Ch-ch-ch-changes

I was disappointed today to learn that Emusic has changed their pricing of their music subscription services. I was pissed off that I only learned about it by logging in to the site. Emusic sends me newsletters about newly acquired artists and special deals at least monthly. They couldn't send out a form letter giving notice to their subscribers, and pointing to the website for details? What the hell.

I looked at the section of the Terms of Service where, like every business, they reserve the right to change anything for whatever reason. It states that you should go to their website to check for changes. I understand that this is a valid policy for many businesses. But I strongly believe a business that automatically renews charges on it's customers' credit cards on a monthly, or semi-monthly basis, should send notice of such pertinent changes in a core policy.

This isn't the first time that Emusic has changed their pricing structure. The last time my subscription price was increased from $9.99 to $11.99 per month. However the number of downloads I was allotted per month increased to 50, from 40. I didn't mind that so much, especially seeing as how my price/track went from 25 to 24 cents.

This time, Emusic has greatly increased the pricing per track. In my case, they I'm to be moved to the Basic plan, with 24 downloads for $11.99. Though the splash page when I log in states that I'll receive 30 tracks per month. We'll see when my subscription renews. Which is in THREE days- one of the reasons I was incensed upon learning of the new policy in the way I did. So either I'll be getting each individual track for either 50 or 40 cents. Not something I'm pleased about, but it's still cheaper that iTunes and Amazon, so I'll stick with Emusic for now.

There is one possible highlight in the new policy: download allotments are now called credits, and albums will now generally be 12 credits for the entire album. According to Emusic staffers some albums with long songs and few tracks will be worth 12 credits to download, but the albums I've seen today with a track count fewer than 12 were all marked at a price consistent with the number of tracks on the album. I like this new scheme. It makes it worth downloading albums with tons of short songs, for instance Sebadoh's The Freed Man- which is technically 52 tracks, though not one is much over two minutes long. This is one change I'm looking forward to.