tonyc3742

Emusic does offer free stuff, I've gotten four or five full albums free and a couple extra tracks. Most of them are bands I've never heard of, or sample/compilation disks, but I'll try them for free.
They don't have podcasts though, as you say.
The credit use-or-lose thing could definitely be an issue. But if you're on the 12 buck plan, and you buy over a dozen tracks, you're still ahead of the game versus itunes. Also, they're no contract, so you can sign up for one month or two then just cancel.

porieux

eMusic is awesome, I could never run out of great music to download from there. The problem is that my iPod/iTunes can't handle any more...LOL.

rmorgan

There is no "Apple format." The tracks are encoded in AAC, which is supported on many other audio players, including the Zune.

The Fairplay DRM was proprietary to Apple and its devices, but that's becoming irrelevant. As long as you purchase a DRM-free track from iTunes, you are likely going to be able to play it.

Sean O'Hara

A podcast is nothing more than an RSS feed with links to media files. There's no need to go through a store to get them -- just get the feed URL from the podcast's website.

macnorton

True...but the problem with AAC is, if you don't have either one of those players it is useless. Or if you have multiple machines you move files to, like I do, you can only have so many authorized to play them. Not sure if that has changed with the DRM being removed, but it was a hassle.

macnorton

I like iTunes for this because I don't like the fact that my RSS reader (and many others I have tired) open more windows everything I try to download something. iTunes keeps it clean, sorted and puts the downloads in a separate tab within the interface.

Ginwen

I use iTunes, but very rarely. I put a $25 card on my account about a year and a half ago and I still have more than $15 of it.

99% of the time I buy a song there I end up buying the whole CD later on.

Duh Vuh Duh

Been thinking about getting into emusic, but can't get past the intro page. Is there a way to check what artists they have in their library before joining?

DVDho78DTS

http://www.emusic.com/browse/all.html

I think that will work.

tonyc3742

Right...but I use itunes as the way to manage them. Subscribe, refresh, plug in ipod, I'm good. I don't listen to them "live" and I don't want to have to download them and manually play the files.

I know there's a lot more it can do, but I only use RSS for "headlines" of websites.

Sean O'Hara

There are numerous other programs for managing podcasts. I find Miro far superior to iTunes for podcast management.

And even if you want to keep using iTunes, you can' get the RSS feeds from the web and copy them into iTunes. instead of going through the store.

WarriorPrincess

My biggest problem with emusic is that if you don't use your downloads that month (before your refresh date) you apparently lose the downloads. That wasn't the case when I first signed up (when they started) and I didn't realize it had changed. I just went to download 100 songs and I only have 50 credits. So I'm out $15. I'm beyond irked. Once you pay for the songs they should be yours, no matter when you choose to download them.

Also, the quality of compression is not that great. I hear an audible difference between a cd and the mp3s from emusic. For music I'm just trying out or unsure about that's fine, but I still end up buying cds for the bands I really like.

bunkaroo

I decided to check out eMusic and wound up signing up. I doubt I'll keep the subscription going long, but I was able to find enough stuff that it made sense for me to buy the 50 download monthly package plus 50 bonus downloads plus a 50 download booster pack. I think the end result was $30 for something like 11 or 12 full albums so it was worth it. Nice to see they had the new God Forbid even before it hits the US.

I found searching for stuff was kind of a mixed bag. I wound up searching an artist I knew they had then looking up the label to find other artists on the label.

It is lame you lose what you don't use at the end of the month. I planned stuff so I only have 1 download left at the moment, but unless I buy a booster pack it will be wasted unless I just download some arbitrary song.

Dr_Evil

I tried eMusic and was happy with it. I'd rejoin if I had a few albums I wanted. It looks like this 100 free song link still works too if you're looking to try it

http://www.emusic.com/ge

chino77

i was an emusic subscriber before they were well known. i canceled once they lost the download all you want for one price.
i have never and will never buy a song off of itunes.

bunkaroo

Just wanted to update my own post - it seems any downloads you buy are good for 2 months before you lose them, which is nice if say you have 1 or 2 left over and are waiting for the next month to kick in.

I wound up going hog wild on their site and bought something like 55 full albums. There is a lot of metal on there from labels like Nuclear Blast, Massacre, Inside Out and more. I think I wound up spending about $140 between all the booster packs and upgrading my plan. I liked the fact I could pay a little more to upgrade and get a bunch more downloads. Of course I maxed out my plan and was told I can't buy any more boosters this month LOL, so I guess I hit the limit. I backed up all my stuff to CD already so if I have to cancel no biggy. For now I kicked back down to a $15/50 download plan for next month as I assume I'll find four more records I want by then.

For the curious here's all the stuff I got:

After Forever - (self-titled)
Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
Russell Allen/ Jorn Lande - The Revenge
Angtoria - God Has A Plan For Us All
Anubis Gate - A Perfect Forever
Circle II Circle - Delusions Of Grandeur
Communic - Payment Of Existence
Darkwater - Calling The Earth To Witness
Dead Soul Tribe - A Lullaby For The Devil
Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell
Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn
Draconian - The Burning Halo
Draconian - Turning Season Within
Edenbridge - My Earth Dream
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
Exodus - The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A
Firewind - Allegiance
Firewind - The Premonition
God Forbid - Earthsblood
Marillion - Happiness Is The Road Volumes 1 and 2
Mastodon - Remission
Mercenary - Architect Of Lies
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans
My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River
My Dying Bride - Like Gods Of The Sun
My Dying Bride - 34.788....Complete
My Dying Bride - The Light At The End Of The World
My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness, Word Of Light
My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours
Porcupine Tree - Metanoia
Portal - Blood Red Tape
Pyramaze - Melancholy Beast
Saga - Worlds Apart
Serenity - Fallen Sanctuary
Serenity - Words Untold & Dreams Unlived
Sirenia - At Sixes And Sevens
Sirenia - An Elixir For Existence
Sirenia - Nine Destinies And A Downfall
Spheric Universe Experience - Mental Torments
Swallow The Sun - Hope
Swallow The Sun - Plague Of Butterflies
Swallow The Sun - Ghosts Of Loss
Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came
Testament - First Strike Still Deadly
The Kovenant - Animatronik
The Pinapple Thief - Tightly Unwound
The Reasoning - Awakening
The Reasoning - Dark Angel
Tristania - World Of Glass
Tristania - Beyond The Veil
Tristania - Midwinter Tears/Angina
Tristania - Ashes
Tristania - Illumination

porieux

^^ NICE!

Feel free to check out my METAL ZONE thread over there for more suggestions.

Jay G.

With the DRM-free iTunes Plus tracks, there's no authorization process anymore, you can move the tracks to as many machines as you want to.

Other digital music players support AAC as well, including players by Sansa and Sony. All the most recent gen video game systems can play them as well. AAC compatibility isn't as widespread as MP3 compatibility, but it's becoming much more common:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...rtable_Players

Also, with iTunes Plus tracks iTunes gives you the option of transcoding them to MP3 for devices that don't support AAC.

All that said, I voted eMusic, since I've used them off and on for over a decade.

The Bus

Amazon, although I wish they would give you the option of 256 or 320 CBR. I hate VBR with a passion.

Jay G.

Why? 256kbps VBR should give you better sound quality than 256kbps CBR.

There are CBR mp3s on Amazon, but they don't indicate which albums are what on their site.
http://n8wood.wordpress.com/2008/04/...mp3-downloads/
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=67439

macnorton

That was my fault...I meant *before* iTunes Plus came in that was my argument. Not that you can transcode, the issue is now moot.