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AT&T Deal With eMusic Excludes iPhones
ubermiester writes "ArsTechnica reports that AT&T has inked a deal with eMusic, a direct competitor to Apple's iTunes music store. eMusic specializes in independent artists and offers DRM-free content for direct download. For a monthly fee (the number of tracks one can download per month depends on the package) the site's catalog will be available to AT&T customers using Samsung and Nokia handsets, but not the iPhone."
What, exactly, is the story here? That Boo Hoo, I have to continue to pay the much lower cost of 7$US for 40 songs and sync it to my iPhone using iTunes?
Now who is going to be hit with the "cost of cool"?
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos
If it's anything like eMusic's standard subscription option, and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be, you do not rent the songs for a month. You get five downloads a month and you keep them forever, DRM-free. Myself, I get 30 downloads a month for $15, which is their lowest end package through their site. At bigger package deals, it comes out to like $0.25 per track. You can get booster packs at any time too for not much more than the subscription price.
Their catalog is all indie labels though, so if you're into top 40 pop chart stuff, stick with iTunes. Sir Paul's new album is also available through eMusic, but that's probably not indicative of anything.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I can't see why anybody would sign up for this. ATT's webpage states that data transport charges still apply when you are using this service. I am already an eMusic subscriber for $10 per month and I get 30 downloads with that.
Using my unlocked Nokia N80, I have always been able to browse eMusic's website using the data portion of my AT&T cell plan. Although I haven't actually tried to download a song that way using my existing eMusic account, I suspect it would work fine, because their site just links directly to MP3 files. Most Nokia phones already have a built-in MP3 player as well.
You are not renting music when you sign up with eMusic - you download it in non-DRM mp3 format and it is yours to keep forever. They have worked that way since they first began almost 10 years ago.
That said, $7.50 for 5 songs is far more than I would be willing to pay just for the convenience of downloading directly on the phone. Especially considering that their normal plan is $10 for 30 songs. The only use that I can think for that would be impulse purchases (at party, ooh I want to hear ) but that's not what eMusic's catalog is tailored towards.
Can you hear my eyes rolling?
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos
This is a special setup where you can download songs directly onto your phone. That requires special software on the phone that the iPhone doesn't have. The files are not obfuscated in any way - they are plain old mp3s.
If you don't want to pay the obscene prices they are charging for this service, you can always get a normal subscription at the eMusic website, download music at your computer and sync to whatever you want just like you always have been able to.
an iPhone user can buy songs on iTMS for less.
Umm, no. I use eMusic. For my $19.99/mo, I get 75 DRM-free LAME-encoded mp3's. It works out to about $0.27/song. When you run out of downloads and need to finish an album (I only buy albums) the booster packs can get as cheap as $0.40/song ($19.99 for 50).Also, it's not like Napster where you "rent" the songs. The files are just regular DRM-free mp3s. If you cancel your subscription, you still keep what you've downloaded.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
The genius of eMusic is that they don't try to compete head-to-head with iTunes or the iPod - instead, they work together.
But yeah, it would be nice to use wget.
So use it. The download manager is a preference that can be changed.
No, the iTunes store sells songs from independent artists and major labels. Thus making them direct competitors.
... and then they built the supercollider.