kargatron and choiceweb0pen0 - The Astros are going to be historically bad this year. There is a distinct possibility this year's Astros team will finish with the worst record in baseball history.
There are times when being placated is a sop to cover deeper injustices; also times when being placated is what's needed for that portion of the frustration that is directly tied to rude communication. No doubt both are happening at emusic, but I'll take progress on the second for what it's worth.
Thanks craig. My wife's family lives in Houston, so we go often. Despite that, I almost forgot Houston had a a baseball team. I imagine with such a terrible record, many people would like to forget Houston has the Astros.
Is that J.R. Richards? He was a great pitcher, while he lasted, and seemed to be a good guy, too.
I read this thread and am amazed by the patience and endurance all of you show. Or maybe it's just a masochistic love of abuse, I don't know.
This is 7 months old, but I just today stumbled across it. They apply the dreaded word "legacy" to eMusic, which seems pretty much like the kiss of death. I didn't know until just now about this new regime. It seems like they'll have a very long climb upward, but I do hope for your sakes that they can pull it off.
Did anybody notice this story from back in January about eMu having to repay people in Iowa who claimed to have been unknowingly enrolled, and paying, for several years without their downloading anything?
I guess it's not that much money, but if most other states follow suit, particularly the more populous ones, maybe eMu (or rather, K-NFB) could be in some serious trouble (assuming they aren't already). I wonder if this is what prompted them to sell the company.
eMusic denied any wrongdoing or liability as part of the agreement.
And I don't blame them. I usually think of griping about frivolous lawsuites being part of a larger right-wing agenda I wouldn't want to be associated with, but this is ridiculous. eMusic did not somehow sniff out folks' credit card numbers and sign them up without their knowledge. Then eMusic didn't conceal the charges every month on their card statement, either. This is just another example of people being oblivious to their own lives. I should know; I'm subscribed to something I don't want called Grammarly, and I keep forgetting to cancel it before my renewal date. I'm not going to blame Grammarly and have my AG sue them, though.
Knowing the Iowa state government as I sort-of do, I suspect the Attorney General was involved somewhat directly - he probably gave his teenaged daughter a credit card, and she used it to sign up for a free eMu trial that she mistakenly (and perhaps foolishly) thought would cancel itself. Then she just passed the bills on to him without looking at them, and they didn't figure it out until she graduated from college several years later and was asked to start paying her own bills. Rather than see it as a personal blunder, he decided to use the state's resources to get revenge...
I guess I don't feel all that much sympathy either, but I have to say, it would be nice if companies that promote "free trials" would require opt-in after the trial period instead of opt-out, given that they've taken your credit card number. I don't think that's even controversial - the vast majority of people would prefer that, but hey, sales and revenues would suffer.
I have little sympathy for those who can't be bothered to look at their credit card statements - And I say that as one who let one subscription slip unnoticed for a while, long ago. That said, companies need to keep a lid on these tactics or they'll get what's coming to them. One I've seen that's on the rise is "Automatic Renewal" - Don't want to forget to renew your subscription? Hey, give us your CC info, we'll keep renewing in perpetuity! That's becoming the default option - When attempting to renew my New Yorker sub online, I had to phone in to place an order *without* auto-renewal.
Another one is monthly charity donations...My wife had an ongoing battle with one major charity to stop them charging her mom's card monthly.
Well, I'll be hornfreakingswaggled - I noticed today when I went from one of my Lists to an album and then back - it took me to the same spot on the page! Just like before the redesign. It only took a year and a half. Must be a glitch.
Just cleaning up some fiules, came across a stray Archie Shepp and Dollar Brand track, from the duet album. Got it from Guvera, sadly after that album changed status so that only the one track was available. In the end, I bought the album at emusic, and as that track was album-only, I got it again.
Well, before deleting it, thought I would compare bitrates.
Guvera, 8.38MB, 256 kbps
Emusic 5.26MB, 158kbps
Question now, is it going to spoil the album for me if I drop one higher bitrate song in there and notice the contrast? May have to experiment.
Extremely close to giving emusic a rest right now.
I don't take much from that comparison - Guvera is 256 CBR (bah, waste of space imo - an equivalent-size VBR would be higher quality) - the eMusic version might well be an equivalent-quality LAME vbr with no inherently signficant audio difference.
We have had a long weekend here with Monday off work. Whilst sitting in the garden yesterday I was thinking about something said last week - fairly sure it was GP - about listening to unplayed music. Looking at itunes I've got virtually half that is either unplayed or played once. Some of that (maybe 10% of the total) is where I have different copies of the same album with one copy as lossless and one at a different rate. But that still leaves an enormous amount of music that I have never really listened to properly or at all. On top of that I must have at least 20 albums that are still zip files. My problem is that I am downloading too much music each month from emusic, some of which I'm not pulled in to listen to. Most months, other than blips like the recent ECM drop in Europe, I struggle to find enough tracks that really grab me. Ideally I would reduce the number of downloads and save money, but of course with emusic it is not that simple. Because I have a grandfathered plan if I reduce my 100 downloads per month to 65 per month it would cost me an extra £7 each month!! So I have decided that the end for me is probably close. I have gone on hold a couple of times for a month, but the drug pulled me back. This time I am going to try to stay totally away once I have spent up for this month so my hold is three months. Then I'll review again, but I do want to break the addiction!
In the last couple of months at least 6 albums have been released that I'd like are not available there but all are on labels that emusic has. I'll spend the money saved by getting from Amazon or elsewhere.
I'm in a similar boat, greg. Actually I think what has most moved me towards contemplating at least a hold (who knows if I'll follow through) is not the deficiencies at emusic, but Guvera. Having added 280 albums, I am left a little exhausted by the idea of new music, and pining to spend time getting to know a few things much more intimately and revisiting old favorites. My SFL at emusic actually looks less enticing than what I already have on the hard drive. It's as if you had free meals at every restaurant in town for three months - it would be cool while it lasted, but I suspect that by the end of it I would want beans on toast and a string of evenings at home. Also, like you, the real SFL in my head starts with half a dozen albums not on emusic (including one that should be, even according to an email from the label head, that they have been failing to answer my questions about for a month now).
On past evidence, the desire to explore will return (and when I've had past emusic doldrums there has generally been some new avenue to root around in that drew me back in), but I need to digest a little. I know the Guvera thing, and the dedicated manner in which several of us here ran at the opportunity, was unusual, but I do wonder to what degree the success of the market at pushing ever more massive quantities of MP3s at us (50 track "samplers", amazon deals, four hours of classical for a dollar, netlabels, etc) will run its course and result in a kind of satiation, where a lot of folk decide they pretty much have most of what they need. The scarcity element has all but gone. On a related note, what most interests me right now in purchasing terms is tracking down a few CD versions of things I really like on MP3.
But it does feel a little forlorn to be kind of bored with a site and process that have given me so much enjoyment for close to a decade.
Ha, talking of which, I just suddenly remembered that right before I left for Indonesia weeks ago Experimedia had a $5 sale on some titles and I ordered three and they came right before I left and I put them aside...and returned two weeks later and forgot all about them until just now. Which means I suddenly just got three new CDs! :-)
Like Greg and Germanprof I also have loads of stuff that I have not listened to, I got a new Mp3 player last week and looking through my collection and hard disks I realised how much music I have and how much brilliant stuff I have not listened to. I did try to go on hold last month but it would not let me as I was on my refresh date therefore this month I am going very early, the new Bevis Frond album should clear a hell of my credits out.
It's been a while since I actually looked at it, but the Similar Albums function at the bottom of any particular album page has been recommending some very relevant and solid albums. I just glanced at what they suggest for similar albums to Tunnel Six's Alive, and was very impressed with the suggestions.
Not sure how across the board this is. I may have found one of the exceptions. But I do miss that opening page with all the little thumbnails of suggested albums that we had back in the day, and would like to think eMusic is getting back to that in some regard.
Every now & then there is a superb free track of the day that I can't find elsewhere easily, which almost makes me sign up to get the complete album from Mordac. Almost.
Well, I just had to share - here's a sample from a blues comp from someone known for a shaved head and not generally as a singer. I think the original album was called Maggot Sings The Blues.
Maybe they got the wrong number on the album cover. Not to say there aren't good songs too, actually quite a lot - don't want to be harsh, just was stunned with disbelief.
I've made the decision, this is my last month on emusic. Once my credits have gone that will be it for now. I'll go on hold, but it'll have to be something special to get me back, like the return of Matador or Domino, or more ECM releases. Much of what I download from them and elsewhere is becoming almost ephemeral in that I play it once and that is then it - I can do that on Spotify if I really want. I want to get to know much more of the music that I do have already. If I could reduce the number of downloads per month I would, but because I am in a grandfathered plan that is not possible - it would be cheaper to have two months on hold and one month back. Way back when, when I was a student and then in my early years as a teacher, I could only afford maybe a couple of LPs per month, but I did know those well. It is a very different era now and I would not to go back to those days in terms of music availability, but I do feel I am downloading too much to do justice to what I do have - perhaps more quality than quantity is needed. With what I already spend at Amazon each month added to my emusic subs, I'll still be able to buy 6 or 7 albums each month, more than enough I hope, alongside Noisetrade, Bandcamp etc. So soon goodbye emusic, I've enjoyed it, gained so much, whilst it has lasted, but it is now becoming (has become!) a chore each month, especially since the site changes 18 months ago.
Adding to all that I am convinced that the sound quality on emusic of even new recordings is not as good as it was. I downloaded All the Little Lights by Passengers from emusic. The title track is this week's free track from iTunes. That has a bit rate of 256 compared with 212 from emusic for the same track. And usually iTunes freebies are at a lower bit rate than their normal download!
256 is probably CBR (due to its round power-of-2 number) - a 212-average VBR may easily be equivalent (or even better) in sound quality (depends on the source material) - one simply cannot fairly compare CBR and VBR files by number alone.
Whilst I take that point the file size is smaller from emusic by a significant amount too, which to me is another indicator of lower quality. I'll do a listening test on headphones when I load to my ipod or ipad to compare listening quality.
Unfortunately that's a misconception when it comes to quality vs. size. Bigger does not always mean better. VBR is simply more efficient than CBR, so it can make a smaller file. A V1-profile encoded mp3 will be as good (if not better) quality than a 256-kbps CBR one, but generally be a smaller size because it won't waste space on parts of the song that don't need it. In fact, the VBR file will actually go above 256 kbps when needed - something the CBR can't do.
If they truly don't sound as good that's because they are bad rips, not because of the bitrate. To be perfectly honest, if you can tell the difference between a 212 VBR and 256 CBR encoding you should be a sound engineer because your ears are better than at least 90% of the population.
And please don't take this the wrong way, it's simply that I had this argument over at eMu dozens of times in the past. Unfortunately the other side has won out and we're stuck with bloated 320 kbps mp3s as the standard rather than V0 VBR or FLAC. In other words, we got larger files without increasing quality.
ETA: Technically 320kbps is the highest quality, but you're talking about <1% better than V0 with a 10-20% increase in size)
Comments
Craig
I'm sure that my Angels are preparing for the most epic second place finish.
Craig
I read this thread and am amazed by the patience and endurance all of you show. Or maybe it's just a masochistic love of abuse, I don't know.
This is 7 months old, but I just today stumbled across it. They apply the dreaded word "legacy" to eMusic, which seems pretty much like the kiss of death. I didn't know until just now about this new regime. It seems like they'll have a very long climb upward, but I do hope for your sakes that they can pull it off.
I guess it's not that much money, but if most other states follow suit, particularly the more populous ones, maybe eMu (or rather, K-NFB) could be in some serious trouble (assuming they aren't already). I wonder if this is what prompted them to sell the company.
I guess I don't feel all that much sympathy either, but I have to say, it would be nice if companies that promote "free trials" would require opt-in after the trial period instead of opt-out, given that they've taken your credit card number. I don't think that's even controversial - the vast majority of people would prefer that, but hey, sales and revenues would suffer.
This is why we can't have nice things!
Another one is monthly charity donations...My wife had an ongoing battle with one major charity to stop them charging her mom's card monthly.
Well, before deleting it, thought I would compare bitrates.
Guvera, 8.38MB, 256 kbps
Emusic 5.26MB, 158kbps
Question now, is it going to spoil the album for me if I drop one higher bitrate song in there and notice the contrast? May have to experiment.
Extremely close to giving emusic a rest right now.
In the last couple of months at least 6 albums have been released that I'd like are not available there but all are on labels that emusic has. I'll spend the money saved by getting from Amazon or elsewhere.
On past evidence, the desire to explore will return (and when I've had past emusic doldrums there has generally been some new avenue to root around in that drew me back in), but I need to digest a little. I know the Guvera thing, and the dedicated manner in which several of us here ran at the opportunity, was unusual, but I do wonder to what degree the success of the market at pushing ever more massive quantities of MP3s at us (50 track "samplers", amazon deals, four hours of classical for a dollar, netlabels, etc) will run its course and result in a kind of satiation, where a lot of folk decide they pretty much have most of what they need. The scarcity element has all but gone. On a related note, what most interests me right now in purchasing terms is tracking down a few CD versions of things I really like on MP3.
But it does feel a little forlorn to be kind of bored with a site and process that have given me so much enjoyment for close to a decade.
Not sure how across the board this is. I may have found one of the exceptions. But I do miss that opening page with all the little thumbnails of suggested albums that we had back in the day, and would like to think eMusic is getting back to that in some regard.
Cheers.
Maybe they got the wrong number on the album cover. Not to say there aren't good songs too, actually quite a lot - don't want to be harsh, just was stunned with disbelief.
Adding to all that I am convinced that the sound quality on emusic of even new recordings is not as good as it was. I downloaded All the Little Lights by Passengers from emusic. The title track is this week's free track from iTunes. That has a bit rate of 256 compared with 212 from emusic for the same track. And usually iTunes freebies are at a lower bit rate than their normal download!
If they truly don't sound as good that's because they are bad rips, not because of the bitrate. To be perfectly honest, if you can tell the difference between a 212 VBR and 256 CBR encoding you should be a sound engineer because your ears are better than at least 90% of the population.
And please don't take this the wrong way, it's simply that I had this argument over at eMu dozens of times in the past. Unfortunately the other side has won out and we're stuck with bloated 320 kbps mp3s as the standard rather than V0 VBR or FLAC. In other words, we got larger files without increasing quality.
ETA: Technically 320kbps is the highest quality, but you're talking about <1% better than V0 with a 10-20% increase in size)