Cathy, Cathy, Cathy
I don't know if this would be useful or not, but I'm starting a running record of VP Cathy's pronouncements over at the other place. Her declarations have all the clarity of the Book of Revelations and cause just as much conflict.
Here she is from today:
This suggests that the Fraunhofer decision was there to allow eMu to digest as many tracks as possible as quickly as possible, as Kargatron opined. Of course that would not preclude re-encoding at a higher rate later, but that would piss everyone off after they already downloaded the tracks.
Here she is from today:
Many of the issues you mention are decisions we have made for the sustainability of the business:
Higher prices for DATED material - the new pricing system has been created to allow us to obtain more content (including newer releases) and create a sustainable business. We think you will continue to see the value of eMusic with member prices that are consistently 25 - 50% less than iTunes a la carte prices. We did acknowledge that existing prices for some content may increase in the notification for the new content/pricing system.
No redownloads - We sympathize with your frustration on this. Unforunately, I can't comment further on this beyond what we have already said in our FAQ and on the boards.
No possible outs for annual subscribers - Again, we understand your frustration, however, this is subject to our Terms of Use.
Loss of a good chunk of your Top 100 - After doing everything we could, we were very sorry to see Beggars, Merge and Domino leave. Honestly, we love those labels' artists as much as you do. We want to offer you complete catalog and we hope these labels will return in the future as many others have.
Very, Very limited new releases, especially since the label departures - During December, there are typically very few new releases, especially on indie labels. This will pick up in the first quarter, and we will also have new releases from Sony and Warner labels.
Lower (generally) bitrate Fraunhofer mp3s from who knows what source files - we are looking into this.
A poor performing site - we are aware of these problems and are working on them. If there are specific issues you are referring to, please be specific and I will get you more information if I can.
I realize this may not be what you want to hear on each point, but I hope this information is helpful.
Thanks,
Cathy
eMusic
This suggests that the Fraunhofer decision was there to allow eMu to digest as many tracks as possible as quickly as possible, as Kargatron opined. Of course that would not preclude re-encoding at a higher rate later, but that would piss everyone off after they already downloaded the tracks.
Comments
The bitching and moaning over there is getting (has long since gotten) a little silly if you ask me. I've stayed out of it, but I made sure to sling in a brief comment that re-upping was "the right thing to do." Because it is. You make a mistake, you fix it, even if it costs you. I don't know what you're going to do about those who DL'd the tracks...offer the chance to re-DL to those who request it, would be my suggestion. I would not bet that any of this is going to happen, however.
I understand she's gotten a little pissy in some of her replies. Almost makes me want to go hunt them down. Almost, but not quite.
Craig
I noticed the Rolling Stones were back, so for grins I checked on a couple I bought during the short time they were at eMu. I was surprised to find that they were still in my "purchased" list, although I would have to re-buy them.
but that's not it. sappier.
in any event, i'm damn-near euphoric.
What's your secret? Pills? Booze? Lack of sleep? Mushrooms? Awesome music?
Nothing that hasn't already been evaded before.
Most of my working life I have had to deal with the public, way back working for an insurance company calculating and paying Railroad Brotherhood health claims, up to dealing with patients and their families in a state psychiatric hospital, building relationships within the court system, and finally as a "mini executive" within the hospital system, supervising psychologists, who can be some of the most independent and opinionated people in the world, (Yes, that includes me.) and carrying out the wishes of the 2 or 3 top dogs. In all that time, I have learned how to usually get what I want, and it isn't using the language I am seeing on that board. I know the annuals cannot leave without leaving a bunch of money behind, but the monthly people can just leave, which I suspect a lot of them are doing. I do have some sympathy for Cathy, because if you want to keep your job, you do have some limits on what you can and cannot say to the public. It isn't easy these days to walk away from a job -- I wouldn't do it without another one already in place.
When I lost my 90 downloads at the Sony drop, I read the TOS very carefully before my annual expired in October 2009, and I did not want to be locked into another year if the service changed. It didn't change that year, but . . . I'm still there on a basic monthly, pondering how long I will stay. There are still things I want, mostly based on jonahpwll's recs, as that is a skimpy area in my collection. It will take a while, though, unless I start buying booster packs.
And thus emusers was born.
I think this is where I came in this movie
I'm thinking of the time in 2003 with people jumping to mixtapers, last.fm boards, and various darknets. Come to think of it, eMu has been surviving despite itself for a very long time.
Word. We have become a nation of whiners, as I apparently do not tire of saying.
Heh. This was before my time. So people thought they should just get unlimited DLs forever for 10 bucks a month, did they?
How could life go on never conversing again with your friends here.
re: "get my fix": I don't know when I have DL'd less music than I did in November, which is appropriate considering the Guvera binge in Sept followed by cashing in a BB card in Oct. See, I can cut back anytime I want.
otm.
I too have sympathy for Cathy personally but that does not extend to her function wherein she is obfuscating and stretching the envelope of truth. I have not insulted her. I have merely made some pointed responses to her non-responses.
As to puking and mewling I likewise can not answer, but I think the level and severity of the quite legitimate criticism of eMu's recent actions, as opposed to the usual this sucks and I'm going to quit, has been directly responsible for them providing more of a non-response response than we are used to receiving from them.
I took a peek at the message board for something called hydrogenaudio.com in looking up opinions on the encoding issue, and it made the eMu MB look fairly tame, which being fairly limited in my MB exposure I found surprising.
I'll be happier to get back to the pursuit of good music and righteous deals, but I'm not laying down over there until I get some real answers.
Do I agree with all of the crap going on over there? No. But I'm not sure that there would have been half as many responses from Cathy without it. She's actually listing out the issues and trying to explain that they are looking into them. When has that happened in the past?
I am expecting an announcement sometime soonish that they've "looked into it" and determined that there's no major quality dropoff. It might even be sorta true, but now they are fighting the perception. Not an enviable position. Meanwhile, if there has been any promo push at all, I haven't seen it.
in response to the message by Wanderer
Our customer service team has reached out directly to this person. Since not every case is exactly the same, it's difficult to address these questions on the message boards. However CS does monitor these boards and will reach out to folks who report similar problems here.
Cathy
eMusic
Note the customer!!!
I have stopped doing business with companies for less unhappiness than I'm seeing over there.