EMusic steps to iTunes again with Audiobooks
When will they learn? To be fair, eMusic has made one heck of an effort pushing DRM-free music downloads from the get go, but they simply don’t have the catalog and brand recognition to compete on a large scale. That hasn’t stopped them, however, from treking forward with style. The company is set to launch an Audiobook download service that will provide subscribers with access to a limited number of full length books-on-MP3. Their angle is to undercut iTunes, selling books for up to 50% less than the going rate at Apple’s online store. Not too shabby, but unless they can step their content game up, this great deal may languish alongside the rest of the company’s mediocre offerings. Especially since Apple is rumored to be getting into the subscriptiong game…
Emusic is a great idea and service but as a content provider it is very limited and sadly that is not a good thing. They are fighting but it all seems to go really slow. But slow and steady is how the tortise won over the hare.
I for one love eMusic. It’s got a great catalog even if it’s not super-mainstream, and DRM free means no worries for me as far as compatibility goes.