Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

I agree completely, and them touting cheaper "a la carte" pricing (compared to iTunes and Amazon) while not giving you the option of "a la carte" downloading (since they still require a subscription) is downright idiotic.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Right. I was weighing the pros and cons in my mind and then I got to the part stating you'd still LOSE your unused "dollars" at the end of each month. So if I'm going to pay dollars, why not just pay Amazon? Uh no. If I'm going to give anyone cash and they are going to treat it like cash and not credits, then I shouldn't lose it.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

What!? Ok, I missed that part. I'm done after this month.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Luckily I cancelled my last membership about a month ago. Until that time I was getting a "Come Back!" offer about every four months.

I liked the credit system, although I wish there was a way to browse by album credit cost (I had 8 credits left, and I don't like singles, I wanted a full album -finally found a Swans album for 8 credits.)
If I'm paying actual money, I'll just buy with no contract/agreement. Or I'll just buy directly from the band.

On topic, my last two discoveries on Emusic were the Tiger Lillies and Emilie Autumn.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Right. The beauty of emusic was that you paid a subscription fee and got credits that were worth more than you could buy those albums for elsewhere. So you'd download an album a month and use the rest to discover new stuff (or revisit old stuff).

Now, if they are going to boast that they will be a currency model and be "less than iTunes" why am I paying a monthly subscription fee again? I'll just buy the one album a month from Amazon and do less discovery and end up saving money.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

And "credits" were like betting chips - not "real money". "This looks good, it's only ten credits, I've got 50, what the hey". Probably relatively few people would do the math to see how much they were actually paying per album - now it's right up front - you're paying 8 bucks for this album you've never heard before. Yes, it's still cheaper than buying a CD, but it moves it back into the realm of real money.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Funny, I just took a cursory glance at my download history and it looks like over half of the artists I downloaded from on emusic were new to me. Now they weren't all winners, but I have found a handful of great new bands through the site.

Knowing that each credit was worth just over $0.41 on my account, I was paying about $5 per 12-track album. That same album would have cost $8-10 on Amazon so I would have been much less likely to just take a chance on it. Even though emusic might still be a little cheaper, I'd be taking far fewer risks on new music.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Q: After this change, will I be able to download the same amount of music as before?

A: Yes, you will be able to download the same amount if not more music as before, depending upon your plan. Some members will see a bonus amount added to their account in order to insure they can still download the same numbers of tracks as they can today with their current plan.

I don't see the problem. Same monthly fee, same amount of music.

And while I'll lose any unused dollars that's really no different than loosing the unused credits with the old system.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Why pay a subscription for the "privilege" to download music at the same rate as Amazon.com? Their editorial content? eMusic has continually raised prices to where it has become completely irrelevant.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

I only join eMusic when they throw 75 free songs at me, making it a total of 100 for around $10.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

For those of you who still have credits left and/or still haven't cancelled, there are some nice deals as part of the "Celebrate 25 Years of Nettwerk" sale:

http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/n...ale/index.html

I already own a number of them (Ivy, The Be Good Tanyas, The Submarines, Ladytron, fun.), but I grabbed both of The Weepies albums with my final batch of credits.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Same here, although I did stick around a couple of months when they gave me a "don't cancel, here's more free credits" deals. The newest deal I've gotten since the changeover is $12.00 in free credit, which amounts to around 2 albums.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

I was going to cancel the other day and they threw a whole free month at me. I'm not gonna turn down $30 in free music. Apparently if I were to stick around, I'd also get $6 in "bonus" credit each month (the bonus credit varies depending on what plan you were on at the changeover). I'll still probably cancel after my "free" month though.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

I'm stuck with emusic for 9 more months as I've got an annual account that renewed a month before they announced these new changes. So far I'm hating almost everything about the latest "improvements".

Non-standard pricing per song now makes it much harder to plan ahead on what to get each month. If I had 17 credits left, I knew I could get a 12 credit album and find an interesting 5 track EP to finish out the month. Now if I've got, say, $2.50 left I can still search for a 5 track EP- but when I find something there the price could be the expected $2.50 or it could be $3.69 or $4.74 or $5.99 seemingly at random.

Then you need to get your account down to under $0.49 for it to carry over to the next month. Anything more will be lost when the account refreshes if you don't use it. And even though the mp3s now appear to cost "real money" you still have to mess with the booster packs. If you've used all your monthly money, and want to get a $5.99 album, you've got to buy a $10 booster to pay for it. Why give all your albums monetary values if you're not going to treat us like we've got real money?

But the biggest disappointment with these new changes are you can no longer redownload your purchased items. I never had need to use it, but it was nice to know if something happened to my mp3 library, I could retrieve the albums I got at emusic at no cost. No longer. You will get charged if you want to redownload anything you bought from them in the past.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Why couldn't you cancel your annual subscription and get a refund?

I'm liberated now. I buy what I want at Amazon with no pressure to use up my balance. Your anecdote is everything I feared emusic would be and I'm glad I got out when I did.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

When I contacted them after realizing how messed up the new changes were, this is what they said:

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Same here. They only threw one free month at me when I cancelled as well, despite me being a member since 2003. What a joke.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Wait, your membership renewed back in September, yet they didn't announce the changes until October? That's a bait-and-switch if I ever heard one. IMO, you're entitled to a refund of 75% of your annual fee for 9 unused months of a 12-month subscription. Put that alternative forth to them, and if they refuse, politely tell them you'll be contacting your state's attorney general or taking them to small claims court. You also might want to do this over the phone, as you'll have better luck escalating the complaint to a supervisor/manager than you will over email.

Re: Need Emusic recommendations
 

Bump. Today's Groupon got me to bite. $29 for $72 in credits ($12 per month for 6 months). I won't be keeping the subscription beyond the 6 months, but it will cover a minimum of 80 tracks (or about 8 albums at under $4 each), which is a pretty good deal.