emusic.com

Friend, terrible chess player and fellow blogger extraordinaire Greg Pate recently posted a comment asking about the pros and cons of subscribing to emusic.com. Not that I’m an expert, but I was a member for about 9 months, until my daughter’s dentist recently informed me that she will most likely need braces in a few years (my daughter, not the dentist).

While a member I downloaded probably 500 songs when all was said and done, and found some remarkably interesting and under-the-radar stuff. That’s the thing about EMUSIC, though. They focus on making the more obscure, independent stuff available and pretty much ignore your tried and true favorites from yesteryear. If classic rock and roll is your kick, EMUSIC ain’t for you.

That being said, they recently added pretty much the entire Rolling Stones discography in addition to the Kinks, so they may have plans to ‘branch out’ to appeal to the classic rock set.

If you’re a music nerd like me, and have the time to sample and research new bands and artists, then EMUSIC could be right up your alley! You can search by ‘similar artists’ or by ‘genre’, or by the ‘editors picks’, or even other EMUSIC subscribers who share your musical tastes. It’s fun and can be extremely rewarding when you find a gem. I myself downloaded 150 songs from the Kinks 70’s output last month and have been very happy that I got them for about one third the price itunes charges. The better price and the lack of the stupid “MP3 security locks” are two big pros for EMUSIC, the smaller inventory is a bit of a downer.

Now the costs.

You start by getting 50 free downloads. Once completed you can stop right there, leave and never come back, or you can choose one of their plans.

10 downloads a month for $5.99, 30 for $14.99, 50 for $19.99 (my choice). If you’re a REAL fanatic, then you have the options of 100 downloads a month for $24.99, 200 for $49.99 and 300 for the paltry sum of $74.99 each month. Sign up for an annual contract and receive 20% off.
To put this into perspective, 300 downloads loosely translates to about 25 complete CD’s EACH MONTH or 300 albums worth of songs PER YEAR.

3,600 songs a year.

If you have that kind of money and that kind of time you’re a better and richer man than I.

Does this help, Greg?