Emusic Relaunches - Cheap, DRM-Free Downloads

An anonymous reader writes "Emusic.com has relaunched today. This is important for several reasons. 1) They sell MP3s. No DRM. I can play them on my Linux box or wherever. 2) They are encoding at 192Kbit/s VBR. That's near CD quality (and how I rip my own CDs). They are focusing on lesser known independent music and providing some editorial content to separate the good from the bad. I see lots of great jazz, classical, and folk/country stuff in their library. 4) Subscription rate is 9.99/month for 40 tracks. That is $0.25 a track. Much cheaper than everywhere else. It's near my pricepoint. This is the first online music store that I will seriously consider. (And actually the first that I _can_ consider since I'm a linux user.)"

Comments

Sounds like a front page ad as usual.

[garcia]

I'm an anonymous user because I'm advertising on Slashdot for my own company! I figured this would make the main page because I said "no DRM" and "Linux" in the blurb. I did happen to forget the magic words "Apple iPod" though... Bummer.

192k VBR is nowhere even close to CD quality. Yeah, your ears clouded by your mind might be telling you that it's CD quality but it's not even in the same ballpark. No MP3 is close to CD quality. Yeah, they're acceptable and probably sound better than iTMS' tracks but they are NOT CD quality.

Subscriptions are a joke. I am forced into buying $10 worth of music (40 tracks or not) when I might only want 99 cents worth.

With a main page that reads "Start downloading your FREE MP3s today and take two weeks to decide if you like eMusic. If you're not 100% satisfied simply cancel before your trial period ends and you'll never pay a dime. Keep the 50 FREE MP3s as a gift for checking out eMusic." something worries me. Perhaps because it sounds something like BMG or Time Life Home Videos. Any "club" subscription sounds like a scam.

I don't like the fact that they claim they have "the highest quality MP3s" when they are only using 192 VBR. As far as I know that's not the highest they can go... A quick search for "Grateful Dead" came back with nothing. A lot of other crap but no Dead. For the blurb to claim that there is a lot of music seems like a marketing lie.

Keep the advertising off the main page. Yeah, that goes for the iPods too.

Price Point?

[Iowaguy]

Wow, that is a great world occupied by some if 0.25 is near the price point for song. For the rest of us, we tend to pay 15 dollars for a cd, of about 10 songs, which is a $1.50 per song give or take. At a quarter a song,that is $2.50 cents for a cd, which means the editor basically wants his music for free.

It is ok to dream people, but honestly, shouldn't realistic expectations be part of the equation some where. The current offerings are about 1 dollar per song, or about $10 dollars for a cd, which is a savings to the consumer. There is a thing called fair price, afterall. I guess some are not happy until the cost reaches 0. Now, that would be nice...

My two cents,
-Iowa

Re:monthly/per track pricing?

[cpt kangarooski]

What are you talking about, not being legal for USians?

It is not legal for Americans.

Copyrights are national. Thus, a Russian copyright is totally distinct from an American copyright. What Russian law might permit in Russia has no bearing whatsoever on what American law permits in America. What the Russian copyright holder authorizes has no impact on what the American copyright holder authorizes.

To download from allofmp3 results in the downloader infringing on the right to reproduce the work in phonorecords, because the downloader necessarily is creating a new phonorecord as a consequence of downloading. See Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 75 F. Supp. 2d 1290, 1294 (D. Utah 1999) holding that "[w]hen a person browses a website [which was illegal under US law], and by so doing displays the Handbook, a copy of the Handbook is made in the computer's random access memory (RAM), to permit viewing of the material. And in making a copy, even a temporary one, the person who browsed infringes the copyright."

Since allofmp3 itself is illegal under US law, since it does not have permission of the US copyright holder, downloading from it is likewise illegal.

Re:Allofmp3.com

[cpt kangarooski]

there is no "breach of copyright", as everything is done legally.

That's total crap. It is blatantly illegal under US law. And if you're sitting at your computer in the US, guess what law applies to you?

But if you buy a legit VCD and bring it home it's totally legal, even if the VCD company has undercut US prices drastically.

This is more of a half truth, because it depends on what you mean by a "legit VCD."

If it was made by or authorized to be made by the US copyright holder, then it is legal to be imported into the US.

OTOH, if the US copyright holder did not make or authorize the making of the VCD, but merely some foreign copyright holder did, then it cannot be legally brought into the US, pursuant to 17 USC 602(b), and possibly (a).

In AllofMP3's situation, they have purchased a Russian broadcasting license of some sort. From what i understand it is basically a flat fee and not based on the number of items (songs). This lets them sell songs for just over bandwidth costs and still make money.

Which is great. But that does not make it legal for a person in America to download from them. You need to go to Russia in order to do so, and you couldn't bring the music back either. This is because Russian law cannot help you within the US.