eMusic: 50 'free' songs await


It's possible you've heard of eMusic.com--one of a dozen or so competitors of Apple's iTunes Music Store. However, there are reasons that you should take a little time to get to know this one better:

• They're giving away 50 songs (you get to keep them if you cancel your account)
• The company's stable of talent and terms are both quite agreeable (at least to this punter)

I came across an ad for eMusic while perusing my Macworld (digital edition). Aside from the 50-song come on, one of the things that caught my eye about the company was the fact they weren't selling same-old, tired subscription model.

Yes, you can get a monthly pricing plan from eMusic (ie 40 Song Downloads per month for $9.99 per month), but you get ownership and not the pay-forever terms offered by Napster and other schleppers of Redmond's third-best DRM. Moreover, you also get songs encoded as .mp3, which is an open format without DRM. And, that's important for a number of reasons, including your ability to change formats and to share.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you can find artists and songs that are actually relevant. For this fan of trance (wiki), eMusic offers BT, Art of Trance, Tiësto, Juno Reactor, Solar Fields and more.

And, what about those 50 "free" songs? Well, I downloaded my "freebs" and discontinued my account in the space of about 24 hours without hassle. You will have to provide credit card info to get in the first place, but that seems a small price to pay for music that you actually own.

Check eMusic here.