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Posted 4 weeks ago at 10:24 am. 0 comments
Pricing Raise
eMusic has decided to increase their pricing plan for new subscribers. The new price will apply to all members but there’s a few additional benefits if your account was active before July 17th. New members will have to pay $11.99 for 30 Mp3s.
Older member will have to pay $11.99 for 40 Mp3s. On August 17th, all older members will also receive an additional 10 track booster for 30 days.
Design Raise
Since the past week, eMusic has changed their site design to reflect the Web 2.0 style ( which has now become standard). This includes larger easier to read fonts and bigger graphics.
Album Pages
Albums now have a huge graphic of the album cover to the left. The track list is now displayed to the right. Below that are some newer toolbars like “Discover” that take you to other critically acclaimed albums and stories in your music genre. Below that is “Dig Deeper on the Net” where you can see videos from Youtube users that relate to the artist and a wikipedia entry. Thats if your artist has a unique name, otherwise you’ll see some strange unrelated videos.
[via eMusic]
Most of the other pages have not been updated to fit with the new design, so if they do, this article will be updated to reflect that.
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:00 am. 14 comments
The Pepsi Stuff contest launched a while ago. The sweepstakes cooperates with Amazonmp3, by allowing you to spend points to download a free mp3. I not really a big deal downloading free mp3s, but its a new frontier for major record labels making up for their mistakes with the RIAA.
Each mp3 costs 5 bottle caps. If you were to buy Five (2 Liter) bottles that would equate to $7.59 per mp3. It may be likely that a 2 Liter Pepsi bottle is on sale, which would typically end up with 1$ per (2 Liter) Bottle equating to $5 per mp3.
Now lets check the price for a (24oz.) 6 pack of Pepsi. The total price equates to less than $5.99. The twelve (12oz) cans costs around $5.49, but they only nets you 2 points.
Pepsi Cola Price Summary
- $7.59 per 1.00 mp3 (2 Liters)
- $5.99 per 1.20 mp3 (24oz 6 pack)
- $5.49 per 0.20 mp3 (12oz 12 pack)
If we decide that $1 should equal 1 point, then the only purchase that makes most sense in this chart would be the 24oz 6 pack, which appears to be the best deal in this situation. Now why is there such a dramatic decrease in points with the 12oz 12pack? Maybe they are secretly promoting their 6 pack bottles?
Points per Product
- 20 oz or 24 oz = 1pt
- 1 lliter or 2 liter = 1pt
- 12oz can 8 or 12 pack = 2pts
- 16.9 oz 12 pack = 4pts
- 24oz 6 pack = 6pts
- 32oz cup = 1pt
Now the question to you is:
Do you think these points are unfair, and will you be participating or boycotting this promotion and why?
There are others who agree with me. Maybe Pepsi should increase the points on some of them.
Posted 10 months ago at 5:49 pm. 0 comments
Lets play the commen sense roulette and explain what this means to any of you publishers out there wishing to sell music or audiobooks on Emusic, and others.
Digital Rights Management - Free
Penguin Audio recently listed their audiobooks to be sold on Emusic. Emusic is known for selling music without Digital Rights Management. After you purchase a song you are free to put it in whatever music player you want to. Your even able to send music to your friends and file share them to others (although Emusic does not advocate you to do this). Thats the whole freedom of selling Mp3s. Its already apparrent that music from the Electronic Genres have been selling Mp3s for years and are even selling them directly from their own webpages without a label. As with Radiohead, and others, as a musician you might no longer need to have a label to promote your music. I mean its going to be tough to get people to buy it, but thats what concerts are for.
Sweatin’ to Books on Tape
Penguin Audio also sells audiobooks on iTunes, which sells most music under Digital Rights Management. This means you can only listen to it from the computer or iPod you bought it from. Companies can restrict the license even further to allow you to listen to a song for a few times a month (Windows Media Audio files protected with Digital Rights Management have been known to do this in the past). So why in the world did Penguin Audio agree to sell their own audiobooks? Without digital rights management, anyone can do whatever they want with their files after they purchase it. Whats even more weird is that they didn’t find any pirated files, but suddenly they are "concerned about piracy." Not that the audiobook piracy market is big anyways, who would want to bring Tuesdays With Morrie to the gym anyway?
Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 4:10 pm. 0 comments
After the fallout between MTV and Microsoft; Urge + MTV + RealNetworks teamed up to create the huge mega partnership with the Rhapsody brand. Previously Rhapsody was created exclusively by RealNetworks to distribute DRM music to MP3 Players that supported Microsoft’s PlayforSure Brand. Rhapsody wasn’t really much of a hot property and it felt like they were just giving it away for free when you joined a Cable TV Network. It seems after years of waiting, their commercials are finally broadcasting on TV as they promote new albums from mainstream artists. Now they are offering DRM-Free tracks from Universal Music Group as long as you download the Rhapsody Player.
The DRM-Free tracks are only limited to Universal and are only available up until Janurary. Current TV commercial spots include Jennifer Lopez, and of course 50 Cent. After Janurary, no one from Universal has announced what is going to happen, but in the end we hope they and other record labels spread DRM Free tracks to other music companies. Its unfortunate that RealNetworks require you to download their software to purchase their music, as other companies like Emusic and Amazon Mp3 store do not require you to do so.
Posted 1 year ago at 1:23 pm. 0 comments
Updated August 13th
Did the recent surge of DRM Free blog posts earlier this month inspire Universal Music Group to step into action? I wouldn’t say this blog clearly influenced it, but I was following a small group of bloggers who posted about their DRM free lifestyle and how it has worked for them. If you don’t know by now, New York Times reported that UMG is testing the waters for DRM Free music. However this test will last until mid Janurary.
The Project
What we do know is that the music will go on sale August 20th, and will be sold offline in Best Buy, Walmart, Rhapsody, Amazon, and directly from the recording labels themselves such as Defjam. Universal will sell tracks on gbox.com. One of the main points behind this MP3 project is to not sell music on iTunes. Its not really a huge blow for iTunes anyway, its just that at this point in time, the iTunes name is synonymous with the iPod. iTunes is already known for selling music that works only on Apple products. However, by creating a new online store, Universal can advertise a name that is synonymous to “buying mp3s”. Universal Music Group is testing the waters to see if a store can thrive without the use of iTunes.
The Speculation
Universal Music Groups MP3 campaign will end around Janurary, making this whole project somewhat pointless. I believe what may happen is that Universal Music Group will take the stance that if not many people buy the songs, then Mp3s aren’t a profitable business venture. The RIAA will boldy pronounce their, “I TOLD YOU SO!” press release as we get sent back to the sue-happy lawsuit carnival. What I really want Universal to do is fully embrace the project. Yes during the few months of selling Mp3s, sales won’t be great as expected, but I believe the general public may not understand how good the store will work out for them. It will take a huge ad campaign, lots of good customer service, ease of use, and some radio promotion to get the buzz out there. I want to hear DJs say, “you can download this song at blahblahblah dot com”, and MTV, Fuse, and others place an easy to remember link to download the song during a video.
The Rebirth
If however this project fails, don’t take up the defense for DRM music. Start all over, releasing only new artists to MP3, then, slowly increase the music library when you figure out what music people download. After a few years we can have a store who’s name will be the #1 source of buying DRM-Free music.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 3:37 pm. 2 comments
Why aren’t people buying DRM-Free Music?
The legal pressures and scare tactics of the RIAA have dampened some the efforts of some file sharers. However, people who do want to legally buy music still can’t, not because they can’t afford it, their music just isn’t available to download. The big major music groups are still cautious of selling Mp3s without some sort of control over them. One of the big reasons Mp3s are illegally downloaded in the first place is because nobody is selling music the majority of people like. All mainstream music listeners are forced to use iTunes, Zune Marketplace, Napster, and Rhapsody. Major record companies can then set restrictions on which computers and devices you can listen to music with. Yes, you can burn music from "some" of the music services but there is a loss in quality when converting back to Mp3 . There are people like me who are obsessed with audio quality and want to hear every bass and treble note as original as intended. The second problem going on is the legal pressures. It might scare off some people, but in reality it starts an uprising against the RIAA. Its like a sword fight of 5 people against millions, and the 5 are stabbing each other in the back. The major source of getting DRM free music legally is through ripping CDs and converting to MP3, but we can no longer trust record companies as they may secretly install anti-theft programs. The point here is, if you make your songs available as MP3 at an affordable price, I can buy it and will have no need for file sharing.
Who are living the DRM-Free Lifestyle?
We can’t just blame companies for this whole mess, we’ll also rant at the consumers too. Consumers are the third part of the problem, not because they are downloading illegally, but because they eat only food thats given to them. Their main sources of music are MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, Fuse, and radio stations. Consumers are too close-minded to look for other artists who aren’t signed to big major record labels. I don’t blame them though. The music sold on DRM-free music sites aren’t that great to begin with, but they do have their own cult followings. If you do spend the time to research other artists who don’t give a damn about the RIAA, you might find something you like. Only those who are in search for new artists and new music are the ones who live the DRM-Free lifestyle. You may want to call them the Indie generation, but at the same time they are still boycotting mainstream RIAA music, and purchasing from artists they actually like.
How can you Sell DRM Free Music?
My journey of DRM-free music started years ago with the little company called KarmaDownload, it has now been shutdown for financial reasons that they won’t even disclose. KarmaDownload sold music with the choice of bulk or per download. The bulk option didn’t work for technical reasons so I had to pay per download. Entering billing information once, you can download as many times as you want and be charged for each transaction. This may not go so well with credit card companies and their fees but it worked for the time being. For every 10 songs you download, you get 1 free, and that was pretty hot.
1. Keep Billing Information Seamless
I should only have to type my credit card information once. After that unless its a yearly security thing, I don’t want to type it anymore. Sites like JunoDownload and Emusic keep this seamless. Beatport asks for your security code each time, but Clickgroove asks for billing information all the time making it very annoying.
2. Music Previews should be long and instant
I want to hear song clips longer than 30 seconds. Emusic’s previews are painfully short. Short previews do not give an essence of what the song is like. JunoDownload however has longer previews, sometimes up to 2 minutes. I prefer hearing music clips within the site instead of using Winamp. DanceTracks Digital, and DJDownload place all music within flash playlists. DJDownload takes it a step further and adds each song to the playlist instead of clearing all music out like ClickGroove.
3. Allow purchasing in Bulk
Emusic is the only site that does this perfectly. 30 songs for $9.99 is great compared to other sites which would have given me 5 songs. I’m not saying this pricing method is great for artists, but it got me paying for music. Not many other sites do this, but It would be nice to allow 1 or 2 free songs for a certain amount of purchases.
I’ve only highlighted music services that specialize in electronic/dance music, but there are plenty more out there such as 7digital/indiestore where most tracks are Mp3s but some are WMA’s with DRM. If EMI sold DRM-Free tracks on Itunes, Warner Music, BMG, and the rest can and should. Electronica and Indie musicians have been selling Mp3s for years, why can’t mainstream artists just jump on the bandwagon?
