emusic?

[Dave2002]

A few years ago I joined emusic - and for some time I enjoyed their offerings. Some of their tracks were cheap, and I managed to become more familiar with some quite interesting music. As with some other download services, the audio quality has been variable.

Sometimes they had some really good bargains, so that even if the audio quality wasn't the greatest, the pieces/tracks were well worth having. Some examples included Mariss Jansons in Mahler 2, and also Klaus Tennstedt in the same work. Both of these are still available for under £3.
Around a year ago they changed their pricing model slightly, and they also altered their policy on re-downloads, which seemed unreasonable, given that the ability to re-download was something they had emphasised in their promotional pages. [I've just discovered that some of my downloaded tracks have been stored in a folder PENDING DELETE - now being rescued!]

I've been thinking of pulling out of this service for quite a while now, and maybe it's time to let go of this. I might be tempted to stay if the audio quality were higher, but audio quality doesn't seem to be anything that services like emusic, Napster, Spotify really concentrate on, which is why I still buy CDs and DVDs. There are now so many cheap CD offers that using download services could be pointless. Streaming services are still useful to sample before buying music on CDs.

What do others think? Are there still enough offerings in emusic to justify staying?

[antongould]

Like you I keep thinking of giving up on emusic - especially since the new rules you mention were introduced. The In Terra Pax Christmas anthology mentioned on various other threads is on emusic for over £7 - I got it as a CD from Amazon for under a fiver. Worse still the Finzi track cannot be downloaded from emusic on its own you have to download the whole CD!!
But if I want to sample a symphony praised here or elsewhere I can usually do so for £1.68 - not bad.

I currently do not have the "level" of equipment that others will have and so sound quality is, to me, not such an issue.

[DublinJimbo]

I gave up on eMusic long ago, principally because of the original change to their pricing model which came into effect when they changed hands.

There are several much better alternatives available, including download options direct from record labels themselves (Hyperion is an excellent example of the latter). Currently, my most frequently visited download site is Qobuz, an excellent French site which offers downloads from an extensive range of labels. Originally, Qobuz was an even better bet, since they offered both MP3 and CD-quality downloads for the same price (CD-quality now attracts a premium). Another interesting alternative is eClassical, which is based in Sweden and, not surprisingly, leans heavily towards BIS recordings. Their pricing model is unique: rather than charge a flat rate per album/track, they base their prices on playing length (they describe their approach much better themselves than I ever could).

There are many more sites, but I would suggest these three as starting points, all of which I use regularly, and all of which provide excellent service.

[mathias broucek]

I'm less keen than I was - mainly because their site keeps going wrong since the relaunch. (Although the free credits they gave me let me get the Messiean orchestral box with Camberling.)

I keep paying £11.99 for 50 downloads which will fund 5-10 albums per month which is obviously v cheap. I use it mainly for historical stuff (I got a fab Barbirolli Resurrection and Eroica recently) and for orchestra labels (BR, LSO, RCO etc). I do wish they'd up their bit rates but it all sounds ok on headphones or in the car.

I may leave if the unreliability continues and/or if prices go up.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i have been a regular user for some years but now am seriously thinking of giving up .... track name lengths [long ones fail to download], the non carrying forward of unused dowwnloads from one month to the next and the vast number of repackaged jazz are all disincentives ....yet i am still looking to download this month's set ....

[Dave2002]

Like you I keep thinking of giving up on emusic - especially since the new rules you mention were introduced. The In Terra Pax Christmas anthology mentioned on various other threads is on emusic for over £7 - I got it as a CD from Amazon for under a fiver. Worse still the Finzi track cannot be downloaded from emusic on its own you have to download the whole CD!!
But if I want to sample a symphony praised here or elsewhere I can usually do so for £1.68 - not bad.

I currently do not have the "level" of equipment that others will have and so sound quality is, to me, not such an issue.

Anton

I believe I just ordered that In Terra Pax CD from zavvi - still waiting though!

Re your audio - have you thought of trying headphones? They have good and bad points. They may become uncomfortable over time - and (like Tony Hancock in the Radio Ham) - may make your ears get hot - and sweaty(?). It's not worth trying really cheap ones, and it's hard to recommend a price point - but there are some in the range £20-£35 which are acceptably good, and some in the range £40-£60 which may be better, and you should be able to get something really acceptable for under £100. After that you'd probably find that you'd need to use a headphone amplifier to get the best out of headphones, and then you might want to go for some seriously expensive headphones.

There are, of course, good and bad things re headphones, including the sound quality. It is fairly easy to get quality levels which should equal or exceed what you'd get with speakers. Some headphones show a lot of detail, but the downside is that they may also highlight recording and equipment quality problems. My point is, though, that a relatively low outlay might bring a much higher level of audio quality within reach.

Back to emusic. Is it worth compiling a list of tracks/CDs which others have found to be worthwhile on emusic?

I'd nominate the two Mahler Resurrection symphonies - Tennstedt and Jansons. Because of the pricing structure, emusic is reasonable value on long works with few tracks. I'm wondering whether to try Jansons' Mahler 3 in the same way.

Johnny Axelsson's Stockhausen CD - with Zyklus - is another - an interesting album and a reasonable price.

Impulse, an album by the Percussion Arts Quartet of Wurzburg is another with quite a few tracks, and relatively high price,
but it's otherwise hard to get. It is available as a download from Amazon, but will cost more.
The CD is no longer available, and both new (old stock?) and second hand prices are high.

Some Chandos CDs work out well too - though there are sometimes problems with the "Album only" downloads. Grechaninov symponies are one area where there is "value" to be had. It's worth cross checking between the Chandos catalogue and emusic.

Hans Rott's symphony is interesting, and comes in at 4 tracks - under £2.

Leif Segerstam has written many symphonies. Possibly not all great, but you could try, for example, Symphony 17 for 84p. [Not sure that I've heard that, but I've tried some of the others - mostly similar!]

Per Norgård and Rued Langgaard are also worth exploring.

PS: When I joined I picked up some really good Myaskovsky tracks - may not be so available or cheap now. However, it is possible to get Rostropovich playing Myaskovsky's Cello concerto with Sargent for 84p, and Alexander Ivashkin's version from Chandos is also worthwhile coupled with Symphony 27.