Corporate success strategy: screw the loyalists

Not at all happy with eMusic today, as I discovered that starting next month they're going to cut my download allowance in half.  Or double the price, whichever suits you better.  I've been using eMusic off and on since 2003 and a member continuously since early 2005 and I think this is a pretty shitty reward for my loyalty.

I do understand the soundness of this repricing as a business move, as eMusic is finally deploying itself to move out of 3rd place behind iTunes and Amazon.  To this end it's finally doing business with major labels (specifically Sony) and promises that formerly out-of-reach artists like Springsteen and the Clash and Beyonce will soon be available.  Now, Ms. Knowles I give not a fig for and I already have everything I want by The Boss and the Four Horsemen, so I can't say I think I stand to benefit much by this development.  But I'm glad that my scrappy little eMusic is ready to play with the big kids, and they're going to be getting a whole lot of new customers who generally don't give a fig for the Cold War Kids or Six Degrees Records while still appreciating the low impact on their bank account.

I just wish there was some sort of grandfathering plan for long-time members, which would IMO be truly in the indie spirit eMusic's operated under until now.  But no: instead of the 65 downloads/month I've been getting for $15 - cheap! - I'm only to get 37.  (Not even 38 - fuckers wouldn't even eat half a free download!  Argh.)   Which comes out to something like $.43 apiece and compared to the big kids is still cheap, but am I mollified?  Not by this.

Neither by eMusic's version of easement, which is promising a one-time bonus pack of 25 downloads sometime in August.  Almost an insult when I remember it was a no-limit service back when I first signed up.

OTOH, they are instituting album pricing.  Finally.  No album will be charged for more than 12 downloads, no matter how many tracks are involved.  This helps - just a little.

All this aside, I'm sticking with eMusic for the immediate future.  Not just for the price, but because the selection is enormous and as a service it's the best way I've found yet to discover stuff I'd never hear of otherwise.  And even with the changes I still think they've got a better business model than their competitors.

For now, anyway.  Because loyalty is such a fickle thing when it goes unrewarded for too long.

P.S. I know that as news this price increase is almost a month old but I just found out about it two days ago, and rather circuitously at that.  eMusic certainly didn't go out of its way to inform me.  Which is another reason I'm not at all happy with it.