Today I was looking through eMusic, the music subscription service I joined a long time ago, when I saw tracks from Universal Music Group available for download. But what I didn’t know was that Universal, the media giant, had purchased eMusic a few months ago.
I have to admit that as a follower of the digital music world, as well as a long time subscriber to eMusic, I was embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of this big turn of events. For those who don’t know eMusic, their service has long given consumers almost complete access to a huge catalog of Indie labels for a mere $15 a month. For that fee, you can download, keep and burn MP3 tracks from some of the best bands and labels out there. Are you a fan (like me) of Yo La Tengo? Their complete catalog is available through eMusic as is that of Mogwai and many others.
What I did notice though about the Universal content, is that they feature only B-list stuff that they sell very few copies in-store. In posting content from labels like “Island” “Verve” and “Impulse”, you can find a small selection from lesser artists or lesser albums. Still, it’s still a pretty interesting experiment.