While Rhapsody and other online services are chomping for a piece of the pie, eMusic quietly has become the #2 online mp3 seller, behind the iTunes music store. Not dealing with major labels is one of the reasons why. USA Today wrote a story abou thtem.
Like Napster and Rhapsody, eMusic is a subscription service. Unlike those of its competitors, eMusic customers fully own the songs after downloading, with no restrictions. How does it do that? EMusic’s songs are unprotected MP3s, which means they play on any device. Rivals sell copy-protected songs aimed at preventing unauthorized trading on file-sharing networks.
EMusic’s supplying labels don’t worry about such trading because eMusic users tend to be older, sophisticated music fans who are less likely to engage in online song-swapping.
eMusic has been great for Sunken Treasure, the donewaiting.com record label. Our bands are on it: Miranda Sound’s Western Reserve | The Celebrity Pilot’s Beneath the Pavement, A Beach!
I swear by emusic these days. I have found out about SO much great music this way.
And it’s CHEAP.