Wednesday, November 4, 2009

No, no, screw you!

Inevitably, Robert von Bahr's great eMusic pricing idea has not worked out as intended, at least in terms of his desire to avoid album-only tracks for out-of-copyright music. And of course we in Europe get saddled with the album-only too, even though we don't get the benefits of album capping. Well, seeing as our prices are remaining low, I don't complain too vociferously. But it is fascinating to watch how eMusic continues to bollix things up. The reply from eMusic rep Sean Fennessey on the boards was "Hey all, just want to let interested parties know that we're working hard to bring album pricing to all territories as fast as possible. Thanks for your patience. And thanks, as always, to Robert for being so engaged on the board." Thereby failing to adequately address the problem being discussed, and also mildly patronising Robert into the bargain (while simultaneously inadvertently pointing out eMusic's own failure to engage). Subsequently Fennessey says "we hope to expand album pricing to the EU, UK and Canada in early 2010." Well, there you have it: download 'em while you can!
Meanwhile, Hänssler has snuck in album pricing/album-only without telling anyone. I'd been planning to download a bunch of Roger Norrington's Mozart symphonies, only to discover now that the first movement of no.25 clocks in at 10 minutes 20 seconds, thus increasing the symphony's price from 4 credits to 11. Well, the joke's on you, Hänssler! I already have that movement on a sampler CD that I bought second-hand. Nya-ha!

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