eMusic tops 300k users, now 2nd to iTunes
eMusic announced today that its subscriber base has now topped 300,000 users. This makes it the second largest online music service after iTunes according to this Sys-Con report. The eMusic catalog contains 2.5 million tracks from over 13,000 labels which are distributed in MP3 format without DRM. eMusic specializes in independent labels, providing many artists and tracks not available on iTunes.
eMusic uses a subscription model that allows you to download a fixed number of tracks each month, starting at $9.99 per month. This is different from, say, the Zune Marketplace model that allows you to rent unlimited tracks for $15/month. You own all the eMusic tracks you download and they do not stop working after your subscription expires. If you can swing the money each month, the eMusic selections nicely complement the iTunes catalog.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Robert Paege said 3:45PM on 4-17-2007
"If you can swing the money each month, the eMusic selections nicely complement the iTunes catalog."
Provided you can find music worth paying for. While I like some independent music as much as the next person, I do realize that a lot if it is independent for a good reason.
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Steven said 5:04PM on 4-17-2007
Now if only itunes had this service, I'd be all over it! :)
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Quix said 3:54PM on 4-17-2007
"Provided you can find music worth paying for."
Agreed. I had a trial "subscription" to eMusic, and frankly I had a hard time finding enough music I liked to use up my allotment. Not to say they don't have any music I might like, but how do you find it amid thousands of bands you've never heard of?
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rage said 4:00PM on 4-17-2007
To those who say they don't have anything to offer, I suggest trying something new. I've found quite a few gems just by downloading blindly.
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victor said 4:09PM on 4-17-2007
It's a great service. The tracks are high quality VBR MP3s and the download speeds are fast fast fast. I'm happy to see they're doing well enough to place #2 behind the iTunes juggernaut.
I won't even address the first commenter's extremely myopic statement but to say that every month finds me struggling to narrow my downloads to the 40 that I pay for.
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Boris Savic said 4:06PM on 4-17-2007
Creative
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Balazs said 4:06PM on 4-17-2007
I most definitely find less and less new and valuable stuff on there. It feels like they lost out the top end of the indie bands. Maybe the major labels start to pick up more of these bands?
This is doubly annoying as after one of emusic's recent marketing campaigns, I signed up for a yearly subscription.
In the last 2-3 months, out of my 65 songs per month limit, I've only found a Bloc Party EP and the new Lou Barlow EP that interested me. Not a good deal at all.
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gimme indie rock said 4:23PM on 4-17-2007
Agreed #6. I have a hard time, and i get 90 tracks a month. It's a great catalogue, sure they don't have Britney, #1, but open your ears, there's a ton of great stuff at emusic (arcade fire, hello?)
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Adrian said 4:20PM on 4-17-2007
I'm an eMusic member for more than half a year and downloaded about 400 songs or 20 albums. I only downloaded music I liked and my "Save for later" list is growing and growing.
There's more than enough to find on eMusic and it most definitely hasn't been a problem for me to find music to download. It's a bit hard to get to the music you like but that's not a problem of emusic but one of music in general.
But there are lots of features at emusic or external services to aid you in searching new music and if you for once really don't know what to get, then there's emusic's big collection of classical music, jazz, blues and what else to catch up on.
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rg said 4:49PM on 4-17-2007
Saying eMusic is "independent" music is misleading. Some of the artists I've gotten from eMusic:
- Ray Charles
- Zero 7
- Tiesto
- John Coltrane
- Moby
- Miles Davis
- Bebel Gilberto
It's fair to say that eMusic doesn't have the latest by Britney or Madonna. But if you venture outside MTV fare at all, they have your number.
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Rae Whitlock said 4:37PM on 4-17-2007
I'm quite happily a 90 track/month member of eMusic. I'm finding good and/or rare stuff there often, and sometimes stuff that I intended to buy, but for some reason or another, neglected to. $0.22 per download is just fine with me.
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oxjox said 5:19PM on 4-17-2007
I started with emusic many years ago, before itunes I believe. I recently canceled the second time after they hiked their prices up again.
The really awesome thing though, is if my computer were to crash and I lost all my purchases from emusic, i can still, to this day, sign back up for a month and download ALL of my previously purchased MP3s! I'm talking about hundreds of files going back over 5 years!
I have a great deal of respect for emusic, I'm just sadened that they continue to hike prices.
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Jonathan Allen said 5:23PM on 4-17-2007
how many of those 300,000 users signed up for the 50 free downloads when you sign up but never used it again? Count me one.
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tf said 6:04PM on 4-17-2007
Their subscriber base does not make them 2nd to iTunes. They are 2nd to iTunes in number of individual downloads purchased... which few other services offer as their major service.
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Donald Burr said 5:29PM on 4-17-2007
For those who have trouble finding new stuff to try, how about trying some of the music suggestion services like Pandora, iLike, Last.fm, etc. etc.
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John Butler said 6:02PM on 4-17-2007
"how about trying some of the music suggestion services like Pandora, iLike, Last.fm, etc. etc."
Agreed. Another fantastic way I've found to discover new music is to search music-related blogs. And the best way to do this is to download and use Peel, a tasty app that alows you to browse music blogs with an iTunes-like interface. New songs are added all the time by blog authors, and if you heare one you particularly like, more often than not it's available to download.
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Phil said 6:03PM on 4-17-2007
I absolutely love emusic. I can usually blow through my 90 downloads a month in a day or two. My 'Save for Later' list continues to grow at a pace faster than I will ever be able to download.
A lot of what I have found on emusic I've just taken a gamble on. My iTunes smart playlist that groups all my emusic purchases together (everything gets the Grouping "emusic") is my most played playlist. Bands I had never heard of before clicking around on emusic are now some of my favorites that I couldn't imagine being without.
People, take a chance...there is a ton of good music out there that you aren't going to see on American Idol or hear on the radio. Even if you don't try emusic, do yourself a favor and listen to something you've never heard of before. Live a little.
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bean said 6:07PM on 4-17-2007
wait a second... Emusic is the 2nd highest with 300K? Wikipedia cites that both Napster and Real's Rhapsody have over 550K users each. Are they just saying they are the "biggest service that sells downloads as part of a subscription?" er... cause they are the only one!
Also, Emusic does have a limited selection of mostly outside the mainstream music (with lots of gems, true) but to me, it's biggest asset is it's community of listeners who write thoughtful reviews & playlists. I *wish* iTunes had a good user community like that.
Lastly, pretty clever business model to make people pre-pay for downloads they might not even use.
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bean said 6:25PM on 4-17-2007
Ahh, #17, they are citing number of downloads. Clever, as by definition, every subscriber to the site "buys" 25 downloads at least...
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James Young said 7:59PM on 4-17-2007
There's definitely music to be found on eMusic! I've not only discovered some new artists that I now love by having cheaper per-song access - I've also gotten a number of almost mainstream alternative albums (like the great new Arcade Fire 'Neon Bible') from eMusic for less than half of what it would cost at iTMS. Not to mention that the downloads have always been DRM-free high quality MP3's (take a cue here please Apple - that premium cost for what eMusic already offers is lame).
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