Musical Citizenship
So, I finally took the virtual plunge last night and created a new emusic.com account as a Canadian.
What's it matter, you ask?
I've had my account on the site since 2002, long before I moved here — even back in the days, yes, when emusic.com offered truly unlimited downloads of any music in their catalogue, for a monthly fee of only $9.99USD. It was a steal by today's standards. Even after they switched to 40 downloads a month for the basic package, I was still grandfathered under my old $9.99 plan rather than the $14.99 it should have cost. So I left the account alone for a long time.
The downside was that, after I moved to Canada, my account entered some weird kind of 49th parallel limbo status. The site content reflected that it still considered me an American subscriber: focus on US content, billed in US dollars, and the occasional warning that, "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (United States)." All this despite the fact that my billing account had long been switched to a Canadian credit card, and changed to a Canadian billing address.
And that last bit about the download restrictions was the real kicker. "So, you mean, I can't download content restricted in the US just because I lived in the US when I first registered the account, despite the fact that I've lived in Canada for 5 out of the 7 years I've had the account? Well, at least I can probably download some US-only content here or there which I wouldn't otherwise be able to get to from Canada...." I thought.
And that seems to have been true, until a year or two ago, when they seem to have added IP address restrictions. So, basically, there was some content I couldn't browse to while logged in without getting the "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (United States)" message, and other content I could see just fine, but when I tried to download it, I'd see "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (Canada)." I now couldn't win either way.
Several months back, emusic.com finally called it quits on my grandfathered account, and made some apologies and moved me to a $11.99USD a month for 50 downloads (still a discount from the $14.99 it would have normally cost but not quite as sweet a deal as I had before). Meanwhile, I'd been really hankering to be able to download Feist's album "The Reminder." So I finally took the jump and registered under fully Canadian credentials.
And getting another 50 free song signup bonus doesn't hurt either.
Now I just have to force myself to cancel the US one sooner or later. . . . Is it extreme to have two emusic accounts?
* * *
For those of you unfamiliar with emusic.com, it's, in my opinion, the best premium music service on the web. They focus primarily on independent, small label, and back-catalogue music, so it's not the spot if all you care about is this week's Rock/Pop Top 40, but if you're into indie rock or electronic music, not to mention jazz, classical, or other non-pop genres, it can't be beat: a low monthly fee for a fixed number of "use it or lose it" song downloads. You can choose a plan which meets your music demand level (e.g. 30 songs a month, 50 songs a month, etc), and you can also buy extra downloads a la carte for those high demand months. Check it out!
What's it matter, you ask?
I've had my account on the site since 2002, long before I moved here — even back in the days, yes, when emusic.com offered truly unlimited downloads of any music in their catalogue, for a monthly fee of only $9.99USD. It was a steal by today's standards. Even after they switched to 40 downloads a month for the basic package, I was still grandfathered under my old $9.99 plan rather than the $14.99 it should have cost. So I left the account alone for a long time.
The downside was that, after I moved to Canada, my account entered some weird kind of 49th parallel limbo status. The site content reflected that it still considered me an American subscriber: focus on US content, billed in US dollars, and the occasional warning that, "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (United States)." All this despite the fact that my billing account had long been switched to a Canadian credit card, and changed to a Canadian billing address.
And that last bit about the download restrictions was the real kicker. "So, you mean, I can't download content restricted in the US just because I lived in the US when I first registered the account, despite the fact that I've lived in Canada for 5 out of the 7 years I've had the account? Well, at least I can probably download some US-only content here or there which I wouldn't otherwise be able to get to from Canada...." I thought.
And that seems to have been true, until a year or two ago, when they seem to have added IP address restrictions. So, basically, there was some content I couldn't browse to while logged in without getting the "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (United States)" message, and other content I could see just fine, but when I tried to download it, I'd see "We're sorry, this content is unavailable to subscribers in your country (Canada)." I now couldn't win either way.
Several months back, emusic.com finally called it quits on my grandfathered account, and made some apologies and moved me to a $11.99USD a month for 50 downloads (still a discount from the $14.99 it would have normally cost but not quite as sweet a deal as I had before). Meanwhile, I'd been really hankering to be able to download Feist's album "The Reminder." So I finally took the jump and registered under fully Canadian credentials.
And getting another 50 free song signup bonus doesn't hurt either.
Now I just have to force myself to cancel the US one sooner or later. . . . Is it extreme to have two emusic accounts?
* * *
For those of you unfamiliar with emusic.com, it's, in my opinion, the best premium music service on the web. They focus primarily on independent, small label, and back-catalogue music, so it's not the spot if all you care about is this week's Rock/Pop Top 40, but if you're into indie rock or electronic music, not to mention jazz, classical, or other non-pop genres, it can't be beat: a low monthly fee for a fixed number of "use it or lose it" song downloads. You can choose a plan which meets your music demand level (e.g. 30 songs a month, 50 songs a month, etc), and you can also buy extra downloads a la carte for those high demand months. Check it out!