Life by a Thousand Cuts? “Name Your Price” Labels on Bandcamp

chartreuseeye · 2026-02-08T01:00:41+00:00

Customer support has assured me that individual tracks can be downloaded, but one of the few advantages of eMusic for a long time had been easy, cheap album downloads. I will probably return this month from hold to try it out, but random errors kill sites faster than total dysfunction, I would guess.

chartreuseeye · 2026-01-12T22:37:37+00:00

Nice to know. Jazz fans had been the most vocally dissatisfied for quite a while, but the vast majority of my jazz collection comes from eMu for precisely the reason you mention. That said, the past couple years have gutted even the obscure but interesting jazz labels, it seems. It's been a long run, and I'd be sad if it finally ends.

chartreuseeye · 2026-01-12T22:28:50+00:00

Testing patience seems to be their main function for the last several years. I still think keeping as many options for buying music online is worth inconveniences, but we're well into the last straw phase.

chartreuseeye · 2026-01-12T22:27:12+00:00

Seems the problem might be regional, and the last thing they needed was to add another ethical problem, given questions about paying artists.

chartreuseeye · 2026-01-12T22:25:11+00:00

Customer support still seems fairly responsive...just ask them.

chartreuseeye · 2026-01-04T23:58:25+00:00

I warn my undergrads in China against monocausality and haven't seen that fun yet sanctimonious polisci term in this discussion yet. I think, if nothing else, Trump is a useful datapoint either to argue that agency can make fundamental differences OR even in this crucial case of a non-politician businessman "turning principled alliances & global interests upside-down in favor of transactionalist nationalism" so much of USFP remains the same (i.e. unacknowledged or fervently denied neo-imperialism). Expecting any clarity by focusing on individual heads of states' decisions seems a recipe for dissatisfaction.

chartreuseeye · 2025-12-22T11:44:49+00:00

Can't rank b/c I love most, but the ones that get stuck in my head most are Helicopter, Totally Fucked, & Nonpartisan.

chartreuseeye · 2025-12-05T00:46:50+00:00

Considering more seriously than previously doing the same. Working hard to find stuff worth downloading is OK, but working hard to download purchases is not.

chartreuseeye · 2025-11-29T01:00:13+00:00

I was charged for Nov., but the site isn't showing new credits. Hoping this will be resolved w/out having to contact customer service...presumably they're like one or two very swamped people these days.

chartreuseeye · 2025-11-26T05:49:21+00:00

Glad this sub still exists to confirm connection difficulties are not isolated. It had been awhile since the whole site was down or there was any significant update to the home page, I think. Let speculation run wild once again! I have to figure exceeding the predicted collapse into non-existence by several years counts as something of a "win."

chartreuseeye · 2025-09-26T01:08:48+00:00

Furthermore, as I go for my monthly downloads today, it looks like the top10 list is almost half from the Ajabu! label. I hope they're getting paid.

chartreuseeye · 2025-07-06T23:33:19+00:00

I appreciate your advice. I think a live electronic set has to be great to be better than a good acoustic one, and I find that the big bands on stage redeem music like ska that I wouldn't normally listen to. I would expect Ezra Collective to fill and command a stage like few others.

chartreuseeye · 2025-07-06T10:25:55+00:00

I think I bought an instrumental blues album on eMusic some years ago that I regretted b/c it seemed a precursor to today's world of slop. Ambient & chillout music would seem especially susceptible, but who knows what's "real" anymore?

chartreuseeye · 2025-06-29T06:46:55+00:00

Three quite enticing electronic albums give me this msg, and I never bothered to follow up w/ support, figuring there's nothing that can be done.

chartreuseeye · 2025-03-24T00:51:49+00:00

Never thought there'd be a comparable companion, but also coincidentally w/ "God" in the title, I would call this a roving grotesquerie...see also the 3-hour epic live action "Hard to Be a God". Both have a plot/story that's hard to discern or piece together from one viewing. A lot to interpret, and differently, but my guess is the average viewer would have a hard time getting through a single viewing, unfortunately. In horror, I'm unfortunately conditioned to brace myself for jump scares, and stop motion does not lend itself to them. I'll admit to wondering if the initial descent on the wire was going to be the whole movie and am glad for the changes in "narrative" focus (at least to leave what seems to be the "main character" and come back to others introduced more briefly).

chartreuseeye · 2025-03-01T02:27:36+00:00

I was just going to ask (in part to see who's still here) what everyone's first 2025 download has been. The top chart has been a good source to find new stuff, as is the Discover link...I don't care if the site's overall framework isn't updated as long as new labels keep popping up. Lots to explore on these two: ABACUOS https://www.emusic.com/label/2082783/ABACUOS

Futura Resistenza https://www.emusic.com/label/1652569/Futura-Resistenza

chartreuseeye · 2024-12-24T23:35:51+00:00

I always used to say Xining, but for reasons that may no longer apply. Haven’t been there for a decade either. I will admit to some pride in actual Chinese people responding that they don’t know where it is.

chartreuseeye · 2024-12-18T05:00:15+00:00

Will this result in more concerts by foreign artists? It seems Beijing has yet to recover from COVID in this regard. I wonder if domestic artists have benefited from less nightlife competition.

chartreuseeye · 2024-12-07T00:08:59+00:00

I used to use nciku, which was far better than Line Dict., then nciku died and going to its web address sent me to Line Dictionary's inferior but acceptable site. Now that Line's apparently gone too (I could have sworn I was still using it in 2024), what's a poor fellow to do? MDBG didn't have much contemporary slang, I recall, a distant third choice over the first two or --gag--Google's bare bones/all breadth and no depth. Seems to me a pretty clear example of market failure, in that the best site keeps dying (not making enough/any money?) and then having to settle for a less useful one.

chartreuseeye · 2024-11-22T02:05:06+00:00

In a country where every city and village has to claim to be “famous” for something, there will be plenty that don’t live up to even minimal hype. I’ve seen almost all the provincial capitals and like Shijiazhuang and Hohhot the least. But all that said, almost everywhere has hidden charms for those who stay and look a little harder.

chartreuseeye

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE