1. I love eMusic, but it would be interesting to see how much money a popular indie artist and label (Spoon / Merge Records, for example) make by licensing the tracks to eMusic versus selling them on iTunes (or other venues). My suspicion is that the major labels would lose money by putting their major artists on eMusic. Unless maybe eMusic had a way of charging two download credits for single major label artist songs.

Posted at 11:44AM on Dec 13th 2006 by DK

2. I'm interested to know quite how much recompense the label / artist gets out of the eMusic deal, which does seem to be far too cheap to be true. Do they bolster the coffers with advertising revenue?

In answer to your question, I'm sure that it's going to take a few more hundred million sales and even then it still won't happen - majors want to screw the consumer in favour of their bottom line, and I don't see that changing in the near future; especially when the preeminent portable music player has its own one-click store.

It may suck, but it is just the way the industry seems to be going.

Posted at 6:02AM on Dec 14th 2006 by Jason Knight

3. I don't know for eMusic but on NeoMusicStore, an artist can have up to Eur 0.89 on a Eur 0.99 sale (in real time, not months after)... and labels have 70% of the sales price. I suppose that eMusic has a similar model which is always better than selling on iTunes through an aggregator...

Posted at 6:37AM on Dec 14th 2006 by Sylvain, NeoMusicStore

4. eMusic is profitable in part because of the subscription model: they lock in their users for a fixed amount each month, which gets around the a la carte problem of iTunes. I find myself downloading whole albums much of the time, even though theres no per-credit advantage, just 'cause it's easier, and the per-song cost is so reasonable. Indie albums seem to have less filler on 'em, too, or maybe because they're more experimental, the filler is more interesting. I don't know if you could really sell mainstream records the same way: most listeners don't want to have to digest 40 songs a month. The current model for eMusic really does favor the sort of music fan who combs through used record shops and listens closely to 50 or more albums a year.

Posted at 7:59AM on Dec 14th 2006 by Bendy

5. Another good site for finding DRM free music is http://www.audiri.com/ Musicians can sell their music through the site and keep the profit. It also has a lot of free music

Posted at 11:33AM on Dec 14th 2006 by Ryan

6. eMusic only gets paid "33 cents or less" for each song and then they have to pay the labels and publishers AND cover their operating expenses. Given that equation, if they are in fact profitable (which we don't actually know) that is more likely attributable to what they they sell that you don't actually redeem as opposed to the volume of songs they sell in total. Emusic pays the content providers every time someone downloads one of their songs. So let's say you pay $10 in January for 30 "credits", but only end up downloading 15 songs that month. Emusic only pays the labels for those 15 songs but they still got the $10. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of subscribers every month. It's about breakage. I'd be curious to see how eMusic would do if every one of their subscribers redeemed every one of the songs they paid for every month. My guess is not well. I like the service and think it's a great offer, I just don't think their success is necessarily an indication of what's best for the industry or for the fans, which is kinda too bad.

Posted at 11:48AM on Dec 14th 2006 by SG

7. I was looking up music to download from eMusic - found some but didn't find all I needed. Most of these songs are really popular ones. Does eMusic play down on its inventory of the very popular classics? If that's the case, I'd have to look elsewhere.

Posted at 2:47PM on Dec 14th 2006 by HSW

8. "So, uh, Mr. Major Label executive guy; How many million DRM free tracks does eMusic have to sell before you join the party? No, really.. how many?"

Seriously, how many? Priceless, I love it.

Posted at 4:07PM on Dec 14th 2006 by Ryan Carter

9. eMusic has an interesting niche, and it's great that they're doing well. But I wonder if they're profitable.

Posted at 4:17PM on Dec 14th 2006 by vs

10. From what I can tell, emusic actually loses money if a subscriber uses all of their downloads. I think they pay out more than $.40/track for labels, but at least under their old model if you used all of your downloads you actually pay on average .25/track. One of their executives made a statement, however, that the average dl/month for subscribers was somewhere around 10. I for one have never not used up all of my downloads in a given month.

I think emusic is the greatest thing ever. I have multiple lists on delicious and emusic with albums that I will eventually download (hopefully), and I think the albums number around 300 at this point.

There is no shortage of great music on the site. I sometimes wish there were more mainstream artists, but there are other services/ways of getting those. A lot of what I find on emusic is just not available either online or in brick & mortar stores within 3 states of me.

Posted at 6:00PM on Dec 14th 2006 by Redington

11. But I wonder if they're profitable.
Yeah, excellent point. I have no idea. But they seem to have a workable model.

Posted at 7:13PM on Dec 14th 2006 by Bendy

12. Back in '99 when eMusic charged 99 cents/song or $9.99/album they split the money with the artist 50/50. Now it apparently depends on how many people download from a particular artist during a quarter.

I think their model largely relies on forgetful subscribers to stay afloat. I know I've paid for a month of downloads that I never used more than once.

Posted at 12:42PM on Dec 15th 2006 by CortJstr

13. In answer to Mr. Robertson's comment/question: So, uh, Mr. Major Label executive guy; How many million DRM free tracks does eMusic have to sell before you join the party? No, really.. how many?

Isn't emusic owned 100% by Universal Vivendi?

Posted at 12:51PM on Dec 28th 2006 by Leeds

14. EMusic WAS owned by Vivendi/UNiversal. It was bought in 2003 by Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, who also own The Orchard. http://finance.google.com/finance?cid=15700414

Posted at 5:25PM on Jan 14th 2007 by Mompadaddy