In praise of Emusic

There's an interesting article in the Times on the new online music services like AOL's MusicNet and Rhapsody. The author, David Pogue, concludes that these services are too expensive ("No matter which service you try, you'll almost always pay more for an album's worth of music than you would by buying a CD in the store") and laden with confusing DRM (digital rights management) that restrict what you can do with the songs.

Pogue should've tried Emusic (full disclosure: I'm a subscriber) which gives you unlimited downloads of high-quality MP3s for a fairly low monthly subscription rate (about the cost of one CD). And there's no DRM whatsoever.

They also offer a nifty download manager that lets you download entire albums at a time and sorts and names files however you want. And compared to Kazaa, the download speeds are incredibly fast.

If Emusic has a downside, it's their catalogue. There's a good collection of indie, punk, emo and electronic artists, but the catalogue still has many holes. Occasionally you'll find a break-out bands like The Hives and The Donnas. And you can get most albums from bands like Pavement, Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Yo La Tengo, and Guided by Voices. Their selection in certain sub-genres, like emo, is actually quite complete. So if your tastes lean in that direction, Emusic is a great service.

(And even though it's sparse in spots, the Emusic catalogue is quite eclectic. Currently in their top five: Noam Chomsky, CCR and Thelonius Monk.)

But the real reason I hype Emusic is their model: unlimited downloads, high-quality MP3s, no DRM, low subscription fee and the artists get paid. If enough people joined (even for a year), Emusic might be able to take on some of these expensive, DRM-heavy industry-backed services. This battle shouldn't be decided by which service has Britney Spears in their catalogue, but by which service gives music fans the most control.