eMusic.com starts new Selects program :: Music News :: Articles

Let's talk digital music. Listeners today (the ones who aren't stealing their music on P2P networks) still pay retail prices at iTunes and Amazon.com for what amounts to a series of zeroes and ones. To a casual fan looking for the hot new Soulja Boy jam, the iTunes/Amazon route is a legit way to download major label releases while putting your two cents into the artist's wallet.

But adventurous ears that need more varied stimulation can turn to eMusic.com, the independent, subscription-based digital retailer established in 2003. The site has grown exponentially since its creation and now offers over three million songs from labels like Merge (Arcade Fire, Spoon), Rough Trade (Belle and Sebastian, The Fiery Furnaces), Definitive Jux (Aesop Rock, El-P) and over 50,000 others—all of them DRM-free. For the cash-strapped, eMusic's generous subscription plans (starting at $9.99/month for 30 downloads) also offer an easy way to delve into the back catalogs of seminal artists such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, The Pixies, The Kinks, Ray Charles and many, many more.

Before this turns into a full-fledged eMusic advertisement, let's point out that eMusic employs some of the country's most accomplished music writers and critics, who regularly present in-depth articles focused on the site's too-generous-to-count genres (a smattering: New Age, Spiritual, Country/Folk, Hip-Hop/R&B, Classical, International). The site has helped launch the popularity of lesser-known artists like Burial, Yeasayer and The National through well-written features on the site's extensive and eclectic magazine and on its 17 dots blog.

Yancey Strickler, Senior Director of Editorial and Features at eMusic, recently announced a new development: eMusic Selects, a monthly feature highlighting two eMusic artists that the staff is "wildly enthusiastic about...artists that we fully stand behind, people who we believe in, who we unquestioningly adore." The extra juice is in the previously unreleased tracks offered by the two Selected bands—eMusic retains exclusive selling powers for the 60 days after the songs are posted, but after that the bands are free to do what they wish with them. The first two eMusic Selects bands are Michigan's Breathe Owl Breathe and Brooklyn's High Places, both relatively new bands. With eMusic regularly approaching (and even surpassing) iTunes in Soundscan-reported downloads for indie releases, It should be interesting to see how the two groups fare thanks to the extra promotion.

High Places tour dates:

February
28 - Poughkeepsie, N.Y. @ Vassar College
29 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Market Hotel

March
13 - Austin, Texas @ Upset the Rhythm (SXSW)
14 - Austin, Texas @ Emo's (SXSW)
15 - Austin, Texas @ Stereogum showcase (SXSW)
15 - Austin, Texas @ Todd P showcase (SXSW)
31 - New York, N.Y. @ Knitting Factory

April
17 - Princeton, N.J. @ Princeton University
19 - Purchase, N.Y. @ SUNY Purchase

May
2 - Alfred, N.Y. @ Alfred University

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