DISQUS

terje · 4 months ago

I canceled my long-running “Connoisseur” subscription in June. I suppose I'm a bit childish and grumpy when it comes to these things, but I was provoked when they tried to make it sound as if they were doing me a favor by increasing their prices and cutting down on my monthly downloads.

If they hadn't tried so hard to make the new deal sound so sweet I wouldn't have canceled my subscription because their prices are still reasonable. But it turns out eMusic would've thrown me out anyway -- as of July 1, the service is "no longer available" in my country. Which is appalling, of course, and it would have been even more appalling if I was still a paying customer. But I'm not. So there, eMusic.

MC · 4 months ago

I appreciate the timeliness of this piece.

I just had a disappointing interaction with eMusic, I responded to their latest "come back and we'll give you 50 free downloads" email... to which I found out later I was 1 day late in responding. (BTW, when you click the link to "reactivate" there's no confirmation at all - your credit card gets charged immediately).

I wrote a nice email asking for either a) an extension granting me the 50 downloads, or b) a refund of the $12 that they charged my credit card. About 18 hours later I got an email telling me I was SOL, the fine print clearly states how right they are and how wrong I was... and so on. So now we both lose.

Just seems like short-sited, rigid, money-grabbing tactics. They got their $12 but file it under "bad profit". That doesn't work for me. There are some good deals at Amazon.com, too.

laserdanger · 4 months ago

I did the same. Nowhere does it state you are going to be billed immediately. In my case I had gotten a new credit card so they couldn't charge me, phew.

sneaky, sneaky Mr. Stein

autodidact · 4 months ago

I've been loving a few of the cheapo mp3 deals at amazon.com. I got a Merle Haggard album for 99 cents, and the new A Camp album for $1.99. But I can't get over the fact that they're mp3's.

For any music I really, really care about, mp3's are like dirty underwear. They just don't have much retail appeal for me. The ones buying mp3s, if some day they should ever become audiophiles, will have to purchase their music collection all over again. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, saith the prophet.

That said, I hope Sony will now be open to negotiating a similar deal to return their catalog to yourmusic.com, now that BMG music service has gone tits up. Physical product. Yum.

Russ · 4 months ago

Is there any concern that...eMusic may come to be seen as an online version of the old Columbia or RCA record clubs?

It was already an indie-label music club, so what's the diff really?

claudewc · 4 months ago

I was an emusic subscriber back in the early oughts--when there was a $14.45/month all-you-can-download format. So, for instance, I downloaded all the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers it had one morning and still had time to download about fifteen discs of Coltrane that afternoon.

So you can see why the recent pricing structure did nothing for me. $2.40 to find out how Sarabeth Tucet? How about <.$25 to try out Mogwai? $.10 for a Bill Laswell album or five?

One thing that emusic is still doing it appears: Cutting the service down RADICALLY and then sending out we-haven't-boned-you emails to the loyal customers it just boned. Worst. Customer. Service. In. The. World.

laserdanger · 4 months ago

Blockbuster Online's customer service is pretty bad too. They do the same PR bull. They pul the rug right from underneath your feet, then try to spin it as a positive. Sometimes it is necessary to stay a viable business, just don't lie to me or tell me half truths. Like promising to honor grandfathered plans.

slappyfrog · 4 months ago

For me the deal breaker was when I was trying to find that one song I liked by a band or was trying to fill in my collection only to download the track and find out it was a live or acoustic version but with no indication that it wasn't the actual album track.

Sad to see such a good idea go down the tubes.

steve · 4 months ago

I can't speak for the customer service as I've been w/them for 4 years and never needed it. And I'm not the happiest w/the 'fewer songs, same monthly price' trend either. To play devil's advocate though, I'm not a full music snob - I'd like to finish my Springsteen collection while I still get ultra-obscure stuff, so I was happy to add Bruce and Simon & Garfunkel to my wish lists. Bottom line, I think it's still the best site out there - tons of indie, some classics, DRM free, and a decent site. Yes, things go up over time. But if there's a better bargain out there, please tell me.

DavidMedsker · 4 months ago

eMusic had pieces of the Universal library (Island, I think) for what seemed like a few weeks earlier in the decade. I also remember that they terminated the membership of my friend Neil, who rightfully thought that unlimited downloading meant unlimited downloading.

claudewc · 4 months ago

I received a "Stop doing what you paid for" warning from them when I was downloading my unlimited limit. They had some point about how they didn't really mean unlimited, you know, and really they meant unlimited (if they did at all) only for people with dial-up. So I hit 3000 downloads in one month and they went batshit and said, "Sure, you can download all you like, but we will cancel your service if you do."

When they changed over from all-you-can-download to eensy-weensy limits, they actually shut down their forums so customers could not get hold of each other and ask WTF is going on. That is, they let their loyal customers hang.

emusic is not charitable, is not a bunch of nice music lovers, is nobody's friends.

jasonhare · 4 months ago

Great article, Jon. It's a shame Stein had his lawyer answer most of the questions.

JonCummings · 4 months ago

Harsh! Well, there may have been some concern about divulging proprietary information, but I was actually pleased that Stein kept things at a relatively low boilerplate. I certainly think he might be well served to borrow one of the Guggenheim Grotto's bowler hats.

Ted · 4 months ago

You asked some wonderful questions, Jon. Alas, Stein didn't bother answering them. Instead, he didn't the politician shuffle and gave you a lot of vagaries and marketing-speak. Or maybe like Jason said, he had his lawyer answer for him.

laserdanger · 4 months ago

That man has answered the same questions a million times over. None of these questions are new to him and I bet he has it all perfectly scripted. I really hope the man doesn't normally speak this way. Boring answers, never gives a decent answer regarding royalties.

sharxfan · 4 months ago

"We haven’t yet seen a rise in subscription cancellations due to the new price plans. This is something we’re monitoring very closely."

This is the most ridiculous flat-out lie this Danny Stein has told yet. Let's recap.

1. They doubled the price per download without making any concessions to their longest-term subscribers.

2. They tried to bury this monumental shift in service in a blog post, not in an e-mail or site alert.

3. They did all this amid the biggest economic recession in 50 years.

4. They instituted an "Album Only" limitation on many of the most popular Sony tracks so that subscribers can't grab just the singles they want.

5. They lied about Album Pricing, with many albums actually costing more credits they did before the change.

And none of this caused an increase in cancellations? I canceled last month after being a happy subscriber for 6 years, and I know I'm not alone.