Radio Is Dead

DRM be damned!

If you’ve downloaded music (legally), you’ve probably had to deal with Digital Rights Management. DRM is what makes it so you can only play your music the way that the record companies want you play it. For example, some services will only let you have the songs you pay for on 1 or 2 computers and only burn it to a cd once. What happened to the days when we paid for music and were able to listen to it any way we wanted?

That’s where eMusic comes in. It’s the only major music downloading sevice that offers downloads in MP3 format. MP3=NO DRM. Once you download the music you can do what you want with it. Burn it to as many cd’s as you want. Put it on your portable. Have it on your work computer and home computer. There are no confusing restrictions or hidden fees for using YOUR music the way YOU want to!

I did say “FREE” didn’t I? Well, the best thing about eMusic is the signup bonus. When you sign up, you get 50 free tracks. You have to enter your credit card to sign up but as soon as you do, you log into the site and download your 50 tracks and then cancel. Done. Pay nothing. Really. You get to keep the music you dowloaded to do with what you like. This is a great deal.

Nothing is perfect…

The only complaint I have about eMusic is the selection. Don’t get me wrong, they have over 1 million tracks to choos from, but if you’re only interested in today’s top 40, forget it. I listen almost everything so for me finding 50 tracks took about 10 minutes. Let me tell you some of what I’ve downloaded for free:

Brian Setzer, Carole King, Eric Johnson, Mean Gene Kelton, Ray Charles, Short Round, Ted Nugent, The Cult, The Hollies and The Kinks.

Right now I’m listen to a new album by Dion called “Bronx In Blue”. You know Dion DiMucci of “Dion and the Belmonts” fame. Best known for “Teenager In Love”, “Ruby Baby” and you’re not from this planet if you don’t know “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer”. This past January, Dion released “Bronx In Blue,” an acoustic album. He plays a mean guitar on this collection. I was shocked to find out this was the same Dion. You’ll recognize classics like “Crossroads”, “Who Do You Love” and “Travelin’ Riverside Blues.”

The eMusic site is very well laid out and it’s web based. You don’t need the computer resource sucking programs like Napster, Yahoo Music or iTunes. There’s fast searching by artist, track, etc. There’s reviews on every artist and you can preview every track before you download. All the genres are covered here and when browsing there are numerous sub-sections of each to help you pinpoint exactly what you are looking for.

Look, because of their free offer, you can’t go wrong. If you don’t find anything you like, just cancel. You’ve got two weeks to download your freebies and cancel before being charged. If you do subscribe, ther are several options to choose from. The worst of which will get you more music for 25 cents a track. Compare that to 99 cents on the other services.