arstechnica.com— Some indie labels are dissatisfied with the low price per track that eMusic offers, but CEO David Pakman is unapologetic: low prices lead to higher profits, he claims.
May 8, 2007View in Crawl 4
There's something to be said for the amount of listeners they're gaining because of the low prices. Lots of people probably use eMusic as an alternative to simply downloading the album illegally. It's a lot easier to justify downloading an album legally when it runs ~$3-$4 for a high-quality DRM-free download. For some, it's nothing more than a convenience fee. Not to mention how hard it can be to find some indie albums in record stores...
But the price increase was only for new customers. All old customers were told about the upcoming price change and to get on the pricing tier they wanted before the change and they would be grandfathered in at that level.
I'm a definite fanboy of emusic. I signed up when it was the ONLY place I could find a few avant guard jazz records. I was totally hooked. Their collection of jazz is very interesting and pretty deep (and they just added a bunch of David Murray albums), and the sound quality if find to be much better than the DRM itunes tracks.Without emusic, my investment in music likely would have been less than 50% of what it was last year. To the labels that are leaving: bye. I might purchase your albums when you come back, but you likely won't see a dime from me while you're not on emusic. I do see a reason for holding new releases out for a month or so to get money from higher-margin stores, but staying out altogether is pointless.
I've had an account with them for nearly a year now, and have been really happy with the experience so far. I've found loads of music from artists I already liked, and even more from artists I should have been listening to for years.
@PhilluminatiYour spelling is atrocious. It underlines the s**t you misspell for you and you still put hurd instead of heard. What are you, an 8 year-old?
sevenflowMay 9, 2007
There's something to be said for the amount of listeners they're gaining because of the low prices. Lots of people probably use eMusic as an alternative to simply downloading the album illegally. It's a lot easier to justify downloading an album legally when it runs ~$3-$4 for a high-quality DRM-free download. For some, it's nothing more than a convenience fee. Not to mention how hard it can be to find some indie albums in record stores...
redingtonMay 9, 2007
But the price increase was only for new customers. All old customers were told about the upcoming price change and to get on the pricing tier they wanted before the change and they would be grandfathered in at that level.
redingtonMay 9, 2007
I'm a definite fanboy of emusic. I signed up when it was the ONLY place I could find a few avant guard jazz records. I was totally hooked. Their collection of jazz is very interesting and pretty deep (and they just added a bunch of David Murray albums), and the sound quality if find to be much better than the DRM itunes tracks.Without emusic, my investment in music likely would have been less than 50% of what it was last year. To the labels that are leaving: bye. I might purchase your albums when you come back, but you likely won't see a dime from me while you're not on emusic. I do see a reason for holding new releases out for a month or so to get money from higher-margin stores, but staying out altogether is pointless.
hqasMay 9, 2007
I've had an account with them for nearly a year now, and have been really happy with the experience so far. I've found loads of music from artists I already liked, and even more from artists I should have been listening to for years.
dangermouse9May 9, 2007
@PhilluminatiYour spelling is atrocious. It underlines the s**t you misspell for you and you still put hurd instead of heard. What are you, an 8 year-old?