If you have already been thinking about subscribing to EMusic, there is a link at the end for 50 free downloads. If you haven't heard about EMusic, keep reading. It's my favorite online music source.
Emusic is the 2nd biggest online music store, behind ITunes. I've been a subscriber to Emusic for several months now, and I absolutely love it. The songs are high-quality, DRM-free, and best of all, cheap. You pay a certain amount of money a month ($10-$20) and get to download 30-75 songs, depending on the subscription to choose. It will ruin ITunes for you. I don't think I can ever buy a song from ITunes for .99c after paying the equivalent of .25c per song.
I should mention first that the reason they can offer songs for 25c-33c is that almost all of the music they have is from independent labels. You are not going to find anything played on commercial radio here. I hate commercial radio, so this isn't an issue for me, but major-label bands like REM, Nine Inch Nails, and Britney Spears won't be found on the site.
If you are interested in discovering new music though, there is no better web site than EMusic. Their business model of cheap, high-volume downloads meshes perfectly with their efforts to tell customers about great bands. They have a "Most Downloaded" section, a 'New and Noteworthy" section, and suggestions for bands you may like based on past downloads. You can listen to 30-second samples of all songs, which gives you a good idea of whether you'll like the song or not.
I discover about 1/3 of the songs I download from EMusic's recommendations. Another 1/3 from shows like NPR's All Songs Considered and various "Song of the Day" podcasts. The last 1/3 is from friends and other EMusic members. The site keeps track of what you download and gives you the option to make various lists like "Songs I Love" or "Future Downloads" and let other users view them. I've found a many good bands I never would have heard of otherwise by browsing through people's download lists. Also, I have to give a shout-out to my roommate, Meghan, who has excellent music taste (among other things).
EMusic has convinced me that the high-price/low-volume revenue model of ITunes and major record labels is screwed up. I listen to so much more music now than I used to, happily pay for it, and it's almost solely because I can download a song for a quarter. It's much easier to take a chance on a new band when downloading a few singles costs less than a dollar and you can download the whole album for $2-3.
Not only that, I would download more if I could. I get 70 downloads per month on the plan I am on. I already used them up and I have two more weeks to go until they will be renewed. I have 40 albums saved that I'm considering downloading later. My love of music has slowly grown over my life, but it definitely shot up once I joined EMusic and was able to try out new bands at whim and for relatively cheap. Perhaps I'm atypical, but I think if ITunes offered a similar bulk rate discount, the increased volume would more than make up the lost revenue.
Okay, I'm done gushing. If you are interested in trying the site out, click on the link below. It's a trial offer where you can get 50 free downloads. I get 50 free downloads if you end up subscribing, so that's part of my motivation. Although if the fact that I want to download 50 more songs on top of the 70 I already downloaded this month isn't a good testimonial, I don't know what is.
If you want any recommendations on stuff to try out, leave a comment or shoot me an email. Or if you have some bands to recommend, please do. I enjoy sharing music and getting recommendations too.
50 free Emusic downloads.
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