Legal Research

It?s the end of eMusic as we know it ? but I feel fine

By scott

“Starting in November all individual tracks will be priced at 42p instead of 1 credit, and albums will be priced as the sum of the individual tracks. Rest assured, your monthly payments will not change and you will still be able to download the same number of tracks available today, if not more, depending upon your current plan.”

This is the email that greeeting me this morning, and I immediately thought - ok, that’s it, it’s over, since I am one of those who - as a long time subscriber - is still on the original plan of 90 downloads a month for £14.99. I expected this to be the point where eMusic pulled the plug on those early adopters and said this is it, the end, as this statement would not hold true for me, as at 42p a track, 90 downloads would cost £37.80. eMusic aren’t going to honour that, right?

But wait. According to eMusic, yes. I will still get 90 downloads a month: “Your Preferred plan will include a monthly bonus, which will be automatically added to your account every month to ensure you can still download the same number of tracks.”

So this means I’ll pay £14.99 a month and get a bonus worth the value of £22.81 a month.

Hat’s off to you eMusic. I stuck with you because I liked what you were trying to do, and to be fair you’ve been consistently good with me as a loyal customer.

The 42p a track thing is not set in stone however, and paves the way for the major’s catalogues.

“As soon as the new pricing system is in place we will be working hard to bring you new music. And when we do, the catalogue additions will be huge - thousands of new artists from labels both major and indie, that we’ve never before been able to offer our UK members. At that time, expect to see variable pricing, just as you see in other music stores. And rest assured, we are committed to delivering the best possible value to our members. We’d also like to assure you that eMusic is not becoming an a la carte service. We will remain a digital music club, where music purchases are subtracted from an account balance that refreshes monthly, and members enjoy significant savings over a la carte services.”

So we can take it that the Majors will want prices to be closer to those of Amazon and Apple per track/album, I am guessing. Still, I have to say, eMusic continue to be one of the best online merchants I have ever dealt with, and long may it continue.

Full post as published by Information Overload on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).