Us v. Them, Over and Over Again

So eMusic has just announced a partnership with Sony to host 200,000 albums from Sony's back catalogue (albums released in the last two years are not included). Sounds good, right? Well, there's a catch. As a result, subscribers have been hit with a huge price increase. My effective plan has increased the price per track by 33%, while some customers are seeing increases as high as 75%. Apparently everyone at eMusic thinks this is a great idea, despite the fact that everyone who already subscribes to eMusic thinks it's terrible. I posted a response to CEO Danny Stein's blog post here. If you don't feel like clicking through, here's what I had to say:

I admit I’m not adding anything new to the conversation, but I think it’s important that you know just how many of your current customers are disappointed with this decision. I’ve been a huge fan of your service and it’s one of the first places I go to find new music. Usually, I’ll hear a great track or two from a new band or album on one of my favorite music blogs and head right over to eMusic to see if I can get the whole album. With the emphasis on music discovery, I’ve usually found a couple more albums to fill out my monthly quota in just a few hours. It’s a great way for me to hear new music in an affordable way and to contribute to new artists.

It’s not very often that I download classic albums from this service. I don’t need this service to help me find Nebraska or Highway 61 Revisited, and I’m not happy paying a premium price so that other users have that capability.

I’ve read before that artists using your service see a profit of about 30 cents per track. I don’t have a source to cite and it doesn’t really matter to me if that number is 100% accurate. However, it makes me wonder what kind of deal Sony is getting if you’ve now pushed the basic plan cost to consumers to 50 cents per track. It was my original belief that the eMusic was looking to expand their catalogue on their own terms by having the majors agree to the established pricing structure. Keep in mind that Sony isn’t giving license to the bulk of their popular holdings, only to the long tail.

In my opinion, if Sony thinks it’s special enough that it can demand a higher price for a collection whose average quality isn’t anything special, then they continue to try to market and sell their music through traditional channels. If they concede that eMusic offers a collection of highly enthusiastic music fans who are willing to spend a lot more money on affordable music, then I’d be happy to let them play our game on our terms. It could be a lot of fun. As it stands though, I’m much happier playing without the cool kids that demand all the attention.

By the way, kudos on establishing album pricing. I was hoping for 10-track policy rather than 12, but it’s a much awaited improvement.