I have searched the internet high and low, but I could not locate a DRM free Bob Weir’s “Ace” album for download on the internet. The only place I could find it was from eMusic.com. eMusic offers an amazing deal – sign up, you get 25 free MP3s. Then you go onto a subscription plan, $9.99 per month for 30 songs to more expensive plans that offer more downloads.
So I signed up for my two week trial with the intention of downloading a few of the Wier songs and then cancelling. But I still had about 20 downloads left. So I downloaded the entire EP “The Tain,” by the Decemberists, but instead of the five parts being individual songs, the entire EP is offered as one 18 minute song. So I downloaded some other random songs. While the selection is far from limitless, it’s certainly very deep and incredibly varied.
So, 24 songs later, despite my intention to rip off eMusic, I decided that they have earned my $9.99. The downloads go through the eMusic manager, which is really fast and really easy to use, and it’s cross platform. Also, did I mention the downloads are non-DRM, fully-portable, already-tagged MP3 files?
It’s easy to use services like mp3sparks and the like to get songs for cheap, but I don’t mind supporting my favorite artists when the price is right and I get to own a copy of the music that doesn’t impose random limits on me.
So, eMusic earned my $9.99 for what will eventually be 55 songs; I firmly believe that $9.99 for 30 songs is a reasonable price. So, if you’re so inclined, I encourage you to support eMusic. They are approaching things in a way that is actually right for the consumer.
Check the Drist stuff too 🙂
STAY AWAY FROM E-MUSIC. THEY ARE CREDIT CARD RIP-OFF ARTISTS.
They charge your credit card during the “trial” and then keep charging it, long after you’ve canceled. Their “contact number” on the credit card bill is bogus–some poor guy is getting a lot of angry calls intended for e-music.
You can’t get them on the phone or by e-mail. And this blog is obviously from the flaks at e-Music.
BEWARE http://www.ripoffreport.com
And this blog is obviously from the flaks at e-Music.
Screw you. That’s an accusation, and you not only have no evidence, but since you’re wrong, I’m curious where your “obviously” came from.
I have, many times before, carried on about DRM, so I think it’s entirely within bounds to discuss a company I think it approaching things correctly.
Seems to be a pattern here: “free” trial from eMusic, followed by instant credit card charges and lots of problems…
I’m worried: I signed up for a “free 30 day trial,” and immediately noticed that my card had been charged $9.99…despite the fact I’d canceled four days into my “free trial.” I emailed, and received a standard auto-reply that informed me:
“If you are contacting us regarding charges from eMusic on your credit card please note that we do not issue refunds for subscription-related charges. Per Section 6.4 of eMusic’s Terms of Use which you agreed to when you registered for your account, all charges made during your subscription period are nonrefundable.”
Um…Excuse me? “All charges we make are nonrefundable?”
Other threads here provide contact info for dealing with this massive cluster-fu#&…meanwhile, I’m totally pissed off about my stinking ten dollars!! And I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been ripped off.
Ten bucks to them X how many thousands of accounts? Massive revenue. Ten bucks on my credit card? They hope we’ll just blow it off and quit trying to get resolution…sorry, not me! They’ve broken ALL the rules of internet commerce, as far as I’m concerned…
yes i agree emusic are a rip off merchant.
got a trial on emusic for 99c to see what I thought of it, with no obligation to sign up further, and get 70 downloads for free. This was within a period of 10 days. I then cancelled my membership within this period as the site was awful – had no decent popular music, only the really bad albums from well known artists. Their download manager was fairly good though.
But then still got charged $8.99 to my credit card.
When I wrote to them I was told that I had taken over the 35 threshold limit – which was never mentioned before.
I bet they hook quite a few people in this way!!! Surely must be a trade descriptions violation?