“[Yesterday] morning I read with some surprise in USA Today that Amazon is ‘No. 2 in digital [music] sales since opening nearly six months ago.’ Amazon’s entry into this market last year was an important milestone in the continuing irrelevance of DRM and the overly restrictive and anti-consumer policies that the music industry has foolishly wielded in this new, digital age. But let’s get one thing straight: outside of iTunes, no one sells more music digitally than eMusic, and we don’t plan on giving up that title anytime soon,” David Pakman, President and CEO, eMusic writes in an open letter on the 17 dots blog.
Pakman asks, “So how is it, we wondered, that USA Today came to name Amazon No. 2?”
After talking to USA Today, we learned that:
1) USA Today called representatives of the four major labels, who declared Amazon to be only behind iTunes in sales.
2) USA Today believed that our subscription model was not relevant to the story they wanted to tell.
Pakman writes, “I’d like to address both of these points. First, allow me to point out that no sales or market share figures were cited in the USA Today piece. In fact, the article states that Amazon “won’t say how many songs Amazon has sold but will say that consumers love the experience.” Is that enough for USA Today to make such a bold pronouncement, particularly when there is plenty of widely available evidence to the contrary?”
Pakman writes, “While Amazon isn’t willing to make sales data available, we are more than happy to: eMusic sells more than 7,000,000 songs a month. Seven million tracks of independent music covering everything from Cat Power to Miles Davis. Since Amazon opened its MP3 store on September 25, 2007, eMusic has sold 40,000,000 tracks. Since November of 2003, we have sold almost 200,000,000 songs. These are huge numbers, and firmly back our claims to be the #1 site for independent music and the #2 digital music service after iTunes. Those declarations have not previously been disputed.”
Pakman writes, “The only distinction between us and Amazon — aside from our service being more affordable — is that our users essentially prepay for those songs each month… None of this is at all meant as a slight on Amazon. They have been a pioneer in the world of ecommerce, and we respect the empire that they have built. But in terms of digital music, we are still on top, and will continue to be so. If we ever decide to start selling blenders, we’ll be sure to give them a call.”
Read the full letter here.
iAM there for iPhone, iPod, iSync, iMac, iWork, iSight,
He He
I think yesterday’s comment here at MDN pretty much sum it up…
Amazon: cite some independent sources… not vested interests.
Sure boys…fight over the scaps!
It’s like the Nazis saying they came in 2nd place in WWII!
that’s why I buy from iTunes or Junodownload.com, every song I could want between them, no hassles or hidden agendas.
Oh yeah, ALL DRM FREE since day one at Junodownload.com
MDN word: ‘asked’
“shoulda asked me, I woulda told you the real deal!”
Pakman backs up MDN with the lack of fact finding on this one.
No surprise there.
However the Nazis were on top for quite a period of time
As usual, the sensible commentary on all this comes from RDM:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/27/is-number-two-amazon-rivaling-itunes-in-music-sales-haha-no/
They’re number two alright.
“In fact, the article states that Amazon “won’t say how many songs Amazon has sold but will say that consumers love the experience.”
That’s funny, because Microsoft won’t say how many songs Zune Marketplace has sold, but will say that consumers hate the experience.
“USA Today called representatives of the four major labels”
All of a sudden, I feel like we are in Tibet and our news is being reported by the Chinese government.
Record labels = Chinese Government…………..
This topic cries out for a snarky retro gaming image of Pakman as Pacman being chased by the four ghosts: Universal (“Inky”), Warner (“Blinky”), Sony (“Pinky”), and EMI (“Clyde”). And you get bonus points if you eat the Apple! C’mon, gizmodo/engadget/Daniel Eran, get on it.
Funny, after reading what the emusic CEO had to say, I took a look at their website and was pretty impressed. It looks like emusic has a pretty good (cheap) program. $10/mo for 30 DRM-free songs is pretty nice. Focusing on indie music is right up my alley, as well, because there is very little music coming from the majors that I find interesting.
Anyone use emusic who can comment on if it’s everything it appears to be?
Bee-U-Tee-Full! I hope to Fsck that USA Today has to print a retraction (on the same level page as the story first appeared) and also must supply this EXACT same retraction to the wires.
Fscking Fscktards.
WE’RE NUMBER TWO… WE’RE NUMBER TWO… EVERYYBODY… WE’RE NUMBER TWO…
Zunior.com also sells songs in 192 or, get this, even in FLAC for the purists out there.
Be right back. I gotta go number 2.
I’m not surprised that USA Today isn’t very concerned with facts or reliable sources, as the typical USA Today reader doesn’t understand anything beyond the headlines anyway. I don’t know why they bother with the 2 or 3 content-free paragraphs that accompany each headline, other than to make their publication look sort of like a newspaper.
funny, never even heard of emusic…
@Sherm
Germany surrendered first. Doesn’t this put them in third place behind Japan?
I could see why the music industry hates Apple. They put a song in one of their goddam ads, for fscks sake, and it shoots up the charts. That must really suck for the music industry. “Apple sells music, whaa!!! We hate that!”
@Alex
It’s a good deal if you are really into the independent music, I was a subscriber for a while and like it for the most part. You get DRM free MP3 files and it works well on Mac’s.
The only caveat is the monthly downloading, whatever plan you sign up for (30 per month or whatever) you need to download that 30 in that month or you loose it, there is no roll-over. The real bear is getting several full albums, then grabbing only part of an album or a couple singles to fill out the remainder of the plan before you loose it.
If you feel you can keep up with it, go for it and enjoy!
“Anyone use emusic who can comment on if it’s everything it appears to be?”
I’ve been had a subscription for a couple of years now. It’s very good as long as their catalog has what you like. If you only are interested in mainstream music it’s probably not the best option unless you’re interested in expanding your horizons a bit. They have a lot of good old blues, jazz, classical. I’m not into indy rock but many seem to find what they like through eMusic. I’ve learned about several really good artists through their site that I had never even hear of before. Good stuff. Everything is ~192kb VBR mp3s unless otherwise noted. I refuse to purchase DRM restricted music (sorry Apple). If they have what you like, the price per track is excellent.
Music is from the devil. Stop listening to it and be saved.
I’d say saying the Nazis came in second would be wrong seeing as parts of eastern Germany wer carved up between Poland and Russia. I’d say the this is how they finished : US, Russia, Chinese Communists, France, UK (They lost more colonies then the French did), Italy, Japan, and Germany. I have Italy ahead of the other two because they got smart and switched sides, got to keep whole homeland. Japan lost its Pacific colonies and parts of northern Japan. Germany lost East Prussia and almost all of Western Prussia, plus got split into two by the allies. I’d say Germany got the worst of it, they finished last.
Oh yeah, bogus reporting by the USA Today ‘Newspaper’.