Just finished downloading this month's credits. With all the cuts to save money - US major labels, Wondering Sounds etc - I am even wondering about whether I'll get a refresh in January. There is no sign of Jamie, the moderator, on the message board, possibly another saving?? Was it like this before Amie Street closed?
My problem with Patreon is the guerrilla marking the Pamplemoose guy (and Patreon cofounder) did with his ridiculous making money as a touring band article.
greg - I'm assuming they're cutting costs in an effort to sell it again to another investment group that will fail.
Amie Street was bought by Amazon, so it was all very sudden.
Craig - I hadn't thought of that, I am sure you are right, as the last two owners have basically been asset strippers. Unless someone wants the existing subscription model there are not many suitors out there. With Amazon and iTunes having such a high share of the worldwide market already I do wonder if anyone else would find it worthwhile buying up emusic.
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Just finished downloading this month's credits. With all the cuts to save money - US major labels, Wondering Sounds etc - I am even wondering about whether I'll get a refresh in January. There is no sign of Jamie, the moderator, on the message board, possibly another saving?? Was it like this before Amie Street closed?
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Amie Street was bought by Amazon, so it was all very sudden.
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Mtracks? I remember looking into them and was just getting to the point of signing up with them when suddenly (as I recall from some of the posts here on eMusers) they had 'server problems' or something resulting in people not getting their download credits or something... a couple months later after no apparent progress in resolving any of the issues they shut down totally.
Yeah, from what I understand their servers up and died. They tried to rebuild, but their margin was so thin they ended up not having the money to do it.
Was there something back in the day at eMu, pre-dollar, where a track that went over ten minutes in length would cost two downloads instead of just the one?
I have a kajillion items in my saved for later bucket, and I decided to visit the very first couple of pages, back when I was a new member and not really shopping so much for jazz on the site. It's fun being reminded of all these old albums. Many I'm just deleting, but a few I'm looking into further. Kind of curious why I wouldn't have downloaded some of them since they have so few tracks. I think maybe my question, if true, would be the reason... smart shopper, this guy.
Back to when I joined in 2004, every track was a single credit regardless of length pre-dollar. That contributed materially to my getting into progressive rock and hour-long drone albums :-).
Wow, they only just finished the last one. Must be desperate to get some more sales before year's end, or whatever it is that happens. Never did understand how giving away more things for less money helps.
From a "me me me" perspective, unless I'm otherwise corrected, the loss of eMusic would severely hamper my ability to go through the new release listings as thoroughly as I currently do. That claim is based on the belief that eMusic is the only site that has a setup where I can put all the jazz releases in a list form and play the samples from that same page. It's a great sorting mechanism to build my initial list. I can get all the crap out of the way and then really start listening to the real contenders. I've looked at iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and CDBaby, and none of those sites appear to offer that kind of convenience. Bandcamp is the worst of the group, actually.
Hmm, if larger distributors (and I see The Orchard a lot) start pulling catalog and members see more content leaving that could create a death spiral pretty quickly. I suspect one of the morals is to spend any booster packs from the present sale sooner rather than later.
ETA, bought a booster and cleared out the things on my SFL that are on The Orchard, just in case. They carry some jazz labels.
Not paying your bills is a very slippery slope to be on. I do wonder how this letter got leaked but if they are in trouble in Q4 and are not paying their bills, plus they are cutting back on other parts of the site, it does seem that E Music days could be numbered in the next couple of months. I still have my full credits for this month waiting for the usual deluge of new albums in Jan so hopefully I will not lose to much money if they go to the wall.
This is disappointing but not totally unexpected. The maximum exposure I'd generally have is £20, my monthly payment. But like GP I may well get a bonus to work through my SFL. If/when I do it will be spent the same day.
Well you could still sign up and help stave off the end for another quarter for the rest of us :-) - as long as you spend the credit as soon as you sign up the risk is minimal.
Who knows, maybe firing all the editorial staff has given them enough margin to catch up on the royalties.
Well, it's the last day of the Booster sale, and I for one am all in. Too much good stuff on the end-of-year lists to let the oppty pass by...Should they disappear tomorrow or before I spend the credits, I'll dispute the credit card charges. Good luck eMu, and see you next year! (We hope)
If and when an emu forum member, preferably a first-time poster, begins a new thread complaining that it's been ages since eMu posted any good karaoke albums and that they want the mainstream karaoke albums back because they can't find anything good in the Indie Karaoke section... that should be the final post on the forum. Shut it down after that, because it will never get any better than that post.
Sooo, a substantial sum of money just appeared in my emusic account, and that of various others. Emusic apparently just gave us $100 without explanation. Bonuses have never been in that range before - massive error or some weird kind of creative accounting to give music away to avoid paying royalties or something? Or they need to say they sold X amount of music for a buyer? I am skeptical enough that I just DM'd emusic helps to ask about it. If it is for real and an effort to create good will among long time subscribers, the undermining of the effect through zero communication is just so typically emusic.
ETA, from @emusichelps: "It is. Just a 'thank you', from us to you."
Yow. Nothing here yet, but I'll take it, if I get it. I am sitting on a pretty good booster bonus credit as it is. Wonder if this might have been prompted by the 'use up your credits quick' alarums that have been sounded.
The crazy thing is that although I am usually pretty sanguine about the regular emusic scares, this time I was impressed enough by the third party news that they were not paying their bills that I bought twofer booster packs and emptied my SFL of all the titles I thought I would be sad if I had not grabbed before a potential day of doom. Now I am looking at my SFL with $100 in free credit and it's all stuff that I am really not incredibly committed to. I guess there are worse problems.
The size and odd distribution of the bonus coupled with the utter lack of communication is making me wonder whether one of the posters on the emusic discussion board could be right that this is a last thank you to long time members before closing shop.
Usually I take the conspiracy theories on that board with a pinch of salt but this does feel a bit like living in the last days, with unexplained portents.
Comments
greg - I'm assuming they're cutting costs in an effort to sell it again to another investment group that will fail.
Amie Street was bought by Amazon, so it was all very sudden.
Craig
Just finished downloading this month's credits. With all the cuts to save money - US major labels, Wondering Sounds etc - I am even wondering about whether I'll get a refresh in January. There is no sign of Jamie, the moderator, on the message board, possibly another saving?? Was it like this before Amie Street closed?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
Amie Street was bought by Amazon, so it was all very sudden.
>>>>>>
Mtracks? I remember looking into them and was just getting to the point of signing up with them when suddenly (as I recall from some of the posts here on eMusers) they had 'server problems' or something resulting in people not getting their download credits or something... a couple months later after no apparent progress in resolving any of the issues they shut down totally.
Definitely could be a parallel.
Craig
I have a kajillion items in my saved for later bucket, and I decided to visit the very first couple of pages, back when I was a new member and not really shopping so much for jazz on the site. It's fun being reminded of all these old albums. Many I'm just deleting, but a few I'm looking into further. Kind of curious why I wouldn't have downloaded some of them since they have so few tracks. I think maybe my question, if true, would be the reason... smart shopper, this guy.
So I'm just imagining the two-download the cost thing? Completely possible that I am, just curious.
All...
I just got an email about a Booster sale from eMu. It looks like maybe it's a double-your-money kind of thing.
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/12/18/emusic-1998-2014
From a "me me me" perspective, unless I'm otherwise corrected, the loss of eMusic would severely hamper my ability to go through the new release listings as thoroughly as I currently do. That claim is based on the belief that eMusic is the only site that has a setup where I can put all the jazz releases in a list form and play the samples from that same page. It's a great sorting mechanism to build my initial list. I can get all the crap out of the way and then really start listening to the real contenders. I've looked at iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and CDBaby, and none of those sites appear to offer that kind of convenience. Bandcamp is the worst of the group, actually.
I would love to learn otherwise.
ETA, bought a booster and cleared out the things on my SFL that are on The Orchard, just in case. They carry some jazz labels.
Who knows, maybe firing all the editorial staff has given them enough margin to catch up on the royalties.
If and when an emu forum member, preferably a first-time poster, begins a new thread complaining that it's been ages since eMu posted any good karaoke albums and that they want the mainstream karaoke albums back because they can't find anything good in the Indie Karaoke section... that should be the final post on the forum. Shut it down after that, because it will never get any better than that post.
/monies
ETA, from @emusichelps: "It is. Just a 'thank you', from us to you."
100 on my mu account. (Courtesy Credit, expires 06-03-2015)
Jay !
Usually I take the conspiracy theories on that board with a pinch of salt but this does feel a bit like living in the last days, with unexplained portents.