I'd guess there are some deep values differences there, and I'm not quite up to trying to suss them out. But the logical extreme of it seems deeply anti-humanistic to me, imagine requiring that all ideas be owned by some legal entity or another for all time. Ick.
This is a bit of thread necromancy, but I've
been a bit out of the loop for a while, sp what's the deal with emusic
these days? I see they're still doing the token thing, and now NFTs
(which imo is like the token thing but worse.) I assume the downward
spiral is continuing?
This is a bit of thread necromancy, but I've
been a bit out of the loop for a while, sp what's the deal with emusic
these days? I see they're still doing the token thing, and now NFTs
(which imo is like the token thing but worse.) I assume the downward
spiral is continuing?
Of course eMusic is doing the NFT thing. I can't conceive of anything more predictable. The sun rising, perhaps?
eMusic will persist to tart itself up in the latest tech bro fashions until they finally get their big score.
So today is the day my account is set to cancel. Member since 2005. It would have been last year if I hadn't forgotten to extend my lengthy "on-hold" period and found they had charged me for a full year. As I've said in the past, over the last several years it took more time to select my monthly allotment than I actually spent listening to the music. It's a bit of a sad day when I think of the many fun years.
So today is the day my account is set to cancel. Member since 2005. It would have been last year if I hadn't forgotten to extend my lengthy "on-hold" period and found they had charged me for a full year. As I've said in the past, over the last several years it took more time to select my monthly allotment than I actually spent listening to the music. It's a bit of a sad day when I think of the many fun years.
As someone who left years ago (began, I think, in 2009, so close to ten years), trust me, you get over it. Now when I listen to something I purchased on emusic back in the day, it revives a nostalgic fondness for the 17 Dots past and not the oppressive frustration of its present.
I'll get to music but first TV. I didn't used to do TV at all. Then I had Netflix for a while. Then Hulu offered me a subscription for 99 cents a month, and I've kept it so far despite finding nothing there that interests me - what's a dollar, I might find something. Then Hulu offered me a deal on Disney Plus for 2.99 a month, so I got that and watched Hamilton and finally checked out the Mandalorian thing I'd heard about. In the meantime, our favorite Netflix show, The Repair Shop, got dropped by Netflix and picked up by Discovery + - so do I get another subscription for that just so I can keep watching? My NHL subscription lapsed and they got picked up by ESPN+. And I wouldn't mind seeing some old BBC comedies...that's another package.
The morals so far: (i) I am hard to please and not hugely interested in most of the mainstream fare, and (ii) I am belatedly getting sucked into that thing where you now have to take out a separate subscription for every single different kind of thing you're interested in.
The same is happening with apps. I am being asked to subscribe to my calculator. No joke.
Back to music. Emusic was great when it was all you can eat, and then for a while after. Then it became for me like Hulu - cheap but I don't watch it because when I search I don't find much I want, so when it starts costing real money I'll drop it. Now with bandcamp I am starting to get drawn through amazing cheap deals into label subscriptions. The whole Home Normal back catalogue and a year's subscription for something like $20? Sign me up! Everything Fallow puts out for a year for $12? Sure, they have an artist or two I like! Longform Editions for $4 a month? What a bargain! (And recommended, by the way.)
There are things I really love about this. Apart from the sustainability-for-the-label thing, which I think is real, I actually enjoy the experience of having albums I did not actually seek out and plan to buy turn up in my inbox. I like the feeling of unpacking something that I don't know what it is yet. It's like when the magazine came when I was a teen. It might be fantastic or mediocre - you don't know yet, but you're committed either way, and that's the point.
But at the same time I am rapidly approaching the TV conundrum - I am in the end not willing to pay a separate subscription for every separate shade of my tastes in entertainment. Yet I also feel bad about dropping subscriptions to small labels I support. I am not even totally sure whether I feel well served or manipulated.
I guess the question behind this is: I am wondering how others are experiencing/strategically tackling the rise and rise of the multiverse-of-subscriptions model as it applies to music? Because I am still not sure what my strategy will be. Emusic was easy for a while - pay one fee and most of what I wanted was there. That's not true any more. (And before someone says the answer is spotify or equivalent, that's a separate argument that we've done before - streaming does not work for me as a music solution for several reasons, glad it works for others. My interest here is in purchasing strategies.)
(Or it might just be that I have toothache and can't concentrate on work).
eMusic as a music download business stopped existing as a going concern long ago. They keep the site live to keep collecting auto-renewals for those who long ago forgot to cancel and still have a valid credit card, but they got rid of most of their staff and the CEO is really now focused fully on blockchain, NFTs, etc. (as others here mentioned), mostly in conjunction with his 7Digital relationship. The cost of keeping the site live is minimal, so they just leave it there for couch money from the few people who keep subscribing. But eMusic, as we know it, was dead and buried about 4-5 years ago.
Same as Germanprof when it came to the early days of no or little interest. Never have had Netflix, but, I too, took advantage of the .99/mth. Hulu. The idea being that, even tho I watch little of local channels, there's always the chance of bad weather knocking out or destroying the watching experience (this is North Texas, so...), and so I will use Hulu for those kinds of "standard" shows. A couple of years ago, we decided to pay for CBS+ (now, Paramount+) because we wanted to watch the Star Trek knockoffs (including the cartoon/animated thing). We went into it with the idea that once we watched those, we would just cancel the subscription. We did ... and now there's the new seasons available that began, I think, last fall(?) and we'll sign up again. I don't binge watch tho - 2 hours maximum is all I can handle 90% of the time.
Music:
I'm pretty devoted to Bandcamp. Yes, there are some extra pretties I'd like to see made available, but the quality of music and the ease and specials and general all-around kindness to sellers and diversity of formats and music styles makes it a real winner for me. Yeah, there are the 1% of places where I want to buy something special from a label or distributor, but because I have waaaaaay too much physical stuff as it is now, I'm pretty careful about what I'm buying in that physical form. The teen analogy that you make is a little like the way I feel when I get, about twice a week, updates on what was bought by the people I follow on BC. It's wonderful to explore!
TV: I don't watch very much at all, but there's so many streaming services and they're always offering deals, it's easier just to be a nomad and move from one sub to the next, one deal after the next. My current approach is to keep my HBO Max, because I like having it there for those rare times I want to watch something and I'm always finding stuff on it I want to watch. I just canceled my Netflix, because I had watched everything I wanted to see (or, finally admitted I wasn't ever going to finish Downton Abbey and Ozark), and now that I know I can watch all of the Mandolorian for a month at 2.99, I'll move onto Disney next and cancel after a month.
Labels and music subs: I take a similar approach to that. I find labels and my tastes only ever match up for about a year, and it's time to move on. Not sure if the quality only holds for a year or I'm just ready for a different sound. Also, I view my support of some labels some of the time as being a contribution to the whole ecosystem of indie music. Just because I cancel on one label/collective after a year, I'm still moving that cash to another, and they likely need as bad as the last.
P.S. I doubt seriously that eMusic is still collecting on subs that people forgot about. Most credit cards expire in two years, so it's unlikely that forgotten accounts are providing them any revenue. With the crypto thing and now the NFT thing, emusic stopped wanting to be a download store. They wanted to do artist representation in the crypto framework, and build a marketplace where they could take a cut from artists (as reps) on the front end and then also receive a cut of all the micro-transactions... in addition to all of the investment funds that doing their little coin drop would've brought in had their timing been better. The only reason they still have a store is try to to appeal to musicians to sign up with them and, hey, if some rando customers also buy from the store, so be it. The music download business is no longer emusic's raison d'etre, but, instead, a feature of what they really want to be doing in the crypto arena.
We have had Netflix continuously back to the DVD days. Almost always find something watchable. Or even unwatchable, in the case of Bridgerton, which my wife is inexplicably enjoying now.
Have been on a free promo of HBO for almost a year now, will miss it when it ends later this month. My Brilliant Friend is excellent, though sometimes a tough watch. We did a couple months on Apple...Will do another one soon, need to see the Denzel Washington Macbeth.
That HBO promo came when I signed up for Direct TV Stream, which is necessary for hometown sports (especially baseball). It is every bit as expensive as cable, but without the contract. Should probably check the price vs channel lineup on Hulu. @jonahpwll The Cubs now have their own dumb-ass network, which is overpriced/not widely available, thus greatly reducing the number of fans who can see the games. Brilliant.
Emusic, never heard of it. I subscribe to Astral Spirits...Love about half of everything they put out and want to support what they're doing in general. Otherwise I have a modest Bandcamp budget, maybe a couple a month. I'll buy the occasional CD when the pricing makes sense or for limited-run stuff.
That’s interesting about subs wearing out after a year. I suspect the smaller the label the more it essentially reflects one person’s tastes in the acquisition process. Taylor Deupree with 12k has managed to either match what I like or persuade me to like what he likes a remarkable percentage of a very long time, but I can imagine some labels wearing thin.
@jonahpwll The Cubs now have their own dumb-ass network, which is overpriced/not widely available, thus greatly reducing the number of fans who can see the games. Brilliant.
For a couple years, I did the MLB tv one-team sub for the Cubs. I'd typically sign up about halfway through the season when the sub price dropped. It was nice to have on in the background or those times where I just felt like watching a game. But the MLB tv connection was often wonky for me, plus their blackout policy is just insane... I'm being told I can't watch Cubs games as a Kentucky resident because a Chicago team is playing a game in (Cincinnati) Ohio. I won't subscribe to that Marque channel. I've seen a couple games on it, and they drown the viewer in advertisements. There were times when the game was in action and they minimized the game view down to a window so they could add a large graphic about Ace Hardware (or something like that). And now that they'll be adding advertisement patches to uniforms/helmets, that'll be even worse. It's unlikely I'll ever get a Cubs sub again... UNLESS they offer a channel where I get to watch the games with no in-game ads, no production graphics, and no announcers- just crowd noise. It would be called something like "Crowd View Game channel." I would pay for that.
If MLB could ever get past the hometown blackouts, my need for a live TV streaming service would decrease considerably. That's especially goofy about the road teams, never heard that before.
P.S. I doubt seriously that eMusic is still collecting on subs that people forgot about. Most credit cards expire in two years, so it's unlikely that forgotten accounts are providing them any revenue. With the crypto thing and now the NFT thing, emusic stopped wanting to be a download store. They wanted to do artist representation in the crypto framework, and build a marketplace where they could take a cut from artists (as reps) on the front end and then also receive a cut of all the micro-transactions... in addition to all of the investment funds that doing their little coin drop would've brought in had their timing been better. The only reason they still have a store is try to to appeal to musicians to sign up with them and, hey, if some rando customers also buy from the store, so be it. The music download business is no longer emusic's raison d'etre, but, instead, a feature of what they really want to be doing in the crypto arena.
If eMusic exists for its crypto pursuits, I figure that'd be more prominent on the home page and there'd be any account anywhere of anyone actually buying coins & NFTs from them. The part of the site that actually gets updated other than new releases (and yes, there still are some) seems to be the live concert streams.
P.S. I doubt seriously that eMusic is still collecting on subs that people forgot about. Most credit cards expire in two years, so it's unlikely that forgotten accounts are providing them any revenue. With the crypto thing and now the NFT thing, emusic stopped wanting to be a download store. They wanted to do artist representation in the crypto framework, and build a marketplace where they could take a cut from artists (as reps) on the front end and then also receive a cut of all the micro-transactions... in addition to all of the investment funds that doing their little coin drop would've brought in had their timing been better. The only reason they still have a store is try to to appeal to musicians to sign up with them and, hey, if some rando customers also buy from the store, so be it. The music download business is no longer emusic's raison d'etre, but, instead, a feature of what they really want to be doing in the crypto arena.
If eMusic exists for its crypto pursuits, I figure that'd be more prominent on the home page and there'd be any account anywhere of anyone actually buying coins & NFTs from them. The part of the site that actually gets updated other than new releases (and yes, there still are some) seems to be the live concert streams.
eMusic doesn't want to be a live concert streaming service.
eMusic doesn't want to be a digital music retailer.
eMusic doesn't want to be artist representatives.
eMusic doesn't want to be musician service providers.
eMusic wants those things as facets of a crypto marketplace where people buy their tokens and exchange them back and forth for concert streams, digital music, A&R, and related services... so their token gains market value, so they can get a cut of all transactions, and so they can cash in on the scam-y NFT thing. There is nothing about the eMusic trajectory these last years that indicate any other ownership vision, and it falls right in line with the popular tech bro approach of pretty much every other company out there trying to cash in on crypto currency and NFTs.
The reason the crypto/NFT thing isn't more in your face on their site (than it already is) is because eMusic, like every other company doing the crypto/NFT thing, don't want people focusing on the financial aspect... they throw phrases out there about belonging to a community, be a part of something special, hey, be a True Music Fan and support musicians by buying our eMusic token because you can buy music and concerts with it and you know it's good because our token is all about democratization and transparency and now musicians won't get screwed by Spotify anymore for reasons(?), and, hey, musicians, if you sign with our special artist rep services, we can pay you in eMusic tokens and you can trade it for services offered via our marketplace with very respectable service professionals and be part of a special community.
This is the course eMusic ownership has charted for this company. That's their endgame. The fact that they sell some music and have some music related facets isn't proof they actually want to be in the business of music... only that they tolerate it as the avenue to get them the cash they want. It's no different than some of these token/NFT companies that put together a video game and create their token-based marketplace around the game. And much like eMusic's music catalog, those games are typically janky and inferior to real video game company products.
They have 7digital as their music sales outlet and have clearly been unsuccessful with their attempts to differentiate the eMusic platform. The latter is therefore a legacy business for those who can still find music that appeals to them (sadly for those of us who knew eMusic in its pomp).
P.S. I doubt seriously that eMusic is still collecting on subs that people forgot about. Most credit cards expire in two years, so it's unlikely that forgotten accounts are providing them any revenue.
When I was about to quit emu I decided to just let my credit card expire and be done with it. However there is a facility that services can use that gets them notified of expired/updated cards so that they can automatically update their information with the new expiry. I don't know the details of it, but I know that emu has used it because:
P.S. I doubt seriously that eMusic is still collecting on subs that people forgot about. Most credit cards expire in two years, so it's unlikely that forgotten accounts are providing them any revenue.
When I was about to quit emu I decided to just let my credit card expire and be done with it. However there is a facility that services can use that gets them notified of expired/updated cards so that they can automatically update their information with the new expiry. I don't know the details of it, but I know that emu has used it because:
Well, that *is* interesting. Very recently, I received a new card with a new expiration date and set out to update the relevant auto-pay accounts and there were a couple instances where it was already updated and I figured I had simply forgotten to check it off the list and had accidentally doubled back to one I had already updated... but now I'm thinking they used that service.
So I was sorting through some music I have from emusic years ago, and noticed an incomplete album. Went to emusic thinking I could re-download it. Apparently not, all I get is this:
Is this normal behaviour? I probably have it all on computers at home, but I'm currently at work.
Before I recently ended my subscription, I tried to re-DL as many albums as possible since many were originally downloaded at ridiculously low bitrates. Many (including many from labels long since gone) were available at 320 and some at the original bitrates. That said, the availability seemed totally random. I even had some 2-disc albums where only 1 disc was available. The vast majority of my historical purchases didn't even show up in my lists. Many, many attempts resulted in the "There was a problem ..." messages. That said, I did upgrade 40-50 albums that I still cared about.
I've been able to download some of my lower quality downloads over the last year, but I reckon half to two-thirds i always get the message aas Eythian above. Maybe I'll have another go at doing so when i get time. I do miss the original eMusic, but not what it became before I left two or three years ago
I've noticed the proliferation of digital TV platfors here. We have a Netflix subscription, but it has just gone up, so not sure what to do now. Our main TV deal is through Sky, mainly for sport
I've just been looking at eMusic again. I played an album by Al Kooper last week that was one of my early eMu downloads, and the quality was not as good as I'd like. So i wondered if I could still download albums again. For this particular album the answer was yes, but not for all that I'd like to improve the qualiy - see Stewrat's comment above. But I decided to have an explore to see if it was worth going back to eMusic for a few months. Eventually I decided not to - the best plans were annual, something I don't want to commit to. The best deal for a monthly plan worked out at 40p a track, so typically around say £4 per album. These would be generally 'borderline' purchases to see if I liked the artist or album. I decided I'd stick to Spotify and I'd then buy the albums that I really wanted elsewhere. Most are now available at Bandcamp anyway at higher quality. They are still persisting with Blockchain, not good at the moment in my view.
Comments
Surely that's impossible?? :-P
As someone who left years ago (began, I think, in 2009, so close to ten years), trust me, you get over it. Now when I listen to something I purchased on emusic back in the day, it revives a nostalgic fondness for the 17 Dots past and not the oppressive frustration of its present.
Same as Germanprof when it came to the early days of no or little interest.
Never have had Netflix, but, I too, took advantage of the .99/mth. Hulu.
The idea being that, even tho I watch little of local channels, there's always the
chance of bad weather knocking out or destroying the watching experience
(this is North Texas, so...), and so I will use Hulu for those kinds of "standard" shows.
A couple of years ago, we decided to pay for CBS+ (now, Paramount+) because we
wanted to watch the Star Trek knockoffs (including the cartoon/animated thing).
We went into it with the idea that once we watched those, we would just cancel
the subscription. We did ... and now there's the new seasons available that began,
I think, last fall(?) and we'll sign up again. I don't binge watch tho - 2 hours maximum
is all I can handle 90% of the time.
Music:
I'm pretty devoted to Bandcamp. Yes, there are some extra pretties I'd like to see
made available, but the quality of music and the ease and specials and general
all-around kindness to sellers and diversity of formats and music styles makes it
a real winner for me. Yeah, there are the 1% of places where I want to buy something
special from a label or distributor, but because I have waaaaaay too much physical
stuff as it is now, I'm pretty careful about what I'm buying in that physical form.
The teen analogy that you make is a little like the way I feel when I get, about twice a week,
updates on what was bought by the people I follow on BC. It's wonderful to explore!
For a couple years, I did the MLB tv one-team sub for the Cubs. I'd typically sign up about halfway through the season when the sub price dropped. It was nice to have on in the background or those times where I just felt like watching a game. But the MLB tv connection was often wonky for me, plus their blackout policy is just insane... I'm being told I can't watch Cubs games as a Kentucky resident because a Chicago team is playing a game in (Cincinnati) Ohio. I won't subscribe to that Marque channel. I've seen a couple games on it, and they drown the viewer in advertisements. There were times when the game was in action and they minimized the game view down to a window so they could add a large graphic about Ace Hardware (or something like that). And now that they'll be adding advertisement patches to uniforms/helmets, that'll be even worse. It's unlikely I'll ever get a Cubs sub again... UNLESS they offer a channel where I get to watch the games with no in-game ads, no production graphics, and no announcers- just crowd noise. It would be called something like "Crowd View Game channel." I would pay for that.
Well, that *is* interesting. Very recently, I received a new card with a new expiration date and set out to update the relevant auto-pay accounts and there were a couple instances where it was already updated and I figured I had simply forgotten to check it off the list and had accidentally doubled back to one I had already updated... but now I'm thinking they used that service.
I've noticed the proliferation of digital TV platfors here. We have a Netflix subscription, but it has just gone up, so not sure what to do now. Our main TV deal is through Sky, mainly for sport