dear emusic, try harder.
There's been a lot of buzz lately about eMusic. A group of bigger indie labels are threatening to abandon ship because eMusic's payout isn't enough per song. It's pretty interesting, but I have some other eMusic thoughts I'd like to get off my chest.
I've been an eMusic subscriber for many years, and Wordclock (slogan: "life support is getting expensive") releases have been available there for years as well. Despite all that, I've always been marginally unhappy with eMusic from both perspectives.
From a user perspective, finding good music on eMusic is a miserable pain in the ass. I have to work every month to find 40 songs (that is, about 4 full records) worth taking a chance on. I search user lists, I check out their "picks" in a dozen genres, I read the "eMusic dozen" pages, I listen to hundreds of 30-second samples... and, meh. I have found some of my absolute favorite records/bands on eMusic, so I stick with it, but there must be ways to improve the "shopping" experience.
Though I'm not convinced that eMusic cares. Their site has barely changed in the five years I've been a subscriber; certainly searching for music hasn't gotten any better. Want to browse "post-punk"? Get your next-clicking finger ready, as you cruise page after page... 15 records at a time. Want to know what's been added this week? You can't really find that on their site in any useful form, and new releases end up mixed in with the re-release/b-side junk that labels release to digital in droves. I also have no idea when they add records. Weekly? Bi-weekly? Some Fridays? And whenever they do it, I have on idea what they'll add: I've bought half a dozen CDs recently on their release dates, only to discover that eMusic carried them too -- on or right after the release date. How would I have known that?
(Oddly enough, in some ways it's in eMusic's interest for me to not find things to download, because I'm paying them a monthly fee either way. If I keep my subscription in the hopes of finding another Sleepytime Gorilla Museum or Kaki King but only download 8 songs a month rather than the 40 I'm paying for, well, bonus!)
And from a "tiny indie" perspective, eMusic clearly doesn't care much. I've done all our digital releases via CD Baby thus far, but that's imperfect. We can't make digital versions of records available on their release date; we have no idea when they'll make it to digital; and in some cases they simply never appear. (the Plink remix CD was submitted to eMusic a year ago; it's still not available.) I'd love to have a direct relationship with eMusic so we could control/understand release dates, do some marketing, get bios and pics up, etc. eMusic won't even return my emails. WTF? This is a business that owes its existence to the fabled long tail. How about fostering that?
I genuinely wish that eMusic sucked less. I actually agree with CEO David Pakman's stance on pricing. But beyond that they're clueless and old-fashioned, and always have been. With any luck, somebody who isn't iTunes will show up and eat their lunch.
Phew. Sorry for the rant.