eMusic launches European store
The 2nd largest music e-tailer in the US (11% vs the iTMS’ 88%) is making its debut in the European continent. eMusic, which sells independent label music in the plain ol’ DRM-free MP3 format, is selling three types of monthly subscriptions:
- eMusic Basic: 40 song downloads per month / €12.99 per month / £8.99 per month
- eMusic Plus: 65 song downloads per month / €16.99 per month / £11.99 per month
- eMusic Premium: 90 song downloads per month / €20.99 per month / £14.99 per month
If you’re using the Plus plan, this means each song is costing you €0.26/£0.18—compared to the €0.99/£0.79 of the iTunes Music Store.
You don’t have to type a special address to enter the UK/EU branch of eMusic—logging on to emusic.com will automatically redirect you to the right store.
Not being a huge fan of indie music, I wasn’t among the target audience, but I signed up nonetheless, the line of reasoning being something along the lines of “hey, the White Stripes and a few other cool bands are there, so it’s worth exploring”. Also? Free—no strings attached—trial with a gift.
They’re offering 25 free downloads just for trying the service, so you’ve got nothing to lose—give it a shot.
Further reading
- Euro debut for iTunes challenger [bbc.co.uk]
- EMusic’s pitch: Download song—and own it [usatoday.com]
Further browsing
Other DRM-free music stores include:
- AllofMP3 (by far the best option out there—huge catalog, and you get to pick the encoding on the resulting DRM-free music files)
- Magnatune
- BLEEP
- Audio Lunchbox
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Oooh a math question @ 11.15pm, now that’s nasty
Thanks for the heads up on emusic. I usually use AllofMp3, which is just excellent value, but you can’t get much better than free, so I signed up!
Found twoalbums to download – Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Violet Burning – awesome: total blast from the past, so thanks for the info!
Andy
...added by Andy /// September 28th, 2006 at 01:18 AM
Hey Andy: you’re welcome! I’ve found some decent stuff on eMusic too—totally worth the free trial.
...added by Konstantinos Christidis /// September 29th, 2006 at 23:08 PM
I’ve been with emusic.com for over 5 years and highly recommend it to anyone who listens to more than just the mainstream.
...added by dpunk /// October 28th, 2006 at 19:24 PM