eMusic Reaches 300,000 Subscribers | Great, Now How About Improving eMusic Live?

by whitperson on Apr 20, 07

in News

emusic.jpgAs CD sales continue to plunge, it’s nice to hear more good news about digital music stores. Congrats to eMusic for reaching 300,000 subscribers, which they announced earlier this week.

I really like my eMusic subscription. it provides me with a nice, reasonably-priced way to check out new music and independent bands. I offered a similar post to congratulate eMusic’s 100 millionth download (back in December when I was still running LMM). I like the eMusic model and have already downloaded a ton of tracks that I might not have discovered on my own.

But after being an eMusic subscriber for some time — and a live music fanatic for even longer — I have an eMusic gripe:

What’s with the weak catalog for eMusic live?

Read more after the jump…


What’s going on here? I haven’t seen anything new added to eMusic Live for months. Why has eMusic Live gotten so over-looked in comparison to other areas of their catalog? Do they think their subscribers don’t like live music? Are they too set on album-centric Indie Rock?

eMusic, I still love ya. But as a loyal subscriber, I’d like to see you expand your live offerings. So, here’s my crazy suggestion: try partnering with Nugs.net and its LiveDownloads.com sites.

Now I realize that Brad Serling’s little jamband soundboard empire might not really need eMusic. But I think a partnership could bring some solid benefits to both eMusic and Nugs.net. eMusic could quickly gain a core group of new subscribers by listing some key bands from the LiveDownloads catalog. Most of the fans of these bands are not only live music fans, but are generally prodigious music fans in general. Also, I think these fans would really embrace the idea of having a subscription model for their favorite bands’ concert recordings.

LiveDownloads.com might not have quite as much to gain in this partnership, but I think they could certainly make some gains by selling in bulk and gaining a lot more attention. One of my issues with the LiveDownloads model is that I just don’t always want to spend a full $10 on a show. With a subscription model, I know I’d be much more likely to grab a random concert recording of a band I’ve never heard before or download multiple shows from some of my favorites live acts. Who knows, Nugs.net might even attract some different types of bands into the livedownloads.com network?

Any other eMusic subscribers out there feel the same way?

Related posts:

Tagged as:

  • http://www.smoe.org/woj/ woj

    i wrote emusic about emusic live and the response i got was, paraphrased, “we are not planning on adding any new recordings to the series.” which is quite unfortunate. they still have enough exclusive offerings and they’re excellent for picking up albums that i kinda want but wouldn’t actually buy the cd for, but i imagine the well will run dry eventually….

  • http://www.smoe.org/woj/ woj

    i wrote emusic about emusic live and the response i got was, paraphrased, “we are not planning on adding any new recordings to the series.” which is quite unfortunate. they still have enough exclusive offerings and they’re excellent for picking up albums that i kinda want but wouldn’t actually buy the cd for, but i imagine the well will run dry eventually….

  • http://www.smoe.org/woj/ woj

    i wrote emusic about emusic live and the response i got was, paraphrased, “we are not planning on adding any new recordings to the series.” which is quite unfortunate. they still have enough exclusive offerings and they’re excellent for picking up albums that i kinda want but wouldn’t actually buy the cd for, but i imagine the well will run dry eventually….

  • damien

    That’s funny, I got a survey from eMusic this weekend and some of the questions were about improving eMusic Live, if I recall correctly.

  • bob

    I am thinking about joining . Below are the comments I sent to eMusic .

    I am really hesitant to join and I’m afraid there will be difficulties if I want to quit . The whole manner of the website seems deceptive .
    Would you let someone in marketing know that I think ( and I’m sure many others) don’t like the way the web site tries to get you to sign up before looking at the catalog . It makes me very suspicious of the company , also sending emails that say 1 more day left to try the free subscription which is not true . All these things together cause me to be very suspicious of eMusic .

    –bob rawlings

  • bob

    I am thinking about joining . Below are the comments I sent to eMusic .

    I am really hesitant to join and I’m afraid there will be difficulties if I want to quit . The whole manner of the website seems deceptive .
    Would you let someone in marketing know that I think ( and I’m sure many others) don’t like the way the web site tries to get you to sign up before looking at the catalog . It makes me very suspicious of the company , also sending emails that say 1 more day left to try the free subscription which is not true . All these things together cause me to be very suspicious of eMusic .

    –bob rawlings

  • bob

    I am thinking about joining . Below are the comments I sent to eMusic .

    I am really hesitant to join and I’m afraid there will be difficulties if I want to quit . The whole manner of the website seems deceptive .
    Would you let someone in marketing know that I think ( and I’m sure many others) don’t like the way the web site tries to get you to sign up before looking at the catalog . It makes me very suspicious of the company , also sending emails that say 1 more day left to try the free subscription which is not true . All these things together cause me to be very suspicious of eMusic .

    –bob rawlings

  • damien

    That's funny, I got a survey from eMusic this weekend and some of the questions were about improving eMusic Live, if I recall correctly.

Previous post:

Next post: