Category — 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!

This month’s batch of downloads….

The Power of Love by Early November. A single from the Punk Goes 80′s compilation.

Laura Gibson-Beasts of Seasons

David Bazan-American Flags EP

Ferraby Lionheart-Catch the Brass Ring

The song While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro (from his album Gently Weeps)

Katie Herzig & Matthew Perryman Jones single Where the Road Meets the Sun

The Mountain Goats-The Sunset Tree

Joe Pug-Nation of Heat EP

The Avett Brothers-The Gleam

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Another month, another 50 downloads…

Andrew Bird-emusic exclusive bonus track ‘Take Courage’, to append on Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast (which I got from amazonmp3 for 2.99)

Greg Laswell-Through Toledo

The Nadas-The Ghosts Inside These Halls

Faunts-Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.

Nick Flora & Film at Eleven-Great Escape

Bon Iver-For Emma, Forever Ago

Now if you’re a nitpicky/attention to details sort of person, you might notice that totals 51 downloads. that’s because one of them was free… because emusic offers a free song every day, and they’re often enough really good, which lead me to get the rest of the album. Just another reason to sign up for 50 free downloads.

Just days after re-initiating my emusic account, and I’ve already used everything up.

Pierce Pettis-That Kind of Love

Bon Iver-Blood Bank

My favorite artists’ tracks from the Dark Was the Night compilation. I intend to get the rest, but didn’t have the downloads for it this month. Here are the songs I got…

• Feist + Ben Gibbard-Train Song
• The National-So Far Around the Bend
• The Decemberists-Sleepless
• Iron & Wine-Die
• Sufjan Stevens-You Are the Blood
• Arcade Fire-Lenin
• Beirut-Mimizan
• Stuart Murdoch-Another Saturday

So that polishes off my 50 downloads. Sign up to get 50 free downloads yourself!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve listed any of my emusic downloads. Part of that was just my sabbatical, part of it was that I suspended my account for a few months. I started it up again today, mostly because new M. Ward and new Beirut music. Great stuff. I’ve sort of kept track of what I’ve downloaded the last seven months, and here are the standouts, in no particular order…

M. Ward-Hold Time

Beirut-March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland
This is a split album/double ep type thing. The first half is Beirut, the second half is Zac Condon’s old band Realpeople’s ep Holland.

Waterdeep-Pink & Blue

Stars-Sad Robots EP

Anathallo-Canopy Glow

Danielson-Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Choppin’ Block

She Swings She Sways-Wasted Love Songs

The Welcome Wagon-Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

David Mead-Indiana

Andrew Bird-Noble Beast

As usual, check out my ever-growing list of recommendations on emusic, and sign up for 50 free downloads.

since my last update, I have downloaded….

Ron Sexsmith-Exit Strategy of the Soul

Draco and the Malfoys-Draco and the Malfoys

Jingle Spells: Leaky’S Rocking Christmas 2007, which includes all the popular wizard rock bands.

The Hold Steady-Stay Positive

Whew… I failed in keeping you, my good readers, updated on what I’ve purchased on emusic lately. Two and a half months. Well, lucky for you (or maybe not), I have kept up with everything I’ve downloaded since then. So, here’s the list in all it’s glory (and ordered by date downloaded (earliest to most recent)):

single,Don McLean-American Pie (from Rearview Mirror)

My Teenage Stride-Lesser Demons

The Frames-For the Birds

The Weepies-Hideaway

Colour Revolt-Plunder, Beg, and Curse
Since there are so many I’m not commenting on most of these downloads, but I have to note this one. Avoid it. One song was a free download, and I liked it okay and downloaded the whole album. I haven’t been able to listen through the whole thing yet.

My Brightest Diamond-Inside a Boy EP

My Brightest Diamond-Bring Me the Workhorse

Ben Sollee-If You’re Gonna Lead My Country EP

Caleb Carruth-Darkness Falls

Abigail Washburn-Songs of the Traveling Daughter

A couple singles from P.M. Dawn’s greatest hits… Looking through Patiest Eyes and I’d Die Without You.

A few Joan Jett singles… I Love Rock N’ Roll and Louie, Louie from the I Love Rock N’ Roll album, and Bad Reputation from the album of the same title.
I got these songs for sentimental reasons, and I’m shocked at the content. I was listening to these songs as a kid… and I don’t know if its good or bad that I had no idea what they were about.

Mike Garrigan-The Promise of Summer

Josh Rouse-Country Mouse, City House

The Weepies-Happiness

single, Derek Webb-I Believe from Life Is Precious: A Wes King Tribute

The Billions-Never Felt This Way Before

My Greatest Diamond-A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

Steve Tannen-Stopped at a Green Light

Deb Talon-A Bird Flies Out

single, Liz Phair-Never Said from Exile in Guyville

single, Gillian Welch-Black Star (a Radiohead cover)

Laura Cantrell-Trains and Boats and Planes EP

Steve Tannen-Big Senorita

Dinosaur Jr-Beyond

Check out my ever-growing list of recommendations on emusic, and sign up for 50 free downloads.

Boy, I’ve even gotten behind on my emusic downloads, haven’t I? I can’t even remember exactly what I’ve gotten. But I do know that I have a bonus pack that is nearing it’s end that I need to use (and have been using), and just got another 50 from someone signing up through my referral (Thanks!), and those need to be used by July 12th, I think it was. So there will be no shortage of new music in the coming months.

Here’s what I remember downloading recently…

Stars-Set Yourself On Fire
It’s okay, but I like it less than their more recent release, In Our Bedroom After the War.

Some Rolling Stones singles, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. I’m not a fan of the Stones, but these are songs that I’m familiar with and figure it’d be good to buy ‘em.

Emily Jane White-Dark Undercoat
I got a free song from this album through iTunes, and liked it enough to get the album.

Andrew Bird-Soldier On
I really liked his last album, Armchair Apocrypha, so I knew I’d get this EP at some point. And I did.

Matt Wertz-Somedays
I used to talk with Matt on AIM waaay back in the day, when he was just starting to write his own songs. I always liked several songs that ended up on this record, and never got around to buying it. Emusic made it easy.

Colin Meloy-Colin Meloy Sings Live!
This is the lead singer from The Decemberists, which I also really like. He did a tour a few years ago all by his lonesome, and these songs were recorded then. One of them was on Paste Magazine’s latest sampler. I probably would have got it anyhow, but hearing that song whet my ears.

I also got a choir singing GK Chesterton’s hymn, O God of Earth and Altar. The quality is horrible, but the song is so good I couldn’t resist having a recording of it (for 25 cents).

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Jason Collett-Here’s To Being Here
I got a free song from this album on amazon, and liked it enough to get the whole thing. So I didn’t get all the tracks from emusic… why buy a song I already own? But emusic has an exclusive bonus track, so it’s still 12 songs from emusic.

download count: 30

Downloads refreshed, and I’m using them up.

Andrew Osenga – The Morning
I know, I know… I should have had this long ago. For those not familiar, Andrew Osenga is currenlty a member of the band Caedmon’s Call, and was once in the band The Normals. Good stuff.

I also got a few singles from Mr. Osenga. The two bonus tracks on the remastered version of Photographs, The High School Band (acoustic version) and New Mexico (late-night piano version), and also the regular version of High School Band from that album. I already own the original version of the album, but I wanted to see if I could hear the difference on the remaster.
Then, I also got a single from Matthew Perryman Jones called Save You.

Download Count: 18

Matthew Perryman Jones – Throwing Punches in the Dark
MPJ’s music has been on my list to get for some time now, but never high enough priority to buy a cd. Which put him sort of in limbo. I discovered today that he’s on emusic, and so, hey, nothing’s stopping me now. And, this album is ten tracks, which just happens to be my remaining download count. So yay! And downloads refresh on Thursday, and I’ve already got a couple albums pegged to download.

Download Count: 40-that’s a wrap!

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Boys Noise: My Moon My Man
Just a single again, this time a remix of a Feist song. I’ve never heard of the band remixing it, and the remix is pretty crazy. For $.25 I thought I’d give it a shot, since Feist has become one of my favorite artists since my introduction to her several years ago. Such that I spent real money for me and Megan to go see her in Charlottesville next month.

Download Count: 30