I just upgraded my eMusic account from basic to plus, and now I can download 50 tracks every month for fifteen dollars. That only five extra dollars for twenty more tracks, and at the rate I’ve been queueing albums for download I wasn’t going to get some of them until five months from now. And I’m still paying less than what I’d pay for a single physical CD for what essentially amounts to five albums’ worth of music.
Now I can have the Erik Friedlander I want for this trip. And I can download all three discs of the Matt Haimovitz Bach solo suites, too! (Well, the first three suites, anyway. I can download the last three after April 1.
I don’t remember the last physical CD I bought in a store. So much of what I want isn’t available through regular channels, or would take months to obtain, or would cost a ridiculous amount of money. (Oh wait, it was Danny Elfman’s Serenada Schizophrenia, and I don’t remember buying it in a store because t! ordered a copy for me via one of his music business contacts.) I really like the option of being able to download selected tracks from an album, too. The one frustrating thing is that some of the artists I hear and want to try out, or buy an album from, aren’t available via eMusic (yet, or whatever).
e-music doesn’t carry top 40 artists. Also it’s sometimes it’s not avalible in canada, Not sure why. It only bothers me when they change it before I get around to downloading it.
Not being a fan of (and therefore not a purchaser of) top 40 stuff, that aspect doesn’t impact me. They acquired the entire Naxos classical catalogue last year, which answers about 50% of my where-can-I-get-this-piece? problems. They tend to not have super-popular classical artists, which has only presented a problem once, and their film score section is dreadful. But other than that, it’s what I need.
I know what you mean about certain tracks not being available. It depends on the label rights and the country you’re in. There was an album I downloaded that wasn’t fully available to US subscribers and there were many bitter comments posted about it.
Well the label rights is a new feture that was’t always there. Ya there are no filmscores becuse theyare all handled by major labels, which they don’t really carry.
Well letme know if youneed anything else from your “where-can-I-get-this-piece” pile, since I also have acess to a large collection of older recordings.