eMusic.com…MP3 Downloads for a Decent Price

As much as I love the internet, my favorite thing in the world is downloading music. I found and joined a website called eMusic.com earlier this month and I’ve gone from about 6g of music to over 8g in that timeframe.

eMusic offers a wide range of titles and artists. It stockpiles a lot of older tunes, Big band/swing, jazz and classical. It’s an awesome place to shop around for all those operas you just can’t find for a decent price anywhere else. They also have several different versions of any given track.

They offer a trial period for free, for 25 downloads. After that, you can chose from different levels of access. The service is subscription-based on a download-per-month basis.
The Basic subscription is 9.99 per month. You receive 40 downloads per month. I got my free 25 then blew my first month of forty in about 3 weeks.

Like I said, I love music.

The Plus subscription is 14.99 per month and you get 65 downloads. The Premium is 19.99 per month and it comes with 90 downloads.
eMusic also offers yearly subscriptions, a deal which is sweetened with a free MP3 player. The site is currently offering a 20% discount on a one year Basic, Plus, or Premium subscription, as well as a 25% discount on a 2 year subscription.

While I was overjoyed with a lot of the tunes I found here, there is one thing that makes me glad I downgraded to the Save offer. It’s eMusic Lite for 5.99 for 3 months.

Anyone who loves music knows what they like and what they’ve been searching for all over the place. We know what our favorite artists and tunes sound like. Nobody does the Star Wars Imperial March like the London Symphony Orchestra. With that in mind, the very small fault I can find with eMusic is the fact that many of their available tracks are done by alternate artists.

For example, I was in hot pursuit of Jungle Boogie by Kool & The Gang, a popular funk and pop band from the 70s and 80s. Well, I found Jungle Boogie, and I was delighted with the sample I heard of it. When I got the whole thing and listened to it, I knew it wasn’t Kool. It’s a good remake, almost right, but any music we grew up listening to has a certain ring to it.

Aside from that, the lack of modern artists is frustrating. However, they offer a great many independents. They also distribute for a sister company, The Orchard.

Overall, I enjoy eMusic. I have the Superman Suite, the Star Wars Suite, The Barber of Seville, the Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven’s 5th and 9th.

I have to wait until next month before I can download anything else, but I have 65 tunes I couldn’t find anywhere else.

I’d say that’s a good haul.