The eMusic business modeleMusic began its life in the late 90s as a music geek’s paradise, offering unlimited, DRM-free downloads for a single monthly fee. (ARE YOU SURE? IF YOU ARE, THEN TELL ME THE FEE, AND TELL ME WHEN THEY STARTED.) You could, in theory, download the entire site, though in those days digital memory was a lot more expensive. (REALLY? DOUBLE/TRIPLE CHECK WHAT THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT WAS. I THOUGHT IT WAS MORE LIKE 50 TRACKS FOR $10.)They didn’t have everything, but what they did have was great–a mixture of vintage jazz, blues, and country, plus new releases from indie labels. Not to mention a pretty comprehensive (to my untrained eye at least) selection of classical music. Since then, eMusic has been gradually expanding its catalog while lowering the number of downloads per month. For me it hit a sweet spot when 15 bucks got you 65 monthly downloads, and their catalog had expanded to included ANTI-Records, Matador, Bloodshot, and Document Records, which specializes in obscure blues pioneers. Prices were low. eMusic was fun. I frolicked in sepia-toned slow-motion, downloading–along with my usual diet of dead black males named with the words “Mississippi” or “Blind” in their names–Handel concertos and the occasional trendy band the kids were hyped up on. There were (and still are) great listeners’ guides by writers including the late Harvey Pekar and the Seattle Weekly’s own Gavin Borchert. Around the time eMusic landed Starbucks’ label Hear Music (including Paul McCartney’s new albums) and Sony (including all releases two or more years old), they cut the number of monthly downloads for a basic subscription nearly in half, to 35. Now you had to choose your music a little more judiciously, but it was still a great deal. Starting this month, eMusic has made the biggest change yet. They added Universal Music artists, including Nirvana, Elton John, Bob Dylan, the Beastie Boys, etc. OK, fine, though none of that stuff was ever exactly hard to come by. More importantly, instead a set number of monthly tracks, music is now priced in dollars and cents. At this point eMusic is basically a bargain-bin iTunes, but with the rigidity of a subscription model. But here’s the money shot that shows how eMusic just took a real turn for the douche:The album in question is Of Montreal’s “False Priest,” which failed to download the first time. So my only option is to … “Re-purchase album”? As in, I already paid for it, but I have to pay for it again? eMusic used to treat its customers as adults, allowing us to re-download purchased albums multiple times. And why not? We were the good guys, paying for our music instead of stealing it like most people, so why not assume that we weren’t trying to rip them off?It’s a testament to how much other online music options suck that I’m STILL sticking with eMusic. iTunes is pure fucking evil, erasing anything I purchase whenever I change hardware, and Amazon is a navigational disaster. At an average price of 49 cents per track, and with a solid mainstream selection, eMusic could be poised to grab a much bigger market share. And they seem to have found a way to do it without losing their original customers. Yet.