Sorry -- finally clicked. Zap Brannigan is the Future World character -- I saw the picture earlier today and was thinking the Simpsons. Couldn't place it, just seemed like the artwork style was the Simpsons. Now realize it was Future World. Thanks!
Oh! I absolutely love this post by skerzo over there: Whereas taking a chance on something some dude made in his bedroom using a casio and a saw ,while it may end up being one of the most amazing things I've ever heard, isn't something I'd unthinkingly slap alot of money down on... and I'd really miss being able to affordably take those chance in a community that is equally daring in spirit.
Takes me back to the times of the Sony drop and why I quit when prices got raised.
Living in the UK it is fascinating to read some of the threads over there each morning, seeing how they have developed. I'm still convinced he is an emusic plant, but I was wrong about Cathy - she's never been that vitriolic!!
my bet he's a major label plant. every so often i have to work on a math problem along the lines of:
currently we're selling 100,000 bottles of gibberish at 5.99 each. we're self-absorbed and want to jack up the prices to $9.99 a bottle. certainly the petty, hanger-on bastards will fall off the wagon, but not all of them. how many gibberish-sipping idiots do we have to retain to make out like skull-f'ing vikings???
as an aside - we know the petty bastards won't go quietly without their gibberish, so let's just rattle each so tooth-achingly often they'll escort themselves from the premises! we can take a little carping, but prolonged carping is bad anesthetics.
writer's notes: yes, the reference to vikings was to prod froggie into another round of metal-licking idiots j-pegged.
Just bumping to say I've put my account on hold. After realizing the last two months I've downloaded nothing but Christmas music, I decided to find promising songs through satellite radio and Amazon and the like. Although I've got quite a '60s-style instrumental Christmas playlist now, so let me go mix up a martini...
I just quit.
They immediately offered me a free month, no strings attached.
I accepted.
I'll be shocked if I stay past that, but I'm always open to emu finding ways to keep me around.
I was on a three month deal to check out the new system, which worked out as I pay $9.99, and get $8 "bonus" credit.
It called that plan "emusic premium preferred" and said that on January 15, my plan would "migrate" to "emusic premium preferred" which I took to mean it would migrate to the $20.79 plus $3 "bonus" plan. So I quit.
Then yesterday I undid the quit when I saw something about bonus boosters, which it turns out those are only for people who bought boosters.
Now my plan says $9.99 plus $8 and it says it refreshes, not migrates, on January 15.
Thought I cancelled one of my free months. Guess I didn't. Asked CS about it and they told me it was against their TOS to refund money. So I sent them this reply:
Thanks for the wonderful help. I understand the need to adhere closely to your terms of use, especially in light of the frequently inaccurate information you regularly present to new, existing and prospective users of the service. Obviously it would be clearly inappropriate for you to refund a single month of service that was thought to be cancelled previous to the billing date.
I am not likely to have a change of heart, however to make your job easier I will simply start (and cancel well within the appropriate time period) several new trial accounts in order to make up for what could have been a simple refund. Thanks again!
Yeah, I know I should have checked to confirm - whoops. But plenty of services will refund automatic payments when promptly contacted regarding a missed cancellation. It's generally good business sense. I did an Amazon Prime trial in December. Used it twice, planned using it some more but never got around to it. Wasn't worth the 79 bucks to me. You know what? Their standard policy is that if you cancel the service without having used it they automatically refund you the cost. Even though I missed the end of the trial by a few days, I didn't even need to contact CS about it.
Hey, I'm on your side...but I am not at all surprised they wouldn't refund. The SWINDLEEE policy has never changed through the years.
Love your idea of starting several new trial accounts as revenge! That is an excellent plan to feel vindicated/waste more time with them.
Apparently they got the message. They gave me a "one-time exception" to the policy.
I did create a couple extra accounts over the years because I was annoyed that everybody else regularly got "here's 75 credits, please come back" offers but I never got one.
Well, it was an especially dirty threat, you evil dude! I suspect they knew you were serious, too. About adhering closely to your plot of revenge. You don't suppose they were actually embarrassed about " the frequently inaccurate information you regularly present to new, existing and prospective users of the service" part, do you?
I never got those free credit offers, either, and I used to have 3 accounts. I never could figure out why. My main account, I signed in with all the time to get the daily freebies, so I never expected it on that one. I kind of expected to see it at least once on the other 2.
I think just the fact that I complained more elicited their "one time" offer. Sadly my threat probably got nothing more than an roll of the eyes.
And I'm surprised that once I stopped getting the daily download on my original account they still never sent me an offer. Never got one on my second account which I stopped logging into, either.
So I rejoined for a month. I took them up on their offer of $6 gets me $12. I'm looking to get some combination of:
Brad Shepik - "Across the Way"
Michel Portal - "Balidor"
Michel Portal - this soundtrack comp album that has some French title
Fabrice Sotton - "L'attente"
DoF - something by him
Damn, and something else that I've inexplicably forgotten, maybe it's in my SFL
Obviously I won't get all of those. I'll be fortunate to get three.
After my "return" month, it becomes a $12 gets me $12 plan. Fuck that shit. That place is becoming a drag.
I intend to get them to refund me for all the other cut-off tracks that I didn't notice the first time through so I can re-download them.
Advert in our newspaper everyday this week offering 50 free tracks to new members. So I'm thinking of joining my wife up (who sadly isn't that at all interested in music!) getting my free tracks immediately and then cancelling the membership as soon as possible. There seems to be lots of good offers at the moment to get people into emusic in the UK. I am quite convinced they are trying to get new members into the system before prices start rising with the majors coming on board. Good marketing, but I am going to take advantage whilst I can
...And yet! Go to the eMu search box, type in Josh Groban, and tell me what you see.
That Mahotella Queens set looks awesome. I also predict that "12 Nights in Hollywood" will someday find its way into my collection, but certainly not via eMu.
I have about a week to decide if I should let my 90-day suspension end automatically or cancel altogether. I don't expect I'll be getting any sort of e-mailed warning about this, and of course my account page on eMu just gives me a REACTIVATE NOW button, along with the words "Renews on Dec. 30, 2010"... I guess I don't blame them for not wanting me to see my payment history, since they probably don't want to remind me that the subscription costs money, but they really should let me see my download history and SFL at least.
It's a tough call, but right now I'm leaning towards cancelling altogether. There are a lot of items in my SFL, over 100 now, but nothing I can't do without... though since I can't actually read it, it's hard to be certain. I suspect it would still be cheaper to buy most of them from eMu though, if I pay for another month. I don't have the new Wire album yet, for example.
So, I'll probably stew on it for another couple of days and then toss a coin or something. Though it'll probably have to be best-two-out-of-three to make me go back.
A few months back I tried the free trial on MTraks, and really struggled to find 30 downloads on there that I really wanted - no idea whether their selection is objectively 'good' or 'bad' but it clearly did not match my emusic SFL in the slightest. Checked today on a whim and found a bit more than last time I looked (couple of Nicolas Bernier albums cheaper than emusic for instance) though still very limited in some areas, and it could be my SFL has just shifted a little. Has anyone been using them regularly and tracking their growth at all? Are they adding stuff at a good rate? Or is it just hit and miss?
I jumped back into Mtracks world. First and foremost, the Chinese (?) tagging is extremely annoying - this happens about 20 percent of what I've dled. Sketchy stuff. That aside, it's almost a personal challenge to find a worthy 75 dls, but it's also a great way to explore music and fill in some cracks in my collection. My primary suggestion is to never go looking for someone there - you will be almost always be disappointed. Instead, I go through different labels, check artists at allmusic.com, and listen. Lots of great jazz out there, some decent electronica, and they do have a few big name artists, though not many. Also, I've had some luck finding bandcamp artists there, but a lot cheaper. Here's a few artists I've gotten:
Lusine Sharon Van Etten Deer Tick The Pains of Being Pure Erik Friedlander Avishai Cohen Hauschka Chris Lightcap
Well I went back off the wagon and onto eMusic, but after finding little to strike my fancy last month, this month I just burned my money in 3 minutes through collecting old stuff from The Cure without looking twice.
The thrill is gone. I hope it comes back.
(Edited to say I checked out Mahotella Queens and I think the thrill is back!)
Comments
Sorry -- finally clicked. Zap Brannigan is the Future World character -- I saw the picture earlier today and was thinking the Simpsons. Couldn't place it, just seemed like the artwork style was the Simpsons. Now realize it was Future World. Thanks!
Whereas taking a chance on something some dude made in his bedroom using a casio and a saw ,while it may end up being one of the most amazing things I've ever heard, isn't something I'd unthinkingly slap alot of money down on... and I'd really miss being able to affordably take those chance in a community that is equally daring in spirit.
Takes me back to the times of the Sony drop and why I quit when prices got raised.
currently we're selling 100,000 bottles of gibberish at 5.99 each. we're self-absorbed and want to jack up the prices to $9.99 a bottle. certainly the petty, hanger-on bastards will fall off the wagon, but not all of them. how many gibberish-sipping idiots do we have to retain to make out like skull-f'ing vikings???
as an aside - we know the petty bastards won't go quietly without their gibberish, so let's just rattle each so tooth-achingly often they'll escort themselves from the premises! we can take a little carping, but prolonged carping is bad anesthetics.
writer's notes: yes, the reference to vikings was to prod froggie into another round of metal-licking idiots j-pegged.
Someone named Dabloozer has a good story about pissing and moaning: http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=269230#
Start a new discussion -- red link at upper left of the page. Choose the category, title your thread, and off you go!
They immediately offered me a free month, no strings attached.
I accepted.
I'll be shocked if I stay past that, but I'm always open to emu finding ways to keep me around.
I was on a three month deal to check out the new system, which worked out as I pay $9.99, and get $8 "bonus" credit.
It called that plan "emusic premium preferred" and said that on January 15, my plan would "migrate" to "emusic premium preferred" which I took to mean it would migrate to the $20.79 plus $3 "bonus" plan. So I quit.
Then yesterday I undid the quit when I saw something about bonus boosters, which it turns out those are only for people who bought boosters.
Now my plan says $9.99 plus $8 and it says it refreshes, not migrates, on January 15.
Did I slip through a loophole?
Are you okay with the refresh? Some of the new plan stuff is kind of confusing.
Yeah, I know I should have checked to confirm - whoops. But plenty of services will refund automatic payments when promptly contacted regarding a missed cancellation. It's generally good business sense. I did an Amazon Prime trial in December. Used it twice, planned using it some more but never got around to it. Wasn't worth the 79 bucks to me. You know what? Their standard policy is that if you cancel the service without having used it they automatically refund you the cost. Even though I missed the end of the trial by a few days, I didn't even need to contact CS about it.
Love your idea of starting several new trial accounts as revenge! That is an excellent plan to feel vindicated/waste more time with them.
I did create a couple extra accounts over the years because I was annoyed that everybody else regularly got "here's 75 credits, please come back" offers but I never got one.
I never got those free credit offers, either, and I used to have 3 accounts. I never could figure out why. My main account, I signed in with all the time to get the daily freebies, so I never expected it on that one. I kind of expected to see it at least once on the other 2.
And I'm surprised that once I stopped getting the daily download on my original account they still never sent me an offer. Never got one on my second account which I stopped logging into, either.
Brad Shepik - "Across the Way"
Michel Portal - "Balidor"
Michel Portal - this soundtrack comp album that has some French title
Fabrice Sotton - "L'attente"
DoF - something by him
Damn, and something else that I've inexplicably forgotten, maybe it's in my SFL
Obviously I won't get all of those. I'll be fortunate to get three.
After my "return" month, it becomes a $12 gets me $12 plan. Fuck that shit. That place is becoming a drag.
I intend to get them to refund me for all the other cut-off tracks that I didn't notice the first time through so I can re-download them.
That Mahotella Queens set looks awesome. I also predict that "12 Nights in Hollywood" will someday find its way into my collection, but certainly not via eMu.
I have about a week to decide if I should let my 90-day suspension end automatically or cancel altogether. I don't expect I'll be getting any sort of e-mailed warning about this, and of course my account page on eMu just gives me a REACTIVATE NOW button, along with the words "Renews on Dec. 30, 2010"... I guess I don't blame them for not wanting me to see my payment history, since they probably don't want to remind me that the subscription costs money, but they really should let me see my download history and SFL at least.
It's a tough call, but right now I'm leaning towards cancelling altogether. There are a lot of items in my SFL, over 100 now, but nothing I can't do without... though since I can't actually read it, it's hard to be certain. I suspect it would still be cheaper to buy most of them from eMu though, if I pay for another month. I don't have the new Wire album yet, for example.
So, I'll probably stew on it for another couple of days and then toss a coin or something. Though it'll probably have to be best-two-out-of-three to make me go back.
Lusine
Sharon Van Etten
Deer Tick
The Pains of Being Pure
Erik Friedlander
Avishai Cohen
Hauschka
Chris Lightcap
The thrill is gone. I hope it comes back.
(Edited to say I checked out Mahotella Queens and I think the thrill is back!)