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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Reluctant freeloader [Music]

Buying music over the internet isn't an especially new thing. One of my most treasured CDs is one I bought years and years ago direct from the record label using CompuServe. Now sadly deleted, the album is by the great jazz guitarist Emily Remler, who created some of the most delicious jazz in her short life. I've wanted to complete my catalogue of her music for ages, but it can be hard to find all the albums.

So imagine my delight when I visited EMusic on Tuesday evening and found that they had almost her whole catalogue online as MP3s. The big problem with EMusic is their subscription model. I'm sure there are many people who enjoy their whole catalogue of alternative performers and are pleased to pay $14.99/month for a minimum of 3 months for unlimited downloads, but I'm not one of them. I just wanted Emily's music.

Fortunately, EMusic have an offer allowing free download of up to 50 tracks, and omitting the albums I already own that allowed me to download all of the Emily Remler I needed. I would gladly have paid them for it but there was just no way to do it without taking an open-ended subscription commitment. So I gratefully accepted their '50 free' offer, downloaded the music and then cancelled my subscription.

Am I the only one in this position, or will EMusic change their model now they finally have some decent competition from the brilliant-but-flawed iTunes?

posted at 12:31 PM (UK) | |