Apropos of nothing, I had about 100 items in my SFL list when I quit eMusic - about half were complete albums, the rest individual tracks. Most were non-essential, but what isn't these days? Since then, I've been putting things in an Amazon wishlist, and also a much smaller iTunes wishlist. But I rarely buy anything from Amazon or iTunes, because there's no "urgency" involved. With eMu, not having credits/dollars roll over provided that incentive - I didn't like it, and it was artificially-manufactured urgency, but it still acted as an incentive.
At this point, there are more than enough items in my Amazon wishlist alone that are available on eMu, so that I could go back to eMu for a full year and still not have bought all of them by the end of that year. So, why don't I go back?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately - I don't think it's because I don't want to deal with the monthly "use it or lose it" pressure to buy stuff, because I wouldn't. The things on that list are desirable enough that I'd use all my monthly credit immediately upon receiving it, for at least that first year, at which point I could just cancel again.
Right now, there are three main reasons why I don't go back. The first is that I still don't trust them as a business, despite their having been bought by a new parent company. Second, I've never liked the redesign, because it's not ergonomic and in fact it gives me a headache. I infinitely preferred the old grid-like approach, with everything in nice columns, artwork that doesn't dominate the text, and fewer scrollbars inside the page. It was much, much easier (and less eyestrain) to get through long lists of new releases the old way, and to me, that was half the fun of being a member. And third, the prices: Most new stuff, including just about everything on my list, is $0.69 per track, $6.99 per album, if not higher. If that were $0.49 and $4.99, or even $0.59 and $5.99, that might be enough to make me ignore the first two things, but now the difference is just too small. I know that's not entirely their fault, but they made the choice to bring in the majors, and they knew the consequences would drive some people away. I just happened to be one of those people.
I guess I could change my mind, but it seems unlikely.
@scissorman, totally agree about the design. The effect for me is that I now only use emusic to park and purchase things that I found out about at other sources. I never browse there from album to album, discovering new things like I used to. I never try to scroll through new releases. I never use the discovery tools or check the recommendations. I find things here and in a few other places, I check if they are on emusic, and add them to SFL if the price is good. Search, SFL, and download, that's what the site is reduced to for me. The prices still often work for me - e.g. Charcoal by the Brambles went on my SFL today and will likely be downloaded soon - emusic $3.92, Amazon $7.92. The flow of things-cheap-on-emusic-that-I-really-want is dwindling though.
My SFL is still there, but now I use Spotify to help decide what I really want to own and what I'm okay with listening to occasionally tethered to Spotify. I miss the cheap prices, but not quite enough to rejoin at the moment.
I am exactly the same as GP. I used to go through new releases almost daily in specific categories, and I'd use all the other recommended features - the neighbour facilities etc. Now I invariably go to emusic, knowing what I want to download. I probably miss out on a few things I might not otherwise have downloaded. What it means is that I am not exploring new to me music as much as I used to, although emusers does compensate for that. I do not like the site in terms of usefulness at all. What took me back after a three month hold was price, as we are still in effect on the credits system as everything still has the same unit price - 42p per download. You win and lose on that compared to album pricing, but overall it is better, especially with my grandfathered plan, as each 'credit' actually costs me 20p. I am not sure how they fare with new members here though, as at 42p, with no bonus, they are only just under Amazon on many albums and, don't forget, we don't have the majors. But I must remember that it is November soon, when things traditionally change at emusic. If we did go over to US style pricing without a bonus, I'd leave, it wouldn't be worth staying, as I do download things each month that I probably wouldn't otherwise get.
I think the reason I stay away is saturation - which I think emusic's changes are partly responsible for. I was really tempted by the recent booster sale, and in the end what kept me away was the the thought of "what would I do with all that music?"
The reason emusic's is responsible is because when they jacked up the prices, they got me looking for other stuff, and now, after a couple of years of adjusting to new forms of exploration, I've found that there's more than enough legal free stuff out there, like on Bandcamp and soundcloud (not to mention my recent Internet Archive Grateful Dead obsession) to keep me happily listening and exploring.
Then, when I do want to pay, I go to my local record store, which has $5 used CDs (and my favorite places to check are the $1 or 2 for $5 bins), or amazon, or buy something on Bandcamp. I just don't need emusic anymore.
But I am sad about the discovery thing; the other day I pulled out some old emusic finds like Ecstatic Sunshine and Videohippos and even the first Fuck Buttons that I never would have gotten without emusic, and I felt a little sad that that's gone.
I'm reaching saturation too...for which I have to say emusers is probably more responsible than emusic! I'm still buying music, but with less experimental abandon at the moment.
The reason on went on hold for a while was saturation. I'm now in my second month back and have caught up with the releases I wanted but missed whilst away, and am likely to go back on hold again soon. I'd reduce my monthly 'allowance' but it would cost me significantly more to reduce from 100 to 50 downloads per month with my current plan being grandfathered, silly I know. It is price alone that is keeping me going!
I will be going on hold after next month as December is always very slow release wise. It will be interesting to see what is out there using only Bandcamp or if my Xmas present might be the odd voucher!
Tenuous whether this is the right thread, but having started this latest flurry with a moan about emusic's recommendation engine, I am sitting here now puzzling over Spotify's recommendation engine. Unlike the emusic one, I find it very impressive at recommending things I might like based on things already listened to. Scanning down a long page of thing I should check out having listened to Greg Haines, they are all plausible, I own a great many of them (so it's guessing my tastes correctly), and the ones I don't know look interesting. Kudos.
Thing is, I've used spotify quite a bit lately to whittle down my emusic SFL, and I can't remember the last time I listened to Greg Haines. I've listened to Matthew Halsall, Bobo Stenson, Barry Schrader, Jana Winderen, and a whole bunch of others, but no Haines for at least months. But every time I fire up spotify it tells me "you listened to Greg Haines" and starts recommending things.
I also remain unimpressed by their inability to target advertising given that they even seem to know what I listened to in school. The other day I'm listening to Bobo Stenson and Lennart Aberg (for the first time) and in the middle of their intriguing, somewhat austere jazz experimentation an ad pops up that goes with the gambit: "What are you listening to!? Are you listening to the same boring songs?" (Sarcastic tone, sounds aimed at teenagers who played Katy Perry's old song too many times and need to serve their country by getting the new one). I didn't really listen to the rest, but apparently if I buy something or other they will spice up my playlists with some new pop or something. Their choice of ads has often been incongruous, but for me this escalates to insulting your listeners, for their choice of music of all things!
The whole thing's a weird combination of impressive and sophomoric. Emusic is not alone. Spotify is convenient and works well, but unlike emusic with all its warts it has generated no fondness in me.
Those ads render Spotify useless, as far as I'm concerned. I (apparently) have enough free listening on Rdio to fill the gap; I wonder if Guvera can remain free of (audio) ads?
I like Spotfiy's rec system, too GP. It is also good about reminding me if I haven't listened to someone for awhile. I started a playlist on there of stuff to check out based on a review or maybe mention on here even. The ads meanwhile... yeah annoying! There are some, ahem, ad silencing programs. For Mac there is Spotifree that has been great so far. I'm sure there are many like it for Windows users.
have enough free listening on Rdio to fill the gap
really? I was under the impression the free tier was no more - at least my account locked me out of it and ceased giving me any new listening hours quite some time back and I stopped checking.
ETA, amazingly I remembered my login. Yup, "You're out of free music."
Ah, I see, it was "for up to 6 months."
I should get an honorary premium subscription on that basis for not using it at all :-). Probably makes me a hopeless case in their algorithm though - perhaps you have mastered the art of participating at a level that makes you look worth luring onward.
(Random thought: having just written "algorithm", I learned for the first time last night, my ignorance of mathematics being considerable, that "algorithm" is a bastardized latin spelling of the last name of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a 8th/9th century Persian mathematician. Just thought that was cool. As I read the history, I keep imagining English speaking westerners going to Arabic speaking places and going "how come they use our numbers?")
Well, after almost a decade I am finally going on hold at emusic. Last couple of albums downloading now. And in the end it had nothing to do with their prices or their customer service or their website. Though it was partly their fault. The main reasons are:
1. That booster sale got me taking a really critical look at my SFL. Between the sale and a lot of discarding I have now bought everything on my SFL. For the other reasons below I dont need to spend money randomly that was once the whole point of emusic for me, but not right now.
2. I have been getting really into jazz piano trios, especially on ECM, lately. Buying them on MP3 and then having to buy them again on CD to get full sound quality is just stupid. Buying ECM piano recordings on MP3 is in itself not the smartest thing. Id rather buy fewer of them on CD.
3. I not only have a lot of music now, I have a lot of great music. Theres a Guvera ton of jazz albums, each listened to twice, from the spring for a start. I have a real hankering to go back and just luxuriate in a lot of stuff I have not rotated for a while, without needing to keep up with listening to new releases/purchases. I want some time to curate rather than acquire.
4. While the terrible available-cash-to-available-music ratio of my formative years is a big part of what has driven me to chomp like a hippo on the download deluge in better financial times, it has also left me at the moment with nostalgia for the days when I would pine after that special release for a while before finally getting my grandmother to treat me and then playing nothing else for weeks. Being able to get anything instantly subtracts from, as well as adding to, the equation. I have music on my Christmas list, Id like to look forward to it rather than it be that weeks new music. Id like to try to spend a while hanging back and cherry picking essential CDs and waiting for the mail to come (if, say, Pjusk or Marcin Wasilewski release anything Ill be all over it). Id like to save up for a box set.
5. My job is really intense right now. I need to give less headspace to finding new music and just relax and listen.
I am preaching all of this primarily to myself, and posting it here as an attempted line in the sand, because the itch to download the next thing has not gone away. Well see how it goes. That itch just exists alongside the growing feeling that if I keep downloading stuff I am not deeply in love with just because I can, there is loss as well as gain. I might be back at the trough in a month, the line in the sand lasting as long as the next wave. And I do have some Guvera credits. But I am going to attempt a different mode of engagement for a while. (See, I can quit any time I want. Honest!) At the least I could use a breather.
I am afraid this might make me less useful on MiG, reinforcing the lack of time/spare energy that has slowed my reviewing, though on the other hand it might focus me on essential stuff, and I am intrigued by the idea of maybe writing some reviews of stuff I have long lived with, like happens with old jazz albums on some sites. Well see.
1 - "a Guvera ton" should be an official music measurement.
2 - I think #4 really hits upon my obsession with vinyl and special editions these days. I can still get most releases that I want cheaply either through weekly sales or Guvera or whatever. But it's too expensive to grab everything in vinyl. So that forces me to pick and choose and wait to get things I really want. It's a tad artificial, but it does bring back the old joy of hunting for bargains and waiting for CDs to show up at the local shop.
re: 1: I intended it that way :-). re 2: agreed. I have had way more fun recently getting an out of print British ambient CD from a guy in Estonia or obscure 3" releases in home made packaging or something I'm not sure about that was cheap at the used record store than downloading another album from emusic. And like I said, my collection is at the stage where more fun is better than more music.
Germanprof - My understanding is that if you log in your hold ends. Here's an excerpt from the message I received from eMusic after starting a hold in August:
This is just a reminder that your eMusic membership will be on hold from August 31, 2013 to November 29, 2013, during which time you won't be charged. Well hang onto your Download History and Save for Later lists so when you return, you can pick up where you left off.
Were always adding new discovery features to eMusic. So feel free to reactivate your membership before November 29, 2013: Just Sign In to start exploring again.
I've just looked at the emusic message board for the first time in a while. Once it would be the first place I'd go to when I turned my computer on. It shows how it is changing though. On the first page most threads were either content requests or moans about some aspect of the emusic service. I didn't bother going any further. thank goodness for emusers. I do wonder where some of those people contributing to the emusic board are now?
Just some annoying eMu happening to report - "new" releases for this week include some 500+ albums on this permutation of the Shanachie/Entertainment One label. Sadly I suspect many, know for sure of a few, have been on eMu already/are still on eMu under other variations of Shanachie, cheaper in some of the older renditions. So just a heads up to browse thoroughly. There are some great albums and artists from a wide spectrum, some which have come and gone from eMu before, but just watch out. I was trying to figure out why neither version of Henry Kaiser and David Lindley's World Out Of Time, Volume 2 - highly recommended - showed up as a previous purchase (cassette replacement), but that's because I got it at Amie (repressed sniffle).
Another album I knew I got at eMu, No Dowry by Maighread Ni Dhombnaill has two versions now, neither of which is the one I once downloaded, but I found this review, by moi, on the page for the older of the two versions - new sh*t, same sh*t, different days.
Lovely
BigD-Bluez
This is a lovely release, but not new,it was on eMusic before all the Shanachie albums got reclassified and all the previous ratings, reviews and download history entries got swept off to cyber-wasteland. Love the album though.
Btw, did everybody get this email from Rdio, or just infrequent users like me?
Heres great news to get you listening again: Rdio is now free on the web. Always. No trials or limits just open Rdio in any browser to hear endless albums, playlists, stations, and all 20 million songs in our catalog. Go ahead listen to whatever you want, whenever you want. On us.
Comments
Another example of the recent music image disaster ?
At this point, there are more than enough items in my Amazon wishlist alone that are available on eMu, so that I could go back to eMu for a full year and still not have bought all of them by the end of that year. So, why don't I go back?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately - I don't think it's because I don't want to deal with the monthly "use it or lose it" pressure to buy stuff, because I wouldn't. The things on that list are desirable enough that I'd use all my monthly credit immediately upon receiving it, for at least that first year, at which point I could just cancel again.
Right now, there are three main reasons why I don't go back. The first is that I still don't trust them as a business, despite their having been bought by a new parent company. Second, I've never liked the redesign, because it's not ergonomic and in fact it gives me a headache. I infinitely preferred the old grid-like approach, with everything in nice columns, artwork that doesn't dominate the text, and fewer scrollbars inside the page. It was much, much easier (and less eyestrain) to get through long lists of new releases the old way, and to me, that was half the fun of being a member. And third, the prices: Most new stuff, including just about everything on my list, is $0.69 per track, $6.99 per album, if not higher. If that were $0.49 and $4.99, or even $0.59 and $5.99, that might be enough to make me ignore the first two things, but now the difference is just too small. I know that's not entirely their fault, but they made the choice to bring in the majors, and they knew the consequences would drive some people away. I just happened to be one of those people.
I guess I could change my mind, but it seems unlikely.
The reason emusic's is responsible is because when they jacked up the prices, they got me looking for other stuff, and now, after a couple of years of adjusting to new forms of exploration, I've found that there's more than enough legal free stuff out there, like on Bandcamp and soundcloud (not to mention my recent Internet Archive Grateful Dead obsession) to keep me happily listening and exploring.
Then, when I do want to pay, I go to my local record store, which has $5 used CDs (and my favorite places to check are the $1 or 2 for $5 bins), or amazon, or buy something on Bandcamp. I just don't need emusic anymore.
But I am sad about the discovery thing; the other day I pulled out some old emusic finds like Ecstatic Sunshine and Videohippos and even the first Fuck Buttons that I never would have gotten without emusic, and I felt a little sad that that's gone.
Thing is, I've used spotify quite a bit lately to whittle down my emusic SFL, and I can't remember the last time I listened to Greg Haines. I've listened to Matthew Halsall, Bobo Stenson, Barry Schrader, Jana Winderen, and a whole bunch of others, but no Haines for at least months. But every time I fire up spotify it tells me "you listened to Greg Haines" and starts recommending things.
I also remain unimpressed by their inability to target advertising given that they even seem to know what I listened to in school. The other day I'm listening to Bobo Stenson and Lennart Aberg (for the first time) and in the middle of their intriguing, somewhat austere jazz experimentation an ad pops up that goes with the gambit: "What are you listening to!? Are you listening to the same boring songs?" (Sarcastic tone, sounds aimed at teenagers who played Katy Perry's old song too many times and need to serve their country by getting the new one). I didn't really listen to the rest, but apparently if I buy something or other they will spice up my playlists with some new pop or something. Their choice of ads has often been incongruous, but for me this escalates to insulting your listeners, for their choice of music of all things!
The whole thing's a weird combination of impressive and sophomoric. Emusic is not alone. Spotify is convenient and works well, but unlike emusic with all its warts it has generated no fondness in me.
ETA, amazingly I remembered my login. Yup, "You're out of free music."
Ah, I see, it was "for up to 6 months."
(Random thought: having just written "algorithm", I learned for the first time last night, my ignorance of mathematics being considerable, that "algorithm" is a bastardized latin spelling of the last name of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a 8th/9th century Persian mathematician. Just thought that was cool. As I read the history, I keep imagining English speaking westerners going to Arabic speaking places and going "how come they use our numbers?")
1. That booster sale got me taking a really critical look at my SFL. Between the sale and a lot of discarding I have now bought everything on my SFL. For the other reasons below I dont need to spend money randomly that was once the whole point of emusic for me, but not right now.
2. I have been getting really into jazz piano trios, especially on ECM, lately. Buying them on MP3 and then having to buy them again on CD to get full sound quality is just stupid. Buying ECM piano recordings on MP3 is in itself not the smartest thing. Id rather buy fewer of them on CD.
3. I not only have a lot of music now, I have a lot of great music. Theres a Guvera ton of jazz albums, each listened to twice, from the spring for a start. I have a real hankering to go back and just luxuriate in a lot of stuff I have not rotated for a while, without needing to keep up with listening to new releases/purchases. I want some time to curate rather than acquire.
4. While the terrible available-cash-to-available-music ratio of my formative years is a big part of what has driven me to chomp like a hippo on the download deluge in better financial times, it has also left me at the moment with nostalgia for the days when I would pine after that special release for a while before finally getting my grandmother to treat me and then playing nothing else for weeks. Being able to get anything instantly subtracts from, as well as adding to, the equation. I have music on my Christmas list, Id like to look forward to it rather than it be that weeks new music. Id like to try to spend a while hanging back and cherry picking essential CDs and waiting for the mail to come (if, say, Pjusk or Marcin Wasilewski release anything Ill be all over it). Id like to save up for a box set.
5. My job is really intense right now. I need to give less headspace to finding new music and just relax and listen.
I am preaching all of this primarily to myself, and posting it here as an attempted line in the sand, because the itch to download the next thing has not gone away. Well see how it goes. That itch just exists alongside the growing feeling that if I keep downloading stuff I am not deeply in love with just because I can, there is loss as well as gain. I might be back at the trough in a month, the line in the sand lasting as long as the next wave. And I do have some Guvera credits. But I am going to attempt a different mode of engagement for a while. (See, I can quit any time I want. Honest!) At the least I could use a breather.
I am afraid this might make me less useful on MiG, reinforcing the lack of time/spare energy that has slowed my reviewing, though on the other hand it might focus me on essential stuff, and I am intrigued by the idea of maybe writing some reviews of stuff I have long lived with, like happens with old jazz albums on some sites. Well see.
1 - "a Guvera ton" should be an official music measurement.
2 - I think #4 really hits upon my obsession with vinyl and special editions these days. I can still get most releases that I want cheaply either through weekly sales or Guvera or whatever. But it's too expensive to grab everything in vinyl. So that forces me to pick and choose and wait to get things I really want. It's a tad artificial, but it does bring back the old joy of hunting for bargains and waiting for CDs to show up at the local shop.
If this isn't enough to make you quit, try this:
- Sorry, I just couldn't resist . . .
Another album I knew I got at eMu, No Dowry by Maighread Ni Dhombnaill has two versions now, neither of which is the one I once downloaded, but I found this review, by moi, on the page for the older of the two versions - new sh*t, same sh*t, different days.
Lovely
BigD-Bluez
This is a lovely release, but not new,it was on eMusic before all the Shanachie albums got reclassified and all the previous ratings, reviews and download history entries got swept off to cyber-wasteland. Love the album though.
Certainly sounds like "everyone."