EMusic - C/D

("You've got your dick on backwards"????)

The holes and treasures in their collection reproduce the act of searching through a giagatic used record store better than anything else online. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I lived accross the street from Jerry's Records. My eMusic subscription feels like wandering over there- I don't know what I'm going to pick up, but I'm probably going to learn about something I never heard of before.

FYI "You've got your dick on backwards" is a parody of the Sonics "you've got your head on backwards." which kinda paved the way for our upcoming "blowfly's punk rock party" (due in september) though when we cut "...backwards" we never imagined doing a whole record like that.

as far as hip hop on emusic -- all the rhymesayers stuff is on there, as is most of the def jux stuff and the coup via epitaph. obviously, there aren't many major label artists on emusic - so the hip hop is kinda sparse.

i dled about 100 mp3s over the past two months - the majority were 192, though a few were VBR that averaged around that. i think some of the indian soundtrack stuff was 160.

http://www.emusic.com/help/technical.html#q11

It's unlikely you will hear any difference from the cd version.

The business model probably works fine for labels like Folkways where you're largely dealing with reissues of old stuff, much of it by dead artists or people who don't expect to see much money anyway. Some of their releases are probably going to sell 10x as much on emusic as they would on something like iTunes.

[eMusic's]entire approach to labels is this idea of "found" money. As if you'd just be leaving it on the street if you didn't sign on. But the reality is that between iTunes and the ever growing crop of indie niche digital sites (Other Music, Boomkat, Juno, etc, with Wax Poetics and Turntable Lab following), you do have options. Good options really. The kind of options that pay you a respectable percentage of the sale. eMusic is finding out the hard way that their business model is again broke, as more and more labels are deciding pull out. They aren't the only game in town anymore, and Darwinian law still prevails:
Adapt or perish.

I read a very interesting article about China, where piracy is quite rampant. They were saying that musicians there pretty much have come to accept that selling the music itself is a no-profit option. They do try, of course, but at the same time, they recognize that the true profit to be had is in a) live sales aka concerts b) related concert items like t-shirts etc. and c) building a brand name e.g. commercial endorsements, spin-off media etc. So basically, the actual music track is a freebie that you use to build your fanbase so you can sell them other stuff, be it more merchandise (books, magazines) or some sort of 'experience' (concerts, shows etc.) Interesting business model, I think.

In my opinion, the problem is that we are really, in this day and age, in a customer-driven market. Those who want to survive and profit have to cater to the customer. If the customer does not want to spend 99 cents a track, they will not and you won't sell to them unless you offer something else they do want, at a price they want. It doesn't mean they are wrong and you are right, or they are evil and you must punish them or legislate them into doing what you want. It means that if you want their money, you have to sell them what they want at a price they want.

An analogy I often use with the students I teach, when we talk about it is this: let's say you are a bakery and you are known for your carrot muffins. You open your new store and you find that everyone there wants to buy chovolate chip muffins. You have two options. 1) Spend allt his time, money and effort trying to convince them that they need to be buying carrot muffins instead or b) spend that same time and money investing in the infrastructure that will allow you to make chocolate chip muffins. Sell them these and rake in the dough. The meainstream music industry is clinging to an outmoded business model. If they want to keep having profits, they need to get with the times.

We don't live in China where people will work hard for nothing, so that analogy is pointless.

Florida apparently just passed a law that severely hampers the buying and selling of used CDs. The law states that stores have to wait 30 days before reselling the CDs. (via BB, via AT)

“No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a Florida apparently just passed a law that severely hampers the buying and selling of used CDs. The law states that stores have to wait 30 days before reselling the CDs. (via BB, via AT)

“No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a $10,000 bond for the ‘right’ to treat their customers like criminals.”

This would pretty much suck. Except for a few choice new releases, the used bin at my work is pretty much the only way I buy albums any more.0,000 bond for the ‘right’ to treat their customers like criminals.”

This would pretty much suck. Except for a few choice new releases, the used bin at my work is pretty much the only way I buy albums any more.