what can a poor boy do?

edited December 2010 in General
emusic has been lying like a pair of stretch jeans for almost 2 years now; but dammit, they still have stuff
like this for 5.99:
300x300.jpg
Howe Gelb-Alegrias

4 dollars less than amazon.
as long emusic carries stuff like this at that kinda price i will probably keep my little 24 dls around for a while; however,
24 songs a month hasn't kept me happy since 1967 when i was pulling down 26 dollars a year as a 10 year old home laborer.

thrifty choices are at a minimum.
what do you do?
use the internet as a huge used cd store, or a large gathering of buds burning copies of their records for you?
either way the artist gets zip and both have been around on a much smaller scale for many years.
if something doesn't come along soon ( and i remain employed), i may have to increase my dls or (gut shot gasp) throttle
the jones.

Comments

  • That summarizes my feelings as well. It's like I'll get karmic backlash for returning to eMu, but with the Wire belly up and Mtracks so limited, I'm not sensing a whole lot of choice. Right now I'm thinking the last annual option plus hitting up Mtracks a couple times a year is the best bet until the market produces some company willing to scratch my itch.
  • I miss having the "monthly fix" ever since I cancelled my annual sub. As much as I may trash eMu, if you still get a good deal there's no reason not to use them other than trust. And that's why I would not suggest an annual membership at all. Look at what they did to the annuals this time.

    I've got no clue what I'll do next year, since most of this year I was getting my fix from the dear-departed Amie and The Lime was my plan for next year. I may just start spending a little more and getting less by buying directly from the artists/labels I like - plus lots of used CDs for the back catalogs I'm interested in.
  • I'll bet something new comes around. Only Amie failed on its own merits, not seemingly being proftable. There's plenty of room for someone to undercut eMusic.
  • edited December 2010
    the little known artists operating outside the main are doomed to fail if the cost
    of exploration is too high or the appeal too vague. why not let subscribers use some of this loose change
    nonsense to listen to a more representative stream of a song? 1 or 2 cents a listen; i would be much more likely to pay 5.99 for
    something unknown if i had better idea was i was getting.

    i have 15 cents left for this month; what am i gonna do with 15 cents?

    am i being naive? would that be space or cost prohibitive?
  • Not sure what I will do either. I doubt I will renew my annual plan when it comes up for renewal in March. Cut back on music purchasing a bit, maybe more from a local record store and direct from labels.
  • i'm cutting out purchases entirely. i have gobs of music and a library system that simply gets it.

    but i'll be honest, we are spending about $200 a month for private viola lessons, $100 for math and $110 for swim class - on the 11 y/o. a whole lot of dough for early stage education. 8 y/o will start the cycle in a year or two.

    and college looms.

    when digital music was a great, then good, then moderate proposition i could justify the expense. when its marginal and alot of work to get a little in return... pffff.
  • edited December 2010
    I don't want to be bitter at reading your comments, but I am. That was me, several years ago. Now, I hope I can send my son to college. He might just have to get off his ass and get a scholarship.
    Oh. I miss my gym membership, too. A decent $30 haircut would help on the few job interviews as well, forget the $90 haircuts of yesteryear.
  • A streaming service seems like it would be suited to filling the gap while cheaper purchase options remain unavailable. I like having my napster sub for sampling. I have a hard time listening to albums on napster the same way I do those I own, but I bet with some focus, one could choose a specific set of albums, and treat them like you owned them - focus on those like you would new purchases. It would take adopting a special mindset (to overtly counter the endowment effect missing from lack of ownership), but it might be a cheap alternative.
  • Kanga,

    That's what I do. I've had a rhapsody, then a napster, and now a Mog sub. Since I spend more than 10 hours a day in front of a computer, it makes a great deal of sense for me. A this time there are at least 4 $5/month streaming music services: Rhapsoday, Napster, Mog, and Rdio. I've been a napster member for better part of a year, but I'm probably switching over to Mog because they have more social networking and recommendation aspects to their service than either Rhapsody or Napster. It's that recommendation service that I miss the most from eMusic, actually.

    As to emusic's cost, I'm more than willing to pay a $2-4 premium on a few albums a year not to have to worry about using up subscription credits on the months where I just wasn't in the mood for anything. As brittleblood says, I have a ton of music I like so that plus the $5 streaming sub does me fine. Instead of 4 albums / month I buy 1 album/month and stream a lot and listen to music I own.
  • and let's not forget our friendly? neighborhood library. I used to request things that weren't on eMusic and I wasn't sure if I wanted to pony up more than a few bucks. Will have to start doing that again.
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