"It's not just you! http://www.emusic.com looks down from here."
Incidentally, the changes have provoked some attentive and cooperative customer service. After a post on the board I had an email exchange with Jamie over there which resulted in an upgrade to my grandfathered plan - I pay a bit more a month, keep my rollover benefits, and get more free credit.
Prof, whatever you do, don't mention it on the eMu board. Everybody over there will say they should be entitled to the same deal. In fact, where's mine? How much free credit are we talking about here?
Site is up but all screwy, like it stuck it's finger in the light socket or something. There's also some chatter about funny links to Wondering Sound. Something afoot?
@Doofy, anyone with the same longevity can from what I understand get access to the same deal. I moved up from $15.89 a month with $2 added credit to $19.99 a month with $3 added credit. These are both already existing grandfathered plans - what is new is the willingness to move me from one to another (the account page just tells you that you cannot upgrade your plan without losing benefits, and that has been the answer when I have raised it before on the board as well). There is a thread on the emusic board here that includes the promise to do the same for any other members who need it.
$17.89 had become frustrating to me - not quite three, sometimes not quite two albums. And I am an albums person. $22.99 should reliably give me three albums and change a month if I choose eclectically. (I will not begin thinking about how it is just short of four $5.99 albums. I will not begin...)
And re the website, I confess one of my first thoughts when I read their announcement was to wonder what the odds were of them being able to remove a whole bunch of specific labels without breaking the whole site. But that's just speculation.
Hm, missed that one. Doubt I would actually do it, as I'm inclined to invest less in mp3's these days, not more. I think I pay 11.99 for 13.99 credit. I have made out pretty good with the bonus boosters lately.
I really do wonder if there's some plan involving Wondering Sound. Seems like a curious move, shifting the editorial content to a site with a different name. Going through some of Dave's recent recs lately, I found the WS content actually quite good.
I wondered that. It could be the other way around, that wondering sound is a strategy to get people to click through to buy the album at emusic, on the assumption that people in the Internet are more likely to at first stumble on an article and then click "buy the album" and then go "hey, this is not Amazon, but that's a decent price" than suddenly think "I think I'll join a music subscription service" and then go looking for albums to buy at emusic.
Gp, I'm unfamiliar with "rollover benefits". If you have full rollover, than an arbitrary sub level doesn't matter, right? But perhaps I don't know what you mean. I've been on an annual plan for ages, still obviously the best deal, with I suppose the added risk of emusic folding and taking the prepayment with them partway through the subscription year.
Rollover means that any balance rolls forward for 30 days, so yes, you are right, the worry here is not that I have to spend it by the end of the month. It's all to do with how much fun I am having in any given month (there is rarely much to roll over :-)).
Given that availability of labels is now fairly similar both sides of the Atlantic, our prices seem ridiculous. I would not dare try to change my grandfathered plan, as it is so much more generous, that they might realise how good a deal it is. I looked upon it as compensation for not having the majors, but that no longer applies. For £20 (approx. $32) per month I get 100 tracks. Possibly their European market is so small it is not worth making changes?
@ Greg: Shhh ! - Don't say it out loud.
- I hope they have realized that changing the Europe prices could cause people to leave and thereby undermine the foundation for Emusic europe.
- It's only us oldtimers that pays 1/2 price, newcomers (If there are any) pays 0,49 per track.
Not sure what the deal is yet with Smoke Sessions Records dropping off emu. I'm gonna give emu's label relations an opportunity to sort things out and post an explanation before I start looking into things.
But I have a guess... I think SSR dropping off is merely coincidental to the emu changes. I was always surprised to see them on emu in the first place, and after I heard about it disappearing from emu, I went over to Amazon, expecting to see SSR gone from there, too. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean it won't happen soon. A big part of the whole SSR package is their sound quality. They have a special digital version of their albums for sale at itunes, and I was always surprised to see them retail the music at places that couldn't accommodate a higher quality download. I think maybe that's what's happening... SSR trying to only retail at places that can handle a better made digital file. They might disappear off amazon soon or maybe they'll stay there because SSR is bowing to the realities of retail pressure, if, perhaps, their current revenue stream from amazon is too great to turn their back on.
But, like I said, that's just a guess. There could be any number of reasons for them dropping off. However, I don't see anything in their distribution situation that has their horse tied to a wagon that no longer services emu, and I also don't think that emu forced SSR out the door because of their indie focus (obviously). I also know that it's not a case of SSR thinking very little of emu either, since I've gotten feedback from reps quite happy with some of my jazz picks column synopses. So, for my guess, I'm going to say it's a question of emu's ability to accommodate sound, and it doesn't have anything to do with emu's new vision.
The plot, she thickens. Now looks like these Smoke Sessions albums have been pulled from iTunes as well, and the label home page has gone hinky. I'll mention this on the eMu messboard, before mailman rallies a mob of torch-bearing jazz fans to storm the Upper West Side
More than a few posters on the emusic board seem utterly oblivious to the possibility that labels have a choice whether to sell their music on emusic and that emusic might not be able to sell other people's music without their permission.
I do wonder about the tastes of some people over there. There's a thread complaining about lack of jazz other than reissued/repacked albums. They obviously don't read Jonah's weekly column, as I find plenty of new jazz each month without ever having the majors. And some of these comments are coming from people around well before the majors were on emusic....
I noticed that too, Greg. Was going to point out the big new drop from Cuneiform, but there's just no talking to some people. There's no debating there have been some new releases of note that aren't on eMu, such as the Charlie Haden-Jim Hall live recording.
Heh, there are a few posts over there that almost seem like they're trolling me. But if you were a jazz fan who won't give the time of day for any jazz made after 1970 (and there are many that take that position) and simply ignore all of the modern stuff in freshly ripped, it might very well seem like it's nothing but bad compilations and "re-issues" of older album by catalog vultures. It's hard for me to remember what things were like before the majors came on board... weren't there some classic jazz albums by the actual copyright holder/label... didn't we have some Prestige or Riverside back in the day? My memory is never good and the emu timeline vs. changes challenges it to the extreme.
I don't know whether it's the thought that emusic might (again) being in its last days or the way in which constraint so often aids creativity, but since the announcement I have done more searching on emusic for things I had not discovered than I have for a while, and my SFL has been growing quite rapidly. In jazz I've been exploring ACT Music and to a lesser degree Basho records- lots of interesting stuff on there. I'll miss ECM, on the other hand it feels almost wrong not to get ECM on CD.
All week, I have had the song "Baby Ride Easy" by Carlene Carter and Dave Edmunds running through my head. Yesterday I realized why: over on the messboard, a thread complaining about the loss of Blake Shelton albums was started by a user named "luvcuntry". Carlene Carter once notoriously said onstage while introducing a song, "If this song don't put the cunt back in country, I don't know what will." (Much to the consternation of her stepfather)
So anyway, that's the way my pop music-infested mind works. That led me to this odd video - with Carlene and Dave actually playing and singing the song! (All the rest are lip-synced) I will just add, Gosh, she was purty.
I was able to get into the message board for most of the day, then the main page from there. However, I was not able to download any albums.
If I tried to go to the main site directly, my system would just hang up.
Later in the day, I was unable to get to the emu forum and received a message that the server was not able to do something it needed to do (that's IT-speak there; don't feel bad if it's too technical for you).
I am currently downloading this recently added Xmas collection - earlier offerings in the series are amongst my favorite holiday earworm relievers, so I was pleased to find this - Blues, Blues Christmas Volume 4 from Document Records, which I am relieved to find still present there as a label. At least with this and the new Dave Davies album I won't have to scrounge to use up my plan this month.
Emusic is back today but there appears to be no explanation on their message board or Twitter account, unusual for there to be nothing. Yesterday was my refresh day, I'm tempted to spend all my credits at once....
Comments
Incidentally, the changes have provoked some attentive and cooperative customer service. After a post on the board I had an email exchange with Jamie over there which resulted in an upgrade to my grandfathered plan - I pay a bit more a month, keep my rollover benefits, and get more free credit.
Apologies. eMusic.com is currently down. Working on getting it back up as we speak.
Site is up but all screwy, like it stuck it's finger in the light socket or something. There's also some chatter about funny links to Wondering Sound. Something afoot?
$17.89 had become frustrating to me - not quite three, sometimes not quite two albums. And I am an albums person. $22.99 should reliably give me three albums and change a month if I choose eclectically. (I will not begin thinking about how it is just short of four $5.99 albums. I will not begin...)
And re the website, I confess one of my first thoughts when I read their announcement was to wonder what the odds were of them being able to remove a whole bunch of specific labels without breaking the whole site. But that's just speculation.
I really do wonder if there's some plan involving Wondering Sound. Seems like a curious move, shifting the editorial content to a site with a different name. Going through some of Dave's recent recs lately, I found the WS content actually quite good.
- I hope they have realized that changing the Europe prices could cause people to leave and thereby undermine the foundation for Emusic europe.
- It's only us oldtimers that pays 1/2 price, newcomers (If there are any) pays 0,49 per track.
But I have a guess... I think SSR dropping off is merely coincidental to the emu changes. I was always surprised to see them on emu in the first place, and after I heard about it disappearing from emu, I went over to Amazon, expecting to see SSR gone from there, too. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean it won't happen soon. A big part of the whole SSR package is their sound quality. They have a special digital version of their albums for sale at itunes, and I was always surprised to see them retail the music at places that couldn't accommodate a higher quality download. I think maybe that's what's happening... SSR trying to only retail at places that can handle a better made digital file. They might disappear off amazon soon or maybe they'll stay there because SSR is bowing to the realities of retail pressure, if, perhaps, their current revenue stream from amazon is too great to turn their back on.
But, like I said, that's just a guess. There could be any number of reasons for them dropping off. However, I don't see anything in their distribution situation that has their horse tied to a wagon that no longer services emu, and I also don't think that emu forced SSR out the door because of their indie focus (obviously). I also know that it's not a case of SSR thinking very little of emu either, since I've gotten feedback from reps quite happy with some of my jazz picks column synopses. So, for my guess, I'm going to say it's a question of emu's ability to accommodate sound, and it doesn't have anything to do with emu's new vision.
Cheers.
- I can't help promoting The Awakening Orchestra here, it's in my view an excellent big band release.
So anyway, that's the way my pop music-infested mind works. That led me to this odd video - with Carlene and Dave actually playing and singing the song! (All the rest are lip-synced) I will just add, Gosh, she was purty.
Craig
If I tried to go to the main site directly, my system would just hang up.
Later in the day, I was unable to get to the emu forum and received a message that the server was not able to do something it needed to do (that's IT-speak there; don't feel bad if it's too technical for you).