eMusic goes from the top…to the bottom in record time.

Many companies in corporate America spend a lifetime fighting to get to that upper eschelon, the elite section where multi-billion dollar companies hang out and do business. eMusic was a favorite by many indie music fans for the low prices, great feature set, and lack of any major music labels. It seems greed is again the downfall of the great. In record time, eMusic has gone from a much loved company to one that is quickly becoming one of the most hated. So what exactly is the new low eMobile has stooped to?

Apparently, adding a major music label to a monsterously large group of indie music lovers and simulatneously raising prices wasn’t enough. No, they wanted to really piss some people off. An anonymous Tech Dirt reader wrote in saying the following:

“July 1 was the first day in the Sony era over at eMusic. Despite published interviews with eMusic executives, FAQs on the eMusic web site and messages from eMusic employees on the eMusic forums attempting to clarify the new pricing structure, there were quite a few surprises. Some of the changes I’ve noticed (or read about in the forums) include:
Certain tracks can only be downloaded with “paid” credits, not the free credits eMusic hands out for trial memberships.
Individual track downloads disabled for tracks longer than 10 minutes – you must download the entire album
Certain (popular) sub-10-minute tracks disabled for individual download
No downloading individual discs in multi-disc sets
Most new albums use 12-credit album pricing (very few reports of 6 or 9 credit album pricing)
Many (a significant portion in the classical section at least) albums with fewer than 12 tracks cost 12 credits
Many albums previously available on eMusic have been re-priced (in some cases, tracks available for 1 credit on June 30 now require 12 credits)

Ouch! Someone is definitely going to be losing some users now. Even though it is in some kind of sick way fun to point out these major tech disappointments, part of me still weeps on the inside. Indie music has an extremely strong and loyal following. With the recent strides eMusic has taken within the last 60 days, it is quickly becoming apparent that they have been distracted by dollar signs and are now giving their loyal users the cold shoulder.

Are/were you an eMusic user? If you still are, why are you sticking around? And if you’ve packed your bags and hit the digital high road, why did you leave? We just gotta’ know!

Source: Tech Dirt

Author: Mike Norris

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Gadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!