EMusic.com today announced that its paying subscriber base has topped 25,000, making it the Internet's most popular MP3 music service. The serice lauched in July 2000 and has a collection of 180,000 songs and 15,000 complete albums from more than 700 independent labels.
EMusic is one of the first online MP3 music services where users have to pay for downloading MP3 files. For $9.99 you get unlimited downloads of MP3's that have a bitrate of 128kbps.
``During the past year -- in which pirated music has been freely available on the Internet -- EMusic has been steadily growing its paid subscriber base,'' said Gene Hoffman, CEO of EMusic.com. ``Our success in attracting paying subscribers is a testament to the fact that consumers are willing to pay for music services that offer value and flexibility. It also demonstrates the tremendous potential for this business. |
``We've learned a great deal over the past 12 months,'' said Hoffman. ``Our subscribers are passionate about music and have strong opinions about what online music should offer. Avid music fans want the ability to listen to a lot of music, not only from mainstream artists, but also from new artists that they have discovered through the service. They also seek content that is hard or impossible to find on CDs -- such as unique recordings, rare live material, and releases that are rare or out-of-print. They also want to be able to listen to it in their cars, on their portable MP3 players, on CDs and on multiple computers. We think our early success in this new market is a result of addressing the needs of these avid fans.''
25.000 Isn't even that much, but Emusic proofs that there is a market for people who want to pay for online music.
Source: Yahoo.com
