’m worried about eMusic’s future. I’m going to have to think hard when my current subscription runs out, and at this point I’m inclined to take my business elsewhere. And judging by the backlash seen so far, I’d have to guess a lot of existing customers are thinking the same thing. Given the plethora of plan choices available, is it too much to ask to give us an indie vs. “premium” plan option. Let us choose between sticking with the old pricing scheme and prevent us from accessing Sony’s catalog, or paying the new rates to get access to Sony’s music too.
I’ve been a huge fan of e-music for a long time. I had an older account, the $110 annual fee for unlimited downloads back in the day. I cancelled my subscription when they changed their terms. But after a while the $15 for 65 downloads looked too attractive and I re-subscribed at that 5 years ago. (But I don’t think 15 booster downloads is a fair trade off for cutting my downloads in half. In fact after supporting E-Music for so long it’s pretty insulting.)
But back to my point. The main reason I came back was that the music selection was great, a lot of small indie labels, great jazz and blues selections, and the integration of AMG was so great. But now that e-music is in bed with Sony we’re all (loyal customers) getting squeezed out.
E-Music owes it’s success to tapping into the niche market music scene, offering music that isn’t necessarily mass market. Not having to cater to ridiculous mass market crap they were able to grow outside of the costs of having to license Jonas Brothers, Ashley Tisdale, Taylor Swift ect.
It seems like E-Music is tossing out it’s loyal consumers just so they can get into the game with other downloadable content like i-Tunes and Amazon. Unfortunately what they aren’t realizing is that they are straying from the path that made them successful in the first place. Enough so to even think they need to compete against i-Tunes and Amazon instead of realizing they offer what i-Tunes and Amazon can’t.
I hope that those who make the decisions in e-music take the time to look over how their consumer base feels about these new changes. People will be bummed about any subscription change. At least grandfather those of us who helped E-Music get to where it is by honoring the subscriptions we’ve purchased for over 5 years!
That said, I think that E-Music has already disregarded the will of their consumer base, and greatly underestimated us. We are the people who look outside of the mainstream, the kids who started their own shows and punk bands instead being spoon fed New Kids on the Block. If E-Music has to make it’s move to feed mass market, some one else will take it’s place.
R.I.P. e-music. 1998-2009
Now I realize that no one at eMusic will read this, let alone reply to it but really, “More of the good stuff”, you have got to be kidding me! If I want something from a major label I buy the CD, rip it at 320 bits and then take it to the used music store and either trade it or sell it. I didn’t subscribe eMusic so I could download low bit rate tracks from major labels. So now I get to download 30 low bit rate tracks for the same price that I was paying to download 50 low bit rate tracks. Keeping my “NEW AND IMPROVED” eMusic subscription just wouldn’t be fiscally responsible, so after I download my 50 tracks for June I will be canceling my subscription. Then I’ll be watching the web for whoever takes eMusic’s place. Maybe Mr. Stein should Wiki “Bill Knapps” to see just how greed can kill something good.
I just canceled my membership, got my free 25 first, though. I’ll come back if you give me my 90 for $19.99 back. Let me know.
Brian
If I want major label stuff I visit my local indie CD store because I like to support them. The Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho, is one of the finest music retailers in the country and they always have new discs on sale. I subscribe to eMusic to experiment. I purchase the bulk of my indie rock and world music at eMusic. I don’t want to buy major label albums at eMusic. I’m currently on the eMusic premium plan. Your price change inflates my costs by 60%. This is inexcusable. Thanks to our struggling economy, my income for 2009 will be only 25% to 33% of what it was in 2008. Despite this I have kept my eMusic subscription. But I won’t pay $20 for 50 tracks. I will cancel my eMusic subscription at the end of July.
I joined eMusic back in 2006 because it had different music than the other mainstream download sites and I was tired of the mainstream cookie cutter music. I’ve discovered some of the best metal, alt, and prog music that I’ve ever heard on eMusic. Stuff that I would have never been exposed to anywhere else.
I doubt that I will ever download anything from the mainstream labels, but I’m getting stuck with the cost. Why not just have the higher cost per track attached to the mainstream labels and let the independent label tracks remain at the same cost? Or why not keep all of the existing eMusic subscriber rates the same and pass on the increase to new members that join for the mainstream labels.
I think that most people that are currently subscribed to eMusic are there for one reason only, the independent music, so why penalize them with the higher track costs due to the mainstream crap that is going to be added?
Sorry, guys. I’ve been a subscriber for over three years now, and while I may not be have been on one of the really robust plans, I kept finding room for this in my budget through tough times and awful economics because it was worth it to me for the amount of music I was getting out of it, even with the occasional incremental price jumps. And I do actually appreciate the expansion of names being added to this list, but I’m pretty insulted at having my downloads unceremoniously sliced down by half after having stayed with you for so long. This is probably the last straw. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other people who will take my place, but it’s still pretty sad. [And only a 15 track booster to compensate? Thanks a lot.]
Well, I’ll enjoy emusic until the price change. After that I am gone.
I’ve just tried this shit at work… told my manager I’m gonna work half the hours for double pay, starting from July 27. Cause I really need the money. And my family was asking for it. But I’ll do more different things while I’m at work — even without him telling me to! Guess what he told me… “somewhere else”. So that’s where I’ll be, e-music — somewhere else.
Too bad, this was a great site. But count me out after the price change in order to offer music I”m not interested in.
Like hundreds (thousands?) of other formerly loyal eMusic subscribers, I’ve spread the gospel of eMusic to friends and family. Now I’m thankful none of them signed up – I’d feel like I was peddling Hummers for GM.
If GM started making Hummers again and selling them on their lots next to their smaller hybrid vehicles because gas is “cheap” again, but began charging hybrid buyers twice as much in order to subsidize all of the company’s problems, where would they be now? Yep, in bankruptcy.
Even if Sony basically buys eMusic and you don’t go bankrupt, your mission, or what’s left of it, is definitely bankrupt.
How depressing.
I guess I should just kill myself now.
Well, I canceled my eMusic subscription a week or so ago. Just got an email asking me to take a survey about why I left, so I did that. I’m not a big fan of the way it was done, though, and here’s why.
There are a lot of questions about my satisfaction with the service, which are worded in such a way that I answered them with respect to how I felt about everything before, say, May 30. So eMusic got pretty good marks there (and I think almost everyone would agree, that’s why we were here). Selection, community, etc etc etc.
The important question, of course, is, “Why are you leaving?” And at least there is the obvious answer provided: “Because of recent changes to your account”. But given that answer, which I’m guessing almost everyone who’s bothered to write stuff on this board here would select. there’s no way of quantifying what you mean by that. It just sort of gets dangled off to the side and forgotten, which makes me suspicious that in the world of a corporate statistics guy, my reason for leaving will be drowned out by all my praise – which was directed at the way eMusic used to be and not at what it will become.
There is no “additional comments” edit box at the end, which would have fixed my complaint. So I don’t know… this is a minor problem in the scheme of things. To wit, I get an email asking me why I’m leaving, but have never gotten one warning me that my cost would automatically be changing the next time my account re-upped.
Guess this is just my FYI. Back to our regularly scheduled programming now: “How not to handle changing your subscription service if you want to keep your customers.”
Sorry, couldn’t resist
)
Emusic! YOU GUYS ARE BLOWING IT!!!
Just like the rest of the former customers here, I will be deactivating my account due to the new plan “options.”
I could understand maybe a dollar or two increase to keep the same basic account terms, but I’m not paying twice as much for the same thing! How dare you do this to your loyal customers? I was content and impressed with you guys for the last 3 years– but something like this is unacceptable.
Why not charge new customers the new rates, and leave your happy (original) customers alone? We would gladly stick with you for many more years. Getting some random new catalog additions that many will probably never purchase does not warrant a price increase for all your other existing tracks.
Emusic used to be a great resource for musicians and fans of non-major label music. I guess we’ll all be on the lookout for another music download site that is what Emusic used to be– smart.
Guess I’ll be visiting my old friend, the iTunes Music/App Store Not much different these days.
BTW, I heard you guys have been censoring negative public comments about this involuntary price change on twitter and the internet. How pathetic. Great job ruining another brilliant concept, SONY and EMUSIC.
Just got an email from Amie Street. There are offering half off credit this weekend. Support a truly independent music site. amiestreet.com
it’s not that i don’t like bruce springsteen and alicia keys – it’s just that i already have plenty of access to them. my 11.99 is supposed to go to site that provides access to artists and sounds that I wouldn’t otherwise find. i expect that the community here will continue to be the real value, but getting less of what i actually want for the same fee feels like someone diluting my scotch with a liter of water.
Well, I’m done. I downloaded my 50 for $11.99, went to quit, and got 25 more for free. I just can’t justify going to 30 for $11.99. eMusic, you shot yourself in the foot.
I love being here, but not at the new rate.
I’m a musician, and I totally get the indie music thing; the artist that can’t get a major labels’ attention is screwed without it. eMusic has made it possible for lots of great indie artists to get their work out there and easily accessable without radio play and the other BS associated with ‘getting discovered’. You’ve also given some of the jazz and classical greats with waining careers another chance at a new audience. I’m always interested in what’s out there that is not on the radio or on the other web stores, so I prowl around your site allot and I’m impressed with the broad varity of music you offer. The trick that Apple pulled with their propritary itunes thing made me purposely buy another brand of MP-3 player so I didn’t have to rely on them to decide what I can buy and what I want to hear. The fact that eMusic broke away from that stratigy made it all the more appealing to me. It’s now been a year since I first discovered your site and I generally have been very happy with it. True you don’t have everthing I’m looking for but the stuff you do have is good and @ 30 cents a download it is a smoking deal compared to what Amazon and the others extract from me for a track. Having said all of that let me get to the two points I want to make. First your increase as a % is pretty stiff; right now I get 40 downloads for $11.99 and the closest your new deal comes to my existing plan seems to be 30 download for $15.99, so I esentially get 10 tracks (25%) less for $4 (33%) more! However I’m willing to stick around for a bit to see if there is a comensurate increase in quality and selection; value means more to me than price. Second, your original mission (as I understand it) was to offer an alternative to major label music support the indie, jazz and classical artists and give their fans a place to buy their music regardless of who made their MP-3 player, and you have done that well. If you can continue to do that while increasing the size and quality of your catalog, then I’m still in. I’ll be watching (and listening!) carefully……………………(mgg)
I’m with Ben. I’ve been using amiestreet.com lately and loving it. You load your account with cash and use it for purchases until it’s gone, then you add more. You don’t have to worry about your pre-purchased tracks not rolling over.
I really can’t justify re-upping at eMusic when I’m unemployed AND going through foreclosure. Times are hard for the people who pay you. What possessed you to raise prices and cut the number of tracks per month at the same time? I don’t shop at eMusic to find music from the Sony catalog. I thought that was the whole point of eMusic: being able to “discover” new artists we couldn’t find in the mainstream services.
I will be another one to come out and say it, your rate hike has made me give Amie Street a solid second glance.
I hope that losing almost 1/2 of my monthly downloads means that all the downloads I lost over the years as emusic lost these labels (ie, Throwing Muses, Sufjan Stevens, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, etc etc – I counted missing albums from 49 artists in my “my downloads” folder) will be restored.
I’d rather not support extortionists (RIAA) or incompetent businesses (emusic). Thanks for the booster pack parting gift!
I keep waiting for you to reverse the policy of cutting my downloads. Right now I’m downloading the last of my music before I cancel my membership.
As someone who owns a web subscription service, I can tell you that almost doubling your price will result in a mass exodus of your old subscriber base. It doesn’t matter if the cost is just a drop in the bucket of someone’s income, most people don’t like the idea of being taken to the cleaners — and for us indie lovers, there’s no perceived benefit to the addition of major labels. So if you’re thinking that keeping the cost the same for less access or charging a few more bucks for the same access won’t make any difference to your well-heeled subscribers, think again.
I happen to cater to doctors, and the cost of my service is small — especially compared to others in the industry who offer similar products. However, I always keep my price increases small, and within the cost of doing business because I know my audience would balk if I instituted a 50 percent subscription increase. I personally feel I make a good living off of my business, and to try and gouge my subscribers diminishes my credibility — even though they are a wealthy subscriber base which could easily absorb a heafty price increase. Even if I thought I could get away with it, I wouldn’t want to treat my valuable customers like that.
Now if an audience which NEEDS my service would bail, I can tell you that an audience that doesn’t need your service will certainly bail.
So I’ll wait a couple of weeks for the other shoe to drop. I’m afraid if it doesn’t, you’re going to find you have both of them in your mouth. Meanwhile thousands of subscribers like me will be GONE forever.
LOL, Just made a long post about your crappy change and it didn’t post. I’m not going to bother wasting my time again except to tell you I’m in the web subscription business, and you’re making a terrible mistake.
As soon as I’m done downloading my music, I’ll be gone just like a good number of the rest of your subscribers.
Good riddence to the clueless.
i wrote a big long diatribe here, but then just got tired of typing before i could wrap it up. i’m pissed. in summary- emusic was amazing pricewise and selectionwise for me for over five years. great stuff i enjoy listening to that never even enters the universe of popular radio. my plan resets in october, and when it does, i too am gone.
danny- wonderful way to treat the people who kept your business afloat since you launched it, you twit.
i’m a big classical and jazz fan- mostly newer, harder to find stuff in both genres. for five years, emusic has been a paradise for me. great selection and great prices (i have a 40 download per month at $9.95 plan). i don’t want the tired sony pop stuff and i won’t pay for the tired sony pop stuff. when my plan refreshes in october, i too am gone.
danny- wonderful way to alienate the people who kept you afloat for ten years, you twit.
Too bad you didn’t choose to respect the plans of the loyal customers like me who took a chance with you when you were not one of the top download sites. It’s great news that you can offer more catalog, but to “retire” my agreement and almost double my per/download cost stinks to me of corporate greed, which ironically, I believe, is the cause for the downturn in the music industry.
I know the difference between indy and major, and it’s money. I hope your future editorial decisions are based on music and not money, but I’m not betting on it. I know your website has gotten dramatically better the last few years, but to slash my plan really erodes my confidence. The 15 bonus tracks you are giving me is almost insulting, and doesn’t even get me close to my current plan that month.
I am rooting for you, as my outlets for music are down to almost nothing with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Good luck.
Mr. Stein:
I learnt of this “good stuff” only yesterday when accessing my account. You know, the one with the plan that I get to keep as long as I remain a customer in good standing.
I am still puzzling over how a 134% price hike amid the deepest recession i two generations in order to bring me something I did not request and, in fact, do not want, is “good”.
At first blush it seems it might be “good” for eMusic, until one realizes how very unacceptable the changes are and adjusts for revenue loss from customers such as I who will be terminating our association with eMusic. But, realistically, you could lose half of your customers and hold gross revenue. Once one accounts for eMusic getting nicked by Sony, that customer loss better be under a quarter to hold revenue.
Clearly the moves are unalloyed good news for Sony: it gets a new revenue stream AND crushes eMusic’s business at the same time. Win-win. At least for Sony.
Sometimes managements try to “fix” or “improve” a product or service that their customers do not want either “fixed” or “improved”. eMusic could have improved the quality of its downloads (higher resolution, less lossy formats) but instead has decided to add content inconsistent with the history and focus of its customers.
Perhaps you will recall the lesson taught to the business world by Coca-Cola about 20 years ago. In its wisdom, the management of Coke elected to withdraw its 80 year-old, best-selling-in-the-world product in class in favor of “New Coke” – which market research showed would improve sales against principal competitor Pepsi-Cola. The reaction in the marketplace was swift and bold. Sales of Coke plummeted. Consumers hoarded “old Coke” while “new Coke” adorned retailers’ shelves unmolested. Pepsi gained share, and Coke spent half a billion dollars correcting the fiasco.
I put it to you, sir: with these moves eMusic has confected its own “new Coke”. The important differences are that eMusic is not the market share leader and eMusic does not have vast piles of cash to throw at correcting the incipient crisis.
With this context, I hope that you will understand why I say that your “question” (“Do “major” and “indie” mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon?”) is immaterial. What you should be asking is: what can we do to improve your experience with eMusic? Unfortunately you have answered that question without asking it, and as a result you have gotten the answer utterly WRONG!
I regret that as a direct result of these changes I shall no longer be a customer. I have enjoyed eMusic’s service and content, and I regret that these actions have broken trust with me (and I dare say many other of your customers judging from the responses above). Trust is very, very difficult to restore – much more difficult than growing revenue.
Regards,
I was very upset to here you guys are bringing in the major labels. I’m sure this will be a real turn off to the indie lables you try to bring aboard. I guess greed takes over sooner than later and leaves integrity at the door. I will be ending my subscription at renewal time and I hope everyone else does the same.
Very pissed about this. As has already been stated, I can get major labels everywhere. Emusic’s great prices are why I came. I could download albums freely, and if they weren’t always the greatest it wasn’t a big loss. Its not always easy to find artists well related (I usually use Pandora to find things, and then check here to see if they are available for an album)
Not sure what I’m going to do with my subscription yet, honestly I’d rather go without the major labels.
I think instead of paying more for less, I’ll simply take my dollars to other services with better recommendation features, better bitrates, and better interface / download mechanism. A sad day for music.
With the new pricing model EMusic kind of misses the point for me. No more downloading unknown artists just for trying… Well, EMusic might still be cheaper than say ITunes – but ITunes does not force me into a fixed amount of downloads/mo.
Think I’ll say goodbye when my plan is switched…
emusic’s previously low prices allowed me the luxury of discovering lots of lesser-known musicians. the new higher prices will definitely restrict my ability to explore and discover new music. and I don’t care about the major label back-catalogue — you can get that cheap at used cd stores, yourmusic, amazon. In the end I will buy less music. is that progress?
This is not good news at all. I completely agree with the critics of this new strategy, there is no reason to go to emusic to buy major label music. You can find it everywhere else, even for free on youtube. Now, the money you put into emusic going to be used to perform heart-surgery on a dieing, monopoly based, an sick entertaining industry. And in the best financial crisis style, its all the wrong people that is going to pay for it. Why can’t you just make the people that wanna buy ridicules expensive music pay them selves? Why do I have to pay it for them?
Well, I can’t say I am too happy at having my $24.99 a month suibscription which gave me 100 downloads for a plan that is five bucks cheaper and gioves me HALF, that is 50 downloads.
I recommend you let subscribers carry over FOREVER unused downloads as a way to make up for the massive change in downloads versus cost.
I did review the plan options and you want to charge me $30.99 for 75 downlaods which is $5 more than I was paying for 25 downloads less.
Do not mess this up: if you get SONY labels back catalog, do not have the Clash disappear after two weeks due to “unforeseen problems”.
You had better make sure I can still download my tracks as many times as I want because THAT IS WHY I have the service, I get to have a library of music online.
Please place a link to BOOSTER PACKS in a clear and obvious place, such as on the Home Page.
Thanks for listening.
Explain why 100 downloads = $24.99; 50 downloads = $19.99 (my new plan) is a good deal
As a long time subscriber (2002) I am disappointed in the new direction Emusic is taking.
Higher prices and less downloads per month is not what I am looking for.
Heck I remember when you could download unlimited for 10 bucks a month.
Consider me gone when my subscription renewal comes up.
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.
Ayup, hate the price hike/download drop, don’t care about the major labels.
I want to support the indie musicians, not the major label companies. It’s infantile and petty, but why should I even bother continuing my subscription? Screw this, I can just go torrent what I want and blame the economy, eMusic, Sony *and* the RIAA.
Let’s face it, I like incentives. Thanks for taking them away.
All I can say is “WEAK!!!” Like many others have stated here, who cares about Springsteen or The Clash. If I wanted that stuff I would go to Amazon or Itunes but instead I go to Emusic for stuff that I’ve never heard of that I can “take a chance on” for a reasonable price and now that price is going to double? overnight? That’s just not right. I’m sure that this tirade will have absolutely no effect on the impending outcome but I doubt that I’ll continue my subscription past next month, oh and I really do like the ploy of giving us a booster pack in Aug. so that maybe by then we will have gotten over the change in subscription rate and just continue along as normal….fat chance!
Colossal fail emusic. I am really disappointed. I’ve been recommending your site to music lovers for years and have enjoyed your service immensely. Now I’m just going to have to cancel out of principal.
Danny, what are you doing?
This makes zero sense, there is already an Itunes for people to buy beyonce or pearl jam. Sure only getting 50 downloads for my $20 bucks sucks. But the bigger problem is, I just lost all interest in shopping here. DO you even know who your customers are? I have been using emusic for about 4 years now, I always tell my friends about how awesome it is. Not anymore. Pathetic.
Danny, your fired.
I’ve been a subscriber, fan and evangelist for eMusic for a few years. It’s nice for your business to get some of the majors. Jargon doesn’t matter to me – it’s all about the quality of the music.
Those new labels and artists are not value-added for me as a subscriber here. Certainly not worth the jump in price for the subscriptions. I expect to cancel soon.
A better idea might have been for you to continue to provide the “indie” eMusic catalog at the original subscription prices. Charge newbies and those wanting to download those new labels/artists a “premium” subscription price.
Newbies will be happy with you, especially the ones who want those pop artists. But you’ve just alientated, offended and taken for granted your long-time supporters. I haven’t gotten an email about this from you. Only know from this article I just happened to find.
Customer service Fail on this one. You miscalculated who we are – at least who your long-term loyalists are. Thanks for the past few years. Good luck.
I think this is great news. I love music, whether its hard to find or on the next corner. I find nothing wrong with liking ‘mainstream’ music, as long as its good. Metallica or Gojira, Modest Mouse or Alkaline Trio, who cares who is better, as long as it makes you feel something. Another good thing about ‘major’ labels coming in, is that all the whining bitches who come to eMusic & can’t find their band, can stop whining! I use iTunes for the stuff I don’t find on eMusic & P2P for stuff that basically doesn’t exist. (Mash-ups are a bitch to find.) Here is to another 10 years eMusic!
Well, not much to say that hasn’t already been said much better and in much more detail, except that I just finished voting with my wallet and unsubscribed after downloading my monthly quota on my old plan (you know, the one that was never going to change as long as I remained a customer in good standing?).
Another faithful, long-time subscriber down the tubes. But I guess you’ll more than make up for it with the masses and masses of people coming here to get the Dixie Chicks’ back catalog. And to think I used to urge all of my friends to give you guys a shot.
(No more to write now, as I’m off to AmieStreet.com to spend my 20 bucks a month.)
Doubling the price sucks. I’ve paid for thousands of downloads on emusic and every month find new and interesting stuff. It doesn’t need a bunch of mainstream stuff to be relevant. I say keep it as it was or grandfather in existing account holders.
“Q: I’ve heard some members didn’t see a change to their plan at all while others are getting a pretty major adjustment, why’s that?
A: Basically we had to bring all plans to where we can continue as a business. The change also enables us pay labels, and by extension musicians, more. That’ll make eMusic more attractive to some of the labels members have been asking for. We worked out a way to do this without affecting the majority of customers. However those who enjoyed the best deal, which includes many of our longest term, most loyal customers, were hit with the biggest adjustment to their service”
great model- “hit” your longest term most loyal customers. I will be taking my business elsewhere. Good luck.
Oh, well. I was in on emusic early. I even downloaded so many tunes during the prix-fixe days that I got a cautionary email from emusic. As a former music ed major and a person whose parents were both musical and encouraged me to be adventurous in exploring music, I have appreciated the huge bargain emusic gave me. I’ve enjoyed a special 300-download package for a long time, with prices that have turned out too good to be true. I don’t understand the new limits on the number of downloads. I do, however, appreciate the album pricing concept, as the number of short songs on many classical albums have put me off of downloading them.
I also want to call emusic out for the disappearance of many items that I’ve wanted to re-download. You know, even with some backups, hard drive crashes tend to lose stuff for you. emusic has become a shifting sand of licensing issues, apparently, as many things I downloaded in years past are no longer available (Six Degrees Records selections, for an example).
“Major labels”? I don’t want or need them (well, maybe Sony Classical). I think we older subscribers are clearly not the focus of emusic any more, if we ever were.
I’m really on the fence about continuing my subscription. After all the good word of mouth I’ve given emusic over the years, this seems to be quite a comeuppance and my word of mouth for now will be “proceed with caution.”
Just going to reiterate the disgust I read above. No, I do not give a rats ass what the new Alicia Keys sounds like, and no I did not sign on here the have SONY anywhere near my music collection.
My definition of expansion does not mean pay the same and get less, and as a supporter and salesman for this site for a great deal of time, I feel that if this is the thanks I get- the heck with it…I’m out of here.
Thanks a lot for reneging on your part of the deal we had.
“We’re sorry that we’ve had to retire your current plan, but we’re confident that you’ll find even more music to love among the many new additions to the music catalog”
Hey guess what? I WAS NOT LACKING FOR NEW MUSIC. I HAD 100 “Saved for later” albums! I think there’s something very wrong with the above sentence from an English grammar point of view.
Why is that emusic lady saying that the reason some plans were hiked up a lot was because the company was losing money on them, but the president of the company said something completely different?
And please don’t cry “indie snobbery” to the people that don’t want the sony catalog. Part of the bitching about it was that the president’s letter in conjunction w/ the price hike makes it SEEM like we have to pay more for our service because they’re adding the sony catalog.
It’s just a botched job all the way around. These people MUST HAVE been able to find other ways to boost revenue. Here’s one idea: send out a letter (or post on the website like this) thanking everyone for their loyalty, but talking about how they’re losing money, and ask for suggestions from us. Maybe say they’re thinking about doing a b c or d, what do WE think about it?
Ah screw it. You know they’re banking on us all being initially p.o.ed, some people leaving, but ultimately coming out smelling like roses, proudly proclaiming their indie-ness to the glassy-eyed denziens of best buy and wal-mart.
I’ve been a subscriber for 4 or 5 years now, but I too will be gone when this change kicks in. Paying more for less is not my idea of a good deal.
I’m so incredibly sad that eMusic has decided it cares more about attracting new users who want major label pop twinkies than it cares about its current users. I’ve been on eMusic for 5 years and was grandfathered in with 90 downloads. Now I’m going down to 50. That’s almost half of what I was getting before. I’m crushed and angry about this. I’ve been incredibly loyal, telling everyone I know how great eMusic is, and now this. You care so much about word of mouth? Imagine the word of mouth you’ll be getting from the 1600 users who are as pissed off as I am above. Or the 10 times as many users who are pissed off but not bothering to complain. I worked at an internet company and I know that only a very small portion of users actually take the time to write and comment. So if 1600 people are angry enough to tell you about it, it’s probably more like 10k or 20k. What if we all cancel our subscriptions as a result, as so many of us are considering? Is it worth your deal with Sony to lose all of us? Is it worth it to have us all badmouthing you over all those social networks you mention? Because people are ranting about you on Twitter and Facebook. Everyone is angry. And what about all the indie musicians you’ve always wanted to help people have access to and learn about? I would download just about anything if it sounded interesting, because I had SO MANY downloads. Now with only 50, if I keep my account, I’ll be much more selective. And I would never download anything from Sony after all this. Why not offer the option of not having access to the Sony catalog and keeping my 90 downloads? You want to keep your customers’ loyalty? Treat us like you care. There were only three companies I knew of that inspired the kind of passion I had for eMusic–you, Apple, and Pandora. Do you know how incredibly special it is for people to love your company? It’s so rare. I wrote to you once just to say how much I loved your service. I’ve never done that before. But you’ve gone and screwed that up. You’ve become like every other number-crunching company, caring more about the bottom line than customer loyalty and the indie bands you claim to promote. This is a sad time for your customers. I just feel crushed.
Well I skimmed enough of the first 100 posts to have reasonable confidence that I agree with the other 1500 severely disappointed, long-standing Emusic customers and devotees. It was a bummer when the prices went up slightly a couple of years ago (from $.22 to $.24), but some increases are an understandable, even expected, part of an innovative business model trying to make a go of it in a very difficult industry. But this latest change (for me a $.24 to $.40/download hike, which is a 66% increase!!!) is far, far above any reasonable fee hike as a result of either difficult economic times or even just an attempt to improve profitability modestly.
Yes, this change to the catalog will attract many new customers, given that it’s still a good deal relative to Amazon & iTunes. But eliminating the grandfathered accounts is plain insanity. Based on the posts above — and mine — you’re going to lose a ton of loyal, existing customers if you go ahead with that change. It doesn’t cost you anything additional to keep the grandfather accounts (since the monthly fee itself seems to remain the same), so isn’t it better to keep some of your customers at lower profit levels than to risk losing that income entirely? I just don’t get it
OK, the economy sucks and we all understand that it’s more expensive and risky to operate a business than it was a year or two ago. So raise our fees MODESTLY to keep pace with that. 10%, 15%, even 25% … that sounds reasonable. But 66%? Forget it.
I’ve been a user for about a year and a half. I’ve found the service to be excellent, and the selection quality to be good.
The plan changes are going to reduce my downloads by 25% a month. That does suck, but then as a business owner myself, I hear that people are grandfathered in at 90 downloads/$20 and I have a vicarious heart-attack. I can’t imagine that emusic is not hemorrhaging money over that.
So, facts are that you will go from paying .22 a song to .40 a song. It’s an increase of 55%. That is a lot. But .40 a song is still a bargain, a big one compared to iTunes, and you get the music straight and unfettered, and the indie selection is great.
I mean, there’s two ways to look at this. One is to say that emusic is screwing its loyalest fans. The other is to say that emusic has been awesome to its loyalest fans for years, and is now faced with business realities that force them to ask for support. I am the last person on earth to think we should show loyalty to a corporate enterprise, but if the deal is still good, why be so harsh? Let’s not fall into that retarded indie trap of simply hating things that have no choice but to grow to live.
This is truly a sad day for all of us long-term eMusic members. I’ve been a customer of eMusic for 3 years so far, this is by far my favorite place to go to find new and obscure artists, things I don’t find elsewhere.
Like someone else said, when I want major titles, I know where to get them. The fact that I’ll be losing 90 downloads to 50 is just unreal. It really is quite unreal.
There really should be a plan if you want the Sony and other labels, you get the new deal, but if you don’t you stick with your current plan. It just makes no sense to castrate our account this hard.
For all of the long-term members, it’s a sad day for us all. I don’t think I intend to keep my account once this goes into effect and I encourage others to do the same to send a message to eMusic. Long-term supporters should not be penalized because of major label music.
It is one thing for a company to need to raise prices because of economic reasons.
It is quite another to change the business model and not even have the balls to email their clients. To say that it “isn’t possible” to send an email notifying their customers is a bald-faced lie. I get an email from emusic regularly about what is new or hot. Have some ethics and decency. Own up to what you’ve done. Your FAQs are insulting.
I really loved this company and told everyone about them. I’ve been a loyal customer for years. I will hate to see this go. But, like so many other things, it has come to an end.
I’ll be spending my $20/month back at the record store. And I’ll miss the random finds here on emusic.
Hopefully someone steps in and fills the void.
Just so everyone knows:
If you leave a well articulated argument about emusic’s continued lies and half-truths here.. your comments will be deleted. Myself and others left detailed explanations about why indie labels weren’t behind the price increase, why whole countries are being dropped from distribution, why customers are not being notified by email, despite all account changes being emailed before, emusic lying about deleting comments, emusic internet calls to action, and the list goes on – now they’re all gone.
If emusic is unethical in it’s communications, would it stand to reason that they are also unethical in their business as a whole? If not why hide?
Man, am I ticked. Of course eMusic should expand the catalog and expand their business, if they want to stay in business. But driving away long-time members like me by in effect penalizing us by downgrading our plans and taking away downloads is a REALLY bad move, in this economy or any economy. Loyalty, yo? It costs a lot more to get a new customer than to keep an old one. Run the P&L, eMusic! I’ll be spending more time on Lala and WFMU’s online archive. I am so disappointed.
No way I care to pay so much more when I won’t be downloading much of the new stuff anyway. emusic turned me on to amazing music mostly because at the low cost I could afford to take risks on bands I otherwise wouldn’t have. I think you’ve done a disservice to your loyalist customers and the small, independent bands you previously represented so well.
Good luck to ya’. I’m definitely out.
Mr. Stein
I have been a loyal member of emusic since 2006 and loved every minute. That is, up until up until I received notice that my current plan would no longer be available and my membership dues would double. I will not be renewing my membership. I must say this seems to be an odd way to reward and retain long term members of the site.
Been a subscriber for a couple of years now. I have loved finding new bands to listen to on emusic; I see it as a treasure hunt. However this change really rubs me the wrong way and I have to say: I know costs are going up and I would have accepted paying a bit more for the independent music available here. But not this way, not this way.
E-music – I was shocked and disappointed to read about the new changes and price increases to what up until now I have found to be a great service that I recommended to all of my friends. In the face of so many people pirating music I always respond I don’t need to do that I can find great music at great prices legally on emusic. This apparently is changing, and while yes your services will still be cheaper than itunes, that’s about it.
I and the people i know who use your services don’t come here for the things we hear on the radio, and while its nice to get some of those bigger names the price increase of somewhere between 2.5 and 3 x for my plan is not worth it. The best thing about emusic is the pricing, the ability to download a full album from an artist you’ve never heard of and give their full songs and full album and chance, and not just the 30 second clips. If I didn t like an album it wasnt a big loss at a cost somewhere around $2. With the new pricing and 1/3 of my old downloads this will not be possible in the same way.
Emusic – We can get the big names else where and pay a premium if we want…please keep the ability to get unkown/unheard indie music out there at a reasonable cost! I will not be continuing my annual subsciption if you don’t rethink this.
As a long time subscriber– and someone who has word-of-mouth recommended this site to many music lovers without worrying too much about the extra-track -commissions– I find emusic’s decision disappointing.
As many others have pointed out, if I am interested in downloading Sony artists, I can do so on Amazon and itunes. I own about 1500 CDs and I’m sure several hundred of them are Sony artists including Miles, Clash, Bruce, Leonard Cohen, Costello.
But thats not why I came to emusic. I came to emusic for an alternative. I downloaded early string band music, Glass, Reich and tons of other stuff I could sample at n really compelling price.
Emusic is now nearly doubling my cost per track — to offer me songs i can find elsewhere. As a music lover and collector, I find this disheartening. As a businessperson, I question whether your new strategy will help you. It certainly hurts your brand– will the numbers work? In order for “use it or lose it” subscription pricing to be compeIling, it has to really be no-brainer better than ala carte. I wish you success, but am not sure i will be able to continue supporting you.
How about focusing on bringing back the “indie” labels that used to make this site worth having a membership for…Epitaph, Victory, etc. How about Hellcat? If I want major label shit I’ll get it on I-tunes…I don’t need a membership for that…
I’m astonished that you think it’s a good business model to suddenly decrease our downloads by 63% and then try to placate us by telling us the good news is that we’ll be able to download old rock music from Sony. Very sad – you’ve lost me as a customer – besides, since your download count doesn’t roll over every month, in the long run, it’s probably more cost-effective now to buy albums and tracks from iTunes when I need them rather than use the now-too-expensive eMusic model. You’ve done a great disservice to indie music and the smaller classical labels. Greed will ultimately kill eMusic.
Well, I haven’t posted here yet, though I’ve been keeping up with the comments since the start.
I won’t be canceling my service – not immediately. I’ll get my 37 downloads, then pickup my 15-song booster pack, and come out ahead 2 songs. So, I guess I’ll win.
That said, I think AmieStreet is really trying to price competitively against you guys, eMusic. The last two or three days they are selling music credits at 50% off. Since most of the music tends to fall in the 40-80 cent range (that I’ve been downloading. I know plenty exist at the 98 cent price), that 50% off makes it cheaper than my newly raised per-download price.
Add to the fact it’s on-demand and not a subscription service, and I’m sold.
Sorry emusic.
And I know that the thousands of those who leave will not matter that much to you because long-time subscribers are the ones not making you any money. But I, a new subscriber, is leaving. To a competitor no less.
My current music scheme:
lala.com – lets me play their library completely one-time, and also lets me upload my music to listen online, like a backup service. They also sell MP3 albums at 7.49, or MP3s for 89 cents each.
amiestreet.com – talked about this above. Prices are market-driven and free songs do exist. Currently, credits are 50% off.
amazon.com – as an employee, I get 10% off, which means I can get songs for 89 cents, or albums for $9, plus the occasional $5 deal @ 4.50. Last resort since ^^ is typically cheaper and I prefer their catering to indie music.
emusic.com – Will be using last 52 downloads, and then will be gone!
I’m extremely disappointed and disheartened over these changes. I came to eMusic to find unknown music only to have it turn into another tool for major records. If I really wanted something mainstream, I’d go to Amazon or iTunes. Upping the price the WRONG way to business. Now I’m going to be conservative and not invest in more music or I might just cancel my subscriptions.
Boo!
originally posted back at #153 on june 1st after the announcement was made
I assumed that given the overwhelming negative feedback of the last few weeks, the powers that be at emusic would come to their senses and reconsider the decision, or at least try to come to some sort of compromise e.g. lowering the drastic cut in monthly downloads, allowing subscribers to roll over unused downloads or charging extra downloads for songs from the sony catalog (or any other label that wished to do so). But it seems they are sticking to their guns and willing to lose the guaranteed income of their loyal grandfathered members in favour of the decision to try and lure new subscribers from itunes & amazon.
oh well, I for one am not sticking around to find out how it all plays out. Just canceled my 3 year 90 downloads per month subscription.
i hope for emusic’s sake that the new joiners attracted by the sony catalog make up for the loss of referrals gift subscriptions from departed long time members
I will almost certainly be joining the ranks of the ex-emusic’ers very shortly (I may or may not stick around long enough to grab a few of my commercial favorites).
Although I occasionally missed having some more mainstream artists, what I really enjoyed about emusic was its price point for the vast, eclectic mass of its music. The price allowed me to experiment and expand. As an example, I would sometimes grab whole albums (OK, I’ve now dated myself) rather than try to decide if each track was worth my time and money. I would look at the picks suggested by emusic and sample a few, and I would download some artists which seemed worth a shot. At the proposed price point I’m sure to be looking for my favorites rather than moving outside my shell.
I think you are doing the vast majority of your artists a disservice by adding the big names with the big prices. I sure hope they are receiving a much bigger cut.
See you around, maybe.
Count me in with the multitude of others who will drop their subscription with the increased rates!
I’ve been reading the post here ever few days and each time I do, I just get a little more angry. The responses to everyone’s posts from anyone at eMusic have been, at best, very poor lip service and there has yet to be a really intelligent response from “the company”
So, it appears that if any of us are going to hang around and maintain our memberships, its going to have to be at the new rates. It doesn’t appear that eMusic cares much if those of us that have threatened to leave actually do. That’s a pretty shabby way to treat your customers, but okay. Fine.
However, Danny, et.al.,….. if we do decide to stay, can we at least get some improvements to the site itself? There are a number of things that, for the higher fees, you really ought to fix and certain practices that just need to change.
One of the things that I HATE ABOUT THE SITE (regardless of the fees you charge) is the recycling of “new titles”. I often go to the “freshly ripped” tab on the “new” page and routinely see CDs that I downloaded YEARS AGO from this very site. Yes, YEARS AGO. Who do you guys think you’re fooling? So, if we’re going to pay higher fees then I think you should stop this process of recycling. Its annoying, inaccurate, and forces everyone to wade through titles that they KNOW are NOT new. Frankly, it makes YOU look like you don’t know what you’re doing.
I also often find titles that are mis-categorized. This is also just as annoying as the item I just mentioned.
Okay. So you guys obviously don’t care about those of us that are posting here, or at least it has that appearance. But for those of us that might ultimately decide to stay and see how things go after the “great migration” of Sony back catalog, can we expect to see the site get cleaned up and made substantially better? You haven’t made much of an investment in upgrading the site itself in a very long while.
So, how about it, eMusic???
eMusic is clearly not reading these. Too bad for everyone, really.
I sent an email to “customer service” specifically asking that they NOT respond, unless they answered my specific question. They did respond, and they did NOT answer my question. Way to go, auto-email.
I’ve decided to put my account on hold. Obviously feel screwed over, however; if eMusic will convince me that the Indy artists are getting paid as much as the Sony catalog, i’ll have no problem with staying.
If they’re just paying the Indies the same, and the Sony’s more, though, i’m out.
I wish anyone at eMusic read these or cared. Oh well.
Echoing what has been said better above, this pricing change removes so much of what made emusic so great to me. Like so many others. I will be doing some hard thinking about my subscription renewal.
A shame.
Thought I would write more, but think instead I’ll start my research into other outlets for hearing new music.
Ok, ok, I get it. Two things:
1) I’ve been a member since almost the very beginning. My downloads are being cut in half by this from 90 to 50. I”m almost coming out even on just buying CDs at this point. You should have sent me an email saying sorry but X. I shouldn’t have had to read a form letter upon logging into my account. Disrespectful behavior towards a longtime customer.
2) I would have been MUCH more okay with the new pricing scheme had it not been to get major labels onboard. I don’t really care about major labels. That’s why I have an emusic subscription!
I understand that this is an attempt to play with the majors ie iTunes and Amazon but honestly most of the music in both of those places is worthless. You had a nice little community here with dedicated subscribers and I understand you’re trying to expand. I just hope you haven’t thrown the baby out with the bath water. You well may have.
One last comment to get lost in the cacophony. If this happens again, I’m gone, and so is everyone I talked into joining emusic.
P.S. Seriously, you rolled over for Sony? Are you f-ing kidding me?
so you’re cutting my monthly downloads nearly in half and you expect me to be happy about it because now i’m going to be able to download the dixie chicks?
i used to love eMusic. and then you completely redesigned your interface and made it significantly less useful. i still liked eMusic a great deal, because my tastes are NOT mainstream, and i was still able to find and download a lot of great music. eMusic was a cool site for people with cool taste in music.
but now you’re gutting my downloads so that people with crappy tastes can download crappy major-label music.
i don’t love eMusic any more, and i’m not sure i’ll even continue subscribing when you switch me to your new “premium” (aka “inferior”) plan.
not that i’m sure you care. you’ll probably have plenty of stupid teens joining up now to take my place.
I’ve read some of the comments. The solution seems rather simple, since it is clear that Sony is driving the price increase and that the indies are not going to seem dime one more from E-Music. Why not a tiered pricing system?
E-Music could actually answer the question if they had any respect for their customers. We all understand that Bruce Springsteen commands a higher price in the marketplace than Iris DeMent. Whether we like it or not is different from whether we understand it, but what we also understand is that E-Music is hiking the price of everything.
So, Danny, how about just answering the question.
P.S. How long are the non-compete clauses in your management contracts, so I know when to look for the companies some of your soon to be former executives will start up?
I plan on cancelling, and so will my friends who were enjoying the reasonable prices and smaller labels.
In case there is any doubt, eMusic is sending automatic “customer service” responses.
This is the second email like this i’ve received (copied in its entirety). It starts with eMusic’s “response”, proceeded by my original email.
~~~~~
Hello,
Thank you for contact eMusic Customer Support,
So what’s behind the change? We simply can no longer sustain, as a business, the lowest cost plans that some members have enjoyed. Again maybe the transition was rougher than anyone would have wanted but eMusic still offers members a great deal compared to other services.
We appreciate your business and hope you stick with us and continue to enjoy your eMusic subscription.
Sincerely
Your Friends at eMusic
Hank – Regards
eMusic Customer Service
— Original Message —
From: “xxxxx@xxxxx.com”
Received: 6/23/09 2:35:03 PM EDT
To: cs@help.emusic.com
Subject: General Feedback
Ticket ID:
First Name: xxxxxxx
Last Name: xxxxxx
Email Address: xxxxxx
Phone Number:
Drop Down: Feedback about service
———————————————-
Contents:
Does a real human being even read these comments??? I doubt it.
Listen, guys. Tell me, in a word, that me paying 50 cents a track will go to Nagisa Ni Te, Kaito, Colleen, or Black Mountain and NOT to Sony. Tell me that in ONE word and i’ll stay on. Send me one more stupid fucking fake auto-response and i’ll extend my Hold indefinitely.
It’s simple. Wake the fuck up and start responding to people. One post on a message board is bullshit.
“What do you think? Do “major” and “indie” mean anything to you or is this just industry jargon?”
Absolutely. Have you been asleep the past 10 years? Maybe you should google “RIAA” and get up to speed with what the rest of us soon-to-be former emusic customers already know.
Who exactly do you think these “rabid, smart and adventurous consumers of music” are? I can tell you who they aren’t: they aren’t the ones buying releases from Sony.
Like so many others, I too am extremely disappointed in this move. I have been an emusic subscriber for six straight years, but feel abandoned for my loyalty over those years. For the occasional download not available on eMusic, I can easily go to Amazon or iTunes. I did not join eMusic for the Dixie Chicks, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.
I think it makes a lot more sense if you are set on adding labels and artists that I am not particularly interested in, to at least honor those of us who have been loyal customers to be able to retain our current plans instead of penalizing us for something we didn’t ask for.
If some corrective changes are not implemented from what has been announced, I will most likely cancel my subscription.
Thanks for listening.
emusic just gets dumber and dumber. i’ve been a part of it since the beginning, but all the new bells and whistles are just annoying – i really don’t care if the artist has a video on youtube or a myspace profile. if i did, i would be there, not at emusic downloading some tunage. in the old days, before the major site overhaul, it used to be that you could just read user reviews of albums and if you were lucky, an emusic review. ok, maybe that’s old-fashioned, but it helped me a lot more in deciding whether or not to download, and gave emusic a community vibe. emusic’s concern for the “music community” is just total b-s. now they’re selling out to the major labels and they’re actually making me pay for this so-called enhancement, which i view merely as the beginning of the end. emusic is dead. mine as well call it iMusic.
I posted yesterday and mentioned that if we are going to have to pay higher fees, then we ought to have access to a better-run website.
Case in point: Today, under the tab of FRESHLY RIPPED, there are 136 pages of “new” titles. Given that there are 15 titles per page, that comes to 2,040 “new ” titles just since yesterday. There’s NO WAY that eMusic could be posting that many “new” CDs on a daily basis, so many of these titles are being recycled to all of us as “New”. In some cases, these titles have been sitting on the site for years! I can’t speak for everyone here, but I would prefer NOT to have to wade through all the old stuff to get to what is truly NEW. So, could you guys at eMusic come up with a better way to recall titles that need some attention from the back catalogs? Maybe a “maybe you missed these” tab?
Case in point #2: Miscategorization. Today I was going through the “new” freshly ripped World Music (International) titles. On the second page of the “World Fusion” titles right there at the top, is none other than CLAUDE DEBUSSY ‘CLASSICAL BEST’. This is one of many miscategorized titles that any member here could name almost at any time.
My point is this: We’ve put up with this kind of crap because the site was priced at a level where nobody really minded. After all, we were getting a good deal. But now that we’re stuck with double the price fees, we should be entitled to a MUCH BETTER WEBSITE, where music is labeled correctly and where old titles are not recycled as “new”.
I have not decided yet whether I’m staying or going. I’d be a lot more inclined to stay IF the ding-dongs that run the site were to commit to making some much needed enhancements INCLUDING these I’ve mentioned.
Whoever labeled CLAUDE DEBUSSEY as World Fusion ought to be summarily FIRED!
Who can afford to explore and experiment at these prices? It’s now MUCH cheaper in the bargain bins and used cd shops. emusic is gone. Sony wants its own iTunes and failed in their other attempts. Economics says old music and indie won’t push up Sony’s bottomline.
I’ve been a subscriber for many years, but probably will unsub soon.
Sorry, but I didn’t sign on for Michael Jackson or Kelly Clarkson, and I already have The Clash and Springsteen stuff I need.
I use eMusic to discover new stuff (and some old).
Oh, well. You had a good run.
i am extremely disappointed that what was an original subscription of 50 downloads a month for only $9.99 will now become 30 for $11.99, and all because you think i want to be able to download “major artists.”
i usually define major artists as those who have a major impact on my life, not those who sell a bunch of product to folks who eat what they’re fed and never ask whether there might be different shades of the colors they’re used to…
i supported emusic because you were here to help me find those gems of true inspiration, creativity, and possibility that exist to enrich our collective human experience, and to increase our understanding of both meaning and truth…
now you want to sell folks “The Boss” and “The Piano Man,” and ***I*** have to pay for that?
grandfather me, or soon enough you’ll lose me – i’ll find other ways to enjoy beauty – if you’d like, i’ll promise to buy ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from your new list of what are evidently more significant artists in your assesssment.
ps – i’m pretty certain that both the Clash AND The Sex Pistols would be calling you sellouts if they could, and if you bothered to ASK them… you should be ashamed of citing them to substantiate your obvious greed.
thanks for the memories,
mike
Like others…
Good-bye when the new crap comes on. I once had unlimited for $10. Then 50 for $12 when new ownership came. Now you’re taking 20 downloads away from me so that you can offer me music from Miles Davis and The Clash? Who on eMusic doesn’t already own that stuff on CD? Who on eMusic isn’t aware you can get that stuff from yourmusic.com for $6.99/cd (at better sound quality than anything here, to boot?) or from BMG?
You guys either have crystal-clear insight into your customer base’s needs (and you’re just hearing from a very vocal minority here) or you guys are trying to satisfy everyone while pleasing no-one. This is sad. I feel bad for the indies on here… when folks will look elsewhere to find their stuff, often through file-sharing, off-shoring, etc.
Bad call. But I get it… it’s just business.
FYI, below is the letter I recently sent to eMusic…
Dear eMusic:
I’ve been a loyal eMusic customer for a few years now …And by “loyal,” I mean that not only do I love your service, but since I became a subscriber, whenever the subject of digital music came up in conversation, I always made it a point to bring up eMusic, then literally praise it and urge others to subscribe. That being said, I am highly disappointed with the changes you plan on implementing in July.
I understand after reading the letter from your CEO that the upcoming rate hike is mainly due to a) adding the entire Sony music catalog, and b) the hope that eMusic will now gain further attention from other major labels. Granted, 40-50 cents per track is still a better deal than most digital download services and therefore makes eMusic attractive to prospective customers, but I think you’ve lost sight of the fact that the new pricing structure is a very significant hit to your existing customer base. I could understand an occasional increase of a few cents/month or even an extra dollar or two per month (like last year), but with this new price change in July, you’re literally just about doubling the cost to current subscribers.
I’m currently on a plan that provides me 75 tracks/month – and being the music addict that I am, I need this higher plan considering my “Saved For Later” list hasn’t dipped below 200 albums in quite a while. But now, in order to get the exact same number of downloads per month, I’m expected to pay $31/mo. instead of my current $16/mo.?! …This is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion – in fact, when I read the new plan options, I honestly thought it was a mistake at first.
Granted, for this higher price, I will now be able to download albums from the Sony catalog, but the reality is that I never asked for this. Instead, I was simply told that I will have to pay twice as much for something I didn’t want. Even if I had petitioned eMusic for the addition of the Sony catalog, I would’ve said “no thanks” as soon as you told me that it would practically double the cost of my subscription in order to get it.
Though it’s been a tough decision given my previous love and advocacy for eMusic, I’m very sad to report that due to the lack of accommodating options for existing subscribers and the general inconsideration displayed by your company surrounding the proposed changes, I plan on cancelling my eMusic subscription out of principal when my renewal comes due in November (unless something drastically changes in the meantime).
Please keep in mind the voice of a concerned loyal customer before going through with the proposed changes.
Thank you for your consideration.
Will I stay or not?? I love the idea or more music I don’t love of course that once my plan expires I will have to pay DOUBLE (less 60 songs) to get the same amount of songs I was getting. Thinking about it or greatly downloading to E Lite.
Well, I am a grandfathered subscriber, and I know I am getting a great deal. Maybe even a money-loser for you, although I have a bad habit of not using all of my downloads, so maybe not.
How do you understand this sentence, sent to me on November of 2006: “Your old plan will be guaranteed as long as you keep your account active and in good standing”?
I appreciate that you have to make a profit. In fact, when you capped the unlimited downloads back in the day, I sympathized. I thought the people who rejected your explanation and expression of regret were acting like a bunch of spoiled children.
But to not even send me an email? To nowhere apologize for not being able to do what you promised — or seemed to promise, or whatever it was?
Oh, I read Cathy’s post about how the Terms of Use make clear that you don’t have to do what you promised. I figure that’s probably true. But, you see, it isn’t *cool* . So it needs an apology, an explanation tinged with regret — something, if you want customers to think you are honorable people.
See?
I’ve been an enthusiastic recommender of your service and have very much enjoyed the indie-centered community you’ve put together. (You see, I can get Jacko elsewhere, as can everyone else.) It remains to be seen how this change will affect, for example, the quality of user reviews and the usefulness of the “taste-matching” feature.
But holy cow — you have a long way to go to re-convince me that you’re not doing business like a bunch of sharks. *That* is reason enough *never* to recommend your service. At this point, in fact, I’d feel wrong about doing so — who knows how you’ll slap customers in the face next?
NOT HAPPY WITH THE CHANGE. I WAS ALREADY VERY HAPPY WITH THE MUSIC SELECTION! BUMMER I THINK I’LL DROP MY ACCOUNT.
You are screwing over your most loyal subscribers. the return for five years of continuous loyalty is to cut my downloads by 45%?? the basis of a subscription service is to retain subscribers, not abandon them. good luck with that, i won’t be here to find out if you succeed or fail.
I just cancelled my subscription. Sorry, but I just can’t justify continuing with the new pricing structure. It used to be a really good deal. Now it’s not.
I’m going to miss eMusic.
I’ll give it another month with the new price structure but it is just no longer the deal it was. I loved eMusic because it forced me to try new things and at ~$.25 per track I was happy to do it. At ~$.50 per track its too much like going to Amazon except I’m obligated to buy so much per month. You changed the deal into the obligation. I can no longer afford to experiment with music I’ve never heard. Not cool.
eMusic falls flat!
You will lose many of your flagship subscribers like myself. Less music for the same price? Gee, way to alienate all of the folks you’ve have for over 4 years. Frankly, I come here for the odd and the small labels.
Sony doesn’t need anymore of my fucking money and if I wanted the super corp to have it, I’d be buying their products. So trying to hype an expanded catalog while backstabbing the customers…
When this policy goes into effect I will be canceling your service which I’ve enjoyed monthly since 2005.
Jett
When exactly does the Sony catalog arrive? All I see is “early July.” Is that “early July” as in July 1, or “early July” as in sometime before the end of the month?
I understand that eMusic has already done me a solid by allowing me to stay on a great plan ($.26 a track) for a long time past its general availability, but I’m not sure I can stay after the price goes up. At $.41-$.44 I would certainly want a higher bitrate. At that point, I feel like I’d almost rather switch over to iTunes full time to get the quality boost. Some albums I’ve bought from here are only 128 bitrate! Some of the MP3′s are just encoded poorly, and have never been fixed.
I have very little interest in paying $.20 more per track to have the ability to download music I could care less about. I’m here to discover new music! It’s bad enough that customer service took a nosedive. After three years, I think I might be moving on.
I’ve been an emusic subscriber for some time. In essence, you cut my number of downloads in half. I will likely cancel and go back to stealing music and only purchasing select downloads from amazon when I really want to support an artist.
In short, this sucks. Sellouts.
i have to agree with DanFlan. this will definately make pirating more attractive to many. losing 40 DL’s/month i will likely cancell after 5 years
make the new catalogue accesible to those who want to pay for it and leave the rest of us alone. sellouts indeed
…and after 4 years of praise and promotion i will be removing the emusic link from my myspace page. nor will i be talking you up on facebook when the subject of music comes up. not only is this change a major disappointment but quite frankly it makes me look like an ass for all the times i’ve blasted the main-stream sites and demanded people check emusic out.
After subscribing for years, I just finished backing up all my eMusic tracks and canceled my account.
I think a lot of people would have accepted a moderate price increase – 10-15%, perhaps? – had it been pitched as operating costs and paying the artists. However, since you cater to obsessive music fans, you should have known going in that if we wanted Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Davis, et. al., we already had it. However, a 61% price increase (or 60.9% if you’re trying to be technical about it and fudge rounding) which is passed off as the price of bring in music that most of us already have or don’t want should have struck someone at eMusic as a bad idea.
Good luck with your future endeavors. I sincerely hope that the new subscribers who sign up for a month or two and then leave make up for the long-term subscribers who have canceled their accounts.
Ok, I’ve done it. I’ve canceled my account. I originally thought I would wait and see what eMusic would do once their long time customers started leaving but after thinking about things for awhile I’ve decided to just cut the cord/chord. I can’t stand the idea of Sony Music – one of the most vile companies with their army of despicable lawyers – being behind all this. Somewhere out there is a website that has a good/growing catalog of indie artists and they want my business. eMusic does not.
btw, eMusic, if you try to bill me for July (oh, but it takes days to cancel an account!) then I’m making a call to my credit card company and having that charge reversed. Don’t even go there.
Folks, I know that most of us are upset, and there are more people wandering in every day to complain about eMusic’s new pricing policy, but please don’t use the higher cost-per-download as an excuse to rip off the very indie artists we are supposedly here to support. We’re talking MP3s here, not food for the kids, nor insulin. If you don’t want to pay eMusic to download tunes, fine, but that’s no excuse for stealing. Every “eMusic forced me to go all bit-torrent on their ass” post undercuts the point: Get out there & support your local artists. Would you sneak into their show & steal a t-shirt? I didn’t think so.
Checking in again…still wack, I see.
Damn.
Just checking, been almost a month now and still no reply or word from eMusic guess they just don’t care……… sad. Oh well, was fun while it lasted.
True to my word – I just canceled my account. Feels good to put an end to this entire debacle. Going to put my monthly payment to better use – buying CDs, downloading from Amazon, and supporting my local non-profit radio station. Will miss this communityR