eMusic's biggest selling point has to be that the music you download is free of any DRM. They are just vanilla mp3 files. You can burn downloaded tracks to CDs as many times as you want, put your tracks on as many mp3 players of what ever types you want, and listen to your music however you want on what ever platform you want. The tracks are 100% yours, even if you cancel your service. That is the sort of freedom I love. I use Linux and Windows machines regularly as well as iPods and other mp3 players. I appreciate that I can use the music I purchased anywhere I damn well please (one of my biggest complaints with iTunes is that their is no Linux version of the software). With the incredible freedom eMusic gives you, comes some responsibility though. There is no big brother telling you how to use the music, so it is up to you to respect the artist's copyrights. eMusic does reward you for turning your friends on to the service, giving you 50 free tracks for every friend that signs up for a 25 track/14 day free trial.

Over all the eMusic store is an excellent platform. It works in almost any browser (I only say almost because there is probably someone running IE 1.0 out there), and on pretty much any platform (note: the Linux downloader is not officially supported, though the amount of community support available in the forums is incredible). It is fast, clean and intuitive. For those of you who enjoy social networking, you can create lists of friends and neighbors as well as share your playlists with other eMusic users. One of the nicest features is the similar artist search. Especially since there is a good chance you have never heard of the majority of artists in the library. You can search for an artist you like and then click the link for artists like the one you searched for. It is a great tool for exploring new music. Another nice feature is that tracks you have already downloaded can be redownloaded from your account panel as many times as you like (as long as eMusic still has rights to the track and you are still a member).

While I am completely enthralled with eMusic, there are a few addition/changes I would like to see. First is differential "pricing" of album downloads. I think you should get some discount for downloading the full record versus just a few tracks. I am not asking for anything drastic, maybe having full albums cost 75% of the downloads versus buying the  tracks separately. Also I would like to see pricing for download "booster packs" fall more in line with the per download pricing of the monthly plans. Currently monthy downloads range from 25 to 22 cents apiece where booster packs cost between 50 and 30 cents. eMusic currently recommends upgrading your subscription if you need more downloads in a month, which is ok if you find that you regularly use more downloads than your current plan a month. But if you only need extra downloads ever once in a while, you can end up paying almost double for your downloads. The final thing that I would like added to the service is roll-over. Right now, if you have any unused downloads at the end of the month, you just lose them. Being able to keep your stray downloads month to month would be nice, as would being able to bank your downloads to get a multi-disc collection all at once. Even if this was only a feature on the higher priced plans, it would be nice (and would probably be enough reason me and many other people to upgrade from the $9.99/mo plan).

Overall, I think eMusic is a great service. The price point is excellent (this month I have downloaded 4 albums for what one would cost me on iTunes). While the selection of music different and missing many top 20 acts, it is still of excellent quality and you will probably find plenty of music you like as much or more than what is currently playing on your local radio stations. The fact that the downloads are unDRMed means you can use them when and however you want, instead of only on certain players and operating systems. Best of all eMusic give you a free 25 download/14 day trial to see if you like the service (even if you cancel, you get to keep the tracks you download forever). I give eMusic 4.5 out of 5 G's.

(Disclosure: I am an eMusic affiliate, though I only signed up to be one after using the service myself. It is a product that I believe in and I stand behind my recommendation. If for whatever reason you do not want to use my affiliate links to vist eMusic, their url is http://www.emusic.com.)

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eMusic
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