eMusic.com subscription vs. ala carte

[FrankLuke]

When I signed up for eMusic.com a few months ago, they gave me a $10 credit. Most of the songs were $0.49. After I downloaded songs to the amount of the credit, I canceled the plan as I did not want to subscribe. I recently decided I wanted more music and went back to check it out today.

Prices on tracks I remember being $0.49 are now $0.99. My account says I am on an ala carte plan, and a notice mentions that setting up on a subscription basis will allow me to save 25% to 50% per track.

I read that as if I change, the prices will go back to that $0.49 rate. Can anyone confirm this? I was looking at the artist Apologetix. Wise Up and Rock was once all 49 cent songs. Now they are 99 cent.

[Karoht]

When I signed up for eMusic.com a few months ago, they gave me a $10 credit. Most of the songs were $0.49. After I downloaded songs to the amount of the credit, I canceled the plan as I did not want to subscribe. I recently decided I wanted more music and went back to check it out today.

Prices on tracks I remember being $0.49 are now $0.99. My account says I am on an ala carte plan, and a notice mentions that setting up on a subscription basis will allow me to save 25% to 50% per track.

I read that as if I change, the prices will go back to that $0.49 rate. Can anyone confirm this? I was looking at the artist Apologetix. Wise Up and Rock was once all 49 cent songs. Now they are 99 cent.

Pay extra money to save some money. Yeah, not sure how that works. How much is the subscription? At what point do the two price points line up?

[tomandtish]

Note: I'm not a member. This is what some quick online searching pulled up. I'm also not promoting or condemning the site. This was dated 2012 so unknown if prices are current:

Music Subscription Plans: 24 songs for $11.99 a month (50 cents a song)
35 songs for $15.89 a month (45 cents a song)
50 songs for $20.79 a month (42 cents a song)

No rollover

So you pay a set monthly fee and get a set number of songs at a discounted price. For example, 24 songs a la carte would be $23.76.

You buy "booster packs" with a 90 day expiration for additional credits over your subscription.

Since there's no rollover, if you don't download your limit, you lose the remainder.

So it looks like it is cheaper to be a subscriber, but you are committing to spending a set amount each month.

Think of it like a newspaper subscription. It's cheaper to have the paper delivered than to buy each issue separately at the store, but you commit to buying a certain number of issues each month up front.

Edit: Not counting taxes or other fees (which I couldn't see anything about), looks like the decision point is 12 songs. 12 songs a la carte is 11.88.

So if you would get 12 songs or less a month, a la carte seems the way to go. If 13 or more, subscription.

[FrankLuke]

I did sign up for a month. The prices dropped by about 50% on the ones I had been checking. The 6.50 rate got me 13 songs. I'll run it another month or two and see if there are others I want.