eMusic returns
p2pnet.net News:- Vivendi Universal sold its eMusic subscription operation about a year ago, but now it’s back under new owners Dimensional Associates, the “private equity arm of JDS Capital Management Inc,” and with a panel of ‘curators‘ to, “guide subscribers through the treasures of its collection”.
More to the point, it’s offering 500,000 mp3s – including some truly Golden Oldies – with no DRM, “so users can burn, download, share, etc. to their heart’s content” and play the tracks on “virtually everything,” as Andy Morris, one of the people promoting the service, told p2pnet.
“Everything” includes iPod. And Linux.
EMusic’s basic service has up to 40 tracks at about 25 cents a track, mid-level with 65 tracks at about 23 cents each, and Premium with 90 tracks at about 22 cents each, or put another way:
- eMusic Basic: $9.99 per month/40 downloads
- eMusic Plus: $14.99 per month/65 downloads
- eMusic Premium: $19.99 per month/90 downloads
Whether or not anyone will want to bother with eMusic’s curators remains to be seen, but it’s interesting that mp3 downloads include music by Duke Ellington, Bob Marley, Maria Callas, Tupac Shakur, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, the Pixies, Little Richard, 50 Cent and John Coltrane.
There’s already an impressive number of indie artists and labels selling their music – and giving it away – online, but ‘legal’ downloads by the likes of Davis, Marley or Simone, say, aren’t so easy to come by.
EMusic’s curators will “illuminate new and exciting directions for music discovery”. There will also be 100 new album reviews a month, “penned by a vast team of prestigious critics”.
p2pnet asked ceo David Pakman if there were any plans to break the barrier, so to speak, and start selling individual tracks at low, individual prices in unlimited numbers.
No, he said. “We believe that the subscription model allows us to deliver value to customers in many ways, beyond just in the music itself. Reviews, columns, advice, recommendations, liner notes, conversations with other fans, etc. These are all services with value around the music, and a subscription model allows us to reap economic benefit from providing this additional value.”
Could the curators be over-kill on the grounds that potential users are perfectly capable of making their own choices?
“Our editorial staff was chosen for more than their knowledge and passion, they were chosen because they are also well-suited in engaging our subscribers and helping them find music they may be interested in,” Pakman told us.
“They do this is a way that is entirely not intimidating and is quite informative. Of course, there is nothing forcing our subscribers to engage in conversation with the curators, nor do they need to read the reviews or columns. They are always welcome to use the search engine, the advanced drill-down browse, or the countless other tools to find music on the site, download it, and enjoy it.
“The point here is that eMusic offers it, and no one else does.”
The recent RealNetworks cut-price offer proved people want value for their money and eMusic’s download limitations notwithstanding, it might well be it will show other corporate music sites that offering mp3s at reasonable prices will be more effective – and profitable – than trying to sue people into buying ‘product’.
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See:-
curators – New eMusic Celebrates Indie with the World’s Largest Catalog of Independent Music Ever Assembled
Site – eMusic
cut-price – RealNetworks chases Apple, p2pnet, September 13, 2004
