Emusic Beta
You have been invited to participate in a private beta while we develop the all-new eMusic. The purpose of this private Beta group will be to access, test, and use our new website. As we prepare to launch in a couple of months, we will collect and use your feedback to guide and shape our final release. We’d love your input to help us build the best product for music lovers.
In this beta, you can buy and listen to as much free music as you want from the limited catalog. Purchases made during the beta period may only be played on the site and only for the duration of the beta period.
The music available seems to me to be some things I have purchased plus a number of other albums, although I haven't explored too far yet. I wonder if they are thinking of going the same way as Amazon Prime or Spotify for that matter, for example, where you listen to the music but don't download?
Comments
- Hoping for the best . . .
As music fans, we certainly understand the importance of access to new releases -- and share your frustration. Unfortunately, our dated music ingestion system is simply not able to keep up with the demand, and is far too buggy to be salvaged. So, at the core of the new eMusic is a music management platform that will give our Members immediate access to new releases and higher quality tracks, while providing better tools to search and discover the best new music. It's not just a new exterior; it's a new engine. We're very happy with our initial testing and hope everyone on this message board will join the eMusic Beta to help tune the system before launch.
Good to see that they recognise some of the problems with the existing site. I am assuming that now they have new owners there is the money to put into action some improvements that are badly needed. the signs are good with a Beta version. I do not recall that happening last time around
At a high level, I can sum up the beta site by saying it will remind you a lot of 7Digital but the layout is different (with an emphasis on mobile design).
Do I hear a suggestion that we might be able to re-DL old purchases?
First impressions of the beta app:
The functions of the app work well, and it is easy to get around. I like browsing with the filters. The Discover and Spotlight sections are too limited for my admittedly not very mainstream tastes – can’t see myself paying them any attention at all unless they become more customized. For me it is all about exploring the dusty corners.
While adding albums to my library and finding them there and playing them back works very smoothly, it sometimes takes a long time for the 'album added' message to appear.
One feature that might keep me using the app is the “similar albums” – it’s surprisingly fun on the app to just browse down rabbit trails. This was one of the things that deteriorated from the much older, white background version of the emusic site when it went dark gray. I used to enjoy clicking on the little tiles by each release and finding random things. The equivalent on the gray site never quite grabbed me. This is an important feature to me.
What I notice playing with it on the iOS beta is that so far, the “similar albums” are all by the same artist. E.g. I am looking at Solstøv by Pjusk, and it suggests three albums by Taylor Deupree and nothing else. I go to Lost and Compiled by Taylor Deupree and it suggests four albums by Fennesz. I go to Xerrox Vol. 1 by Alava Noto and get two Fennesz albums and two Tim Hecker albums. After a few moves I am going round a smallish loop. Is this because of limited catalog in the beta? It would be more useful if it offered me a variety of suggestions, not just a bunch of albums by the same artist (in many cases I already have all of them because I like that artist, but then there is no discovery increment).
I can’t quantify this, but I have a feeling that the similarity engine is playing safe. If I go to a Modern Jazz Quartet album I get Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Count Basie suggested. If I go to Pjusk I get Taylor Deupree, Fennesz. These are not wrong – they are indeed similar. But they are also similarities that I would know already if I know anything about the genre. Less well known albums have no suggestions for similar albums or artists (e.g. Solas by Claire Singer on Touch). This might be by design or a simple limitation of the software you license – maybe an engine like this is best for helping newbies or folk entering new genres. It makes it less useful as a discovery tool for the fanatic who already has the common stuff and is looking for new byways. Again, will this change as the catalog expands?
The app is not optimized for the iPad. It’s one of those old-fashioned phone-sized apps displayed x2 and it has no landscape mode, which makes text entry with the keyboard harder and makes the whole less attractive. I cannot see myself using emusic on a phone-sized screen. Others may, it’s just not how I work. Apart from the inconvenience of not being able to use landscape, the fact that the presentation is scaled for a phone screen means that even though it is blown up to an iPad screen size it feels cramped – there is enough screen real estate to comfortably browse more albums at a time, and it feels a bit like browsing the catalog through a keyhole. I CAN see myself playing around on emusic on the iPad, but the app needs to go iPad-native.
I understand why it would not be a feature on this beta, but I hope that adding albums to save for later on the app will be a feature. That would be essential.
the beta site can be accessed here: beta.emusic.com
access code: emub3ta
there's a private fb group here for beta users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/969743086503977/
feel free to join the discussion
happy to answer any questions about the new eMusic
cheers
Thanks for picking up on the similar albums feature. At the moment, the brains behind it are fairly simple but we've found it adequate for now. As you say, it's nice to get lost. We will be integrating with a much more robust/clever system soon. Everything at this point is a matter of priority so it might be a few weeks yet until we have that in place though.
Likewise with the home screen/discover section. We plan to tie this to purchase history/user collection to make it relevant to each person. Not quite there yet but it's in the pipeline.
Usage stats indicate that iPad is a little further along the pipeline unfortunately. The website is entirely responsive however so should work well on the iPad browser for now.
Save For Later will become available next release (on or around March 15).
Good to hear the discovery engine will get smarter! I understand about prioritizing devices. And I know I am not a typical user.