If you question that people are still passionate about music, just take look at the comments sections of my posts this week My Problem With eMusic and How eMusic Can Save Its Soul. Many are well thought out arguments, but others are down right vicious. In some kind of masochistic display of journalistic integrity ,I've left them all up for the world to see.
But despite my misgiving about how they pay labels and its use and accounting of free giveaway tracks, I do not hate eMusic...
At one time I was even a subscriber. Their selection is vast and the editorial content is much stronger than Amazon or iTunes. I also think they've done a great job building a community of 400K or more passionate fans of indie music. But what's good for the fans is not always good for the artist; and as fan centric as I believe the industry needs to be, that's where my problems with eMusic lie.
Yesterday's post, How eMusic Can Save It's Soul, was intended to show how the site could grow their community into something larger by diversifying their offerings while still serving the indie market. But some people took it as a another jab at eMusic.
If you think I only skewer eMusic, check out some of my writings on execs at WMG or the turnaround plans at EMI. I may prefer not to get as vicious or personal as Lefsetz and some others, but I like to think I'm an equal opportunity critic of an industry that can benefit from having its cover pulled off a bit more often.
