strategies for exodus

edited June 2009 in General
prolly not a bad idea to start backing up your emusic library. re-dl'ing the whole thing is a pain but might be the most direct.

sfl will probably be a pointless exercise moving forward.

Comments

  • I'm extraordinarily pissed off about this whole affair, and I'm not even affected (yet). So I can only imagine how you guys must feel.
  • It feels like an end an era for me.

    Maybe a good thing in a way, since I've been acquiring music at such a pace, I have not had nearly enough time to listen to most of it. I downloaded about 400 ablums worth of Chandos/BIS during the Circuit City cheap download card melee last year, so I have enough just in classical alone to last me several years.

    I'll probably quit 2 of the 3 memberships I have, and use the one for a few months to see if it's worth sticking around.
  • I feel bereft. I know its silly to be that attached to an online business but ... I am sad. Particularly, as I get the price rise, but don't even get the major label stuff (as far as we know, they are not exactly being forthcoming with the nitty gritty.)

    Swindleee etc etc
  • I miss Mixtaper.


    woof.
  • edited June 2009
    Hi all,
    Agree wholeheartedly with everything said so far.
    It just feels like...
    ...betrayal....
    or something equally melodramatic and stupid.
    Somehow even more than all the previous shit they've pulled.

    My annual plan finishes in December and unless something dramatic happens I can't see myself renewing.
    Even if they don't shaft us 'Grandfathers' in the UK as they have done in the US - like that's EVER going to happen!

    I'll maybe look into keeping the minimal plan going, just so I can keep the option of dipping in and out with boosters now and then.
    But honestly, I think I'd feel cleaner just walking away.
    Maybe do the old 'sign-up, get some freebies, then quit' thing a few times until I run out of credit cards to play with.
    Just out of spite.

    To appropriate a line from one of my recent TV 'guilty pleasures', Greek...

    Douche move, eMusic.
    Douche move.

    And to add to today's black mood, my local shop has finally run out of old supplies of Stella Artois, so I'm now drinking the new 'improved' weaker version for the same price...
    ...sigh...
  • hi folks...not to worry - we have each other and that is infinitely more of value than sony's catalog at any price. it may take a bit of time to settle in but every board has its merits to match its limits - we'll find them.

    we'll need more than "what done us wrong" to keep the chins up - i imagine xtrev can allocate a bit of space for a continuation and i believe timmason would join us in time. thoughts?

    68
  • I've decided to redirect some of the money I would have spent on renewing my biannual emusic subscription. First, I just bought an annual subscription to napster.com for $60.00. Before signing up, I checked that it supported multiple major labels, Naxos, and at least some independent labels. I've decided to focus more of my time on actually listening to music instead of searching for music to download. I'm also thinking about getting some boxed sets of classical music. I already have Brilliant's boxed set of Mozart's complete works, and I'm interested in getting the Bach and Haydn sets. I'll wait awhile on those, but given emusic's new prices, they have become much more attractive. I currently have an annual subscription to Audio Lunchbox. It has been bothersome to use, and with the ability to stream music from napster, it may become less essential to me. I'll decide whether to renew my Audio Lunchbox subscription when the time comes. I'm going to continue using Amie Street, and I've recently begun to use jamendo.com. When my biannual emusic subscription ends, I expect I will suspend or cancel my account, and with the alternatives I've mentioned, I might not miss it much. I may continue to spend time here as an emusic ex pat.
  • My plan ends early July. I know I won't be signing up for a yearly plan, but I may try the monthly at 35 for a month or so--just to keep my toes in the water until I realize what I now suspect: that eMu is heading straight down the toilet.

    Amie St. is great if you can get the good deals. There are 50% off sales now and then. That's when I perk up and put some more money in my account. Being on the West Coast makes it difficult to get the Tuesday morning new releases for free or for pennies, but there are still some very good deals there.

    I'll also look into what Lala has to offer. Currently the new Dirty Projectors is $3.99 through Lala.

    I'm considering trying Napster or Rhapsody. Does anyone have a strong feeling about one or the other? I definitely want a plan that not only allows me to stream, but to store the music on my iPod while I'm a subscriber.

    Haven't heard of jamendo.com.

    Amazon has daily good deals. I've picked up B.B. King, Bernstein conducting Gershwin, and others for only $1.99 an album.
  • I wrote an email to eMusic asking for any easy way to download the entire download collection. Would encourage anyone with a large collection to do the same. I calculated the time it would take to click on everything and it was about 36 hours.
  • let us know response to above, ml

    !!!
  • I think I might altogether quit eMu if I can get powerpiglet's podcast link to get the daily downloads.

    I've had a Napster account in the past. their software really annoys me, but perhaps it's changed in the several years since I deleted it from my PC. It is now also compatible with iPods, and wasn't back then.

    Rhapsody, I've never used their DL software, just purchased files that came in a zip. Doesn't look like Rhapsody to Go works with iPods.
  • I've been listening to a lot of music on Lala. Not purchasing, just listening to albums for free. You can listen to each album once. Of course, that doesn't work with an Ipod...
  • Napster to Go is still not compatible with iPods, and that's the main reason I would sign up for Napster.
  • Napster isn't? Their site says it is. Or did I misread, and it's just the purchased tracks, not To-Go?
  • edited June 2009
    Nereffid, you whiny petty-ass child, can I get your guide from here? Huh? Huh?

    OK, I hope you know that was a joke about the whiny. You put a lot of time into it all, and eMu didn't even email you about the changes.
    sigh.

    Bklynd is right, it's dangerous to invest too much time into one site. See, I've already gone through that, so I know why you deleted your stuff and I know it wasn't petty. I'm glad you feel free from it. So many sites of 'mine' went down in the dot-com crash, I've never looked at the internet the same.
  • edited June 2009
    I think that Napster downloads work with iPods, but not the Napster To-Go plan (where you pay $14.95 a month to be able to store what you like from the Napster catalog on your .mp3 player). Apparently iPods and Zunes are not compatible devices with Napster To-Go.

    I just double-checked, and this is what I see:

    "Napster To Go ($14.95 a month) - 7-Day Free Trial (Not iPod® compatible & PC ONLY software required) Access to unlimited on-demand streaming plus transfer all you want to a compatible device or mobile phone."
  • All the to Go music plans rely on DRM.

    Most of them are WMA files and you need a compatible player, i.e., one that is certified with the PlaysForSure technology. Zunes are even more restricted, and only works with Microsoft's own Zunepass site.


    The only to go service that would work on an iPod would be one that uses Apple's own DRM. I don't know if such a service exists.
  • captwhiffle, kudos to you on finding that. I could not view any of their plans without signing up. The EULA mentiond compatible devices for Napster to Go, but didn't list them.
  • piffffffff. let me just say that backing up your dl's from emu inventory is time-staggerily challenging.

    a good way to determine "your need to back-up": go thru the "the's" and download them all - since bandnames cut across the alphabet you can get a decent perspective on how much of your history is zeroed out. about 1/3 of mine was obsolete - fortunately i have about 5 major back-up events to restore what isn't there now.

    if you're "0" dl's exceed 10%, backup.
  • I'm glad this site has come back to life, even if the circumstances for it are so unfortunate.

    I really should back up my emu DL's, as oer the years some have gone or been “upgraded.”

    My plan is good until next March, so I will have plenty of time to see what happens with the Sony and hopefully more indie labels come (back) to emusic.
  • My exodus is going to be a LOT sooner. I thought I'd happily stay on the eMu lite plan and continue to get the daily downloads.
    This album-only crap is the last nail in the coffin. If I MUST have one of those one-hit wonder songs, I sure as hell won't buy it from eMu; I'll get it from Amazon, like any other sane person.
    Actually if it's a one-hit wonder, my local library has it.


    Anyway.

    if you're "0" dl's exceed 10%, backup.
    Can you please explain how you came to this reasoning? I have my stuff backed up already. Why would I want to take the time to go through My Downloads and get everything again?
    As you've said, it's taking forever since there isn't a DL album button. And that stupid DL manager loses tracks if I click too fast.
    Why are you DLing everything again, if you have backups?
  • Sometimes I re-download everything just to screw with 'em...

    I can't say for sure that I'll be exited as soon as my account is up for renewal in February, because there's still a lot time for them to fix things. But I seriously doubt I'll be around at all after then.
  • well, backups are going to have their flaws - like really old back-ups may have a buttload of 128 stuff. subsequent back-ups are going to have labels which have come and gone...i look at a final dl as a final x against any lingering 128 and to combat the fact i've dl'd off three different pc's during my reign of terror.

    your case may be alot more straightforward than mine...

    higher prices: many shapes and many sizes, you'll be happy!

    ---------------------
    the magic wanderer
  • edited July 2009
    My exodus is going to be a LOT sooner. I thought I'd happily stay on the eMu lite plan and continue to get the daily downloads.
    This album-only crap is the last nail in the coffin. If I MUST have one of those one-hit wonder songs, I sure as hell won't buy it from eMu; I'll get it from Amazon, like any other sane person.

    Agreed. I was going to stick around for the boosters in August, but with the "album-only" crap, I'm gone as of today. (With my last 18 "credits," I bought the Spoon EP, some tracks from a Belle & Sebastian EP, and Sly & the Family Stone's greatest hits.)
  • Any point in reviving this thread?

    Just askin'.


    Woof!
  • Could be, could be.
    Rhapsody is changing stuff, too. I got an email - if anythign has been download using hteir weird DL mgr, the email said to back it up becuase online licensing is oging away. Or something. I never used their DL software - I just got the zip.
  • with the price change, buying directly from cd baby makes more since for me; also, i'm finding that i can get just about anything I want at Amazon's restaurant
  • Exceptin' Alice.
  • i recently went 30+ years without a christmas card between me and an old friend. then, we bumped into each other and shared some of life's ups and downs. having reconnected - really connecting for the first time - it all lead to me starting a story...its been somewhat of a gift for her and even greater returns for me.

    now, this emusic business...i recently took two months off. the intent was to come back and work my way through the holiday season as each year i make a christmas mix to pass out to friends and family...mia makes something 1000x cooler, but i contribute how i can.

    returning to this gibberish...emusic is so far removed from what its roots are/were i'd be lying to myself if i just kept plugging along under the false belief. i don't want to have to research np's to actually dl them...that process is the exact opposite of how i dig the music experience.

    why? because researching music is usually "i heard it on the radio"...and radio has always been the big labels' pet. 18 months into subscribing to sirius xm there's a huge swing back to "cycling" radio ready hits...big labels' radio ready hits. i can't stand to be spoon-fed.

    so, i have 30 np's to kill b4 10/25. then another 30 appear which i'll kill asap. then i'm done.
    and i see no need to reconnect.
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