emusic.com

[David]

Can any current (or former user) shed some light on the bit rate used by emusic? I know at one time it was a measly 128kbs. I assume they have increased it to 256k or 320k, but I can't find any information on the site to know for sure. Some of their prices on Smoke/Sharp Nine/Criss Cross/MaxJazz have me thinking that some sort of limited subscription may still be worth it.

[A Lark Ascending]

The most recent things I've downloaded have been between 228 and 256.

[Scott Dolan]

Can any current (or former user) shed some light on the bit rate used by emusic? I know at one time it was a measly 128kbs. I assume they have increased it to 256k or 320k, but I can't find any information on the site to know for sure. Some of their prices on Smoke/Sharp Nine/Criss Cross/MaxJazz have me thinking that some sort of limited subscription may still be worth it.

ALA pretty much nailed it. I'm not sure I had any as low as 228 kbps, but their sample rate is normally right up there with iTunes.

[David]

Thanks for the responses! If that is the case, I might give emusic a chance.

[GA Russell]

1) So what is the price now, and what is the limit on the number of albums you may download?

2) Is Concord/Fantasy family considered a major and now gone, or are they still there?

[BFrank]

They have various price plans - monthly and annual. It's strictly 'cash' now - not number of songs or albums. Their 'gimmick' is that their albums are around 30% cheaper than iTunes or Amazon.

It looks like Concord/Fantasy is gone.

[A Lark Ascending]

It looks like Concord/Fantasy is gone.

Still here in the UK.

[GA Russell]

They have various price plans - monthly and annual. It's strictly 'cash' now - not number of songs or albums. Their 'gimmick' is that their albums are around 30% cheaper than iTunes or Amazon.

It looks like Concord/Fantasy is gone.

Thanks BF!

[mjzee]

There are signs of life at eMusic.  They've revamped their website, and simplified their pricing plans.

[BFrank]

Lotsa changes today, and more coming soon I think.

[rostasi]

Many of their regulars have been trying out the beta site since February
and I've been reading their 7 pages of opinions on a forum that has
broken off from it. It is coming along slowly but surely.

Edited May 10, 2017 by rostasi

[mjzee]

4 hours ago, rostasi said:

Many of their regulars have been trying out the beta site since February
and I've been reading their 7 pages of opinions on a forum that has
broken off from it. It is coming along slowly but surely.

I'd be curious to read the forum.  Can you post the URL?

[Scott Dolan]

Are their files still MP3 with crapshoot bitrates? 

[ejp626]

I actually have gotten the albums in my wish list to a small number, and I have planned to quit soon.  I noticed that the site is quite revamped and now you download as a zip file rather than through the download manager. 

What is very interesting is that it used to be (years and years ago) you could download multiple times, but they stopped that.  It seems to have come back now, so music I downloaded a long time ago is now available again.  I will do a search to see if anything was lost (due to losing an external hard drive) and download again. 

And then I'll quit.

[BFrank]

They now provide everything you've downloaded to be streamed. You can even use their site to upload stuff that you ripped or bought elsewhere.

[Buddha the Magnificent]

There seem to be a lot of older SteepleChase recordings that have been added recently.  Yesterday was my first encounter with the new site.  The zip file download seemed problematic as my computer would freeze up trying to C&P all the songs out of the Zip drive to a regular music folder, so I was reduced to downloading song by song - individual files from whole albums - which was kind of cumbersome and time consuming.  I'll give 'em time to get things worked out.

The now have a mobile app that supposedly gives you access to all the music you've bought.  Not sure whether it has music you bought that they used to carry but no longer do.

[Scott Dolan]

Sounds like they're now in direct competition with iTunes Match. 

[mjzee]

In an interesting development, eMusic has begun including digital booklets.  For example, see: https://www.emusic.com/album/77499983/Jason-Moran/Refraction---Breakin-Glass

[BFrank]

5 hours ago, mjzee said:

In an interesting development, eMusic has begun including digital booklets.  For example, see: https://www.emusic.com/album/77499983/Jason-Moran/Refraction---Breakin-Glass

That IS interesting!

[Scott Dolan]

iTunes started this a few years ago. Oddly enough, I've never looked at any of the ones I've gotten. 

[ejp626]

I see that they just lost the rights to carry Pi Recordings, which is a shame, as I had a few half downloaded albums that I can't finish up now.  Way, way back they lost Prestige/Riverside/etc.  I'm kind of losing interest at this point and think I'll cancel my subscription, though I'll take one last look to see about any Steeplechase and Black Lion (listed under 1201 Music) titles I am missing.

[Scott Dolan]

Have you considered streaming? Not sure if the titles you're referencing are available, but they could be. 

I can check for them on Apple Music if you'd like. 

[ejp626]

On 11/16/2017 at 9:21 AM, Scott Dolan said:

Have you considered streaming? Not sure if the titles you're referencing are available, but they could be. 

I can check for them on Apple Music if you'd like. 

I do stream from time to time, though I mostly use Hoopla.  It's only relatively recently that Spotify came to Canada.  It does appear that most Pi Recording albums are on Apple Music.  I will try the 3 month free trial and see how it goes, namely making sure that I'm not blocked from using the service.

[Scott Dolan]

Cool! I had never heard of Hoopla before. Looks like an amazing service! Thanks for mentioning it, I’m going to give it a try for their audiobooks. 

[BFrank]

Not sure how many people are still using this service, but they seem to be bleeding albums at an alarming rate since the big make-over. Not sure what's going on over there, but if it continues I might have to finally give it up.