What Labels Are Getting Ready To Flee eMusic?

Brian Raftery | May 15, 2007 3:02 am
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For the last few days, Hypebot has been publishing a series of lengthy posts about the state of eMusic, the indie-specializing online music service that has provided us with hours upon hours of downloaded-but-never-listened-to-just yet Stiff Records reissues. There are several items of note here–from the service’s possible competition to its payment methods–but what’s most intriguing is talk that certain labels are planning to leave the service altogether.

As Billboard reported earlier this month, Victory Records has already pulled out of eMusic, citing the service’s restructured pricing plan (according to the article, per-song profits can be as low as twelve cents). The company’s CEO, David Pakman, responded with a blog post in which he argued that “a healthy digital music business needs a variety of business models and a variety of price points.”

We’d like to know if other labels are considering an exodus, and if so, which ones. Hypebot notes that “Urge, Red House, Silva America, and Tzadik and others have either left or are considering an exit,” and it looks as though certain Warp Records releases have been pulled, meaning that newly anointed Battles album won’t be available. Apparently Warp was never on the site in the U.S. Our mistake. Either way, if you’ve got more info, drop us a line at tips@idolator.com.