[ipodfan]

Originally Posted by ballth

Hi Dave, Nightfly & others,
Hopefully this info about eMusic is helpful to you folks here. Nightfly posted:

A month or so ago I posted a link that allows you to sign up for a trial subscription to eMusic getting 100 downloads instead of the customary 25. Here is the link for those who would like to try it:

eMusic Picks » Blog Archive » 100 Free Downloads from eMusic, instead of regular 25



I agree with Nightfly here. Don't abuse the system. A site like eMusic is a cool find. They have a great selection of tunes available if you are willing to search for them. Please treat them kindly...

Thanks,
ballth

I had to jump in and join Nightfly and Dave in recommending eMusic. I've been using them for several years and people are always asking me wherever did I find that particular artist, they have an incredible catalogue, especially in Latin music. I never have trouble filling my monthly quota of 65 DL and I've already gone through one booster pack. I tried their new downloader by the way right at the beginning and it was full of bugs. I'll have to try it again, it sounds like they've fixed it.

iPofan

[Dave C]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

Dave,

The the answer is 19.99 USD for 75 DLs.....
I was not aware of their Euro pricing...glad we discussed this and we
can all ask why are the prices higher for Euro. customers.
what is 20 usd in pounds (how do you make a pounds symbol on the keyboard?)
Lets get on this right away...
and we'll ask Squash to chime in and
ask him his experiences in pricing and ask him if he thinks it fair..
OK Squash..thanks.

We'll continue this..

Take care,

So it is approximately half the price in the US compared to Europe (well the UK at least), that is a bit disappointing. I have a general question which applies to i-tunes as well as e-music (although it is obviously alot less relevant to i-tunes for some obvious reason). Can I set up an account using a UK credit card but have the website think I am from the US and hence pay the US rates. Now I have effectively done this for the amazon download site, as all they want is a US address, and for some strange reason Amazon do not care that my credit card is not registered at that address, or even country. I am only guessing, but I think it will not be as simple to do this with e-music (I know that you can not do it with i-tunes because I tried ages ago). Having said that, I did not try using any 'TOR' tricks, but I guess this would still not work if it comes down to where my credit card is registered (again, I am only guessing about this). Has anyone ever tried this (successfully or not) or does anyone have any other ideas for fooling e-music into thinking I am a US customer
Cheers,
Dave C

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by ipodfan

I had to jump in and join Nightfly and Dave in recommending eMusic. I've been using them for several years and people are always asking me wherever did I find that particular artist, they have an incredible catalogue, especially in Latin music. I never have trouble filling my monthly quota of 65 DL and I've already gone through one booster pack. I tried their new downloader by the way right at the beginning and it was full of bugs. I'll have to try it again, it sounds like they've fixed it.

iPofan

Yes Ipodfan, The new down-loader is great...and the bugs I read about, have
been worked out...Mine is working fine...And if you can believe it..it's even faster than the old one (which was pretty darn fast) and the interface
is very nice with many options.
As you know I love Latin music have you found anything particularly
interesting..any interesting finds..let us know.

See ya,

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by Dave C

So it is approximately half the price in the US compared to Europe (well the UK at least), that is a bit disappointing. I have a general question which applies to i-tunes as well as e-music (although it is obviously alot less relevant to i-tunes for some obvious reason). Can I set up an account using a UK credit card but have the website think I am from the US and hence pay the US rates. Now I have effectively done this for the amazon download site, as all they want is a US address, and for some strange reason Amazon do not care that my credit card is not registered at that address, or even country. I am only guessing, but I think it will not be as simple to do this with e-music (I know that you can not do it with i-tunes because I tried ages ago). Having said that, I did not try using any 'TOR' tricks, but I guess this would still not work if it comes down to where my credit card is registered (again, I am only guessing about this). Has anyone ever tried this (successfully or not) or does anyone have any other ideas for fooling e-music into thinking I am a US customer
Cheers,
Dave C

Dave

I think if you use tor and sign up on the US side your credit card
should not matter..I know on music it sends you to its site by IPA
address so if you can get to the plain old Emu sic side instead of the
Euro-Emu sic side with another user name and card other than the one
on the Euro side(they do cross reference past records as well) than
once you're excepted on the US side cancel the Euro side.

I think that would work...let me know what happens
if you need a US addy ..let me know...pm me.

Cheers,

[squash54]

There is a wide variation in the bitrate of tracks on eMusic. The only way I know of finding out the bitrate is to open a sample in iTunes and then look at the 'info' dialogue box.
Does anybody know of an easier/quicker way of doing this?

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by squash54

There is a wide variation in the bitrate of tracks on eMusic. The only way I know of finding out the bitrate is to open a sample in iTunes and then look at the 'info' dialogue box.
Does anybody know of an easier/quicker way of doing this?

Squash,

Sorry there isn't. The only hint of sound quality before purchase is the sample,but that comes in streaming audio at full quality..
But that being said I use Winamp and it gives the kps reading
of each sampled track, and they seem to be pretty close to the actual
download quality...that I get after downloading and checking
what the actual quality is. Like you do on your Itunes player.
Winamp will also show the the Vbr DL kps change during it's playing
cycle,in its info window.A cool little player.

Most of my downloads appear to be at 192 vbr (But I recently seen some
recently at 256 vbr) but none lower than 160 vbr.
But overall I have been happy with the general quality of processing,
and for my personal use, sound fine.

[ipodfan]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

Squash,

Sorry there isn't. The only hint of sound quality before purchase is the sample,but that comes in streaming audio at full quality..
But that being said I use Winamp and it gives the kps reading
of each sampled track, and they seem to be pretty close to the actual
download quality...that I get after downloading and checking
what the actual quality is. Like you do on your Itunes player.
Winamp will also show the the Vbr DL kps change during it's playing
cycle,in its info window.A cool little player.

Most of my downloads appear to be at 192 vbr (But I recently seen some
recently at 256 vbr) but none lower than 160 vbr.
But overall I have been happy with the general quality of processing,
and for my personal use, sound fine.

I agree. I've even seen some bitrates lower than 160 but the processing must be of really good quality because the sound is always fine.

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by ipodfan

I agree. I've even seen some bitrates lower than 160 but the processing must be of really good quality because the sound is always fine.

Hello Ipodfan,

Yes there are some left over from the old days...lol..
before we all became more enlightened.I was a member since 2003,
and was happy just to have a place like Emusic to go to.
But now we have more options and we are more aware
consumers.Which gives us more power.

[ipodfan]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

Hello Ipodfan,

Yes there are some left over from the old days...lol..
before we all became more enlightened.I was a member since 2003,
and was happy just to have a place like Emusic to go to.
But now we have more options and we are more aware
consumers.Which gives us more power.

Power to the people! Wouldn't that be nice. Well, I just bit the bullet and registered and paid on the website Goldenmp3.ru. I'll let you all know how it goes. The main incentive is that I was able to pay with PayPal plus they give you a 10% bonus to do so.

[MeridianFC-Suited]

FWIW I used eMusic for a couple of years. It's a great source for independent music, which I prefer to buy from a store like eMusic. If you're into indie pop, folk, world, and any off the beaten track stuff it's hard to find a better source. I always anxiously awaited for my monthy subscription to re-up. Outside of filling in much of the missing back catalog for artists I hadn't been able to get on cd, I always got turned on to new, in some cases just new to me, artists.

Big bonuses there are the Riverside/Prestige/etc. back catalog of classic jazz. They also have the Naxos classical recordings, which to be fair would be "budget" in a brick & mortar store but at $.25/song, or whatever it works out to now, is still a deal.

If anyone wants more detail I'd be willing to go more in depth about my experience there.