#ifdef

For the past few months, I have not been feeling eMusic. If you’ve only dealt with iTunes, then eMusic seems like a breath of fresh air. The pay-per-tune model is replaced with a monthly subscription that includes a fixed number of downloads. Once you reach the plan limit, you’re cut off and have to wait for next month. I had a 90 track per month plan for $15, so that’s a lot cheaper than iTunes at 99 cents.

Unfortunately, wading through junk recordings to find something fresh gets harder every month of the plan. I was in for the jazz and classical recordings primarily, but the eMusic offerings just don’t include the small labels who are publishing really good, modern stuff.

Lots of good jazz is archive and if you’re interested in early, classic recordings then eMusic can help fill the holes in your collection. Outside of that, eMusic won’t help you much.

So, goodbye eMusic. It was a great start, but you’re history; just like most of the jazz recordings in your library.

Update (1/30/2009): I’m back and so far have been finding some really great stuff. Thanks eMusic, for not reading this post and punishing me for it!