Farewell Emusic

I just quit emusic. I first signed up in 2005 with a 100 free mp3s offer, and I’ve had an active account ever since. I’ve loved it over the years, and I’ve recommended it strongly to pretty much everyone I’ve talked to music about. And, apparently, people have listened because I’ve gotten many referral bonuses.

But that’s all changed. A few months ago emusic announced it was getting Sony’s back catalogue, and with that announcement came a slew of changes. Chief among them was a drastic price increase. I used to get 50 downloads for $11.99 a month, and they dropped that down to 30 downloads a month. Amazonmp3′s deals rival that, and i’ve often found myself with too much music to give it all a fair listen.

There are some good things that came with the change, but it isn’t enough to make up for all the bad things. I used to use emusic to discover music… songs were so cheap that i could buy an album from a band i’d never heard anything from before, and not feel the least bit guilty about wasting much money. the community was also indie fans, so i could trust the charts for the most part. but both of those things have changed, and so i don’t see the point in keeping the account.

So this morning after using my final downloads i canceled my account. so long emusic, it was good while it lasted!