Inspirational Technology

eMusic Adds Beggars Group

A couple days ago eMusic added a whole boat load of music from the Beggars Group of independent labels. Groups such as Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus, PJ Harvey, The Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Peter Murphy and many more. Tons of cool stuff that I've been overloading on over the weekend.

This is good news as it's been a rocky few weeks for eMusic. On May 1 they made some major changes to the service. On the good side they increased the quality of the files tremendously, going with VBR MP3s. On the bad side, they imposed the use of their, less then inspired, download manager and a new 45 track queue limit. At the same time they also had massive problems with their content delivery systems which made the service unusable for many people. Overall a none too impressive handling of a significant change in the service. It seems most of this is worked out and the new download manager is mainly an annoyance. However, It does provide an unfortunate precedent and sets the stage for further declines in the usability of the service. Fortunately, the service is so good otherwise it's tough to complain too much right now. I really hope eMusic continues to prosper. it's an incredible service. I'm absolutely loving all the great music that's available and the addition of Beggars Group is a tremendous boost. If you have any kind of an open mind toward music, eMusic is an absolute gold mine and definitely worth subscribing to.

Oh yeah, they've also started getting albums from Supraphon. An exciting source of classical music.