I luv me some eMusic

eMusic has been busily adding new albums, labels etc of late. 4400 new records in the last month. This week a whopping 2700 new additions, including 49 Nettwork releases. Other new labels include TVT and Smithsonian Folkways (Lucinda Williams, Woody Gutherie, Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger and Lead Belly). Merge is on board. All DRM free and a whole lot cheaper than iTunes.

And for those seeking fare off the beaten path

1320 Records (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Compass (Allison Brown, Colin Hay, Eddi Reader, Fairport Convention, Glenn Tillborook)
Smith Entertainment (Asleep At The Wheel, Merle Haggard, David Allen Coe)
Wonder Records (Louis Philippe)
Green Linnet (Capercaillie, Kevin Burke)
Amherst (Stylisitcs, Spyrogyra, Solomon Burke)
Document (archival 30's blues)
Gossip, a New Jersey-based dance label that consistently places hits on Billboardâ??s Dance chart (Loleatta Holloway, The Bomb Squad, DJ Kool)
JetStar, a UK-based distributor with hundreds of Jamaican labels and artists (Sizzla, Gregory Issacs, Capleton, Beenie Man, Sanchez, Luciano)
Backwater Records, a new UK-based label that promotes local bands with a folky-country-psychodelic feel (The Future Kings of England, Fuzzface, Blind Poets)
Betterment Letters (Matt Langlois)
Bongo Beat Records (Katrina and Waves, Johnny Dowd)
IRIS Distribution (Megaforce, Reckless, Architecture)
James Finn Music (James Finn)
Night Drive Music Group (Raganova, Alectric) Psychobaby, an aggregator with a strong selection of UK-based artists and Celtic titles (The Durutti Column)
Tiger Mountain Music LLC (Tiger Mountain)
Wonder Records (Christian Harder, Kreidler).

forgot that Sufjan Stevens and Asthmatic Kitty Records are available as well

I have to vouch for this service too. It's unbelievably good.
1)So much great music - was worried about the selection at first… but nope, it gets better every day. Pretty much everything I want is on there.
2)Much better bit rate than iTunes (and no DRM) and
3)So cheap that I don't know how they do it (works out to 25c a track - or less).

and best of all, it's mostly (if not all) non RIAA acts.

Thanks for the tip on this one Kosmo. So glad I signed up!

How about 30+ Sly and Robbie releases via the Taxi label

Originally posted by My Cat Can DJ:
3)So cheap that I don't know how they do it (works out to 25c a track - or less).

and best of all, it's mostly (if not all) non RIAA acts.

You answered your own question.

wading through the list reveals several 2.13.61 release… Rollins spoken word, the Come In & Burn Sessions, and End of Silence Demos

Music download market to heat up

Two of the UK's biggest High Street music stores are to launch download services, to compete in a market dominated by PC and software firms.
Virgin launches its service on Friday 2 September with HMV launching its rival HMV Digital service three days later.

Both rely on a subscription model where users can listen to any music - as long as they keep paying a monthly fee.

Apple's iTunes service, in contrast, asks users to pay per track or album, but sets no time limit.

HMV and Virgin hope that by leveraging their brands, the new services will tempt older music lovers away from CDs and into the digital age of downloading.

All you can eat?

In opting for the subscription system, both stores have followed the lead of iTunes' numerous competitors such as software giant Microsoft and Napster, reborn from the failed file-swapping service of the same name.

HMV and Virgin are each planning to charge £14.99 a month for access to their libraries of more than a million tunes apiece.

As long as the money keeps coming, users should be able to transfer their downloads onto a portable music player - albeit not Apple's market-leading iPod. Virgin is also offering a cheaper, £9.99 option which rules out portable devices.

If they stop paying, however, the music will become unuseable. To hold onto a tune permanently, users will have to pay an additional fee for each track or album.

Most individual tracks will be priced at 79 pence, although HMV says it will offer record labels the option to price new artists at lower rates to attract interest.

"I think in time the public will realise that there is a vast choice available to them," HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said.

"The iPod has been so successful because it is a fashion item as much as anything else, but fashions tend to change in time."

Wide appeal

Possibly to underline the inter-generational appeal of downloading, HMV will be using old rockers The Who and their anthem My Generation as the service's opening fanfare.

HMV's Mr Castaldo said the move was the firm's way to allow people access to a new format for music.

"Since we opened in 1921 we've sold every type of format, now we're providing another way people may want to buy," he told BBC News.

However, some commentators claim that the two stores have taken their time to climb aboard the digital bandwagon.

By July legal downloads for 2005 had topped the 10 million mark, more than double the figure for the whole of last year, according to figures from the BPI.

In the UK downloads make up just 2% of music sales - for the worldwide market the figure is 5% - but such is their popularity that in April this year, downloads of singles were included in the official UK charts for the first time.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4205786.stm

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by My Cat Can DJ:
3)So cheap that I don't know how they do it (works out to 25c a track - or less).

and best of all, it's mostly (if not all) non RIAA acts.

You answered your own question.

Holy s^&*. I totally did! (pats self on the back).

Can the music downloaded from eMusic be played on an iPod?

Originally posted by Arlette:
Can the music downloaded from eMusic be played on an iPod?

It can be played on just about any portable music player out there. It is by far the most universal of legal download sites.

all you need to do is add the mp3s into iTunes manually… kosmette's iPod plays eMusic mp3s without a hitch.

<img src="http://www.forumspile.com/Stop-Dear_God.jpg" alt=" - " />

I joined up several months ago and I'm really glad I did.

They just started putting up some good releases from Stax/Volt that I've been looking for awhile.