The "Real Users" FAQ
So you've decided to stick around and become an eMusic subscriber. Fantastic!
Here are some common questions that pop up on the message board on a fairly regular basis.
Answers are written by eMu users and are not endorsed by eMusic. eMusic has its own
help section that may also answer
your question, and you can always contact them directly.
1. How do you get downloads out of this site? I click on a track and get an "emp" file, which I cannot play.
Make sure you have the
Emusic Download Manager installed.
Once it is properly installed, your browser will pass the ".emp" file to the Manager, and it will download the music for you.
If you decide that the Download Manager is not for you, you can always tell eMu to send you plain mp3s instead. Go to Your Account->Change Download Manager.
(See also the next question...)
2. I couldn't successfully download some tracks, but they are still taken out of my account.
Why am I still charged for the tracks I didn't download?
As soon as you click the download button, eMusic deducts your track allotment and
puts them in your Collection, regardless of whether you successfully download the
track. However, you can redownload tracks in your Collection without being charged,
so keep trying until you are successful. And make sure you really want the track
before clicking download. You can access your Collection in your profile under
Downloads.
3. Do my unused downloads roll over to the next month?
No, your Subscription Downloads do not roll over. Make sure you use them. You can check the date your downloads will refresh in
Your Account.
However, you can also buy Booster Packs, and your Booster Pack downloads do not expire.
You can also see how many Subscription and Booster Pack downloads you have remaining by looking in Your Account.
4. Dude (or dudette)! Why haven't my downloads refreshed yet?
Your downloads will refresh at around the same timestamp of when you paid for your
subscription. You can check what time that was by clicking on "your account" (at the top right) and
"
payment history" (left menu). For me, I paid for my current annual
subscription at 11:53 PM, so I expect my downloads to refresh at around 11:53 PM every 30 days.
5. Hey! My downloads used to refresh on the same day every month!
Now the day seems to be changing and I lost some downloads a few months in a row! What's up with that?
Yeah, the same thing happened to me one month. It sucked. A while back,
eMusic switched download refresh to every 30 days instead of the same
day every month, and didn't tell anyone. I guess we just have to live
with it, but on the other hand your downloads will refresh earlier sometimes,
which is a good thing. You can check the date your downloads will refresh in
Your Account. You could also try
making sure you use up all your subscription downloads soon after they refresh.
6. What does DRM stand for? Do I get to keep the files I download from eMusic? Someone told me if I stop my eMusic subscription, I'll lose the files I downloaded here.
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, or more accurately, Digital Restrictions Management. These are restrictions some services put on your downloaded music files to prevent you from doing things like burning CD's, or make your files expire if you stop subscribing to the service. The mp3's you download from eMusic HAVE NO DRM on them whatsoever, and you can do with them whatever you please, even after you end your subscription. MP3 files themselves include no DRM. That is one of the big reasons a lot of us regulars subscribe
to eMusic. And a lot of us also won't use iTunes (which includes DRM) or any other music download service that uses DRM.
7. So, eMusic doesn't use DRM on their files? It must not be a legal service then.
100% not true. eMusic is legal. eMusic carries music from independent labels who consent to offering their music files free of DRM. That is a big reason the "major" or "big 4" labels don't offer their music on eMusic.
8. How much money goes to the artists from each download on eMusic?
Good question. Ever since they created the current subscription model eMusic has planned on having some
extra income from unused downloads as "gravy" to pay the labels more than the actual price per download. In the past it was
claimed that labels made as much as .50 per download, though I personally think that figure was always out of whack. A
recent thread pointed to
this blog entry which reported one payout of 19 cents per track and another of 25 cents per track. Of course, it is between the label and the artist as to
how much of that the musicians get. In this day and age the average "indie" musician makes the bulk of their money from gigs, not recordings.
9. Help! I want more booster crack but emusic won't give me more. (How come I can't buy an unlimited number of booster packs?)
Emusic limits us to 3 booster packs per month (or 30 days) to deter credit card fraud among
other possible reasons (i.e., to not lower the average price per track or to keep subscribers
around (thanks frogkopf)).
10. I downloaded an album a while back and when I went to redownload it,
it's no longer on the "My Collection" list. Where did it go?
Into the æther. Albums occasionally go missing on eMusic for various reasons:
licensing agreements change, a defective album is removed for "repair,"
it is replaced by a "remastered" version by the label, etc. (For this reason, downloading through
"Your Collection" is the only way to be sure you will not be recharged - sometimes an album looks
the same as your old download but eMusic thinks it is different.)
Your best bet is to make sure you keep a copy of the files on your hard drive. Most
people like to backup onto CD-R as well, in case of a computer crash.
11. Where is [blank artist's] new album? It's supposed to be released today,
and I don't see it on eMusic.
Good question. Some new albums show up on eMusic the day of or even in advance
of the release date, but some other albums don't show up for a while longer. One possible
(speculative) reason for the delay is that the record label is maximizing cd sales
before opting for the digital sales. I say be patient or buy it on cd if you really want it. :o)
12. How can I get the free daily download without installing the toolbar?
13. How do I find somebody's profile?
Click on a name here in the message board. The profile address looks this this:
http://www.emusic.com/profile/index.html?nickname=68stationwagon
If you already know your friend's eMusic nickname, substitute it for "68stationwagon" and
you are all set. OR, have them post to the message board,
like this.
14. I wrote to Customer Service about (some problem) and haven't heard back yet. What gives?
Be patient. They usually take a day or two to get back to you.
However, you should have at least gotten an automated response. Some people
report that their eMusic emails just don't get through due to spam filters or
some other problem. If that's the case you might want to contact them (service@emusic.com) from a different
email account.
15. Why doesn't eMusic offer low-bandwidth samples for dial-up users?
They used to, back in the dark ages, but have stopped. Last we heard, they were "looking
into" bringing them back.
One thing you might want to try is actually downloading the samples. It's only a little complicated.
When you click on a "listen" button, eMusic sends you a playlist or ".m3u" file. If you open it up
in a text editor, you'll see that it is really a list of url addresses. Drop those urls into a download
manager and you can save the actual high-bandwidth samples onto your hard drive. Some programs, like
Free Download Manager for PC, can even download the whole list automatically.
But if that's all too much of a pain, there's always low-bandwidth streaming through another site like Amazon.
16. I hate paging through screens that only show 15 artists at a time. Can I get a different display?
Yes! You can hack the URLs to show 100 entries at a time. If I click on "New This Week" it sends me to the following address:
http://www.emusic.com/browse/n/b/-n/a/0-0/65+538+63/0.html
The key entry is "0-0." If I change it to "0-100," it starts showing me 100 albums at a time. It even stays in that mode as I page through
more entries.
So, you might want to pick your favorite areas to browse, "hack" the URLs, and save them as bookmarks.
Some other users went much farther in dissecting the URL in this thread, which includes a way to
get emusic pages as RSS feeds.
17. I only have four downloads left before my refresh and I want to get a complete album.
Is there a way to search for albums by number of tracks?
Not on eMusic, but
this website has been lovingly created to do just that. Follow the instructions
to generate a custom google search and find an appropriate album in your preferred genre. (Requires javascript.)
Be advised that some of the links are broken but this is a good tool for finishing off
those pesky end-of-month leftover tracks and finding new music you would have otherwise never heard.
[ed. note: We can't remember who created this nifty page, but mad props to her/him!]
18. I heard a certain album/song was on eMusic but I can't find it listed at the artist's page. Have I been deceived?
When you do a search be sure to check the results for
"album" and "song" before clicking over to the artist's page. Sometimes
the artist's name will be incorporated into the song title (especially
if it appears on a compilation) or an album by another artist will be appended
with words such as "Featuring Peter Lipa," or whoever you may be seeking.
Generally, a broader search will help you find what you want.
19. I keep getting error messages that mention an "invalid handle." What the hell?
The new Emusic Download Manager (as of Nov '06) is throwing that error for a lot of Windows users.
Word on the street
is that if you run Windows Update and get all of the latest patches, it will go away.