Workin' it

Emusic.com was great when i stumbled upon it about 5 years ago. It was new, it was the feisty underdog biting at the heels of the Goliath of online music stores, iTunes store. It had all these cool obscure independent labels that were hard to find elsewhere.

Somewhere along the way, something happened. Changes were made, and in the course of these 5 years, i’ve somehow found less reason to visit it. Doesn’t help when you don’t want to have a conversation with your customers i.e i sent a few emails inquiring on various issues, and none were replied to.

So how much is your subscription worth? How much would people pay for music these days? Next to nothing it seems. Radiohead turned the music industry upside down when it released In Rainbows online, and you could technically get it for free (you paid a discretionary amount).

Strange thing is, people actually paid (including yours truly). People paid what they think it was worth. You could be a real cheapskate and download it for free, but i would think that most people saw behind the mechanism and read the sub-text that the band had put out, and it read: We’re willing to take a bet that you’ll reward us accordingly, and we’ll come out (still) as the coolest band in the world.

By all accounts, the crowd decided to do just that.

They took a risk by initiating a conversation with their fans, and they still are (in the books of most people) the coolest band in the world.

Here’s something that you really don’t have to pay for. It’s a pretty damn good selection of stuff too.