Stop being a victim and take control of your music

edited October 2010 in Diversions
OK eighteen hours of whining ought to be enough for anybody.

Come on where are the angles?

Emusers is the greatest collection of music thieves ever assembled on the planet. I mean come on, the way we descended on the rotting carcass of Amie Street in its final days like a plague of locust was simply a thing of beauty. So shake it off and get in the ring.

I refresh on October 22, should I use up my DLs before the conversion or is there an angle to be played?

Comments

  • There's no pricing angle to be played - for that, use 'em up. But if you're interested in grabbing new catalog entries from Universal, wait.
  • There's still a chance there will be cheap box-sets on day one of the new drop - that might be an angle to play.

    Or how about this: they're switching to a "currency" model, but if you have credits still in your account, they may count as credits rather than currency, and allow you to buy $.89 cent tracks for 1 credit, or $8.99 albums for 12 credits. There may be something in the overlap worth grabbing onto.

    On the other hand, you may want to buy things now that might have a tendency to raise in price when the change comes.

    The thing about all the angles though is that for the most part, you're talking about saving pennies. It's lost the excitement factor.

    Oh, and I think in respect to frogkopf's status at amie street, we should be referred to as a plague of (perhaps slowly boiled) frogs.
  • edited October 2010
    I'll hope that long tracks will get an actual per-track price. If Seagulls of Kristiansund is under $3 (as it is at Amazon), I might work with the new pricing. If its over $6, I think we're screwed.

    My greatest fear is that all labels will consider their catalogs "popular", giving all tracks at 89 cents.
  • they may count as credits rather than currency,

    Nope, they're going to be converted at a rate of 0.50.

    At the moment, I'm betting that little or nothing in the new drop is going to be priced at 0.49. At iTunes, 0.69 is the "discount" price point.

    Box sets: they wouldn't make that mistake again, would they?

    Boiled frog, mmm.

    froglegs2500.jpg
  • BT, I think your fear is founded, in that labels won't at first even think of considering the "context" of the retailer in providing pricing. The default is of course to have prices equal at all retailers - that's just FAIR, right? Subscription vs. ala carte is a fairly subtle market distinction compared to "set prices equal for everyone, of course".

    eMusic does currently state in their faq that most of the current catalog will be priced at $0.49, but 1) who knows if that's true, and 2) that doesn't address their plans for current album-only tracks (which has been completely unaddressed so far, right?)
  • edited October 2010
    Only angle I feel fairly sure on is that if there are newer releases you're sitting on in SFL you might want to hit them prior to the conversion because they would seem more likely to be priced higher than the moldy oldies that will theoretically remain at lower shelf prices.
    I'm feeling that I want to use up some of my booster pack credits on lower track number jazz releases that are not album priced (some of the Fantasy labels, for instance). I just don't trust that they won't get kicked up in price somehow later, and of course noting those long tracks to be hunted down on Guvera later.
    The Verve label is exciting to some extent, but I hit a lot of those last Xmas sale at 7digital. A lot being about 25 or 30 when they were $2.
    r.e. box sets - they didn't commit that error at the last drop so much. How are we going to find them with the new releases browse so thoroughly screwed up? Individual title hunts will be in order - research ahead of time.
  • Nope, they're going to be converted at a rate of 0.50.

    Well there's the angle right there - I'm only paying $.4158 per track and they'll be worth $.50 - a savings of $.0842 per track - a wopping $4.21 for the month!
  • I refresh on the 22nd as well. My current 2-year annual plan expires 11/25. I will be using my 10/22 credits between 10/22 and 10/31. I will be canceling my eMu subscription around 11/15 or so.

    Regarding upcoming opportunities at eMu. Think about it. They're reworking their entire payment process. At the same time they're "adding more than 250,000 tracks from Universal Music Group — the single largest addition ever". Based on any number of past drops and the general technical inabilities of eMu to roll out any changes of any great degree without some f*ckup or another, there definitely will be something to 'watch' come November.

    What kind of deals one can only speculate. I can't believe that every single drop they've had to date has resulted in mis-priced box-sets. And this inability to correctly price box-sets when first being made available on a digital download site isn't apparently limited to eMu either (I'm thinking of July 2008 and Rhapsody and whenever Sony arrived at AmieStreet).

    While I'll use my very last eMu downloads prior to the November debut of the new and improved eMu I'll keep an eye out for any bargains that might be had. If there is anything compelling I'll simply create a brand new account to take advantage of the deal(s) and then cancel that account once the dust has settled and start plumbing the depths of Limewire, Bandcamp, Mangnatune and such.

    I'll miss eMu. I was still under my annual plan when Sony hit last year so that hadn't effected me. The timing of this change is truly fortuitous for me. I am thankful that eMu has rolled out the information that they have well ahead of time (and before I made what would seem to be a mistake in purchasing a new annual subscription from them when my current sub expires in Nov). This new world order that is being put in place for eMu has no value for me.
  • Or you could use up your credits by October 31, then immediately convert to a low-price monthly. If there are mis-priced box sets you want, grab a booster, then grab the set. That's assuming that the combo of booster and mis-priced makes it worth it.
  • Just to chime in that really it's about value not just money, I'm happy as a pig in s**t because I just received and have playing a CD that cost me more than my whole monthly Premium at eMu will - Bear Family import Volume 10 of the That'll Flat Git It series:Rockabilly From the Vaults of Chess Records. These songs are crazier than a fistful of bennies and a bottle of Wild Turkey, and I have been looking for them a long time, and they were nowhere to be downloaded. Hence, one lousy CD, albeit 31 tracks, 74 minutes, is worth it. If Chess releases show up in the Universal drop that might be worth a little consideration. Only downside to this - it still doesn't have the song, "See You Soon, Big Baboon", that features the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan yell in it. It rocks.
  • I walked into Best Buy during my lunch break. Gave them 16 bucks and they gave me the new Sufjan and the new Belle & Sebastian. Full, uncompressed quality with artwork and booklets. No hassles with a monthly membership. And they even let me keep my change - didn't try to hold onto it until I had more to buy next month.

    That's freedom.
  • Just a reminder to all - look out for any Complete My Album freebies at eMu - they have not addressed exactly how or if that will be impacted, but better not to take chances. I just picked up 9 free Burning Spear tracks because that Rounder release had gone to Album Pricing.
  • Big D

    How do you methodically find those complete my album freebies.

    I stumbled across one or two but never was able to consistently find them
  • Man, I was in BB a while ago and could not believe how small the CD selection had gotten. 3 or 4 small rows, that's it. I swear, there's more floor space for cell phone accessories than music.
  • That is a big problem. Target and Best Buy have both started cutting down shelf space for CDs. In the meantime, 2 other CD stores in my area have closed up shop in the past year. The options are shrinking. That's why I actually debated grabbing the Sufjan there. Maybe I should really be putting my money where my mouth is and prioritize purchases from sites like Bandcamp instead - push forward what I hope the future of the music industry is.
  • How do you methodically find those complete my album freebies?

    Eh, methodically....not really, unfortunately. I fell across this morning's by accident, but because it was a Rounder that went to album pricing when IODA did I'm going to take a closer look at those. I'm going to scan my eMusic master playlist also and see if any bells go off. Or you could go through your Download History line by line......ugh. Anybody else?
  • he he he, found one

    by going through my collection download listing
  • edited October 2010
    Well I'm making a list, checking it twice,
    Just in case Santa drops something nice.....

    Meaning I have started researching and compiling a list of potential boxes just in case there arise initial screw-ups to capitol-ize upon next month, although I am not really hopeful on that score. I don't know if it's wise to publish any of this in advance potentially tipping off the opposition. What say you?

    In case you want to look on your own I find Deluxe Edition a very helpful search phrase over at Amazon.
  • Well, a list would certainly be nice, but people who don't post here do read. So why tip your hand!
  • I'm thinking they may purposely leave a few easter eggs lying about just to smooth over the raw feelings about the price increase.

    So a list may actually help them decide what to accidentally on purpose forget to charge full price for.
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