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emusic and Linux.

I've been wanting to try emusic for several months now, but had been discouraged by what looked like the need to install special SW to use their site. I decided to try the free trial they offer today and to make things easy dusted off a windows box I keep handy for this sort of thing and hooked it up. I have to say, if you like the kind of music they carry (mostly indie and great for classical) it looks like a pretty neat service.

The main reason I'm posting here is I found out that contrary to their intro and help pages, you don't need to install any software on your linux system to use their service (aside from mp3 codecs if you want to play the mp3s, of course). The preview streams are all m3u files, which you can have open from Firefox with Amarok (or whatever), and they have an option to disable use of a download manager so when you click to download/buy a song, it just downloads like any other link from Firefox. The only reason you would want to install their download manager, is if you want to be able to download entire albums at once, instead of clicking on the tracks individually.

I just sent them some feedback letting them know their web site and help pages are likely scaring off many linux users. I know I hate the idea of having to install special SW to do ordinary things. I think this is more of a windows mindframe.

These guys really don't get it. Here is the reply they sent to my feedback suggesting they let linux users know they don't need to install a separate download manager to use the service. Basically, it points me to a forum for help getting the download manager working in Linux.

My original Message:

Quote:

Hi,

I wanted to let you know about something which almost caused me to not try your site as a Linux user. Your online documentation all points to the need to install a download manager. Because of this, when I first signed up for my free trial today I hooked up my old windows PC to use your service because I figured the Linux software could be a pain, and like most linux users I really dislike any service which insists that I install "special" software especially if there is no obvious reason why this should be the case.

Anyway, after using the service on my Win XP machine and then copying the files over to my main one (Linux), I decided to try to install the download manager your help file says I need. It didn't install correctly so I queried a few linux help forums I'm a member of. All I found were a few threads from several years ago, where several people had ongoing headaches with this. After this, I kept thinking that the need for client software really made no sense. I started poking around in the service configuration screen and found the option to allow direct download. This is what I (and again the majority of typical linux users) had wanted all along.

So the point of this long piece of feedback is, why the misleading documentation on the intro and help pages scaring Linux users off? Linux users are a great market for your service because more than any other group they understand the value of not being restricted by DRM. The question of "where can I buy legal mp3s" comes up all the time on linux forums, and your services' compatibility with Linux is a very well kept secret.

And their reply:

Quote:

Hello:

Thank you for contacting eMusic Customer Support.

We appreciate you taking the time to give us this feedback
concerning your experience with eMusic. We will use your
feedback to continue to improve the level of service we
provide our customers.

In the interim, you can obtain more information about our Linux client from this page:

http://www.emusic.com/help/download.html#q6

Please note that our support for Linux is limited at this time. However, you will find a number of customers who use Linux on our Message Boards. These customers are a great resource for a range of Linux-related issues and are willing to provide insights. You can access our Message Boards here:

http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/TopicBrowse.html

We hope this helps address your inquiry.

Regards,

Claudine
eMusic Customer Support Team

Did you actually buy any music?

I signed up and although the free download and samples are OK, the music that was counted under the subscription was something like .eme files that required their proprietary software manager to download. I didn't spend a lot of time on it as I was disturbed that my account defaulted to the most expensive subscription and there was no easy way to switch to basic, then I also was notfied they were going to reduce the number of songs you could download for that price. At any rate, I did like what I saw, I attemped to download about 3 songs and it showed that I downloaded 3 songs but I got nothing, the manager could not connect ( and yes I had the dnsc running on my Suse 10.1 system) so I cancelled my subscription while I was still in the trial stage. There has got to be a better way for linux users to buy legal music.

their music and their work attitude suxx :)

Hold on folks, this is a strong service that offers you mp3's with NO DRM. That is something that is getting rarer and rarer these days.

Although there is no official emusic downloader, there is a perl script that works well. Here it is:
http://frumppyoldwoman.com/emusicdlm/decrypt-emp.tar.gz
untar it

Code:

tar -zxf decrypt-emp.tar.gz

move the resulting file (decrypt-emp.pl) to /usr/local/bin
(as root)

Code:

mv decrypt-emp.pl /usr/local/bin/

Then make it executable
(as root)

Code:

chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/decrypt-emp.pl

Put a .decryptemprc in your home folder. Mine looks something like this:

Code:

FileMask=%artist/%album/%tracknum %track.mp3

MP3Dir=/home/peter/music/

CleanNames

in the MP3Dir line,substitute where you want the music directory to be. (e.g. for me it is /home/peter/music/)

Then when you get an .emp file, which is not proprietary or encrypted music, it is just the set of instructions to get the music, do the following

Code:

decrypt-emp.pl /location_of_emp_file/*.emp

Voila, the album and music files will appear in your music directory.

It's not as 'cute' as the mac or pc emusic dowloader, but it does the exact same thing just as well.

I have been getting music from them this way for over a year, and have been using the service for close to 3 years without any problems.

emusic changes could affect linux users

Just got word from emusic that they will "enhance" the "member experience". In the process of making it "even easier" and "more fun", linux users are so far EXCLUDED from the new download manager. Their online customer relations presence (Robert) has "asked our engineering team to investigate what it would take to get a Linux version built." I, for one, would be perfectly happy if backward compatibility with emusicj is maintained. I've been a very happy emusic user for over 6 years, and a linux user since shortly after Linus's original .9x(?) usenet announcement. If linux support is dropped, I'm gone. I do not use (willingly or knowingly) and will NOT install any MS products on any of my hardware, and although the Mac platform is promising and I have some familiarity with it (BSD UNIX under the hood, after all!), I will not purchase one just to use emusic.

I am very hopeful that they will maintain backward compatibility with emusicj, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up and express my concern. I've already done so to the folks at emusic, and I certainly hope that anyone else who wishes to do the same will do so in a courteous and respectful manner.

Wow, I forgot I was subscribed to this thread from 2006 about emusic. These days If I want to buy & download music I use Amazon.com They have DRM free music and there is a linux down loader link at http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html.

I like pymazon better: https://code.google.com/p/pymazon/

I buy a lot from Amazon, we even have 2 kindles because they have a Kindle cloud read that works with Chromium in linux and in addition to some free mp3 music they also have some free books

Quote:

Originally Posted by pajoe (Post 4515387)

I like amazon, too. If it's not available on emusic (at .49 - .79 USD per track) I'll get it off amazon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlparker (Post 4515345)

I use emusic/J also. It should continue to work, as the EMX file format is not changing.

-Bob
(emusic employee -- Comments/thoughts expressed are my own and not my employer's.)

emusic and Linux

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobEckert (Post 4519098)

I use emusic/J also. It should continue to work, as the EMX file format is not changing.

-Bob
(emusic employee -- Comments/thoughts expressed are my own and not my employer's.)

Given my experience thus far with emusic, that's what I expected. emusicj hasn't change in a while because it hasn't needed to. Just in case, though, I thought I should express my opinion as soon as possible.

It's a great service!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlparker (Post 4519198)

I will gladly pass that along to our management.

Also, just so you know, we love linux as much as you do. Our entire server architecture is almost 100% CentOS, with Red Hat for select applications.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobEckert (Post 4521927)

I will gladly pass that along to our management.

Also, just so you know, we love linux as much as you do. Our entire server architecture is almost 100% CentOS, with Red Hat for select applications.

That's good to know. Thanks!