Received a survey from eMusic. The topic was purchasing habits related to "HD music". Of course, like a lot of organizations that do customer research, they neglected to define what they mean by "HD music". I assumed they meant FLAC but based on eMu history they could just as easily include 320K mp3s.
I too received that survey invite and had the same question. I am not sure I have ever heard of FLAC called HD, assuming HD stands for "high definition." One question asked where I would buy HD music and an option was bandcamp, which will give you FLAC if you want it
Maybe they are exploring charging more for mp3s converted to flac...!
7digital, where I think eMusic is now getting its stuff, offers a range of formats. Including "16 and 24 bit FLAC"...Whatever those mean. With the moribund condition of music downloading, I imagine they're trying to figure out how much of a market exists for "HD," by which I assume they mean what we used to call Lossless. I bet even among eMusic subscribers, it's a fairly small pct who know what FLAC is.
I do sometimes buy "HD" (I didn;t get the survey). But it fits in my hierarchy of purchasing. The bulk of my collection is on MP3 and I am fine with that. Not every piece of clothing has to be your Sunday best. Stuff in certain genres that I really like I get on CD or FLAC. I can hear a difference - but only with some genres and releases. I am unlikely to pay more to get everything in HD, but occasionally I'll grab a particular release.
@Doofy I think you are on to something with the 7digital connection. I took a quick look at their price difference for "HD":
"Boxes" by The Goo Goo Dolls
320kbps MP3 = $11.99
16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC = $14.99
24-bit/88.2kHz FLAC = $17.49 [can not buy tracks separately]
Between $3 and $6.50 premium for lossless? Not going to get any nibbles from me. What makes companies think that charging the same price, for downloads, as a CD will be seen as a good deal by consumers?
A key question they should have asked in their survey is, "What file compression level do you consider good enough"?; followed with a list of format choices. An even more useful question would be: "How much more are you willing to pay for a lossless format"? I suspect the answer they would likely get to that, isn't what they hope to hear.
And as noted above, they need to ask: for what proportion of your music buying might you pay more for lossless? I am willing to pay more for lossless, but only for my select favorite recordings and only in genres where it actually makes a difference.
@Germanprof they did ask a question about which genres you are most likely to buy HD music. So, I suspect they are sensitive to the point you are making.
I am currently listening to music via my phone, streaming from my iCloud, played on a small bluetooth speaker on my desktop. I can listen to these same (cheaper) files on my car stereo or tiny little earbud speakers when I travel. This is not an audiophile setup, so I really do not need lossless. In fact if you are an audiophile, why even mess around with digital files?
When I really like a band and want to listen to their music in ideal circumstances, I buy the physical media and play it on a turntable or CD player on my home system with proper speakers, comfortable chair, and beverages frowned upon in the office. I am not sure eMusic can deliver on that level of listening comfort.
if you are an audiophile, why even mess around with digital files?
I think your second paragraph at least in part answers the question in your first. Because being an audiophile can be selective - one can care a lot about audio quality sometimes and in some settings not not at other times or in others. And the good speakers at home etc. are just as capable of playing a lossless file, which (i) might be the only format you could get (in the case of limited run CDs) (ii) might be more convenient to obtain, play, or store. I care a lot about sound quality and buy CDs too, but sometimes lossless files and often MP3s for the above reasons.
I'm making it a goal for the next life to be an audiophile. I think in this life by the time I can really afford it (if ever I can) my ears will be shot from years of cheap earbuds. But for now I'm enjoying the cheap earbuds and latest free $100 from emu.
I saw that someone had shared that link on eMu. I haven't used surveygizmo but I've used other survey tools. Usually when each survey request is set up with a unique id for each response (as this is) the results will only report out the last entry for each form. Meaning the person who gets the credit for using that link will be the last survey response saved before eMu runs a report for the results. It is possible that surveygizmo might support an option to dump the database of all responses and they might not.
I'm guessing that eMu had a fixed budget for the amount of credit they intended to give out. It will be up to them ( and depending on what surveygizmo report tools support) how to handle it now that the survey has been given out to a wider audience. If it were me, I'd make sure that the kind person who shared their survey link was removed from the pool of future survey invites.
I was pleasantly surprised when eMu sent out a survey. Let's hope that the sharing of the link doesn't dampen their enthusiasm for surveying the eMusic customer base. Of course, if eMu didn't want this type of open response it would have helped to include some instructions to the people taking the survey.
(At least on the link from the eMu messboard, you filled in the email on your account to get the credit)
As I said earlier, I haven't used the survey tool that eMu is using. However, survey tools I have used, with a survey request configured by unique links, would have only saved the last entry (usually used so people can continue to modify their survey until the end of the survey time period). In other words, the last person to enter their email address is the only one that eMusic will know about for that specific survey form.
So, if I'm correct about how the entries are saved, the way to "win" the credit is to treat this like an eBay auction. You need to guess when eMusic is going to run the survey results report and submit your email address just prior to that. Best of luck....
After reading the above messages, I investigated 7 Digital further - I used to download a lot from them a while back but haven't recently. I found that I could download the latest SFJAZZ Collective album for £7.99 as mp3 or £9.99 for FLAC. Given that Amazon have the mp3 for £14.99, and Google Play and iTunes are more expensive still, I downloaded the FLAC version. I hadn't realised that iTunes does not support FLAC, after several attempts to add the extracted version I googled the problem to discover I needed a converter programme. All works fine now, with excellent sound quality.
I've been waiting for the SFJAZZ alum to come on emusic, but have given up as my refresh is due soon. I'm now going on hold at emusic. Whether that becomes permanent only time will tell if I can break my addiction!
@greg eMusic-J - best and most reliable thing about eMu (and they didn't even develop it).
Thanks
BTW I just released a new version of eMusic/J, which is mostly useful if you're running on Linux. However poking through other threads here, I may make an option to remove .emx files that have been loaded to prevent them piling up and that will be useful for everyone.
However poking through other threads here, I may make an option to remove .emx files that have been loaded to prevent them piling up and that will be useful for everyone.
Add that feature and you will have another convert
I hadn't made the connection Eythian, many thanks indeed. By using emusicj I solved a problem that emusic had been trying to help me with for over a month when I couldn't download anything using their DLM 4, 5 and 6! That experience with emu though really has made me think about whether the time is here to give up with them. I am currently on hold and not missing the regular search at this stage of the month to use up my last credits before they disappear.
Based on unscientific observations, but I'm really noticing how less often albums I recommend on my This Is Jazz Today columns are appearing on eMusic. Seems like less than 50% are actually retailing on eMu.
Either that or they're just showing up much later, sometime past when I post the column. But still, it wasn't always like that. And I don't just mean in changes that happened in the wake of eMusic's "return to indie" thing... I'm talking about in 2016 as compared to 2015.
But like I said, this is based on sporadic observations that may or may not represent reality. Just sayin'.
Oh that wacky emusic. The search is messed up (again) and they've lost a connection with me. My account which was set to renew on May 28th/2016 still hasn't, yet I'm able to take advantage of these double download opportunities and pay no monthly rate. Right in my price range, win/win for me. We'll see what happens at the end of this month. Double Booster Deal -for now
Ps -link only works if you're logged in to emusic. Sorry.
My hold is up in a week or so, so I now need to make up my mind what to do. I've not missed emu this time, possibly because of all the problems I had downloading not long before going on hold. I have probably spent similar, maybe a little less, on music over those three months, but I have played what I have bought and I have begun to catch up with my backlog of unplayed music. At the moment I am veering towards one month to download a few things and then leave, but if I go back I am not sure I'll leave.It really is decision time!!
After getting a couple of really big free offers and being honestly a bit overloaded, I'm currently on a $6.49 a month plan which US, is one album (or mis-priced box set), and I kinda like that low level of commitment, while still having a little bit of new stuff every month, although album pricing helps make 6.50 more valuable than it might be across the pond.
I've been doing the $6.50 lite plan for a very long time. My experience with it will likely be different than most others because I'm drowning in new jazz (and related) because of my site and freelance projects. What I really appreciate about my eMusic plan is that I use it to only buy non-jazz stuff. That's a big deal for me, because over the last seven years, since I began with my site and various jazz-related projects, I've become so immersed in the modern jazz scene that I've completely fallen out of touch with everything else. That wasn't always the case. I like that my lite plan forces me to buy non-jazz monthly and that the time element (choose or lose) makes me really invest some time trying to find cool, new stuff. I find some stuff on my own, but I've also benefited greatly from some of the recs on this site, buying albums like William Ryan Fritch and Johann Johannsson's "Englaborn" and Western Skies Motel and William Tyler's "Modern Country" just to name a few. I seriously need music like that to just get a break from everything-jazz.
I think I've decided to have at least one month back to catch up on a few things, then I can go back on hold to defer the decision, being like the person above (thanks BN!) Part of my problem is that I am on a grandfathered plan - if i reduced my downloads by half it would actually cost me more - strange but true!
Comments
Maybe they are exploring charging more for mp3s converted to flac...!
Between $3 and $6.50 premium for lossless? Not going to get any nibbles from me. What makes companies think that charging the same price, for downloads, as a CD will be seen as a good deal by consumers?
A key question they should have asked in their survey is, "What file compression level do you consider good enough"?; followed with a list of format choices. An even more useful question would be: "How much more are you willing to pay for a lossless format"? I suspect the answer they would likely get to that, isn't what they hope to hear.
When I really like a band and want to listen to their music in ideal circumstances, I buy the physical media and play it on a turntable or CD player on my home system with proper speakers, comfortable chair, and beverages frowned upon in the office. I am not sure eMusic can deliver on that level of listening comfort.
I think your second paragraph at least in part answers the question in your first. Because being an audiophile can be selective - one can care a lot about audio quality sometimes and in some settings not not at other times or in others. And the good speakers at home etc. are just as capable of playing a lossless file, which (i) might be the only format you could get (in the case of limited run CDs) (ii) might be more convenient to obtain, play, or store. I care a lot about sound quality and buy CDs too, but sometimes lossless files and often MP3s for the above reasons.
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2771484/22248b5663c0I'm guessing that eMu had a fixed budget for the amount of credit they intended to give out. It will be up to them ( and depending on what surveygizmo report tools support) how to handle it now that the survey has been given out to a wider audience. If it were me, I'd make sure that the kind person who shared their survey link was removed from the pool of future survey invites.
I was pleasantly surprised when eMu sent out a survey. Let's hope that the sharing of the link doesn't dampen their enthusiasm for surveying the eMusic customer base. Of course, if eMu didn't want this type of open response it would have helped to include some instructions to the people taking the survey.
So, if I'm correct about how the entries are saved, the way to "win" the credit is to treat this like an eBay auction. You need to guess when eMusic is going to run the survey results report and submit your email address just prior to that. Best of luck....
I've been waiting for the SFJAZZ alum to come on emusic, but have given up as my refresh is due soon. I'm now going on hold at emusic. Whether that becomes permanent only time will tell if I can break my addiction!
eMusic Courtesy Credit
BTW I just released a new version of eMusic/J, which is mostly useful if you're running on Linux. However poking through other threads here, I may make an option to remove .emx files that have been loaded to prevent them piling up and that will be useful for everyone.
Add that feature and you will have another convert
Either that or they're just showing up much later, sometime past when I post the column. But still, it wasn't always like that. And I don't just mean in changes that happened in the wake of eMusic's "return to indie" thing... I'm talking about in 2016 as compared to 2015.
But like I said, this is based on sporadic observations that may or may not represent reality. Just sayin'.
Double Booster Deal -for now
Ps -link only works if you're logged in to emusic. Sorry.
@greg