Well worthy of a high spot in our top ten list of online music services is eMusic.com. This well established service offers a great variety of features and a wide range of tracks from artists you have heard of and many whom you haven't. It's unique pricing plan also means that you can download tracks for a lot cheaper than you will find them elsewhere.
eMusic's big selling point is that it is a great way to discover new music. Its music library contains loads of tracks from small independent labels that a lot of people won't have heard of. However, you won't find the latest releases from the big labels here due to licensing issues. That's not to say there aren't lots of artists you have heard of though; they have Johnny Cash's whole back catalogue, Jimi Hendrix and the Wu Tang Clan to name a few from different genres. What's more, if you really know your indie music you can find tracks from some of the bigger, but not yet widely known, names on the scene. Explosions in the Sky or Okkervil River anyone?
Where eMusic excels though is the way in which it helps you discover new music. All you have to do is type in your favourite band or artist and even if eMusic doesn't have anything by them you will instantly get some suggestions on what you might like instead. Often these will be artists you have never heard of but soon grow to love. We particularly liked the widget that tells you all the different connections an artist has. For example we learned that Johnny Cash performed songs by Merle Travis, was influenced by Hank Williams and had formal connections with Bob Dylan. This is a great way to expand your musical knowledge and really get stuck in to an artist's back catalogue.
eMusic doesn't offer much in the way of downloadable software to organise your tunes, but does offer a download manager so that you don't have any problems saving tracks you buy. This is a fairly easy to use product which has all the usual features you would expect from a download manager. You can also download the eMusic toolbar for Internet Explorer or Firefox which gives you direct access to the search facilities and a free track to download every day.
The rest of the music library is accessed through a web browser. The interface is very clean and simple, but still provides lots of information. When you select an artist you are immediately presented with their whole discography, any compilation albums they are on as well as lists of music by other members who like the artist. This might all sound a bit overwhelming but the information is presented in such a way that it's easily manageable and intuitive to use.
Regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM), all of the music tracks and audio books eMusic offers are DRM free. This means you own the track and are free to burn it to CD or copy it to a portable player as many times as you like.
What about value for money?
Well, eMusic's membership plans are all geared towards how many tracks you think you will download each month and work out as follows:
eMusic Basic offers 30 downloads per month for $11.99. That's about $0.40 per track.
eMusic Plus offers 50 downloads per month for $14.99. That's about $0.30 per track.
eMusic Premium offers 75 downloads per month for $19.99. That's about $0.26 per track.
You can also add audio book downloads to your plan at a rate of $9.99 for one or $19.99 for two.
Download counts are reset every thirty days and they don't roll over between months. If you run out of downloads you can add booster packs, which last for 90 days, at the following rates:
10 songs for $5.99
30 songs for $14.99
50 songs for $19.99
This unique pricing scheme means that you are getting tracks for much cheaper than you would in other online music stores, but if you don't use your full download quota each month it could be a waste of money.
eMusic is a great service for people who are really into discovering new music or want to swot up on some music history. You won't find cheaper prices anywhere, in our opinion, but then you also won't find the latest Britney Spears tracks either. If you are serious about music and want to move away from the commercial mainstream eMusic is the service for you.
