I can't believe it's not emusic!

July 10, 2009 8:50 PM

Need a replacement for the now-rubbish Emusic - options bewildering me!

Hello Mefites, I've just cancelled my once-beloved Emusic subscription because their latest shenanigans have upset me so (it's not just the crappiness, it's the way they went about it).

I've been looking at the most similar alternative I can find, places like AudioLunchBox, Bleep, etc. etc. but am finding it very confusing to figure which offers the most emusic-like experience, and depth of the catalogue for a ball-parkish price (little more, little less, don't really care).

The catch? I'm in Australia, so it has to allow international signups (sigh). What does the hive mind recommend?

posted by smoke to shopping (8 comments total)

It definitely has much much less of a catalogue than you're used to (and just independent artists), but Magnatune allows international signups, has no DRM bullshit, and you can even get FLACs of the albums. The pricing/subscription model is way different, though, as far as I know about Emusic's.
posted by Iosephus at 9:02 PM on July 10

I'm with you -- I canceled eMusic because they went from being a cool service to being utterly awful, clearly doing whatever would make their leadership as much money as possible as quickly as possible, and crapping all over their base. There's a reasonably comprehensive thread on Facebook where this topic has been discussed; the major alternatives seem to be:

• Jamendo: Largely music placed online by the artists directly, no DRM
• Magnatune: Covered by another poster; smaller selection, but similar to eMusic
• Amiestreet: Site where songs start out cheap, and rise in cost as they become more popular, all the way up to USD $0.98

posted by ellF at 4:23 AM on July 11

I can't find if it's international or not, and I know nothing of eMusic's user experience (former or current) but I highly recommend Lala.

Lala allows you to fully preview any song at least once before you buy it, and you can buy either a web-only version (only listen to through the lala site) for 10 cents US, or buy the mp3s downloaded to your computer for 89 cents US. You also start off with 25 free credits to use towards web songs, and if you buy a web song and decide you want to download the mp3, they take that 10 cents off the price and you pay 79 cents instead of wasting your original 10 cents.

They've given me no trouble, and in fact have steadily improved their feature set through the year or two I've been with em. It'll even sync with Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter, if you're into that.

Like I said, I couldn't find any info on whether it's international or not. If it's not, sorry for wasting your time, but check it out! It's a free sign up, and you can at least preview full songs before buying them elsewhere if you don't like em.
posted by photomusic86 at 6:15 AM on July 11

I've explored the issue extensively and it is my opinion that there is nothing remotely comparable to eMusic, which is exactly why they will likely get away with essentially doubling their prices while making the transaction model significantly less straightforward (my old rate is prepaid and locked in until next March and I haven't decided yet what I'll do when it expires, I'm checking out the new user experience now and seeing how much impact I think it really has).

Services that have the kind of catalog depth eMusic has charge 80 cents to 1.30 USD for tracks uniformly. Nobody charging less has anywhere near as substantial a catalog. This isn't saying it's not worthwhile to check out alternatives like BLEEP, Audio Lunchbox, nugs.net, Magnatune, Jamendo, Smithsonian Global Sound, CD Baby, Beatport, Epitonic, Boomkat, AmieStreet, PlayPlay.fm, UrbanDigital, Dancetracks Digital, Rogue Amoeba, eBay Digital Music stores, DMusic, 7digital, Deutsche Grammohpone, SNOCAP, Hommega Productions, QuidMusic, indiestore, Lala, Zunior, Crammed Shop...

You get the picture. Some of those may be defunct or on to a different business model by now, but I looked at them all at some point or another and nothing came at all close to eMusic. eMusic succeeded, and so they had the visibility and credibility and resources to sign up a nearly comprehensive roster of indie labels, with a few notable exceptions like SubPop. If you want to eschew eMusic you're going to end up either spending a fair bit more or doing a whole lot more shopping to find things.

Of the more expensive major services Amazon and Rhapsody are both really quite decent to deal with and I frequently do. But you're unlikely to beat the value and one-stop convenience (for independent music) of eMusic even at the new prices.

For what its worth, aside from the price hike, I haven't so far seen the policy changes mentioned in that article you linked have too big of an impact on my experience so far. I understand your objection is as much on principles as on the bottom line, but just for reference, mostly the deal is the same - one song, one "credit" - and the exceptions are predictable - basically, and so far I've only seen it on the Sony stuff - they restrict a la carte downloads of hit songs. For example, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, you can't download just Born to Run - you have to download the full album - and they're charging 12 credits for the album download - Born To Run is an 8 song album. It is stupid and it rubs me the wrong way, but honestly I can accept it. If the uneven pricing and a la carte restrictions start to spread more and infect the indie releases it will become an issue for me. But I have also been seeing a substantial number of albums with more than 12 tracks selling at the new "conventional" album cost of 12 credits. So the changes aren't all anti-subscriber.
posted by nanojath at 1:08 PM on July 11

Ah, but you can accept it because you're in the US, Nanojath.

I don't even get the option to download those albums, and furthermore I can't use Booster Packs any more, so feel that I'm really getting screwed here. In addition I can't even use about 3/4 of the other services you mention, sob!
posted by smoke at 4:53 PM on July 11

Some fair warning, since restrictions were part of the question's point: Lala only works for US residents (both the TOS and the signup rubbed it on my face before kicking me out). Amiestreet seems to be ok, but some albums show up as "not available in region", so beware. I only saw this when peeking around both sites, since I was curious and never heard of them before.
posted by Iosephus at 6:29 PM on July 11

That sucks, smoke, I certainly understand why you canceled your subscription. These region based restrictions are so idiotic, I can't comprehend how they can't be to the detriment of all concerned. It's another wrinkle as I research these things I guess - if I come across anything good that's Australia-accessible I'll drop you a MeMail.
posted by nanojath at 7:43 PM on July 11

(Maybe, given the volume of criticism - the response thread to the CEO's announcement on their blog is crazy, page after page of almost uniformly negative, angry comments - some real competition for the Indie buck will start to take root)
posted by nanojath at 7:48 PM on July 11