User talk:Melomania

Here's replacement copy for the "Selection" section of the eMusic page, plus copy for a new "Site Features" section. Comments welcome. Still working on links.

Selection
eMusic has an extensive catalogue of music and audiobooks that is resourcefully organized and easily accessible. The eMusic label roster includes well-known independents such as Concord Music Group, Koch, Naxos, Beggars Group, Saddle Creek, Nettwerk, Warp, Domino, Barsuk and Merge. In mid-2009, eMusic added the back catalogue of Sony Music Entertainment including labels such as Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, LaFace, Legacy Recordings and RCA. The site is also known for its rich catalogues of jazz, classical and international music.

In 2008, eMusic established a “boutique A&R program” called eMusic Selects. The website’s editors pick unsigned, unknown artists and introduce them to eMusic subscribers through homepage placement and in-depth interviews. eMusic offers the artist’s music exclusively on the site for 60 days. The program has helped a number of independent bands achieve greater exposure, notably Toronto’s [Rural Alberta Advantage], which signed with independent label Saddle Creek after its eMusic Selects push.

As with most music sites, customers can search for individual tracks, albums, or artists. They may also search by specific and niche genres such as indie folk rock and new age ambient. Along with genres, music can be sorted by editor’s picks, release date, live recordings, member ratings and so on.

The audiobook catalogue works in a similar way. Audiobooks are organized by author, title, genre, location, and edition. eMusic informs customers which books are on what best seller list and their audio length. eMusic offers audiobooks from all the major audiobook publishers, including Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster and is the only retailer to carry exclusive audiobook material from literary journal McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. An audiobook subscription costs $9.99 for one audiobook credit per month and $19.99 for two audibook credits per month.

Website Features
eMusic distinguishes itself from other music services by offering a significant amount of original editorial content on its site. The homepage features a Review of the Day, and other editorial features such as artist Q&As, the eMusic Dozen, "Icons" and "Six Degrees" provide members with more context on artists and recordings. eMusic reportedly relies on 200 writers to supply them with content. The editorial staff also maintains a music blog, 17 Dots, outside of the regular eMusic site.

eMusic offers a variety of community features. eMusic members can also create a profile for themselves, compile playlists, explore “Fans” - music recommended by other fans of their favorite artists - and “Neighbors” - the collections of members with similar tastes. The store also has a very active Message Board community.

In 2008, eMusic added a number of new Web 2.0 features that pull relevant artist content from YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia onto artist and album pages. Other site improvements allow eMusic members to see the breadth and depth of an artist’s catalogue in the context of the opinion of the eMusic community.

eMusic also uses a hybrid recommendation engine from MediaUnbound that combines human analysis with computer algorithms to help customers discover new music. The engine builds a profile for each eMusic member based on individual actions (searches, downloads, ratings, etc.), specific musical tastes and overall site usage. It makes recommendations by applying multiple algorithms on the profile along with global data culled from the internet (P2P, blogs, web radio, etc.) and finds correlations and patterns between artists, tracks, albums, eMusic editorial content and even between eMusic members themselves.

In February 2009, eMusic announced the integration of Facebook Connect on the website. With Facebook Connect, eMusic members are able to publish their eMusic activities directly to their Facebook newsfeed, including ratings, reviews and album and artist links.

Gaia
Are you the same Melomania from Gaia? Silent.jfry (talk) 21:07, 13 September 2020 (UTC)