eMusic Sells Out

I used to be proud to be an eMusic member, but starting July 18th that’s not going to be possible anymore.

Back in 2004, my friend Scott turned me onto something called eMusic, a service that would allow me to download 65 tracks for only $15 a month. Now you have to realize that this is back when the iPod was only a year old and before everyone and their grandmother had cell phones capable of holding multiple gigs of music. Back then the only places you were going to get MP3’s were iTunes for .99 a song or illegitimately. The only other options were the places that would let you stream but not own. EMusic not only provided DRM free downloads, but focused on independent artists. Needless to say, this place was ahead of it’s time.

A couple years after that, eMusic changed it’s pricing plan so that $15 only bought 50 tracks a month, but members with existing plans (including mine) did not change and for $15 I still got my 65 tracks. As if I didn’t have enough reason already (eMusic having introduced me to dozens of bands whose music I would never have found otherwise) this made me want to champion eMusic even more and until now I’ve always told people of all listening habits that this is simply the best place to get music for a decent price.

I can understand why many tracks on iTunes sell for .99 because the fact of the matter is that so much popular music isn’t worth buying an entire album. Given a model where artists produce 2-3 good songs out of every 12 and a public that only consumes what they’ve already heard or what someone else has told them to buy, selling single tracks at a cost designed to make up for lagging album sales makes sense. It isn’t the same with many independent artists and the people who listen to them however. We’re overwhelmingly a group of people who care about albums, as we’re accustomed to seeking out good music and not just consuming what we’re told is “cool” by the RIAA, MTV, and others who would see the soul sucked out of music in pursuit of dollar signs and not artistic expression.

EMusic made a deal with Sony recently to offer downloads of their back catalogue of songs older than 2 years. One can only assume that the deal has a hefty price tag or that Sony won’t stand for it’s tracks to be offered at the lower price offered by eMusic because starting in July the number of tracks being offered per month for existing plans (including grandfathered plans like my own) will be dropping, effectively passing on the price of courting Sony to every single member of eMusic. The biggest slap in the face however comes to peope like myself whose grandfathered 65 track plans will be cut nearly in half to only 35 tracks a month for $15.

EMusic is attempting to sell this change as a boon to everyone, a win-win situation that allows eMusic not only to increase it’s own revenue, but provide a larger catalogue to it’s users. While I can’t argue with eMusic wanting to make more money and increase it’s catalogue, I take issue with the manner in which it manifests itself. The question to ask is whether eMusic’s existing members really want Sony’s back catalogue? There’s no doubt that eMusic stands to make more money even knowing that they will likely lose existing subscribers over this deal, but where’s the loyalty to those of us who have been dedicated downloaders for over 5 years? Where before eMusic was a company and a site that I could feel confident in supporting, they have now resorted to the same empty tactics of greed that seem to drive all capitalistic pursuits. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me, but for a company that has done so much to bring independent music to the ears of so many people – music that is nearly impossible to track down in a physical form in so many locations throughout the country – to make a decision so obviously based on satisfying the masses and the status quo is disappointing to say the least.

I used to go to eMusic to take a chance on things that were new as well as download artists that were difficult to find in my area. With the halving of my monthly downloads I don’t know that it makes sense to continue my subscription, but above the cost is the principal. I’d gladly pay more money for more independent music, but Sony and their major label ilk are part of a dying system doing everything in their power to wring money from consumers without providing anything more of value. For eMusic to support this is contrary to what I believed the spirit of such a site was and while the sad truth is that this deal is likely irreversible, I don’t have to see my money go to support it. When my subscription to eMusic goes to renew in July, I have to recourse but to cancel. It may not be convenient, but given the choice I’d rather support independent music directly instead.

iFail

Are you happy now Apple? I bought an iPod! You’ve officially broken me. Let me back up. I don’t use a mac. I don’t use a mac because I don’t like them. I’m a very hands on PC user who like to be able to muck around with the inner workings of his machine and OS enough to get it to do the things he wants it to do. I’m not so obsessed however that I need to hot wire the damn thing in order to get work every time I want to use it. That makes me a Windows user as opposed to Linux and certainly not a mac user. Macs are for people who want to use a PC and not think about it. I read in a book somewhere once a great analogy for the OS’s. A mac is an Italian sports car, it’s stylish, and performs exceptionally well, but it costs a lot and if something ever goes wrong with it you need to bring it to a specialist. Linux is like a Sherman Tank. It’s ugly, you need extensive knowledge of it’s inner workings in order to get it to do what you want it to, but once you get past all that, you can blow shit up real good. Windows is the family station wagon, not very stylish, not the best performance, but it’s good for everything and you can get it repaired at any corner gas station. Add to that the fact that I’m a PC Game Developer and you can’t hardly play let alone develop games on a mac and the decision is simple. I own a windows PC.

Now for years I’ve had to listen to the PC vs mac debates and I’m sick of it. Apple won’t let it go however as evidenced by over a decade of various manipulative ad campaigns urging people to “switch” from mac to PC. The most recent of these campaigns featuring John Hodgman (PC) and some hipster dufus (mac). Personally, given the choice between being a hipster and John Hodgman, I choose John Hodgman every time. Anyway, Apple pisses me off is the point I’m trying to make, but I’m a music snob and I was working the MP3 section of CompUSA when the iPod was first released several years ago. At that time I had yet to rip my entire CD collection to my hard drive but even then I recognized the potential the iPod held for carrying one’s entire library with them at all times. When the time finally came a couple years later that I was ready to buy a large capacity MP3 player I was all set to by the iPod … all set that is until I found out that the iPods of that time (this must have been 2004) only came with Firewire connections and that in order to use it on a PC I would have to purchase a special iPod USB cable for another $25. Well I was on a bit of a budget at the time and the iPod was already expensive so rather than buy into Apple’s proprietary bullshit, where they stuff they make is only allowed to function with the other stuff that they make, I bought a Creative Zen at the same capacity for $100 less.

When my Zen died a year later I bought another Zen, but when I finally filled that Zen about a month ago, a Zen would not be in the stars. The time had finally come where the iPod was the cheap alternative MP3 player so I swallowed my pride and bought one. I always knew it would happen eventually and the only thing keeping me from doing it was Apple. The iPod itself is fantastic and it lets me do a lot of things that I could never do with my Zen. For instance, with the Zen I could never fully keep track of my listening habits because the player itself didn’t track anything at all. I could only monitor my listening through a LastFM or Mublo plugin on WinAmp or iTunes. With the iPod however, I can keep track of what I’m listening to and have it uploaded to my LastFM profile to be tabulated on my big list. This is important to me both because I like to know what it is I’m most listening to and because it will hopefully allow LastFM to recommend me new stuff, which has become a pain in the ass since Punk Planet ceased publication last year.

So I have an iPod now and I enjoy it. I still hate Apple and you won’t see me using their OS anytime soon, but their hand held products are excellent an if it let me be more of a music snob, well then I’m all for it.

Random

Either I’m more picky about music I listen to in the car, or the random function on my MP3 player is trying to torture me by only picking my least favorite songs when I play it on random. When I’m at home using WinAmp I somehow get a better random selection. This makes no sense from a mathematical standpoint, therefore I can only assume I’m more picky in the car, whereas at homes I don’t care what I listen to so long as there’s something playing.

h8 teh wax

I may be elitist when it comes to music, but I’m not so elitist that I’m into vinyl. I don’t listen to music at home anymore. I listen to music in the car and at work and gone are the days of my carrying around a binder of 60+ CDs to choose from when I’m out and about. I take my collection of MP3’s wherever I go; 7500+ tracks that represent at least 90% of my total music collection. When I buy a new CD it goes right onto the computer and from the computer to the MP3 player. Analog media is dead to me! Physical media in general would probably be dead to me as well if I didn’t enjoy hunting for music so much. But why, in this day and age of direct downloads are bands releasing on vinyl only. It’s a level of snobbery that I can respect, but when said band is really good and the only way I’ll ever get to own their music is to order their archaic grooved disc I get a bit miffed. Not to mention that were I to acquire said disc I would also have to acquire a turntable, find a way to feed it into the computer, and spend time painstakingly separating one giant recording into individual tracks with Audacity. My hats go off to the likes of Damezumari. I love your music, but it’s obvious you didn’t have people like me in mind when you recorded it. I both respect and loathe that.