Emusic.com

strangeotron

Is this site trustworthy? Are there any better competitors in terms of value? I know their choice is more eclectic, but i'm not interested in chart music at all. I don't care for Itunes nor Amazon because their prices are ridiculous for mp3 downloads.

-TangleFoot-

eMusic is a subscription service; suggest you check these out instead.

strangeotron

So you don't know anything about eMusic then? I made it clear I don't want to use those other sites because £8 for a download is absurd.

-TangleFoot-

strangeotron wrote: »

So you don't know anything about eMusic then? I made it clear I don't want to use those other sites because £8 for a download is absurd.

eMusic is reputable, but I have an aversion to subscription-based things. Your mileage may vary; I for one am perfectly willing to pay up to a tenner for an album if I like the contents enough.

strangeotron

It's not really the contents thats the issue. It's the format. Paying so much for a digital format imo is outrageous. That it's expensive as well is a problem. I don't want to subscribe epecially but the only other choice isn't legal.

-TangleFoot-

Red Book (audio CD) is digitally encoded too. If you want analogue you're pretty much stuck with vinyl.

Some resellers also provide a portion of their catalogue in lossless formats such as FLAC. What kinds of things are you looking for?

strangeotron

Quality isn't what I'm asking about. Just the relaibility and security of the site.

-TangleFoot-

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

I've been getting most of my music from 7digital and Amazon UK, with the odd purchase from Bandcamp and other less well-known sources... like the artists' own web pages.

As is the case with most e-tailers financial transactions are conducted over HTTPS whilst downloads are mostly one-time-only affairs. A reasonably stable internet connection is a necessity.

7digital in particular is a little slow sometimes and prices are generally higher than elsewhere... but they do provide download links and streaming services for your purchases should your own backups suddenly vanish.

erasion

I was a member of emusic for years and only stopped due to a drop in my income, otherwise I would still be using it (I still have my list of albums I want to download on my desktop).

The 42p/track price is certainly lower then pretty much everyone else, the selection of music is fantastic if you want non-mainstream stuff, and the customer service I received was excellent. Just make sure you are aware of the charging dates as (unless it has changed) unused credit does not carry over month-to-month.

All of that said, it's still worth keeping an eye on sites like Amazon which will sometimes have albums cheaper (e.g. £3.00 for a 10 track album which would be £4.20 on emusic).

jenniewb

Emusic is a subscription service, make sure you keep up your subscription or you lose all your music. I took up an offer with groupon a while back for 6 months emusic for £18 and was told I could keep so many tunes a month.

I left after 6 months and a further 6 months later all the music I'd purchased would no longer play.

The site had been helpful to me in the past, answering questions and resolving issues I had but as to being a site I'd use again? Nope. I also would suggest looking through the music they offer first because there is a lot that is not on there.

-TangleFoot-

jenniewb wrote: »

I left after 6 months and a further 6 months later all the music I'd purchased would no longer play.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Napster or something? eMusic doesn't appear to use DRM.