Comments on: how we approach sony

By: Enriquito

Enriquito — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:33:48 +0000

From my point of view, the bottom line —from wich I will take my decision to stay or leave eMusic— is around the concept of VALUE.

Price is not the most important factor to me, quality is. If I get better music, then I will stay. What value means to me?
Accessibility. I feel very much attracted by the promised new catalogue, particularly the “tons of classical music” but I am very much afraid that the disgusting “not available in your country” legend will appear more frequently during my browsing.
As music industry changes and music companies refuse to give up their prerogatives, The emusic story reminds me of “the last heartbeats of a dying body”. I am very much curious for the future. Is this change a serious evolution of music production – distribution – consumig? Or is it just one more proof that music industry refuses to see the challenges of staying alive? To see this struggle is worth 20 bucks a month.

By: funkifized

funkifized — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:13:31 +0000

Is it me, or is it getting difficult to download our old tunes? I get more error messages now. Would that be because so many of us are downloading at the same time?

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:57:24 +0000

“Six Degrees” is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Bacon. I hear Disney is registering the word “Magic,” and anybody who uses it in the future will have to pay them a royalty. Just like you can’t use the term “Let’s Roll” anymore. What a fucked-up country we have become — capitalism run amock.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:50:56 +0000

And another thing… Since eMusic is not reading these posts, can some of you tell me what other services I can go to that have good indie offerings? (Like, what’s “LaLa?) I’ve been pleased with eMusic as my single-source for the past 4 years, but once its indie catalgue gets diluted and I have to wade through the Sony dreck, I’ll want to investigate some alternatives (and use them as much as I can before the Majors get to them too). Time is running out… so please help.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:41:59 +0000

And another thing… once you cull the ranks of your loyal founding customers, your new American Idol customers will not want to deal with your slow website, and they will not want to wade thru “all this indie shit.” They will NOT be 5% as loyal as we have been… they will not be rabid about eMusic and broadcast by word-of-mouth to 20, 30, 40 or their friends. No matter wgat your transition consultants tell you, you really CAN’T buy word of moth advertising. You’ve had some of us loving you for 3, 5, 8 years… LOVING you! You’ll be lucky to keep your new American Idol customers for an average of 2 years. Oh yes, you say, but we’ll make it up in volume. And while we have them for 2 years, Sony will teach us how to cross-sell to them. That’s all fine until somebody else starts a service that’s an average of the New eMusic and iTunes. They’ll crowd you out, your double-digit-revenue-growth will be a thing of the past, and then iTunes will finish you off a few years down the road. But what do you care? You’re already planning an IPO, and you can sell all your stock and set up trust funds for the next 3 generations. But when you’re 60, you’ll look at your massive personal music collection… and you’ll weep like a baby.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:20:29 +0000

And another thing… I talked about the addition of all that Sony dreck. But from the standpoint of the eMusic senior execs, WE (the “loyal fan base”) are the dreck in their future business plan. They WANT to get rid of us because we’re not as profitable as the people who watch American Idol. At some point, they will buy demographic-driven playlists form Clear Channel and pawn them off as Recommended Playsists for their hipster-wannabee fanbase. Yes, America, you CAN buy instant culture. eMusic will be the “US Magazine” of musical culture.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:07:02 +0000

And another thing… I had to pay some kind of price increase a year or two back to fund eMusic “improving” their site. The download engine got better, and the site ran a little faster and was better organized. I was OK with that.

The interface is not as “fast” as iTunes, and I have to wade thru a lot of stuff to “mine” for newly ripped stuff that I like. But that’s why I’m NOT paying $0.99 per track — I invest my time, not my money (I have more time than money anyway).

What makes matter worse is that NOW I have to wade thru even more offerings (the Sony dreggs) when I mine for new discoveries. So, again, give me a plan that FILTERS OUT that shit, and keep the same volume and quality of Truly Underground stuff coming, and I’ll stick around to still get what I need.

Right now it takes me about 8 hours per month to find 50 good tracks. Now, it’ll take me 2-4 hours more because I have to cut through all the Sony shit.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:33:40 +0000

Oh yeah… and another thing. Sony had their chance in the early 2000’s when they were approached by Napster. Shaun Fanning brought them millions of potential customers all in one place, and what did they do? They sued him. Today’s Napster is a mere shadow of what it was, but it will always be remembered for the spirit of what created it. It TRULY established digital music and the death of the $17 CD (with 1 “good” song and 11 fillers. e.g., Chumbawumba). 75 years from now, Napster stories will be in the time capsule, but nobody will be alive who knows anything about eMusic.

If Sony had fallen in with Napster, it would have been the tail that wagged the dog — which is exactly what Sony will do to eMusic. They’ll demand an increasing percentage share off all your offerings and will shrink the percentage of indie label stuff by 5%/year or else you’ll be stuck with steep price increases that you’ll have to pass along to your customers — which the Mass Digital Underground fans will be more than willing to pay. As for the rest of us… we’ll find something else. The “Real” Underground never dies — adversity and betrayal is what has KEPT it alive across the centuries.

It’s not too late for you to make yourself something of substance, eMusic… tear up that Sony contract — in 30 years, your grandchildren will respect you for it.

By: PhillyBoomer

PhillyBoomer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:14:05 +0000

I work in credit cards. We have the customers who are Truly Affluent (who spend $100,000/year on cards only to get air miles and VIP concierge services) who pay off their balance every month; then a much larger group called Mass Affluent — those who spend $25,000/year on their cards on stuff that they THINK makes them affluent (like $500 sunglasses or $1,500 Louis Vitton bags), but they’re still only 2 paychecks away from foreclosure. For every 1 Truly Affluent customer, there are 50 Mass Affluents. So eMusic is going from the “Truly” Digital Undergroud to the “Mass” Digital Underground. Makes sense from a business plan perspective, but totally DILUTES your street cred. So here’s what I’d like to see, give me the option to filter out the mass musical pablum (keep me away from the major label stuff) and let me have access to only the “little guy” stuff at 50 songs per month. AND, make sure you don’t reduce the number of little guy additions you rip per month going forward. THAT would keep your current place in my musical and cultural heart and mind. Otherwise, this is just another Ben and Jerry’s. The ice cream just isn’t the same since Nestle bought them out — even if they keep paying royalties to Jerry Garcia’s estate to keep their hip flavor names. Good luck — wait until you do a stock IPO in 2012 and then Wall Street demands you shrink the little guy music to 10% of new offerings. Then you eMusic business founders can all sell your stock, take your millions and buy an island next to Tony Mattola’s. You’re burning a bridge here, dudes! It’s a sad day indeed — not just for us indie afficianados, but for the eMusic business founders as well. You’ll be flying in American Idol winners for photo ops at your SXSW parties within 5 years, and it’ll be on the front cover of your Annual Report to Shareholders. Can’t wait to see David Cook, Madonna AND The Jonas Brothers on the cover of your prospectus (standing in front of a press backdrop tiled with the Proactiv logo). Looks like the lemming cliff MTV jumped off of after just a few years of changing everything in music culture.

By: secretary

secretary — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:04:59 +0000

gawd, this was an unconvincing post. aren’t you guys cute with your articles about journey and whatnot! yancey strickler has cashed in on the faustian bargain.

a previous poster said it right about sony: “They approach us by funding companies which design missiles. Thanks!”

nice knowing you but see you in hell, emusic…