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Unrestricted VBR mp3s for 20c/track, if you like what they've got, it's great.

If you only like music the RIAA tells you is good, don't bother...

Either they claim mp3 as a choice even though no popular music is sold in mp3 format

eMusic competes with iTunes by providing non-DRMed MP3 files. Of course they don't have as much major label stuff, but it's the only store I'd "buy" music from, aside from http://www.theymightbegiants.com/ and Magnatune.

But it's been shown time and time again that the DRM is just big media's security blanket. CSS, FairPlay and Adobe's eBook DRM have all been cracked. Sure there's some technical knowledge required, but it only takes one person to share it on Kazaa before it's everywhere. Does this mean big media (the greedy middlemen, in most cases) is doomed? Possibly.

But that doesn't necessarily mean artists are left out in the cold. I know it might be hard to remember in the iTunes age, but I remember the first online music store worth giving a crap about was eMusic, because it was the only major player without major DRM restrictions (and it actually had none, since it used MP3s). We don't hear much about eMusic anymore, but the fact that it's still around says something: there's money to be made selling unprotected content. Maybe the multi-millionaire musicians are in danger, but as a whole I think artists might just come out on top by replacing the recording industry with an indie label and an online music store.

If you want inexpensive downloads, you need to look elsewhere. IMO .99 is still about what you pay for a CD media anyway, without the media. Places like http://www.emusic.com/, with a set price a month for 'unlimited' downloads are where its at.

Which online music store sells tunes that have no DRM or use FairPlay besides iTunes?

Probably, but the iTMS works with both. It also happens to be the only (legitimate) download service that currently works with Windows and Mac OS.

The only one of the DRM'ed services, anyway. There are a few outfits like eMusic that offer DRM-free MP3s and the like, which of course work with any platform, though of course they don't offer as much of the most popular music as the iTMS and the various DRM WMA outfits, and don't have anywhere near the iTMS' marketshare.

Since they mention EMusic specifically... here's the EMusic TMBG page. Nine albums for download as high-quality VBR MP3s. Not a DRM in sight...

(To explain my sig... EMusic went through a period of severely sucking. They're back to being a pretty good site IMHO, worth a look).

$0.99? Good bargain?

Let's see:

emusic pricing averaging $0.22 per track(with premium subscription) for mostly high quality VBR mp3s(no DRM and platform restrictions).

allofmp3 pricing of about $.01 per megabyte downloaded(most albums will cost less than $0.99 unless you encode at very high rate) with your choice of compression formats and quality levels(again, no DRM or platform restrictions).

eMusic | They Might Be Giants Unlimited

Emusic used to have a TMBG "boutique" which also featured special free bonuses (no purchase necessary) every month.

They still have an extensive catalog of TMBG, where you can get Canstantinople, Birdhouse in your Soul and Particle Man (all of them on Severe Tire Damage but there's no more boutique, which may be part of the reason TMBG wanted to move on.

According to EncSpot, Emusic is not doing shabby encodes:
Birdhouse in your Soul.mp3
(bitrate graph defeated by LAMEness filter - now that's ironic...or is it apt?)
Type: mpeg 1 layer III
Bitrate: 203
Mode: joint stereo
Frequency: 44100 Hz
Frames: 7351
Length: 00:03:12
Av. Reservoir: 73
Emphasis: none
Scalefac: 29.8
Bad Last Frame: no
Encoder: Lame 3.92
Lame Header:
Quality: 78
Version String: Lame 3.92
Tag Revision: 0
VBR Method: vbr-old / vbr-rh
Lowpass Filter: 19000
Psycho-acoustic Model: nspsytune
Safe Joint Stereo: yes
nogap (continued): no
nogap (continuation): no
ATH Type: 4
ABR Bitrate: Unknown
Noise Shaping: 2
Stereo Mode: Joint Stereo
Unwise Settings Used: no
Input Frequency: 44.1kHz
--[ EncSpot Console 2.0 ]--[
http://www.guerillasoft.com ]--

It's not 256kbps, but my dsl is slow enough that I prefer Emusic's compact VBR downloads. The 3 minute song is 4.66 megabytes, about 50% larger than the 128kbps file they used to distribute.

Anyway, this new TMBG "boutique" is no more "direct from the artist" than Emusic was. The people behind this site are Back Office Music, the same guys who developed the Primus "Boutique." All they've done is change digital labels, really, though I think the "personal service" they're getting from BOM is better for them.

Here are some more for you:

besonic
mp3.de
soundclick
garageband
france mp3
vitaminic(free + pay)
Washington Post (yup)
Online Rock
Peoplesound
Download.com from the old mp3.com's new owners
Emusic (pay)
Artistlaunch

That's interesting. There are a few things that I think would have to be worked out, though.
1. Is it going to be a record label? Or just a collective of home recording artists? If I were in a band, and I had to choose between a record label which would promote me and a collective which would rely on donations and word of mouth, I'd pick the label. Since I would want this to be my job, I'd want to guarantee myself some money rather than just rely on the goodwill of others.

2. The bandwidth issue: don't just encourage the artists to help pay with bandwidth, their priorities are paying their own bills, not the organization's. You have to MAKE them pay for the bandwidth by setting up the payment structure properly. I've known people who are in touring bands. When they tour, the goal is to leave the show with enough money for food and gas. Laundry and showers next. Fat chance they'll be paying for your bandwidth voluntarily.

3. People without internet access who enjoy music. You're alienating a large part of the prospective audience if you just distribute via the internet. Another reason why a conventional label wins out. A regular record label can put CDs in stores and press them for the band to bring on tour. The internet cannot, or would rely on the artist doing that work themselves. Not convenient.

I think the best way to do this is to do it like Emusic.com, where they have set up deals with record labels to sell access to mp3s of bands who have a record label deal already. That way there are CDs in the stores and mp3s being sold. And you don't have to rely on the generosity of the community to download files, as you would with BitTorrent. The "alternative path" that you are thinking of MUST include CDs in stores, or some kind of kiosk sort of device, so people can easily get a hold of albums. But I agree, more choice is good. I think there is a decent alternative, though, and that includes independent record labels. I think Warp Records has it right, offer digital downloads as well as provide a good distribution system for brick and mortar stores.

I have yet to see a copy protected CD from any of the labels I usually buy from - as a matter of fact, many of them are making their music available as ultra high qualioty Lame VBR MP3s through eMusic.

More people need to check out the free mp3s at Epitonic and Insound to get a taste of what's available from indie labels - virtually all of it in unprotected formats, and virtually all of it far better than the slop the major labels dump out on Clear Channel. Check out The Streets - "Fit But You Know It" at Insound - catchiest single I've heard for years! Great stuff!

eMusic gives you tracks for 22 cents each - Lame VBR encoded MP3s - and of course there's no copy protection. And they have great independent labels like Matador, Kill Rock Stars, 5 Rue Christine, Thrill Jockey, Mille Plateaux, Schematic, etc. plus a shitload of jazz and classical. I have the 90 songs a month for 20 bucks deal - you can buy more if your downloads run out before the month is up.

I refuse to buy into this dollar a song for inferior closed formats with DRM deal. eMusic may not be perfect but it's the closest thing going.

eMusic

Okay, this risks being called a bit off topic, but it's so cool (and reasonably relevant) that it has to be mentioned. Dot matrix printer music by this group The User has been around for awhile. It's not algorithmic music, but by printing strings of characters simultaneously to different dot matrix printers they make some pretty interesting sounding stuff.

I agree. The way the RIAA calculates sales, by the "number of units shipped to retail outlets," is very flawed. I'm sure all those purchases I've made through emusic, the iTunes Music Store, DMusic, and CD Baby haven't been included into their [RIAA] numbers.

This leads me to believe that music sales are actually up worldwide. Until *all* music sales are calculated (from digital downloads and independent/non-RIAA CDs to RIAA member CDs), I don't think we'll really know for sure what the sales numbers are like.

Well said! Here's (as an AC so as not to whore the karma) an excellent comment by Linuxbaby, who works at the superb CDBaby service (hats off for being such an ethical company!):

Try some of the more open/competititive ones! (Score:5, Informative)
by linuxbaby (124641) * on 04:43 PM May 7th, 2004 ( #9085738)
(http://www.cdbaby.com/)

Worry not. There are many many MANY more to come that are being very competitive AND open. CD Baby is delivering over 250,000 songs to EACH of the companies below, and the norm for the smaller companies is to receive MP3 or even FLAC delivery.

So instead of whining about how some big major-label Universal album (where the artist hardly gets paid anyway) is DRM'd or expensive, be an independent thinker and go try some of the smaller services.

Emusic
Website for Mac, Windows, Linux where members can download up to 40 tracks per month of high-quality MP3 files. Has been around for YEARS doing both 99-cent downloads, and all-you-can-eat downloads for paid members. Has great catalog of indie label music - company is currently reforming.
AudioLunchbox
One of the first all-independent music download sites. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. ALB pays out 59 per song and $5.90 per album.
NetMusic
Digital download and streaming service. We get 65 cents per downloaded song. Entire-album downloads usually retail at $9.99.
Emepe3.com
Website that primarily targets Latin America, USA and Spain. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Etherstream
Website that offers a la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Music4Cents
Retails independent music at very reasonable prices. Pays 55 cents per download. Sells independent music - they will sell CD Baby songs at $.69.
QTRnote
Artist gets about $.64.
TriaSite
TriaSite retails independent music downloads. Pays $.65 per download
Puretracks
Canada-only service that offers $.99 downloads. Website is currently available to Candian residents only. Puretracks is acting both as an online download retailer and a back-end service provider for other retailers. Downloads cost $.99 per track - artist gets about $.59 per track.
CatchMusic
Download site focusing on independent music. CatchMusic sells a la carte downloads at $1 each. Songs retail at $1 - artist gets about $.55 per song.
Viztas Digital Marketplace
Viztas Digital Marketplace will sell all kinds of digital media - not just music. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. Vistaz pays out 60 per song and $6.10 per album. Viztas has not yet launched.
DiscLogic
A la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.

** BEGIN added to original comment by AC poster **
CDBaby
CD Baby is a little online record store that sells CDs by independent musicians. I don't think they sell downloads, but I

why don't you show me a site where I can legally download major-label music WITHOUT DRM?

So instead of whining about how some big major-label Universal album (where the artist hardly gets paid anyway) is DRM'd or expensive, be an independent thinker and go try some of the smaller services.

Emusic
Website for Mac, Windows, Linux where members can download up to 40 tracks per month of high-quality MP3 files. Has been around for YEARS doing both 99-cent downloads, and all-you-can-eat downloads for paid members. Has great catalog of indie label music - company is currently reforming.
AudioLunchbox
One of the first all-independent music download sites. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. ALB pays out 59 per song and $5.90 per album.
NetMusic
Digital download and streaming service. We get 65 cents per downloaded song. Entire-album downloads usually retail at $9.99.
Emepe3.com
Website that primarily targets Latin America, USA and Spain. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Etherstream
Website that offers a la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Music4Cents
Retails independent music at very reasonable prices. Pays 55 cents per download. Sells independent music - they will sell CD Baby songs at $.69.
QTRnote
Artist gets about $.64.
TriaSite
TriaSite retails independent music downloads. Pays $.65 per download
Puretracks
Canada-only service that offers $.99 downloads. Website is currently available to Candian residents only. Puretracks is acting both as an online download retailer and a back-end service provider for other retailers. Downloads cost $.99 per track - artist gets about $.59 per track.
CatchMusic
Download site focusing on independent music. CatchMusic sells a la carte downloads at $1 each. Songs retail at $1 - artist gets about $.55 per song.
Viztas Digital Marketplace
Viztas Digital Marketplace will sell all kinds of digital media - not just music. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. Vistaz pays out 60 per song and $6.10 per album. Viztas has not yet launched.
DiscLogic
A la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.

** FLEB sits back and enjoys being an Emusic subscriber... 22 cents a song, LAME VBR MP3 without DRM...

And here's the page where you can download the Elysian Fields performance mentioned in the article. As it says on the page: "shows will be uploaded to eMusic within thirty-six-hours after a set's final song." So, you'll be recovered from your hangover by the time it's ready for download...

I expect that by cracking the iTMS DRM, I will be able to play the music I purchased on my Linux machine.

By undermining this DRM it encourages record companies to sway towards enforcing more arcane DRM,not removing it.

If some record companies start using DRM that I have no way to circumvent, I will simply stop buying music that's crippled by that type of DRM. There's always eMusic or Audio Lunchbox, and if there's a song I really want that I can't download in an unrestricted format, I'll just buy the CD on eBay.

and no future Herbert Hoover ever leads the FBI into another COINTELPRO;

I plead a late night and a good Hefeweizen. Of course that should be J. Edgar Hoover, and yes, I didn't close an anchor tag soon enough either.

As recompense, I'll point you to a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that sounds a lot like "ambient" music (scroll down for mp3s, avoid the Real Crappy Player stuff up top), because it's been s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out to last for twenty-four continuous hours. It's uncanny, especially compared to a more normal Ninth, such as the 1942 Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at emusic.com (this during the war, so you almost find yourself listening for air raid sirens while wondering how many top Nazis are in the audience.)

Anyone still subscribed to Emusic.com can download Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers as well as Xerophonics.

Also, a project everyone can download for free is Droplift which is created by multiple peole inspired by Negativland. (Of whom everyone should have downloaded their illegal U2 single by now. It's about a little dog named Snuggles.)

Anyone still subscribed to Emusic.com can download Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers as well as Xerophonics.

Also, a project everyone can download for free is Droplift which is created by multiple peole inspired by Negativland. (Of whom everyone should have downloaded their illegal U2 single by now. It's about a little dog named Snuggles.)

iPod users could buy online music from any number of places. iPod users would have a choice.

They already have a choice... they can buy from iTMS, continue (or, giving the benefit of the doubt, start) downloading music illegally, get MP3s from eMusic, rip their friends' CDs, etc.

The only reason iTunes has DRM in the first place is because the major labels insist on it: they like their paying customers to have more restrictions than the folks that are getting it for free, makes sense right?

I love that logic. I think Apple's DRM is the least odious of what's out there, but it's still too restrictive for me. Adding any arbitrary constraints just seems so... ludicrous in terms of the customer's ability to enjoy the product.

I stick with Emusic, b/c the price is reasonable (40/month / $10/month -> $0.25 per song), and there are no DRMs (just MP3s of decent quality). Of course, you've never heard of most of the artists (with a few notable exceptions- George Carlin comes to mind), but there's a lot of good stuff there. I don't widely share what I download- why would I bother when it's available at a reasonable price?

In terms of $, I currently spend much more at Emusic than I do for any other source of music, and am reasonably happy with it.

"I'm going to tell all of my iTunes-using friends about this site. I hope it does well. I don't buy much music, but before I buy another CD or download from iTMS, I'll be checking this site."

From http://audiolunchbox.com...

192 kbps VBR MP3 Audio Files

I'm confused...which is it? 192Kbps or VBR? And if it's VBR, what quality?

I'm somewhat disapointed that out-of-print stuff isn't available through here though. They distribute albums on Epitaph Records, but none of the albums no longer produced are available. I think this would be a great way to let people get ahold of those old albums they can't buy any more, since it involves 0 cost for the label to provide the mp3s.

Emusic on the other hand offers at least some of the out of print albums in DRM-free mp3 form. Unfortunately, I tried their service once and found the quality of mp3s sorely lacking...one album I downloaded crackled audibly through the whole thing.

• Directron
• emusic
• Openlinx
• Philips

Not all the MP3 material on emusic.com is licensed for outside the US, but most of it is. http://www.emusic.com

Thought we already covered this topic. Alas...

In my attempts to kick my Kazaa habits, I find that many artists offer mp3s on their homepage. Also, try some of these sites:

• Epitonic
• Insound
• eMusic NOTE: Subscription service
• Warp Record's Bleep NOTE: Must pay for mp3s, but they're very high quality codes -- for you lame monkies out there, @ -aps)

Most mp3s available on the 'Net are from Indie groups. Definately check out band webpages, and label webpages (ex. Kill Rock Stars always is offering up the goods)

Don't be scared of buying cds though. It's by far the best way to aquire mp3s.

There are PLENTY of sites where you can legally download unrestricted mp3's and most are less "dubious" than allofmp3.com. Try eMusic. No... they don't have the latest Disney Factory clones such as Britney Timberlake or Justin Spears, but they have damn good music nonetheless.

Spend your money on the service that gives you exactly what you want - and let the rest know exactly why they can't have your money.

This is the best way we consumers can take control back in ANY market. It's all about the benjamins. If you're all willing to support the businesses that GIVE US WHAT WE WANT then it won't be long before services like eMusic will be able to offer us the Clear Channel Approved Top-40 artists as well (providing anyone even gives a damn about them by then).

Check out www.emusic.com (with which I'm not affiliated, but use regularly) They sell mp3's for 22 cents a piece and have a nice collection. Some albums can not be sold outside the US though because of regulations (different record companies for the same cd inside and outside the US), but this seems to be a small percentage.

Holy shit! How come I never saw this before? eMusic blows away iTunes and Napster.

They have all the music I want, *way* cheaper, and with no DRM.

For me Napster is basically unusable, because my mp3 player isn't an iPod. Why the hell would I pay $15 for an album, that I can now only play on my computer?

Note, all the music I want is jazz -- which eMusic has tons of -- a quick search for Britney Spears turns up nothing, so if you into that, sorry, go blow your money on iTunes.

You know... all this makes me continue to be happy to be with Emusic. $20 for 90 songs/mo, MP3 VBR, no DRM. The catalog's a bit weighted toward the obscure, but it works for me.

Most of emusic's material is also encoded with LAME's preset standard vbr setting. And it's also available without any attempted DRM nonsense. (And despite using a somewhat funky custom client, they support linux.)

Then there's magnatune, featured some months back on slashdot, who offers uncompressed wavs.

Don't get me wrong - *three* online distributors who treat their audio and their customers with respect is better than *two*. But, they've gone a bit overboard claiming to be the first to offer high quality, drm-free stuff.

The emusic download manager has clients for windows/mac/linux and they all seem to at least minimally work.

I've found emusic great for older jazz artists, finding albums I wouldn't have otherwise been able to get my hands on. It almost seems a bit cheap in fact, but then I remember they have essentially zero costs once they've ripped the CD.

One thing I would really really like is access to the cover artwork and linear notes ... none of the services seem to provide this.

• It still amazes me that the press can get away with talking about stuff like iPod as though it's fabulously new, when really it's just one more incarnation of some ideas that are old at this point, e.g. emusic. There's no reason the big labels couldn't have cut deals with emusic... emusic is the province of independant labels solely because the big guys were scared of the idea of distributing raw mp3s un-encumbered by some heavy DRM/watermarking crap.
• There are indeed some smart people in the music industry, but they don't "predict" sucessful acts, they manufacture them, and typically the manufactured ones don't have much in the way of staying power. The industry makes most of it's money off of it's back catalog of acts that were big before they got so "smart" at manufacturing inauthentic sensations.
• Jobs point about being persistant rings true... I've talked to people who've worked with him, and they describe him as the kind of asshole that you eventually just give whatever he wants just to get him out of your hair. (It's an uncomfortable truth with me, however, that he does seem to be someone who "gets things done"... I would rather be living in a world where Steve Jobs were not necessary.)

I know why you said "mainstream" -- you didn't want anyone mentioning eMusic on you. But seriously, why? I've been brainzing my collection lately; I have probably 14 gig of stuff from eMusic. And 80% of it is quite good.

Incidentally, I seem to be sticking with eMusic, despite my earlier protests of their new plans. I'm downloading far less, but it's still worth the $10/month.

I've had material on MP3.com for several years now. Never paid for the service, so I had less to lose than those that took the Gold Membership, etc. But I still don't understand the griping.
The era of free multimedia serving is over. There's just too much overhead to justify providing that much free bandwidth.
For those of you who bitching about MP3.com, just accept this unfortunate reality.

Who's been screwed? OK, maybe the folks that signed up for Gold Membership. But it seems like it's pointless to bitch about what's happened - it's all just business.

It's not the same as being ripped off by your producer [Beach Boys and countless others], or cheated out of payment by a venue after a performance [an ever-present risk in a business rife with unscrupulous people].

There's always an element of risk, whatever endeavour you undertake. There's no guarantee that a party with whom you have entered into a contract and paid money for future services will not go out of business, or sell out to another party. That's just a fact of life.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of free and low-cost music-hosting alternatives [sorry, I haven't checked ALL these links recently, but most should still be good. I am a lazy sod.]:


AMP3.com
AmpCast
Audiogalaxy
efolk
etree.org (SHN)
Listen.com
Lycos Music Search
MP3.com
nzmp3
peoplesound
SoundClick
stationMP3
gdlive.com
FurtherNet
CD Baby
IUMA
BeSonic
My Local Bands
SoundClick
VITAMINIC
archive.org etree listing (SHN's)
emusic
listensmart


My music (if you're curious, totally bored, and looking for something to listen to).

Due to selling RIAA member stuff, they are probably forced to stupid DRM rules (that really aren't a restriction to any normal user - just a pain in the butt due to player software restrictions).

If you want good music- music made by musicians doing their thing - try emusic.com

10 bucks for 40 downloads or 15 for 65 downloads pr month. All songs available in mp3's (variable bitrate high quality!). And you can in fact download the songs you already downloaded as many times as you want (more than one machine anyone?).

And oh, the music is provided (largely or all?) by 900 independent record labels...

If you like music, don't like the RIAA, think DRM based stuff stinks, this might be your thing.

eMusic had this. For about the price of two cd's a month, it was all you could eat. One of my friends was a subscriber, and with his downstream 'all you could eat' was quite a lot.

Now, there wasn't a lot of great stuff... but if you're not getting charged by the disc, there's no harm in experimenting ( and show me another online music service that features Arab on Radar and is associated with Matador Records, the New Pornographers label ).

Sadly, last month they changed the terms of service - at least for some users ( including my Friend ). Unlimited downloads are a thing of the past, and you get about two albums a month for the same price as before. At that rate, you might as well buy A list stuff from the record store.

Perhaps they were only targeting high usage users - there's nothing about the change on the frontpage ( no surprises there... ), but the free lunch appears to be over.

The OS of choice is FreeBSD 4.8 right now. Runs a email/web/fileserver.

For my work, I'm thinking about using an older Powermac 9500 to set up as an iTunes server. Since I'm a musician, I have a TON of MP3s ripped from CDs and obtained off Emusic (before they switched their subscription thing :-/). Anyhow, the other teachers would love to be able to access my 150+gigs of music, and having it on the network (yeah, imagine a music store that has a network......) where they could pretty much pull up any song.....pretty cool.

SO, that server is going to be a 9500 running OS X 10.2.8, with at least 2 250 Gig hard drives either Mirrored or Stripped using OS X's software, and I'll be backing it up via Firewire drives using something like Retrospect 5.1 or FolderSync or something. Haven't gotten to that point yet!

Keep in mind that Apple has the most liberal terms around.

Mind you, it is a different model but if you're into Jazz or Classical it's far superior. Based on subscription price it can work out to ~ > $0.50 per track. I disagree with their new model where there is a cap on downloads the number of which is based off of which subscription you choose but there is still more bang for the buck depending on the genre of music one prefers.

Keep in mind that Apple has the most liberal terms around.

Mind you, it is a different model but if you're into Jazz or Classical it's far superior. Based on subscription price it can work out to ~

that I didn't know until tonight... they use LAME for the VBR encoding on their mp3's.

(Sorry for the corney subject line. It just struck me.)

Um.... Anyway..... I have a lot of vinyl. At least 500 LP records. Yea, I purchased most of them in the late 80s early 90s when the quality of vinyl was crap but I still like them, except when I move. I found out the hard way that vinyl is heavy. A big motivation for joining emusic.com and looking on p2p networks for me is to find the stuff that I own on vinyl. As of yet I haven't found a whole lot.

However, when I started looking around on emusic.com I did find a lot of interesting stuff. As someone else mentioned they have a great collection of Jazz. I have lots of interests in music. My main interests lie in the relm of Experimental/Industrial. A lot of what I found on emusic.com was stuff that I already owned, and owned on CD (Invisible Records stuff).

There are lots of other musics that I enjoy, and some that I have an interest in but don't know much about and would like to explore. I have an interest in Modern Classical as well as more traditional Classical music. I have an interest in Trip-Hop, Downbeat and Ambient music, and was very interested in what they had beyond the Ambient-Industrial music that I'm already into.

Towards the end lots of people were creating personal lists of associated music or whatever. It was really fun looking at something of interest and just following links and reading descriptions for music I've never heard of. I like learning about new artists/projects and emusic.com really lended itself to just browse around and discover new stuff.

Well, for me it is over now but I'm probably going to spend the next year listening to all the stuff I downloaded. In some respects 40 downloads for $9.99 is an OK deal. When I get re-employed 300 downloads for $50 sounds interesting too. For now I hope that they reconsider and either provide more downloads for the $9.99 or find a way to reconcile the fact that some albums have a lot of very sort tracks.

Since a lot of the music I'm interested in is classical whose tracks are sometimes 2 minutes long. If they did something like no album will "cost" you more than 10 tracks that would make it a lot more fair to those who like such music. Some of the music I like has tracks that are 30-60 minutes so maybe it would even itself out. In the meantime I'm going to hold out a little to see what happens.

What I also find interesting is that maybe the reason they are limiting the tracks is so that some record companies are wary of signing up with unlimited downloads. Maybe in the near future they will be providing the old Wax Tracks! catalog of which contains much of my older vinyl. Maybe they will sign up Tzadic Records of which I would drool over getting 300 downloads for $50 to tantalize my New Musik lust. Again, I will wait and see.