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all things emusic


John B

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It's only a steal if they are encoding the music better than they used to-- artifacts and distortion in a lot of the tracks were commonplace when I last used emusic (not long before they changed their rate structure), and made the MP3s largely unsuitable for listening with either good headphones or burned to CDs on a good stereo.

Are they better now? Does anyone know what they are encoding with and/or what bitrate, etc. they are using?

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> How easy it to quit?

I believe their current plans all have no "contract" term like the previous ones -- so you could join for one month, and then quit, and start up again later.

> can you monitor your account?

I think there's an indication of how many tracks you have left each month; BFrank would know for sure. They also had a feature that gave you a complete list of all of your downloads.

> Does anyone know what they are encoding with and/or what bitrate, etc. they are using?

Most of the stuff I downloaded in November was encoded variable-bit rate (VBR), using the LAME encoder. If I recall correctly, they used the "--alt-preset standard" option in LAME, which encodes at 128kbps min/320kbps max. The sound on most of these was pretty good, but there were still quite a few that were 128k only.

I don't thing anything has changed since then, except possibly some of the 128k stuff being re-encoded with VBR.

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I for one am a fairly happy eMusic subscriber.

All of the new stuff they are adding (for the last few months) is encoded at VBR, and they've changed over a lot of the old stuff as well.

One of the benefits of the new ownership and track limits is that you can indeed cancel your subscription from month to month... it's a lot more flexible now.

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The only drawback to signing up then quitting on a regular basis is that you would not be able to re-download something from a previous enrollment. The system keeps track of what you have d/l'ed and does not penalize you for multiple d/l's as long as you maintain your membership. There is a list that you can access for that. It goes back to the old policy, too.

As far as seeing how many tunes you have left/month. There's a link on the home page for that. It seems to be accurate, so far.

Most tracks are encoded in VBR, but as mentioned previously, there are a handful that are still in the old 128 format.

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  • 1 month later...

Some more added today:

Richard Groove Holmes - "On Basie's Bandstand"

Oscar Peterson - "Dimensions" (4 Disks)

Cal Tjader - "Cuban Fantasy"

Several new vocal albums, too, from Mark Murphy, Carol Sloane, Curtis Stigers, Barbara Cook and Jo Stafford.

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Lots of new Leo Records and Leo Lab releases

Some Highlights:

Cecil Taylor Unit Live in Vienna

Evan Parker: 50th Birthday Concert, Needles, Alder Brook

Sun Ra: Disney, Live at Hackney Empire

Marilyn Crispell For Coltrane

Braxton (mostly Ghost Trance)

Ivo Perelman

Lauren Newton

As a bonus, the avant stuff tends to have fewer tracks, making it an excellent value.

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Of the fresh Leo stuff, I've stashed:

• Marilyn Crispell's Santuerio and For Coltrane,

• Parker's 50th Birthday Concert, and

• The Ganelin Trio's Encores and Ancora da capo

I'll be downloading these as soon as my limit refreshes...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

New label just added - Palmetto!!!

Ben Allison

Ben Allison And Medicine Wheel

David Berkman

Bill Mays Trio

Bobby Previte And Bump

The David Berkman Quartet

Marty Ehrlich

Joel Frahm

The Herbie Nichols Project

Andrew Hill

Javon Jackson

Larry Goldings Trio

Kate McGarry

Ted Nash

Bobby Previte & Bump

Thirteen Ways

Ray Vega

Bobby Watson

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson Quartet

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After this thread popped up again yesterday I joined Emusic .

I had a bit of a problem with a Peter Brotzmann album I tried to download , it consisted of only 2 tracks & 1 didnt download . Is it worth trying to download again or shall I just forget it?

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  • 5 months later...

After a bit of a dry spell during which I caught up on some Leo artists, Emusic has come through with some good new jazz reissues. Three from pianist Sumi Tonooka and several from violinist John Blake. A nice opening assortment from Evidence Records including 4 Sun Ra releases and Billy Harper's Somalia.

I pulled out my copy of Sumi Tonooka's Secret Places and have been enjoying it greatly, in the same neighborhood as Geri Allen and McCoy Tyner. Looking forward to checking out the two Candid reissues tomorrow.

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