Yeah, my understanding is this forum was created as an alternative (before my time here) to all the bellyaching on the old emusic forum. There is no affiliation other than shared discontent.
Just back from a holiday trip (which merry/happy to all), and crestfallen to hear of the latest label defections. I have been able to get to and purchase several previously wish-listed albums, despite absent label pages. Get (and DL) 'em while you can.
"Bellyaching" is apt, but just hints at the depth of the old message board mishegas.
At least some missing labels are back - No obvious price changes, at a glance
Hi @Doofy Glad tidings etc. Can you let me know which returning labels you spotted? I don't keep track of what I'm supposed to be looking for. I can tell you that Tzadik has continued uninterrupted - well their 1 new release in Dec is available.
By "back" I think most of us mean labels that went missing on Christmas eve (Mack Avenue, Edition, Unit, Clean Feed, Origin/OA2, Hatology, 482 Music, Motema, etc. - others can add to the list, but those are some ) that returned as of this morning. I'm not aware of any long term (month or older) defections that have returned. In effect, it looks like perhaps the lack of access for the past week has been more of a technical issue than labels really leaving (though it's hard to know for certain as there has been not a peep out of anyone at eMusic about the situation). So maybe others have spotted true "returning" labels, but I've only seen ones that disappeared a week ago return to their previous state.
I see that both Daptone and Colemine records are back today as well - I actually emailed customer service about that yesterday. Hopefully just a tech. glitch that has been repaired. Happy New Year to all!
Another good bargain through 12/31(e.g. tomorrow) is at Greenleaf - 50% off a one year level 2 membership ($37.50 with discount), which gives you digital access to all Greenleaf releases in 2018 + special subscriber-only releases (mainly lots of Dave Douglas live recordings) + 20% discount on any physical purchases + complete digital access (via Bandcamp app and/or download) to the complete Greenleaf back catalogue (which is much more extensive than what is available on eMusic site for Greenleaf).
Wow, Plong42, great find on the George Russell jazz music. What a deal.
As I mentioned before, I've been listening to a lot of Indonesian pop music (Emusic is unusually well-stocked in that region).
First, I bought a lot of the older pop albums, which usually are 50 minutes for 99 cents: Album Emas: Tetty Kadi, Album Emas: Titiek Sandora & Muchsin Alatas, Album Emas: Broery Pesulima, Album Emas The Mercy’s, Seleksi Album Emas Panbers Vol 1. Most are recordings from the 1960s and 1970s more or less. (Sound quality is fairly low.). Think of the Indonesian equivalent of Doris Day, Tony Bennett, etc. Even the more “expensive” compilation albums cost $3.99 or less. I also downloaded and greatly enjoyed Very Best of Grace Simon (15 tracks, 52 minutes, 99 cents), Very Best of Lex Trio (20 tracks, 78 minutes, 99 cents). There are a few more ultracheap compilations which I ended up not buying: Just search for "Album Emas" and that should produce a few more 99 cent titles.
The best known Indonesian band is Koes Plus. They play a variety of styles, including rock and blues and light pop. Apparently they have recorded a ton of albums -- ironically, for most of them, the band doesn't receive any royalties. First, archive.org has a free album by Koes Plus. Here are four 99 cent mini-compilations: Golden Hits vol 1 and Golden Hits vol 4. and Golden Hits vol 5 and Golden Hits vol 6. Actually I liked this band so much that I skipped the 99 cent albums and just bought the 4 volume Best Koes Plus: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3 and Vol 4. (Each costs $3.99, about 20 tracks, 60 minutes). The 4 volume set seems to have higher fidelity than the 99 cent albums.
I’m buying several more albums for “full price” (which usually is $3.99 or occasionally $4.99). The 70s Indonesian prog rock Gold Bless has 6 albums at that price which are excellent (I ended up buying the 2 volume 18 Greatest Hits album for $7.99).
Philosophy Gang by Harry Roesli Gang is a fairly well known 70s album of prog rock, 7 tracks, 28 minutes, $2.99) I've also been enjoying Best of Fariz RM. 17 tracks, 100 minutes, $4.99 (which is contemporary pop from the 1980s). I've also been listening to Slank, AKA and others, but haven't made my picks yet. I've noticed that there is an unusual amount of recent Indonesian jazz out there btw.
Finally I've been looking at the Analog Africa albums. I noticed that Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou has their first 1973 album for 99 cents. (bandcamp page here).
Three volumes of Carter Family archives on Resurfaced Records. Released in December, arrived today on eMusic. Each album is $0.99... (only link and photo for volume one included here, but all three volumes are available - nearly 4 hours of music for $2.97)
I got an email today about 50,000 albums coming back; in the click through I found:
“Spurred on by this and other helpful and directional discussion in our eMusers and Reddit communities, we’re happy to say that we’ve recovered a substantial amount of music.”
Our eMusers!; well I guess that confirms we’re being watched (hi guys!); my emusic name is the same as emusers so feel free to pay for our contributions with some free credit (although I haven’t really contributed much in a while...)
A few days ago, a member of our community posted on Reddit
about finding music on our catalog, that had become unavailable via web
and mobile search and could not be found under the relevant labels or
artist pages where the content should have been. During our own
investigation, we identified a problem with our search algorithm, which
we have now corrected to make this music searchable. Spurred on by this
and other helpful and directional discussion in our eMusers and Reddit
communities, we’re happy to say that we’ve recovered a substantial
amount of music.
At eMusic, access to more and more music and choice is paramount to
our discovery model. We have a plan to further address and add music
back to our catalog in the coming months, and will update via email
newsletters and the blog to ensure our members are kept up to date.
Please, keep the comments coming! Join our Reddit or eMuser
communities, or email our Customer Success Team and let us hear from
you. We are a small team, and we are proud that we can work with our
music fans on solutions to make the experience better.
Though you can find additions across thousands of labels*, here are
some top labels you may want to check out where we’ve recovered hundreds
of albums previously missing:
Well done @soulcoal . A little curious though, as that reddit comment was relevant to the Xmas Eve disappearances. Maybe responding to the problem made them aware of other search holes.
Join our Reddit or eMuser
communities, or email our Customer Success Team and let us hear from
you. We are a small team, and we are proud that we can work with our
music fans on solutions to make the experience better.
Well that explains why four new people applied to join emusers in the last 24 hours! (Welcome one and all!)
@Doofy - my take is that there was no actual "new" content... e.g. if some album from last June never appeared on eMusic even though the label is present and generally has included other new releases from the label, this "fix" didn't suddenly lead to new content backfilling the holes. But, as I had noted in the reddit forum, on roughly Christmas Eve a lot of labels and content (apparently 50K albums?) appeared to disappear completely (label search, album search came up empty). Several of us surmised after several days of no change and no response that the labels had left (and lots of workarounds were being sought to find individual titles that weren't searchable but still accessible via direct URL), but then (thankfully) the missing content was restored and eMusic offered at least a partial explanation.
So, the good news is that a big chunk of music on some key labels disappeared for a week or ten days but is now back. The bad news is that I don't think any troves of other missing titles suddenly appeared. It just means what was there on Dec 23 is there once again on Jan 12 (but had been missing for a good chunk of the time in between). The real test going forward will be if new releases on those labels continue to show up, and whether the labels themselves stay part of the eMusic catalogue. Tough to gauge much in early January, as there aren't a lot of meaningful new releases this time of year. But I have seen a some new releases on Jaeger Community Music, for example, and a few non-plonk classical releases on legit labels. Hope springs eternal... :-)
@soulcoal But but but "50K albums"? Oh well, not worth the energy
eMusic folks, if you're reading, an example would be Sean Jones' Live from Jazz at the Bistro on Mack Avenue. The label is there, and even a couple of singles, but no album.
@Doofy - completely agree (and am well aware of your specific Sean Jones example - there are many like that, including selectively missing albums on Act, Hubro, Edition, etc.). But, at least those labels are present and *most* new releases and back catalogue is present. (There are also some oddities with 7Digital - e.g. some not all, of course - of the missing titles in a catalogue on eMusic are also missing on 7Digital. So that might indicate something specific to a label's choice of what to release on digital services, rather than some oversight by eMusic).
And, on a positive note for jazz fans... go check Unit Records on eMusic today. Three new full length albums - all pretty interesting - available on their actual (Jan 12, 2018) release date. So there are signs of life. :-)
Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Of Ethiopia, 99 cents. Under the genre Ethio Jazz. Recorded in 1972 in New York, Mulatu of Ethiopia arrived at a time when Astatke had begun to master the delicate fusion of styles needed to create Ethio jazz. The album represents the first fully formed document of his trademark sound. It features ‘Kulunmanqueleshi’, ‘Dewel’, and ‘Kasalefku-Hulu’, tracks that Mulatu would return to regularly on singles and in live shows, the Ethio-Latin workout ‘Chifara’ and the self-titled groover ‘Mulatu’: “I wanted to make a track for myself!”
Also, The Souljazz Orchestra - Under Burning Skies, 99 cents. From wikipedia, "The Souljazz Orchestra is a Canadian musical group based in Ottawa that has toured Canada, the United States and Europe. Their music is a fusion of soul, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and Latin styles."
Kondi Band- Salone, 99 cents. "...a collaboration between Sierra Leonean kondi (thumb piano) player Sorie Kondi and US producer / DJ Chief Boima, who himself has Sierra Leonean roots."
A few deals on obscure rock on the Akarma label. Almost everything is 49 cents per track, so many short 60s-70s prog and psych are priced at $3.49-$4.99.
Comments
Stockhausen: Helikopter-Streichquartett, 99 cents for 31+ minute single track
Pergolese, Scarlatti: Stabat Mater, $3.99, 1:19 minutes.
"Bellyaching" is apt, but just hints at the depth of the old message board mishegas.
Glad tidings etc. Can you let me know which returning labels you spotted? I don't keep track of what I'm supposed to be looking for.
I can tell you that Tzadik has continued uninterrupted - well their 1 new release in Dec is available.
As I mentioned before, I've been listening to a lot of Indonesian pop music (Emusic is unusually well-stocked in that region).
First, I bought a lot of the older pop albums, which usually are 50 minutes for 99 cents:
Album Emas: Tetty Kadi, Album Emas: Titiek Sandora & Muchsin Alatas, Album Emas: Broery Pesulima, Album Emas The Mercy’s, Seleksi Album Emas Panbers Vol 1. Most are recordings from the 1960s and 1970s more or less. (Sound quality is fairly low.). Think of the Indonesian equivalent of Doris Day, Tony Bennett, etc. Even the more “expensive” compilation albums cost $3.99 or less. I also downloaded and greatly enjoyed Very Best of Grace Simon (15 tracks, 52 minutes, 99 cents), Very Best of Lex Trio (20 tracks, 78 minutes, 99 cents). There are a few more ultracheap compilations which I ended up not buying: Just search for "Album Emas" and that should produce a few more 99 cent titles.
The best known Indonesian band is Koes Plus. They play a variety of styles, including rock and blues and light pop. Apparently they have recorded a ton of albums -- ironically, for most of them, the band doesn't receive any royalties. First, archive.org has a free album by Koes Plus. Here are four 99 cent mini-compilations: Golden Hits vol 1 and Golden Hits vol 4. and Golden Hits vol 5 and Golden Hits vol 6. Actually I liked this band so much that I skipped the 99 cent albums and just bought the 4 volume Best Koes Plus: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3 and Vol 4. (Each costs $3.99, about 20 tracks, 60 minutes). The 4 volume set seems to have higher fidelity than the 99 cent albums.
I’m buying several more albums for “full price” (which usually is $3.99 or occasionally $4.99). The 70s Indonesian prog rock Gold Bless has 6 albums at that price which are excellent (I ended up buying the 2 volume 18 Greatest Hits album for $7.99).
Philosophy Gang by Harry Roesli Gang is a fairly well known 70s album of prog rock, 7 tracks, 28 minutes, $2.99) I've also been enjoying Best of Fariz RM. 17 tracks, 100 minutes, $4.99 (which is contemporary pop from the 1980s). I've also been listening to Slank, AKA and others, but haven't made my picks yet. I've noticed that there is an unusual amount of recent Indonesian jazz out there btw.
I've been exploring more bands: See these two annotated lists on rateyourmusic here and here. One list referred me to a website of Creative Commons albums from Indonesia, all of which are downloadable for free.
Finally I've been looking at the Analog Africa albums. I noticed that Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou has their first 1973 album for 99 cents. (bandcamp page here).
Three volumes of Carter Family archives on Resurfaced Records. Released in December, arrived today on eMusic. Each album is $0.99... (only link and photo for volume one included here, but all three volumes are available - nearly 4 hours of music for $2.97)
The Carter Family, Vol. 1 (HD Remastered) - Resurfaced Records
“Spurred on by this and other helpful and directional discussion in our eMusers and Reddit communities, we’re happy to say that we’ve recovered a substantial amount of music.”
Our eMusers!; well I guess that confirms we’re being watched (hi guys!); my emusic name is the same as emusers so feel free to pay for our contributions with some free credit
A blog entry from yesterday:
Over 50K Albums Added to the eMusic Catalog
A few days ago, a member of our community posted on Reddit about finding music on our catalog, that had become unavailable via web and mobile search and could not be found under the relevant labels or artist pages where the content should have been. During our own investigation, we identified a problem with our search algorithm, which we have now corrected to make this music searchable. Spurred on by this and other helpful and directional discussion in our eMusers and Reddit communities, we’re happy to say that we’ve recovered a substantial amount of music.
At eMusic, access to more and more music and choice is paramount to our discovery model. We have a plan to further address and add music back to our catalog in the coming months, and will update via email newsletters and the blog to ensure our members are kept up to date.
Please, keep the comments coming! Join our Reddit or eMuser communities, or email our Customer Success Team and let us hear from you. We are a small team, and we are proud that we can work with our music fans on solutions to make the experience better.
Though you can find additions across thousands of labels*, here are some top labels you may want to check out where we’ve recovered hundreds of albums previously missing:
K-tel
Ninja Tune
Merge Records
Centaur Records
Big Dada
Naxos
Gorgon Records
ESP Disk
Planet E Communications
ROIR
BBE
Mr. Bongo
Brain Feeder
SideOneDummy Records
Polyvinyl Records
So, the good news is that a big chunk of music on some key labels disappeared for a week or ten days but is now back. The bad news is that I don't think any troves of other missing titles suddenly appeared. It just means what was there on Dec 23 is there once again on Jan 12 (but had been missing for a good chunk of the time in between). The real test going forward will be if new releases on those labels continue to show up, and whether the labels themselves stay part of the eMusic catalogue. Tough to gauge much in early January, as there aren't a lot of meaningful new releases this time of year. But I have seen a some new releases on Jaeger Community Music, for example, and a few non-plonk classical releases on legit labels. Hope springs eternal... :-)
eMusic folks, if you're reading, an example would be Sean Jones' Live from Jazz at the Bistro on Mack Avenue. The label is there, and even a couple of singles, but no album.
And, on a positive note for jazz fans... go check Unit Records on eMusic today. Three new full length albums - all pretty interesting - available on their actual (Jan 12, 2018) release date. So there are signs of life. :-)
Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Of Ethiopia, 99 cents. Under the genre Ethio Jazz. Recorded in 1972 in New York, Mulatu of Ethiopia arrived at a time when Astatke had begun to master the delicate fusion of styles needed to create Ethio jazz. The album represents the first fully formed document of his trademark sound. It features ‘Kulunmanqueleshi’, ‘Dewel’, and ‘Kasalefku-Hulu’, tracks that Mulatu would return to regularly on singles and in live shows, the Ethio-Latin workout ‘Chifara’ and the self-titled groover ‘Mulatu’: “I wanted to make a track for myself!”
Here is a blog dedicated to Ethiopian music....
Also, The Souljazz Orchestra - Under Burning Skies, 99 cents. From wikipedia, "The Souljazz Orchestra is a Canadian musical group based in Ottawa that has toured Canada, the United States and Europe. Their music is a fusion of soul, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and Latin styles."
Kondi Band- Salone, 99 cents. "...a collaboration between Sierra Leonean kondi (thumb piano) player Sorie Kondi and US producer / DJ Chief Boima, who himself has Sierra Leonean roots."
All are 2017 releases and "zero tracks"