Is eMusic In A Slump?
Within the various announcements and coverage of the resignation of eMusic David Pakman were some interesting tidbits:
- Subscribers were pegged at 400,000 – a number that eMusic has been touting for almost a year
- Annual revenue was reportedly $70 million
- A new CEO will be tasked with pushing revenue "well passed $100 million
- The company would not confirm if it is profitable or not
Rumors have also begun circulating that quarterly checks to many labels were down for the first time ever. Did Pakman leave because eMusic is in a slump? And with both labels and consumers being offered more outlets than ever, what can eMusic do to stimulat growth?
More: Pakman Leaves eMusic
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I subscribed to emusic for over a year and loved the community, the superb editors and the pricing.
But I didn’t update my sub when my credit card details changed because I felt emusic had grown a little stale. At least it felt that way; I was getting too many of the same old recommendations over and over again and as I hadn’t the time to really dig through the site to discover new music – which had been one of the greatest parts of emusic.
A more aggressive push to enlarging their catalog of new and old music and a recommendation engine that could grow with your collection (or even better based your itunes or last.fm listening habits) and remain relevant and engaging would make a huge difference.
The other downer was the rigidity of not being able to rollover your allocated monthly songs, I would often forget the deadline having downloaded only a few albums which quickly eats away at the price advantage.
More flexibility is essential I believe (more sub models and more flexibility within each offering).
These are ideas that would make emusic stickier with subscribers so it doesn’t necessarily address the growth issues.
Shehab