Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

iTunes dominates the digital music arena. The number 2 service is Emusic, which I believe has a lot of untapped potential. I like the site and I love that the songs do not have any digital rights management (DRM). The catalog of music is impressive, but the site is about 90% where it needs to be in order to truly rival iTunes. Here are my suggestions:

1. Offer lossless files. Emusic should embrace the DRM-free culture completely. By offering lossless music files (like FLAC), the site can differrentiate itself even more from iTunes. Emusic does have mp3 files at 196 kbs, which is pretty good and quite frankly I cannot tell the difference between that and a CD. But the collector in me wants lossless. I might even be willing to pay more a month for lossless files, just don’t make it too much of a premium. As my digital audio collection grows, I want to know that I am future-proofed and FLAC offers me that protection.
2. Allow the download quota to roll-over from month to month. Emusic is set-up like a cellphone plan. You have 40 downloads a month. You have to use all 40 or lose them at the end of the month. I feel like this is a scam. I got caught last month only downloading 15 songs. I lost the other 25. You have my $10, let me keep my 40 available downloads. At least e-mail me that I am about to lose songs for the month. Make me love your product, not resent it.
3. Help me find and manage music. The amount of music on Emusic is staggering and is sometimes overwhelming. I have a hard time sifting through the site to find albums that I really love. In some ways it is fin, but other times it is frustrating. Also, Emusic’s download manager is awkward. The iTunes music store integrates really well with iTunes. Emusic does not have that tight integration.