EMusic - C/D

The fact it's the one place you can go to get a few important deleted titles (for instance, Peter Laughner's "Take The Guitar Player For A Ride" and the Sleepers' stuff as reissued on tim/kerr) makes it arguably classic.

I mean, "Take The Guitar Player..." is classic. At the very least one should go, sign up for your trial membership, and download the Laughner before cancelling...

i haven't really looked at it since.

also, back in the day (2000, we're talkin') the quality of the MP3s was sort of dodgy. I did get a Nomad for buying $50 worth of music the one time I used it, and that rocked.

Artists getting paid for downloads vs. not. Seems bogus coming from emusic's mouth. What advantage does emusic provide so that I won't just use slsk? Certainly it's the idea that the tracks are "legal," but truthfully I only feel bad using slsk because the artists aren't getting paid. And especially "the artists who produce weird stuff [who] aren't making much money anyway."

it's worth it just for the fact that you can get most of the Rather Interesting back catalogue, and Senor Coconut gets paid a royalty for each track. they've also got great drum and bass comps (reinforced and certificate 18), old daniel wang material, old ken ishii material, experimental audio research, etc.

i have to admit, though, that i just used the free trial to get the stuff above (and the artists still got paid).

i found a few deleted 20th century 'classical' titles that i was unable to buy anywhere on the web anymore and so that was good -- but searching for more similarly unique stuff by the same composers didn't go anywhere (in that case they had a sampling of titles from the clasical label Koch, leaving me wanting more)

so it seemed they had something of everything, but then just something, ie just xyz on label q, just some of the obscure stuff -- admittedly stuff i've not seen available anywhere else -- so not much depth for any given artist, more 'lost tapes from 1975' type stuff -- stuff you might not have known existed

I've downloaded mostly hard-to-find stuff, and stuff where I know the artists aren't getting shit anyway -- ferinstance, I got the entire CCR catalogue, since Saul Zaentz still ownz that shit and John Fogerty's still getting screwed over it. However, the artists who produce weird stuff who aren't getting paid anyway seem to be making a least a little bit here. They would make nothing if I downloaded from Soulseek, checked out from the library, or bought a used compact disc. They're making precious little even when we buy new CDs. I feel no guilt.

- Faster downloads, about 10 - 100 times faster for me.
- Songs are reliably named and tagged.
- Search function doesn't completely suck.
- Yazoo, Ethiopiques, JSP, Riverside, Milestone, etc.

I use Soulseek a lot more, but I'm glad there's both.

Suddenly this morning, I see where EMusic's new arrivals list is just page after page of back catalog from what must be a new label signing, Beggars Banquet & "Beggars Group": 4AD, Too Pure, XL, Mantra, Wijja, etc.

I think I'll start with those Velocette singles...

I think it's best for people who have really broad tastes and like a lot of international musics and blues, country, whatever.

not sure if it'll work, but it might be worth a shot

-- instantaneous access to the extended classical canon in serviceable-to-great recordings due to inclusion of Naxos catalogue;
-- cheap opportunity for upgrading some vinyl stuff I have to digital (eg from 4AD); since I already have the artwork etc I don't feel I'm missing out on much compared to buying CDs;
-- fun of randomly trying something unknown for very little cost.

I'd appreciate a higher-volume account option than the current max of 90 tracks for $20 a month, though (ie EMUSIC CAN YOU HEAR ME I WANT TO GIVE YOU MORE MONEY).

Haha yes that is a bit dim. Talking of classical, this means e.g. that symphonies are usually dirt cheap, opera less so.

Hm maybe one should write a program that scoured the catalogue and found the best bargains from the track lengths... ;)

I started to make a list of the "few" finds that made me happy to be a member, before it became a huge list and I had to void my whole argument.

Not enough downloads, I agree, but I love it.

And SO VERY GLAD they don't pro-rate songs or pieces by length.

! We're sorry. This album is unavailable for download in your country at this time. Please check back later.

These preclude classic status.

google site:emusic.com inurl:album 15..80-0..59-listen

change the 15 to whatever you want the minimum length in minutes to be.

If you burn the albums to CD, you always have a stack of CDs with stuff you haven't heard on it waiting for you!

Heh, I downloaded John Cage's Empty Words (part III) from eMusic - two tracks, 74 minutes each.

They also have some live albums that I haven't seen elsewhere (search for "Schubas" and "Casbah" for starters.)

I wish I could pay more for higher quality, or that the downloads were higher quality; it irks me to know that someday, like with my cassettes and my vinyl and my early CDs, that I'll probably upgrade a lot of what I picked up on eMusic because the bitrate is noticeable.

Nothing personal to Doug or Philip (two writers whose work I admire and like a lot) but I still do not find eMusic to be a community type of place for me where I want to spend time doing anything but downloading. There's a lot of quality writing and some of the lists are really great, but I can't seem to make eMusic a daily stop in my surfing. It's not a destination for me in that sense and I'm not sure why.

Also, the exclusive live stuff is a nice touch and I wish there was more of that (like the exclusive titles that the CIMS gets.)

This was my download strategy:

1. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (all tracks)
I've heard and liked the singles, I've skimmed through the rest at a listening station in some record store. I think it's a really good album, but before buying it I've wanted to spend some time listening to it straight through to be sure I separate my own impressions from the hype that surrounded it. [Conclusion: I'll buy the CD as soon as I can find it used.]

2. [remembering the notion, expressed in this thread, that it's good to download LONG tracks]
Eliane Radigue, Trilogie de la mort -- three hour-long tracks, beautiful drone-y electronic sounds, the smartest decision I made in this whole process

3. [spontaneously deciding to hunt down some individual tracks where I'm not interested in buying the whole album]
Annie - several tracks off Anniemal
Ladytron - several tracks off 604 and Light & Magic
Armand Van Helden - "U Don't Know Me" and "Flowerz"

4. [spontaneously deciding it's about time I finally checked out Derek Bailey]
Derek Bailey - Improvisations (all tracks)

5. [remembering I've been curious about Robert Rich but put off by all the New Age hoo-haw]
Robert Rich - Below Zero (all tracks)
still haven't listened to it

6. [remembering that ever since the recent Imogen Heap thread, I've been trying to find Todd Rundgren's "Pretending to Care," off the mid-80s album _A Capella_]
They don't have it, but they have a cover of it by a band called The Unherd.

That's 50 tracks, and I've unsubscribed. Part of the challenge is that I'm just not a music downloader, so anything I *really* want, I want on CD. The eMusic process was all about remembering things I *sort of* want.

rhaps usually covers my nostalgic needs... you know, when some friend goes, "dude krokus!" i can actually give krokus a listen and leave it at that without spending much more than a few cents i suppose. etc etc. old hip hop records i never bought but have radio taped mixes of, etc etc.

one by one, emusic has steadily brought lot's and lot's of "want list" labels onboard. i never thought i'd see tzadik come, but here they are. or dischord. touch and go! shit, those dudes charge out the wazoo for their records at the store, but here they are! emusic has really become kind of a paradise for back catalog siftings. i keep hoping drag city will come, but they seem pretty stiff on such things. (do they do itunes even? i'm too lazy to fire up itunes right now.)

as far as i'm concerned, services like emusic are saints for kicking DRM to the curb and letting us be honest fans. (for now anyway. legislation always pending in one form or another.)

m.

Certainly far from having everything I want, but I've already downloaded tons of stuff I've been fiending for for a while.

Also great to have for making my wedding mixes.

It sucks for a lot of comedy albums though since they have lots of short tracks. Your monthly 40 song quota can be filled with 2 albums.

It changed today. Universal is gone, warner is gone. Sony still there, though! Maybe they have the best terms. I seem to recall they were the first major emusic got...

All the large indie classical labels I checked for are still there.

Universal is gone

So ironically the new U2 album has been taken down from emusic?

ironically?

Canceled my membership over the weekend. Found an album that got my balance down to zero (Horace Silver's The Cape Verdean Blues, for $4.74) and which is doubtless gone now - Blue Note being part of Universal/EMI.

Oh man- all the Blue Note is gone?! That sucks. At least I grabbed a bunch of the Silvers while they were available. Are they actually adding any new indies or just removing the major labels? My "Saved" list went from about 35 to 10. I may have to consider cancelling if they don't follow through on bringing in new labels to replace the majors.

It still annoys me that you can't carry your balance over from month to month. I have probably lost over $200 in credits because of that.

there is a split (albeit an unauthorized one) of MARS and Furious Pig on emusic!

Merge is now on eMusic in the UK for indie rock fans

How much of that is Furious Pig?

wow, it's still going

Never mind, it's on Spotify, Merge and HMV digital as well!

Anyone else noticed that a lot of new releases have been slow to appear on the site since the change to a Friday release day?

I don't suppose they offer FLAC yet.

No. Recently upgraded to 320kbps MP3 for new additions.

My "Save for Later" list has eroded down to its smallest in 6 years membership (now: ~20 albums). Too many missing indie labels, and I'm more comfortable supporting artists through Bandcamp. Every booster credit sale just hastens my departure.

Bought by yet another company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/business/media/triplay-to-acquire-emusic-a-pioneering-digital-music-service.html?_r=0

i think they finally are letting you carry over your unused account balance? like, as of a few months ago? or am I just imagining things

Good grief.

I'm still hanging in! Independent classical & experimental labels is enough to soak my monthly credits up.

Independent classical & experimental labels is enough to soak my monthly credits up.

Same here, but I tend to do things like not feel like "buying" anything for a month and a half, and then wanting to get a bunch of stuff, and end up getting booster packs, and resenting the fact that the credits didn't carry over.

I buy boosters whenever there's a sale on them

The intention to "roll eMusic into the MyMusicCloud service" doesn't sound initially too promising for my continued membership, but shall wait and see.

http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/emusic-acquired-by-cloud-computing-firm-triplay/063193

i think they finally are letting you carry over your unused account balance? like, as of a few months ago? or am I just imagining things

This has not been the case with my account

I'm not sure what "roll eMusic into the MyMusicCloud service" means, but I'm hoping it means that basically nothing changes, except that if you want to, you can stream your purchases through the cloud (in addition to just playing the MP3s you still get to keep).

That is my hope. I'm just a pessimist who expects something different to happen.

Yeah... No files that come live on my computer forever, no deal.

Streaming is live and works flawlessly; redownloads are coming. There's a 2x booster pack sale on right now.

I should probably test it out again right before saying that -- there's some server problems today.

do you work there? just curious

no, just a long time member

There have been a lot of billing issues as they've tried to upgrade that side of their systems after the takeover. Having said that the streaming has worked perfectly on the couple of occasions I've tried it and from what I can see the new owner is taking customer support and site functionality more seriously than their predecessors.

it would be great if it didn't keep automatically downloading the installer exe file every time i buy something

anyone still using eMusic?
they've just redesigned the website and seem to have changed business model as well but I still have a 10year-old subscription that allows me download a certain amount of mp3's for a couple of bucks every month. So they still do that too for the moment.
But their catalogue is terrible. Loads of labels are simply not involved, I get that. But even for the labels that are on the site you just have to wait if a particular release will show up. Just some examples: new Sorority Noise album. Every other release on the label is on there and even some recent SN singles but not the album (actually, it wás at some point but now it disappeared again). Also: Toitoitoi. On Ghost Box. Label is available on the site. Record is out. It's on Spotify and 7Digital. But not on eMusic.
This is not new buy the way. I've got a folder in gmail of me e-mailing labels asking when a particular record will be on eMusic and them answering back, hm, it should be on there, let me check with the distributor.
The last few years I've been finding it harder and harder to spend my credits each month.

i'm still using it. It's always been great for classical music and continues to be. I don't get much rock/pop stuff there anymore though it continues to be my way of buying new Robyn Hitchcock and Fall releases (though yes the last Fall one took a looong time to show up on eMu. Between new releases on classical and film score labels and archival/reissue electronic and kraut/kosmische type stuff I don't have a problem using up my 24 bucks a month.

I'm not clear yet on how the new model is different other than the site redesign.

I'm amazed that emusic still exists. Used to love them. It's like finding out that there's a big market for 78s. In all seriousness, I got an astounding amount of great music from this service. A billion years ago.

I was over the moon in 2002 when eMusic began hosting all the old Daniel Johnston tapes, just weeks after me getting into him and thinking I'd have to order all these import cassettes

My wishlist slowly shrinked with all the dropped labels until I gave up on my grandfathered (+bonus credits) account in 2015. Feel better about supporting artists through bandcamp, too.

I'm amazed that emusic still exists. Used to love them. It's like finding out that there's a big market for 78s. In all seriousness, I got an astounding amount of great music from this service. A billion years ago.

― dlp9001, Friday, May 12, 2017 1:49 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ooh owned

It's clear that they've been barely keeping the site ticking over since they decided to switch their backend to 7digital and putting all their effort into the new site.
It looked from the beta test that a lot of content that should have been on the site for months (new releases from Sub Pop as one example) would appear after the switch over.
Then the launch happened and labels like Sub Pop, Warp, Bella Union suddenly have no or very little in the catalogue. There's been no real explanation as to why this stuff hasn't appeared in the new live site but also no fanfare of new and returning labels. As a UK user it's very nice to see nearly 400 records turn up from Domino after years away.
There are a lot of disgruntled older users out there and I don't really see why anyone new would want to join up but I'm hopeful that once they sort their content issues out it will continue to be more than worth the money I pay for it.

I've been a member since 2008. I've come close to cancelling a few times, what with the constant turnover in labels, sometimes it takes a while to find things you want. I just went there today and saw they've completely redone the site and it looks like half my wishlist has vanished - victims of label turnover I guess. It was great when you could get Blue Note jazz records from the '60s and major-label stuff. I almost cancelled after that disappeared, but then I found enough independent-label metal to keep me going. Now, I get most of that from Bandcamp, which has much better selection, so I'm not sure if I'll stick with eMusic much longer.

Looks like they've added a bunch of avant-jazz labels: HatHut, ESP, Tzadik. I may have to start listening to that kind of stuff again.

Anyone want to help me with some Tzadik recommendations? I basically stopped paying attention around 2000.

Every time I see this thread bumped I expect a link to a news article saying they've finally folded.

hmm, I've been disappointed by recent Tzadik albums I've tried. Anything written by or featuring Zorn in the last 15 years seems to be an aimless mess.

I like these from after 2000:

Kayo Dot, Choirs of the Eye, 2003
Wadada Leo Smith, Lake Biwa, 2004
the Scott Johnson reissue, John Somebody
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Mayim Rabim, 2006

I don't have any interest in the no-wave improvisational klezmer punk side of the label, but I have dipped into their New Music offerings. IIRC, I liked:

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters, Sound Characters vol. 2
Alvin Curran - Animal Behavior, Theme Park, Lost Marbles, Shofar Rags
Arnold Dreyblatt - Animal Magnetism, Who's Who In Central & East Europe 1933
Annie Gosfield - Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires, Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites, Almost Truths And Open Deceptions
Lukas Ligeti - Mystery System, Afrikan Machinery
Lois Vierk - River Beneath the River
The Cracow Klezmer Band - Balan: Book of Angels Vol.5, Remembrance

The latter group could be described as Penderecki does klezmer, and may get me into the genre yet.

last month I got every single Haydn Symphony from here for like $6.99 ...

The Morton Feldman Patterns in a Chromatic Field on tzadik is fantastic.

Also, emusic has reverted to certain albums which are one long track being priced super cheap. I just got two Feldman chamber music albums on Bridge Records for like a buck each.

Now chasing the cryptocurrency craze.