Until 3 years ago, the harbinger of MP3 downloads have been hanging over the heads of our music industry clients. Even saying the word MP3 was verboten, and it was amazing how unreceptive the execs were to being open-minded about even the slightest mention of digital music.
Then it happened. It was on the map, and everybody began seeing business models, thanks in no small part to Apple of course.
I resisted getting too involved myself. For the most part, I was in the musical doldrums for those years. Things changed. Now I belong to several subscription services. I still can't find anything new and interesting and I'm convinced that the big problems lie ahead... this stuff is no where close to mainstream yet. Especially the business models!
I joined emusic.com a while back. I was unimpressed. The selection was crap, and many of the tracks I'd download were clipped before the end of the track due to poor ripping. Most of it is automated and, lucky me, I just happen to like those songs not many people buy. (Though I now have a complete Frank Zappa collection, which is nice!)
emusic.com keeps rolling over my 40 downloads. It's a lot like vacation days. If you don't take them, you lose them. Then, on a whim I clicked on Classical and ta-da! Going back to my roots paid off. Classical is much better on emusic than the rest of the selection of back catalogue. I can accept an Alfred Brendel rendition of the Emperor Concerto, and there's a smattering of Steve Reich and others. I don't mind taking a chance on the Copenhagen Baroque orchestra doing Dvorak. How bad can it be? (OK, it can be, but somehow this is more tolerable than downloading an unknown song by an unknown band I never heard of).
The other nice thing about classical is that because download is per track, I can get the entire Emperor concerto (all 40 minutes of it) in 3 downloads. I think this could be an all time bargain basement way to buy some Wagner operas.
So, maybe I won't cancel right away.
We'll see.
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