11/02 -11: No more eMusic for me, it seems
I've been an fan and a subscriber for eMusic from 2004 on, during which time I had about a year when I put my subscription on hold. I've paid 12-14 € to them every month, which initially ment 30 tracks and later 40 tracks to download each month. Late last year they moved from per track pricing to "music balance", which shows your current balance in "eMusic money", for me that is shown in euros.
I almost said basically that means, but there is nothing basic about this new system. Right now I pay them 13,99 € per month and receive 13,99 + 5,61 bonus, which sums up to € 19,60 in music balance. A basic track costs from 0.42 € to 0.49 €, sometimes they're more, sometimes they're free. Logic on the pricing, which there might be, is lost with me. Probably due to major labels asking different sums for different artists.
What this means is I should start counting what I can and can not buy at certain times, depending on what I want at that particular time and if I have stuff saved for later.
Save for later was the most useful part of the service, as you could save stuff there and leave private comments on individual albums. I used this to save music when I had time to look around, but no credits to buy them and buy them later when I had the credits but not the time to look around. Very time and cost effective.
Earlier I bought my latest montly batch of music (Lo Pan: Sasquanaut, Tame Impala: InnerSpeaker, Fistula: Goat and Fatso Jetson: Cruel & Delicious) and was left with € 2+ in my music balance, which I decided I would use to get few more tracks off the excellent The Zombies album Odessey and Oracle from 1968 (everyone knows the track Time of the Season. Right?), so that I would get all of the tracks on it bought off next month and could download it in full finally. Only since the change, the shop doesn't remember the previously bought tracks anymore, but has a "intelligent download detection", which has now decided I've already downloaded the first four tracks and should pay for them again if I want them.
Also, I was left with € 0.53 in music balance, which I can't really use like I've previously done, since "buy now & download later" is not an option anymore. To add insult to injury, since the service is "monthly subscription only", the leftover balance does not carry over to following months and is instead lost forever.
So I'm getting a degraded service, which requires me to use math to decide what I can and can not buy, which ends up costing me more money and doesn't do the things I signed up for originally. It is really sad actually, because I liked the service a lot. I've put something like a 1000 € in to the store and now they've lost me.
Once again, major labels fucked up another really good music service for me. Fuck you, fuck you very much.
I almost said basically that means, but there is nothing basic about this new system. Right now I pay them 13,99 € per month and receive 13,99 + 5,61 bonus, which sums up to € 19,60 in music balance. A basic track costs from 0.42 € to 0.49 €, sometimes they're more, sometimes they're free. Logic on the pricing, which there might be, is lost with me. Probably due to major labels asking different sums for different artists.
What this means is I should start counting what I can and can not buy at certain times, depending on what I want at that particular time and if I have stuff saved for later.
Save for later was the most useful part of the service, as you could save stuff there and leave private comments on individual albums. I used this to save music when I had time to look around, but no credits to buy them and buy them later when I had the credits but not the time to look around. Very time and cost effective.
Earlier I bought my latest montly batch of music (Lo Pan: Sasquanaut, Tame Impala: InnerSpeaker, Fistula: Goat and Fatso Jetson: Cruel & Delicious) and was left with € 2+ in my music balance, which I decided I would use to get few more tracks off the excellent The Zombies album Odessey and Oracle from 1968 (everyone knows the track Time of the Season. Right?), so that I would get all of the tracks on it bought off next month and could download it in full finally. Only since the change, the shop doesn't remember the previously bought tracks anymore, but has a "intelligent download detection", which has now decided I've already downloaded the first four tracks and should pay for them again if I want them.
Also, I was left with € 0.53 in music balance, which I can't really use like I've previously done, since "buy now & download later" is not an option anymore. To add insult to injury, since the service is "monthly subscription only", the leftover balance does not carry over to following months and is instead lost forever.
So I'm getting a degraded service, which requires me to use math to decide what I can and can not buy, which ends up costing me more money and doesn't do the things I signed up for originally. It is really sad actually, because I liked the service a lot. I've put something like a 1000 € in to the store and now they've lost me.
Once again, major labels fucked up another really good music service for me. Fuck you, fuck you very much.
