I just ended my 90 day hold with the intention of clearing out the ACT titles I want and finally calling it a day. All that is left is the appeal of grubbing around in bargain bins of mostly junk.
If you browse by genre and filter by Classical/Baroque there are exactly 31 albums left on the site.
Baroque!
31 albums!
That means their available catalogue tagged in this genre (of course there is more Baroque not tagged as such, but that's another issue) is now quite substantially smaller than my personal collection. And almost none of what they have left is worth a dollar. (I might possibly add the Enders to my pile of Bach Cello versions.)
I think I have to get out before I end up buying sexy jazz for relax.
There's some buzz at the Reddit about labels returning. I have not yet looked into it . . .
ETA: It looks a bit strange with this producer / composer thing . . .(?)
I'm not entirely convinced that labels are returning. Downwards has been there for a while and what appears on eMusic seems to be hit-and-miss, although they have added a couple of new releases and 3 or 4 from the back catalogue since I last bought a batch of their stuff in Jan.
I reckon the Producer/Composer thing is more of a tagging error by the labels rather than eMu. I'm not signed-up to reddit but do lurk so, if it helps, the list below clarifies the artists on Downwards listed as Producer/Composer - feel free to add to the thread there:
Hari =Talker
S/T = Grebenstein
Dial B for Beauty = Ugandan Methods & Prurient
Vollstreckung = OAKE
Fist/Splinter & Live In Tokyo = British Murder Boys
DN51 & Blood Witness = Regis
Nightshade = Dva Damas
Chua Rave = Russell Haswell
A Fallen Empire & Waiting For Love & From The Shadows That Melt the Flesh = Kerridge
I've just spent the last hour going through ACT albums at eMusic, found a few more I'd like. So I've bought a booster to add to my usual amount and I am currently downloading. Then the email will go to Customer Services about another 90 day hold. Will it be the last hold? I get the impression that as long as you have one month back after each 90 days hold you can go on near permanent hold these days.
That's it - my final two purchases were two Miles Davis albums I don't have Walkin' with and Workin'. They take my Miles Davis albums into the thirties, but that is OK by me!
I am inclined to think that these occasional phantasmagorically returning labels are not actually signs of progress (returning labels) but of further decay (the website failing to full hide things that have been removed). It's like those scenes in science fiction where the cloaking device starts glitsching. The returning labels are probably just public glimpses of a database cluttered with debris.
I am inclined to think that these occasional phantasmagorically returning labels are not actually signs of progress (returning labels) but of further decay (the website failing to full hide things that have been removed). It's like those scenes in science fiction where the cloaking device starts glitsching. The returning labels are probably just public glimpses of a database cluttered with debris.
There's still quite a lot of good jazz at ACT, I've downloaded at least 12 albums over the last six weeks from there. Inevitably it needs some effort to go through them, but well worth while if you have credit left. For example, I downloaded four EST albums
I cancelled yesterday. Been on eMusic since 2001. End of an era and all that ... I was on a yearly plan, so I'll still get to use the site until June. Not sure what to download, though, since there is hardly anything left (unless you're into Jazz, I guess). Last month, I forgot to use up my credits (only the second time this has ever happened to me) and I just didn't care.
Also, it's a sign of the times when you can't even cancel your account online but have to email them and then have to reply to an "are you sure?" email from a support person trying to convince you to stay.
I remember the days when I would quickly skim through dhaun's daily list of new releases on the old eMusic message board for artists I knew. Most days I could find something I was interested in. Those were the days, well gone now. Many thanks for doing that dhaun
Well, I finally pulled the plug. I have been through the multiple holds, the free credit offers, the last gasp booster splurges, and I finally just replied to the "are you sure, can we pay you to stay" email confirming that I am done. The weird thing is that even after I spent an hour and a half the other day trying to find something, anything, that I wanted to spend my last $6 on, there was still an inner hesitation before hitting send on the cancel confirmation, such is the force of habit. After the decade or so I have spent building a huge collection much of which is from emusic, it was a bit like finally ripping off a plaster/band aid. (And there is also the inner teenager who used to hang around market record stalls agonizing over which vinyl record to buy because I could only afford one that month (sometimes that quarter), and for whom the digital all-you-can-eat-and-more buffet is still a bit like crack).
Part of what I hope this will help me to do is to kill the bad habit (also fostered by emusic) of accumulating things I really only half want if I am honest, and get back to more selective buying and spending more time with the things I do buy. Time to find out if any of the addiction can be undone or whether I am a lost soul after all those boosters.
Well, this question on the exit survey seemed both symptomatic (in that it’s broken) and somehow appropriate (given the answer options):
I also see the final offer email still claims they have 26 million tracks, which I doubt these days. However many million it is, it turns out, to my suprise, there is an awful lot of music I don’t want.
@Germanprof - It has been just over two weeks without eMu now and if there is one good thing their recent depopulation of offerings has done it is that I have barely noticed the difference. There has been such paucity that it's almost a relief not to have to deal with it. Now it's actually time to play the "Wow Look What I Have" Game and revisit my gigantic stash which I feel very lucky to have accumulated when it was possible. I had a fairly small jazz selection back when I joined eMu and today thanks to eMu, Guvera and other of our eMuser hunting grounds I have an archive. I do miss the thrill of the hunt to be honest, but I suppose I'll get over it.
Sorry to hear you go. I still enjoy sorting through the chaff -- and btw, thanks for the experimental classical album you recently posted on the budget thread. Although I'm seeing some meager pickings, I actually use the streaming app often to stream a lot of my content (and my uploaded content). I will note that a lot of the russian and Ukrainian pop albums have been removed. I must admit that I've come to expect that for pop music, paying as much as $5 for a one hour album doesn't seem like a good deal (unless you have bought 2 for 1 credits).
I'm still with emusic, and probably will be until the very end (if that happens) Emusic has played an important role in the growing of digital distribution of music.
I try to maintain my focus on:
We live in the most exiting times when it comes to music distribution, and the potential is mindboggling. - so with or without emusic, never before has the opportunity to keep "a finger on the pulse" been greater.
Well, I'll be there till the lights go out. I don't seem to have a problem using up my light account and a $200 for $75 booster every month or so, but then I like a lot of stuff some folks might think is crap. My wife often asks if I'm listening to that iceberg cracking noise and just doesn't get Johnny Dowd.
@Germanprof, I hear you. And I laughed at your line "And there is also the inner teenager who used to hang around market
record stalls agonizing over which vinyl record to buy because I could
only afford one that month (sometimes that quarter), and for whom the
digital all-you-can-eat-and-more buffet is still a bit like crack." Since putting my emusic subscription on hold one last time, I've been testing out streaming, which feels vaguely unsatisfying in its unlimitedness. In my 20s, working in downtown Berkeley, I'd walk up to Amoeba Records on Telegraph Avenue and agonize over what I could afford, and sometimes wind up with stuff that didn't really work for me (Rudolph Grey's Mask of Light still looms memorably in this category), more often with music I loved. Then listen to the new music, carefully rotated in with the older music so I wouldn't wear it out too fast, until the next trek. I miss the constraints and the acquisition aspect that non-streaming afforded. And yet...I probably won't give up streaming. And yet...streaming seems to devalue the years I spent carefully buying and curating this collection...
@burntwoodfactors exactly, I miss the constraints too, and the careful investment in learning all the contours of each new addition, liking it whether I liked it or not. I am also not lamenting at all the improved supply of music, so I definitely want to have my cake and eat it. And I am in the same spot on streaming. I am not against it in some kind of principled way, I just don’t enjoy it the same, and I think you have your finger on part of the reason - it’s boundless and I did not help to curate it. It’s like eating in a mall food court versus your own home, or reading the internet versus reading a book you bought. I use streaming mainly for occasional checking out of things I might be interested in, not as a go-to way of enjoying music. I think these things are linked - downloading lets me keep some kind of attenuated tether to that original experience of selective ownership and passionate investment, letting me feel as if I keep at least a little of the cake as I eat it. The curating bit really matters. (I think a big part of what many of us are doing here on this board is expressing the need to curate, not just consume).
I could easily have written the same GP. For me it has been an addiction. I left early last year, only to return August/September. Since then I have had a three month hold, been back for a couple of months, buying boosters on the way. I went back on hold last week. I've got so much music I haven't listened to properly. Emusic was good for me whilst it lasted, introducing me to a range of genre and artists I wouldn't otherwise have listened to. Now is the time to consolidate, be much more selective in my purchases. Whilst away last year, for example, I only bought a couple of jazz CDs, but one was the latest Kamasi Washington album Heaven and Earth, which I really rate. As it is a CD I've actually played it more than I might if I'd downloaded it.
"I’m sorry you were unable to find the music you were looking for and thank you for bringing this to our attention. Rest assured, we are working hard to expand our selection as we too are fans of independent artists and their music. To this end, we expect to have TuneCore and Believe distribution back up by the end of April. Hopefully we will have more good news to announce shortly thereafter."
"I’m sorry you were unable to find the music you were looking for and thank you for bringing this to our attention. Rest assured, we are working hard to expand our selection as we too are fans of independent artists and their music. To this end, we expect to have TuneCore and Believe distribution back up by the end of April. Hopefully we will have more good news to announce shortly thereafter."
- Sorry, I couldn't resist . . .
I choose to see this as good news, in spite of . . . everything.
Comments
Yes BDB - I totally agree, sadly. I've got enough to keep me going for many years, although it is good to keep up with new music too.
https://www.emusic.com/label/129116/songlines
https://www.emusic.com/label/125769/ESP-Disk
https://www.emusic.com/label/5355/Unheard-Music-Series--Atavistic
https://www.emusic.com/label/1137374/For-Tune
https://www.emusic.com/label/750/MPS (lots of classics here!)
The bad news: all the albums are unavailable.
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I saw 61 albums that weren't there!
They weren't there again today,
Oh how I wish they'd go away!
Also, it's a sign of the times when you can't even cancel your account online but have to email them and then have to reply to an "are you sure?" email from a support person trying to convince you to stay.
I also see the final offer email still claims they have 26 million tracks, which I doubt these days. However many million it is, it turns out, to my suprise, there is an awful lot of music I don’t want.
I will note that a lot of the russian and Ukrainian pop albums have been removed. I must admit that I've come to expect that for pop music, paying as much as $5 for a one hour album doesn't seem like a good deal (unless you have bought 2 for 1 credits).
Emusic has played an important role in the growing of digital distribution of music.
I try to maintain my focus on:
- so with or without emusic, never before has the opportunity to keep "a finger on the pulse" been greater.
- Edward Ka-Spel
a $200 for $75 booster every month or so, but then I like a lot of stuff some folks might think is crap.
My wife often asks if I'm listening to that iceberg cracking noise and just doesn't get Johnny Dowd.
And very important to curate art music.
"I’m sorry you were unable to find the music you were looking for and thank you for bringing this to our attention. Rest assured, we are working hard to expand our selection as we too are fans of independent artists and their music. To this end, we expect to have TuneCore and Believe distribution back up by the end of April. Hopefully we will have more good news to announce shortly thereafter."