There is still a pleasure in stepping into a record shop, (a good one mind not your HMV/Virgin ) and asking "What's new the week?"
Being thrown a few CDs and listening to them there and then. You know you can't afford all of them but you get them anyway because the owner will take it back if you don't like it. You know it won't happen because that clunker will fill the gap between Bonny Prince Billy and the Bonzos, and anyway maybe it will grow on you.

Having just had to sort through my music collection - vinyl, cassette and CD - as a result of a major domestic reorganisation and consequent redecoration, I have found myself holding stuff that I had forgotten I had and thinking "now I know why I bought this, let's see if still sounds good". Most of it does, but my head hurts after my dear wife's comments on my lack of progress in my allotted tasks!!

Back to the racks, say I.

Gavin

ditch the subscription. Go back to it when you feel like it and enjoy the stuff that's popped up in your absence.

On the subject of emusic I went to download an album, I'm sure it was Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon and it came up with a message saying this was unavailable to download in the UK. I find this an amazing idea that in this day and age, people would still want to put up boundaries like this when people are actually paying for downloads.

...it does feature at least 3 new albums a month that get good reviews in The Word, and if they turn out to be a little dull (Bonnie Prince Billy, anyone?) you've only spent £2.50 to find that out - better than shelling out the full subscription cost on one CD and then having to take your chance selling it on eBay if it disappoints. My only beefs with eMusic are that its reviewers are a bit holier-than-thou (the sort of people who think 6Music is too populist) and that it's over-stuffed with music no one will ever, ever want. But I like their model, and you'll find more and more artists going with it as they get fed up with their record companies or vice versa. Stick with it son, it's the future.

....I too found that a lot of e music stuff I downloaded fell into a playlist marked - "interesting, glad I heard it, never play it again". I found the 40 tracks a month thing - sort of compelled you to buy something or you felt you were wasting money. The argument of "well - its cheap" is sort of quantity over quality - never a good measure

I have a 90 downloads a month subscription for £12. 7/8 albums on MP3 with no DRM, some great music to choose from, all legal, what's not to like? I'm sure you'll have a few hits and misses buying vinyl, and you'll get 3/4 of a vinyl album for £12...

Over the last couple of months I've got hold of; British Sea Power, Cat Power, Yeasayer, Seabear, Burial, Raveonettes, Tacks, The Boy Disaster, Joe Henry, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Carbon/Silicon. All of these reviewed in Word at some point and all great (plus a few duffers like Lens). Most of these I wouldn't of bought on CD so would never of heard. My life is richer for it.

I look at eMusic as the equivalent to your local independent record store it should be supported. What's the alternative? iTunes...

But I will say that I've bought the following recently from emusic - Burial, Pretty Things, Robert Wilkins, Orchestra Baobab, Mr Scruff, Mississippi Sheiks, M.I.A., M. Ward, John Fahey, Justin Adams, Frank Crumit, Chuck Prophet, Augustus Pablo and scores more - none of which I would actually have handed over cash in a record shop for, particularly full price cash. What I value it for is it's the way to pick up things which are on the edges of your normal listening diet.

I too had an my emusic subscription which I shared with son as it gave him access to a lot of American hip hop acts which were not available here. My problem was that we invariably got to the end of the month with unclaimed tracks. Poor communication and the fact I worked away from home a lot meant that we lost any unused credits as there was no roll-over system.

I'd had my account for a couple of years before the Word offer and also felt that I was reaching saturation point as there were not enough new artists that interested me. The choice does seem to be improving now so I may go back to it.

I prefer last.fm personally. You can take or leave the recommendations and the way it unobtrusively learns your music taste is genius. Last.fm for recommendations and iTunes (and soon Amazon) for downloads.

I agree that there are occasions, especially if rushing, when there seems insufficient to whet the appetite, but, after 4 years, I have always enjoyed the day of my new 40 arrivals. The "charts" are a bit dodgy, as they obscure all the obscure and arcane bubbling below the surface, and the reviews are all AMG lifts, with the hefty american tastes bias inherent therein, but I usually find some gold. And as Mr H says, the cheapness allows some quality risks. A recent cover disc* alerted me to Marah, and given there is no current CD release of "Kids in Philly" and Amazon quote £28 or thereabouts to find it, it was good to find it sitting there,looking up appealingly, it's 11 tracks and a hidden, going for 11/40 x $10. There are some excellent americana (actually, many are probably straight country, but....)acts, viz Damien Jurado and Chris Knight, lots of jazz, some folk, stacks of blugrass, and lots of "alternative", pre critical acclaim, like Cat Power. Plus bits of Richard Thompson, so no complaints.
*Come on, don't tell me you don't read 'em as well as Word....