all things emusic

[BFrank]

...If you read the eMusic message board, there are a LOT of unhappy members...

So much pain, so much sorrow, so much drama. Such is the life of many who regularly post on the eMusic board. While there's certainly a good amount of unnecessary stress and confusion in dealing with this new format, I find the nastiness and histrionics of some members rather laughable. For some reason, I've encountered few of the problems others report, and I've had no difficulty downloading files or saving titles to my list.

Louis CK tells it like it is

that is EXCELLENT!

[randyhersom]

I was lured back by the news that Jack Wilson - The Jazz Organs and Brazilian Mancini were there and added a booster pack so I could download indie label stuff from a couple of friends from the Scrabble tournament scene - Fern Lindzon's second album Two Kites (an atmospheric mainstream jazz date) and Paul Epstein's rock band Spider The Cat (enjoyably retro power pop) and the son of a college friend from the Temple University jazz station WRTI - Ava Luna (lead singer Carlos Hernandez spices up his genetic love of R&B harmony singing with three female backup singers and a synth whiz. Daddy's the longtime icon of New York R&B/Oldies radio Felix Hernandez.) Had 3.88 left to spend which ruled out most albums, but discovered I had missed Jaki Byard's Soul Note date when the got that label just before the price hike. Had download problems but they were fixed by deleting internet history and downloading the new Download Manager. Will hang around for one more month to nab the Spider the Cat debut. Warm feelings from the club 2K glory days, but without the redownload privileges there's not enough to keep me there continuously.

Edited November 27, 2011 by randyhersom

[A Lark Ascending]

Search facility still seems chaotic.

But they are working on it. I had one track that would not download (said there was no folder). I sent them a fault report and heard nothing for two weeks. But they finally got back to me - it was all to do with the length of file name. They gave me an easy way to fix it and problem has been solved.

I suspect they are working flat out at the moment to stabilise things.

[sonnymax]

After weeks of trouble with the revised website and countless threads on the eMusic board chronicling people's problems and complaints, I'm amused by members who still feel the need to start new threads saying, "I don't like the new design. It doesn't work. You don't care about us. If you don't change it back, I'm outta here!". In addition, there are those who make a point to post a quick snipe on each and every thread, just so everyone is reminded that they're one of the mob. Anyone who does make a move toward the door receives an additional month's credit for free as an incentive to stay. I've never read anyone say, "No, you can't buy me off. I meant it, I'm gone". Instead, it's "Well okay, I'll take your free gift, but in another month I'm outta here!" How many will actually leave for good remains to be seen, but I'm sure they'll slam the door a few times on the way out.

Edited December 3, 2011 by sonnymax

[BFrank]

It's definitely working much better than at first. They should have done a better job of testing before the release, though.

Anyway, I'm fine with the current setup. ALL websites go through interface revisions periodically. Look at the grief that Facebook members throw out every time they make a change/revision.

Pricing isn't nearly as good as it used to be, but it's still about 20-30% cheaper than Amazon or iTunes on most catalog albums.

[mjzee]

It's definitely working much better than at first. They should have done a better job of testing before the release, though.

Anyway, I'm fine with the current setup. ALL websites go through interface revisions periodically. Look at the grief that Facebook members throw out every time they make a change/revision.

Pricing isn't nearly as good as it used to be, but it's still about 20-30% cheaper than Amazon or iTunes on most catalog albums.

Amen to that. Have you seen the pricing on Google's site? Made me appreciate eMusic all the more.

[mjzee]

The Complete Felsted Mainstream Collection, $5.84:

eMusic

[A Lark Ascending]

Things seemed to have settled down now - there was a comprehensive 'thank you for your patience' note on Friday and a promise for some free credits.

They gave me £5 worth.

I'm happy.

[BFrank]

Things seemed to have settled down now - there was a comprehensive 'thank you for your patience' note on Friday and a promise for some free credits.

They gave me £5 worth.

I'm happy.

£5??!!?

Damn! I only got $5!

[A Lark Ascending]

Things seemed to have settled down now - there was a comprehensive 'thank you for your patience' note on Friday and a promise for some free credits.

They gave me £5 worth.

I'm happy.

£5??!!?

Damn! I only got $5!

"You got five dollars

You're in good conditions

and you've got ambition

that belongs to you.....

etc"

[Free For All]

The Complete Felsted Mainstream Collection, $5.84:

eMusic

Wow, that's a great deal for a LOT of great music! Thanks for the heads-up!

[BFrank]

The Complete Felsted Mainstream Collection, $5.84:

eMusic

Wow, that's a great deal for a LOT of great music! Thanks for the heads-up!

6 hours of music - THAT'S pretty intense!

That's about $1/hour (worth it!)

Edited December 11, 2011 by BFrank

[Free For All]

What's going on with the site? I can't get anything to download. When I try to purchase something the screen just goes blank. I've tried using Firefox, IE and Safari, and reinstalling the download manager. Same result.

This has been going on for quite a while and I'm getting tired of it. According to the emusic message board it's a problem for many customers (who are about to bail).

Anyone alse having this problem? Seems like the issues are on their end.

[sonnymax]

What's going on with the site? I can't get anything to download. When I try to purchase something the screen just goes blank. I've tried using Firefox, IE and Safari, and reinstalling the download manager. Same result.

This has been going on for quite a while and I'm getting tired of it. According to the emusic message board it's a problem for many customers (who are about to bail).

Anyone alse having this problem? Seems like the issues are on their end.

eMusers are always "about to bail". This particular problem appears to have developed yesterday. Since it's the weekend, I suspect everything will be back to normal (i.e., buggy and often annoying) sometime tomorrow. Have you noticed how many off-label, crappy self-produced, and outright non-jazz titles have swamped their jazz section over the past several weeks? I may have said it before, but it's like trying to find something decent in the bargain bins of a discount store. One more thing, I cancelled when my subscription ended at the beginning of January. I did not receive an offer of free credits as an enticement to renew. Kind of hurts when I remember how many times I defended them on the message board. Oh well, as my Mom says, "No good deed goes unpunished".

Edited March 11, 2012 by sonnymax

[A Lark Ascending]

Btw, noticed how many off-label, crappy self-produced, and outright non-jazz titles have swamped their jazz section over the past several weeks. I may have said it before, but it's like trying to find something decent in the bargain bins of a discount store.

This has been a problem for a couple of years now. Dredging through the new release section is a real chore. The trouble is there is so much gold hidden in all the mud on the site.

[sonnymax]

Btw, noticed how many off-label, crappy self-produced, and outright non-jazz titles have swamped their jazz section over the past several weeks. I may have said it before, but it's like trying to find something decent in the bargain bins of a discount store.

This has been a problem for a couple of years now. Dredging through the new release section is a real chore. The trouble is there is so much gold hidden in all the mud on the site.

I agree that there's a lot to mine in them thar hills, especially if you're relatively new to jazz. But I've been "prospecting" for nearly 40 years now, and there's very little "gold" left there for me, certainly not enough to justify a hefty annual subscription.

[A Lark Ascending]

Btw, noticed how many off-label, crappy self-produced, and outright non-jazz titles have swamped their jazz section over the past several weeks. I may have said it before, but it's like trying to find something decent in the bargain bins of a discount store.

This has been a problem for a couple of years now. Dredging through the new release section is a real chore. The trouble is there is so much gold hidden in all the mud on the site.

I agree that there's a lot to mine in them thar hills, especially if you're relatively new to jazz. But I've been "prospecting" for nearly 40 years now, and there's very little "gold" left there for me, certainly not enough to justify a hefty annual subscription.

Oh, I still find myself wandering off on previously unthought of paths and e-music can often provide a fair few recordings - especially good for classical music where tracks are often longer. In the UK they still price by the track, leading to some ridiculous anomalies - 4 CD early jazz sets that cost £15 in the shops going for £40 on e-music while a 4CD classic set rolls in at £10!

I'm also a bit locked in as I took out a large monthly plan on an earlier version which they've honoured; it means I get twice as much music for the money I pay. So a £4 album is actually costing me £2.

[BFrank]

What's going on with the site? I can't get anything to download. When I try to purchase something the screen just goes blank. I've tried using Firefox, IE and Safari, and reinstalling the download manager. Same result.

This has been going on for quite a while and I'm getting tired of it. According to the emusic message board it's a problem for many customers (who are about to bail).

Anyone alse having this problem? Seems like the issues are on their end.

Yeah, I've had that problem for about a week. I looked at the eMusic message board and there are some discussions about it.

If you refresh the screen that you're trying to order from, it should work OK. Clearing your cache couldn't hurt, either.

Annoying, for sure ...

[Free For All]

If you refresh the screen that you're trying to order from, it should work OK. Clearing your cache couldn't hurt, either.

That took care of it. Thank you BF!

[ejp626]

This may have already been discussed, but eMusic (and I guess iTunes) are available up in Canada, but not Amazon mp3 service. There are a fairly small number of albums I wanted from Amazon but can no longer get, so I am thinking of signing up again for eMusic for maybe a month or two.

What concerns me is how prevalent is it that certain CDs are only available in the US but not for Canadian subscribers. I don't think there is any way to know unless I actually do subscribe, and it would be a total drag for these CDs to be "off limits."

Is this mostly an issue with rock/pop, or is it fairly common problem for jazz as well?

[Free For All]

The site was supposed to be closed for a couple hours this morning for maintenance but has been down all day. Must've found a problem.

[A Lark Ascending]

I've heard they had a raid by the Grammar Police. They're having to sort out the punctuation on all those ultra budget labels that have flooded the place.

[mjzee]

Some interesting things just dropped on eMusic:

1) Art Pepper - Complete Galaxy Recordings. 16 discs worth for $45.

2) Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960 Complete (Dragon). All 4 discs for $18.60.

3) Duke Ellington Treasury Shows vol. 16. Two 2-CD sets @ $5.84 each: Part One Part Two

[mjzee]

Bethlehem titles are starting to appear:

Bethlehem - eMusic

[BFrank]

I don't remember if this was mentioned here before, but you can get Joe Farrell's CTI album Outback (CTI Records 40th Anniversary Edition - Original recording remastered) w/Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, Buster Williams, and Airto for $1.94.