Last night was a good night for out of town musicians making the hang at the Open Ears Series. Izaak Mills, from the band Reptet, is hanging in town, and we had a nice balcony hang at the Blue Nile. Hopefully we can get them on the series sometime. Chicago bassist Josh Abrams was also in town, playing with Bonnie Prince Billy, and he made the hang too. By the time he got there the music was over, but there was some hanging left. It was great to see Josh, and meet Izaak. The musician community can be so warm and beautiful at times.
If you have read this blog for long, you have probably realized that I am a big eMusic fan, or at least that’s what some people tell me. When I heard that eMusic was adding some major label back catalog, I thought it was interesting. Today when I realized that I would be forced to a new plan at an over 100% price increase, it was much less cool. Now I am on a plan that has been grandfathered in. I have had this plan for three years, and I understand that prices rise, but not 100% at a time. If they said they had to change my plan, and I would only get 60 downloads a month instead of 65, for the same money, I might be ok with that. If they said that I would still get 65 downloads a month, but it would be $160 a year now in stead of the roughly $145 a year it has been, that might be ok. What they told me was that my plan would be changed to $129.99 a year, and I’d get 24 downloads a month. “You’ll only have to pay 90% of what you were paying to get 37% as much music.” ¿que? Is some old Sony catalog worth that?
I have loved eMusic as a place to explore. I have heard lots of music that I likely wouldn’t have gambled $10 on, but would gladly give up 8 or 9 prepaid downloads to be able to check it out. This price change is a bit too much of a shock for me. I think I will let my subscription lapse. It’s a shame.
