EMusic - Part II

Lois Gilbert · June-10th-2009, 03:16 AM

How many of you have let your subscriptions go this past year?

How many of you subscribed because this kind of thread?

Tom Storer · June-10th-2009, 05:04 AM

I have no plans to unsubscribe. Don't remember how I learned about eMusic, but it several years ago.

Vince Kargatis · June-10th-2009, 07:40 AM

I'm grandfathered till Aug 2010, and intend to continue subscribing afterwards, but I don't know at what level. I think the JC thread may have helped influence my joining 3 years ago, in terms of seeing interesting records mentioned, but don't recall my decision exactly.

lonely-at-the-top · June-10th-2009, 08:24 AM

I am a convinced "non-subscriber" and will continue my "not downloading" policy throughout the course of this year and probably until there will be a possibility to download cd covers, liner-notes, that sort of thing, you know, to play with

I'm afraid I am a bit ol'fashioned....
...and I was not even in the target group of these questions

claude · June-10th-2009, 12:34 PM

I'm still grandfathered under the 90 dls a month plan. I believe mine expires in the fall of 2010. I wasn't aware of emusic until I saw it mentioned on this site a few years back. I will most likely be renewing in 2010, but we'll see what the lay of the land is at that time.

Pete C · June-10th-2009, 05:19 PM

I realize a bunch of things I've downloaded from Emusic were based on music I was first exposed to on Pandora--this month Graham Collier and Happy Apple, previously Johnny Adams, among others.

Gary Sisco · June-10th-2009, 06:36 PM

I'm pretty sure I first heard of emusic here at JC.

Vince Kargatis · June-10th-2009, 07:02 PM

Aided by some cheap ebay code purchases, all or some of the following (excuse some random uncorrected years):

Pop/Rock
Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (2009)
Anathallo - Canopy Glow (2008)
Jukebox The Ghost - Let Live and Let Ghosts (2008)
Little Dragon - Little Dragon (2007)
Passion Pit - Manners (2009)
The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide In Black (2001)
The Reputation - The Reputation (2002)

Jazz
Andrew Hill - Nefertiti (2007)
Art Farmer - Blame It on My Youth (1988)
Bob Florence Limited Edition - With All the Bells and Whistles (1995)
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Infernal Machines (2009)
David Binney - South (2003)
Lucky Thompson - Lucky Thompson : 1944-1947 (1946)
Muggsy Spanier - Muggsy Spanier: 1944 (1997)
Paul Motian - The Story Of Maryam (1984)
Sound Assembly - Edge Of The Mind (2008)
Teddy Charles - Collaboration: West (1952)

Classical
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra - Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 93-104 - The London Symphonies - The (2007)
Malcolm Arnold - ARNOLD: Symphonies Nos 5 and 6 ()
Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5/Fantasia On A Theme By Thom ()

Ethnic
Gambang Kromong Irama Bersatu - Music of Indonesia, Vol. 3: Music from the Outskirts of Jaka (1991)
Grupo Cimarron and Various Artists - Si, soy llanero: Joropo Music from the Orinoco Plains of Co (2004)
Hari Prasad Chaurasia - Raga Darbari Kannada (1993)
Jose Gutierrez & Los Hermanos Ochoa - La Bamba: Sones Jarochos from Veracruz ()
Khamis El Fino Ali - Arabic Songs and Dances (1974)
Lakshmi Shankar - Divine Love (2006)
Ustad Bismillah Khan, V.G. Jog - The Shehnai's Humble Master (2007)
Vadya Lahari - Vadya Lahari - South Indian Ensemble (1992)

Experimental
Mountains - Mountains (2007)
Pierre-yves Mac.. - Passagenweg (2009)

BFrank · June-10th-2009, 08:50 PM

I plan to continue. My sub doesn't expire until January, so I've got time to think about it.

It's still cheaper than any of the other major DL sites and has an infinitely interesting catalog. I'm not happy that the rates are doubling, but I understand it. Bottom line is that it's a business - and businesses always need to improve the bottom line.

Pete C · June-10th-2009, 08:57 PM

BFrank, you're a capitalist tool.

BFrank · June-10th-2009, 09:40 PM

Can't fight the MAN.

Pete C · June-22nd-2009, 08:29 PM

They recently picked up Alligator Records. No Hound Dog Taylor yet, hope some will show up soon.

Tom Storer · July-1st-2009, 10:34 AM

On Friday I'll be good to go for my July downloads. Here's what I'm planning:

J.D. Allen, Shine!
John Hebert, Byzantine Monkey
The Fully Celebrated, Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones
Andy Milne / Benoit Delbecq, Where is Pannonica?

I came across the one by The Fully Celebrated while browsing though new things this month--a Boston band featuring an alto saxophonist named Jim Hobbs and often (although not on this release) the eminent young Braxtonian Taylor Ho Bynum. Never heard of them before, except for Bynum. I found some audio samples on the web and was favorably impressed. Any fans?

bigtiny · July-1st-2009, 10:44 AM

I subscribed for about 6 months and let it lapse, then just reupped last week and wondered why I let my subscription lapse in the first place.

bigtiny

bigtiny · July-1st-2009, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

On Friday I'll be good to go for my July downloads. Here's what I'm planning:

J.D. Allen, Shine!
John Hebert, Byzantine Monkey
The Fully Celebrated, Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones
Andy Milne / Benoit Delbecq, Where is Pannonica?

I came across the one by The Fully Celebrated while browsing though new things this month--a Boston band featuring an alto saxophonist named Jim Hobbs and often (although not on this release) the eminent young Braxtonian Taylor Ho Bynum. Never heard of them before, except for Bynum. I found some audio samples on the web and was favorably impressed. Any fans?

I know those guys and I can tell you they kick ass! Hobbs is one of the most underrated, unknown monsters out there, and the rest of them shine too.

bigtiny

Vince Kargatis · July-1st-2009, 11:21 AM

Big big emusic changes today.
- Sony dropped
- album pricing has been insitituted, both positive and negative. But for jazz customers, mostly negative - many albums with long tracks are now 12 credits for the album. So with new pricing, it's often the case that the minimum album price is now ~$5. Black Saint/Soul Note are big subscribers to this new pricing.

These changes are going to wildly ramp up selectivity, I think.

Tom Storer · July-1st-2009, 11:32 AM

Nothing about this so far on eMusic Europe. Mind you, they never mentioned SONY or price changes to begin with.

Does album pricing apply to all albums? When you think about it, it's fair, but only to the extent that albums have a similar playing time, since that seems to be the only material criterion that makes sense. Why should an hour-long album with two tracks cost 1/6th the price of an hour-long album with 12 tracks?

On the other hand, why should an album that's 40 minutes long cost the same as an album that's 70 minutes long?

Vince Kargatis · July-1st-2009, 11:35 AM

Changes are mostly US-only, yes. "Fairness"-wise, yes, mostly it's fine (except for some obvious blunders being posted to the emu boards). But bargain-hunting will increase greatly, I think, and it'll be interesting to hear how participating labels fare revenue-wise down the line.

Pete C · July-1st-2009, 11:43 AM

Of course the new pricing is fairer to the labels and maybe the artists (if they see any money at all), but that won't stop me from canceling.

Any idea why Sony fell through?

Pete C · July-1st-2009, 11:47 AM

Charging based on playing time might be an interesting model--say a dime a minute as a base point with discounts from there similar to how discounts are currently applied to larger or longer commitments. That would put the maximum album price at $8 without further discounting.

Vince Kargatis · July-1st-2009, 01:18 PM

Pete, 'Sony dropped' was lingo for the albums 'dropping' into the catalog. ~11,000 of them or so.

jazzfiend · July-1st-2009, 02:22 PM

My read was also that Sony had been dropped from the catalog, and I was starting to celebrate. Damn!

Vince Kargatis · July-1st-2009, 02:34 PM

Sorry, it's just jargon regularly used on the emu messageboards, since new catalog ingest is often a point of announcement/discussion.

emusic is effectively a very different place now, much closer in price-structure feel to iTunes Music Store. I do agree that album pricing makes things "fairer" overall (though there are lots of oddities initially), but for jazz and classical folks, it's a double price-increase whammy because track prices increase and album prices increase at the same time (due to longer average track lengths). I can see lots of downloads of those with catholic tastes diverted to labels not participating in album pricing.

jazzfiend · July-1st-2009, 02:41 PM

Indeed! I reckon I'll be tightening my purse strings here shortly.

Tom Storer · July-2nd-2009, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vince Kargatis

I can see lots of downloads of those with catholic tastes diverted to labels not participating in album pricing.

So not all labels participate in album pricing? I would guess that labels whose artists tend to have shorter, hence more, tracks would choose not to participate while those with longer, hence fewer tracks, would. So there might not be many bargains to be had once the labels get their act together.

I take it the album pricing is per disc rather than per release? For example, a three-CD release will count as three albums?

I'm assuming eMusic Europe will get on board with this new system sooner rather than later, so I might as well start figuring it out beforehand...