We are
making improvements to the way you purchase music from the 7digital download
store. From 14th August 2019 we will only accept purchases via PayPal, a
widely-used and secure method of making payments.
"we are making improvements...by reducing your options"
?
Now don't you all feel a bit foolish complaining about eMusic drastically reducing its catalog down to nothing? You people don't recognize an improvement when it's staring you right in the face.
I wonder if a similar letter went out to labels and artists:
Dear Artist or Label Owner,
We are making improvements to the way we get paid when someone purchases your music from the 7Digital download store. From 14th August 2019 we will only make payments with small rocks, a form of payment familiar to all artists and labels who have dealt with eMusic in the past several years. ;-)
From 14th August 2019 we will only make payments with small rocks, a form of payment familiar to all artists and labels who have dealt with eMusic in the past several years. ;-)
Just to say that Homer Flynn (The Residents) speaks about Emusic in this interview.
Two notes of interest (at least to me...):
1) That interview took place in May 2016 (or at least was posted to YouTube then). I wonder if Homer still has his subscription in August 2019?
2) You will not find a single Residents album on eMusic today. (Can't recall the status historically, but I wonder if knowing that eMusic hasn't been paying artists and labels impacts his view of eMusic, even as a place to look for obscure music?)
I was going to pitch a subscription to a lover of the obscure with the Residents as a centerpiece and had to change plans abruptly. Cryptic Corp bit it in the last few weeks.
See below, a response from the eMusic team to a request for info on what's happening with all things eMusic.
"Hey Peter, Thanks for reaching out. I'm happy to say that we have recently closed a big deal that now allows us to resume our negotiations with our label partners in order to get our catalog back to what it used to be. However, as this has been taking longer than what we have initially expected I feel like giving an exact or even approx. date that we cannot realistically obligate to would not serve our great customers. I can tell you that things are moving in a good direction and we expect that it wouldn't be too long before they come into fruition.
Thank you for your support and your patience Shany"
It would be great if it happens but prudence suggests that we wait and see.
Oh dear. As well as Merge, some of my remaining favourite labels have just gone including Last Word, Jazzman and Concert Live. So about 40 albums have disappeared from my Wish List. The bright side is that I still have 169 albums plus 106 individual tracks on the aforementioned list!
Are there even moderators on the eMusic reddit page anymore or has eMusic more or less abandoned that thing?
I think you could replace "moderators on the eMusic reddit page" with "employees at eMusic" and the answer would be roughly the same. They obviously still have at least two people - Tamir (CEO) to post tweets, and someone to handle the account cancellation requests. That might be about it at this point. My real sense (based on recent tweet content from Tamir) is that they have more or less abandoned ship at eMusic and are now hanging their hats at 7Digital. The eMusic CEO and CFO are essentially running the show there now, and I would guess all their focus is on turning 7Dig assets into their blockchain pot of gold.
I've just looked to see if the price is the same in £ - it is. A pop-up offered me £50 in credit to join again. That's 119 tracks, around 10-12 albums. I would be tempted if I could fnd that number of albums that I wanted to download, and to listen to in priority to others I have, so I've decided to pass.
I've just looked to see if the price is the same in £ - it is. A pop-up offered me £50 in credit to join again. That's 119 tracks, around 10-12 albums. I would be tempted if I could fnd that number of albums that I wanted to download, and to listen to in priority to others I have, so I've decided to pass.
The small print indicates that the offer is only for new users, so I doubt you'll get the credit by rejoining. Misleading much.
You'll get the credit if you use a slightly different email. With gmail you just need to add +whatever to you address and it will be seen as a new account, but go to your same inbox. I do it all the time. I join for a month, get the bonus buy a booster pack or two, cancel. Rinse, repeat. I've done it dozens of times over the past few years.
The US regulatory front is, if anything, moving further away from the position eMusic had originally hoped to obtain (e.g. utility token not governed by usual investment rules). So any possible hope of bringing blockchain to their retail site would still be, at best, a non-US proposition. And it's pretty tough to imagine how they would make that work with a completely depleted catalogue, no US market for the blockchain, and a growing pile of debt from all the unpaid labels continuing to leave the site. I still think they have no intent of resurrecting the retail site, and any changes in appearance are simply window dressing. They (or at least the CEO) effectively own 7Digital now - at least in spirit if not in a literal sense - so perhaps they will shift their blockchain focus to 7Dig now, which, while having a modest retail presence, is mainly a B2B streaming business.
Comments
Onward and upward. From 7digital today:
Dear Customer,
We are making improvements to the way you purchase music from the 7digital download store. From 14th August 2019 we will only accept purchases via PayPal, a widely-used and secure method of making payments.
https://mailchi.mp/53d17e8e07f3/were-updating-the-way-you-buy-music-with-us?e=8a58919b3b
Dear Artist or Label Owner,
We are making improvements to the way we get paid when someone purchases your music from the 7Digital download store. From 14th August 2019 we will only make payments with small rocks, a form of payment familiar to all artists and labels who have dealt with eMusic in the past several years. ;-)
"Hey Peter,
Thanks for reaching out.
I'm happy to say that we have recently closed a big deal that now allows us to resume our negotiations with our label partners in order to get our catalog back to what it used to be.
However, as this has been taking longer than what we have initially expected I feel like giving an exact or even approx. date that we cannot realistically obligate to would not serve our great customers.
I can tell you that things are moving in a good direction and we expect that it wouldn't be too long before they come into fruition.
Thank you for your support and your patience
Shany"
It would be great if it happens but prudence suggests that we wait and see.
The small print indicates that the offer is only for new users, so I doubt you'll get the credit by rejoining. Misleading much.