Save money listening to more music
Over the years, I have ordered music through a variety of services. Amazon MP3 Downloads, iTunes, emusic and most recently, Mog.com.
eMusic anyone?
eMusic has been a great site for finding independent artists, and they offer a subscription model. When I first started with their service, it was $20 per month for 75 downloads. This was a great deal at roughly 27 cents per song. Unfortunately, they have continued to add major labels to their catalog in an effort to increase the selection. As a result the prices have gone up.
Recently, they switched to a currency model, which begs the question, why continue with the subscription platform if you're going to use a price platform within the site? David Harrell 2011 says, "Now, you see the price of each album spelled in dollars and cents, which has a two-fold effect: 1. It reminds you again of what you're actually paying for the album (something you were less likely to think about under the credit system), and 2. It invites direct price comparisons with other digital stores, namely the daily specials and $5 album deals at Amazon MP3." (Harrell, 2011)
For me, the $5 album deals are definitely tempting as they usually seem like a better deal for an album than eMusic's average pricing for albums, which seems to be between $6 and $8 when I look at the albums I've recently "saved for later." eMusic has decided to cater to those that buy individual tracks more than those that buy albums, which is a shame because I feel like their community was more into indie albums than mainstream singles. Perhaps, I only represent a small minority of their customers.
I'm an avid music collector acquiring an average of 805 songs per year or 67 albums if you estimate an average of 12 songs for each album. My eMusic plan is $15.99 per month with a $1.00 bonus each month. This amounts to approximately $192 per year spent on music. If we add 12(1 bonus dollar each month) to 192 and divide by seven, that's 29 albums per year purchased through eMusic or 349 songs.
In contrast, I used to spend $20 per month for 75 songs, which amounts to $240 per year and 1500 songs. It seems my money used to go a lot farther with eMusic.
$5 albums an AmazonMP3
has been a great place for music downloads with weekly specials. They have featured 100 albums for $5 each week and these are often different from week to week. Quite often there are great albums for this price that one cannot avoid purchasing. Couple that with the AmazonMP3 daily deals for $3.99, and I've spent a nice chunk of change with AmazonMP3 over the years. They're MP3 store remains one of the best places to get music online for those of us that want to own it.
iTunes paved the way
Before anyone else was in the digital downloads market, Apple paved the way changing music forever with the introduction of the iPod and the iTunes music store. No longer was it necessary to carry a huge book of CDs around. Rather, you could bring your iPod with you and have many more albums than if you were lugging around big CD books. Recently, iTunes has changed the 30 second sampling to 90 seconds, so you can hear more of a song before deciding if you want to purchase it, but iTunes remains the most expensive of the online models with some of the lowest priced albums coming in at $7.99.
Enter Mog
Most recently, I have discovered Mog. For five dollars per month, you have unlimited access to their entire catalog of 9 million songs. If you would like to access this catalog on your iPod touch, iPhone or Android devices, the monthly cost is $10, and it seems highly worth it and gratifying. For $120 per year, you can listen to any of 9 million songs anywhere you are. Suddenly, it doesn't matter if you own the songs because you can access them any time. If you know you're going to spend money on music, and you always want to hear the latest albums, Mog is irresistible!
If you decide you really love something and you want it to be in your library forever, Mog includes download links to AmazonMP3, so you can still choose to purchase an album, but you really don't need to unless you plan on canceling. The truth here is that having access to 9 million songs is truly exciting. If you're a music fanatic, you need to try Mog. The money you save will put a smile on your face, and you'll be listening to way more music than you were listening to while you were buying albums.
Over the years, I have ordered music through a variety of services. Amazon MP3 Downloads, iTunes, emusic and most recently, Mog.com.
eMusic anyone?
eMusic has been a great site for finding independent artists, and they offer a subscription model. When I first started with their service, it was $20 per month for 75 downloads. This was a great deal at roughly 27 cents per song. Unfortunately, they have continued to add major labels to their catalog in an effort to increase the selection. As a result the prices have gone up.
Recently, they switched to a currency model, which begs the question, why continue with the subscription platform if you're going to use a price platform within the site? David Harrell 2011 says, "Now, you see the price of each album spelled in dollars and cents, which has a two-fold effect: 1. It reminds you again of what you're actually paying for the album (something you were less likely to think about under the credit system), and 2. It invites direct price comparisons with other digital stores, namely the daily specials and $5 album deals at Amazon MP3." (Harrell, 2011)
For me, the $5 album deals are definitely tempting as they usually seem like a better deal for an album than eMusic's average pricing for albums, which seems to be between $6 and $8 when I look at the albums I've recently "saved for later." eMusic has decided to cater to those that buy individual tracks more than those that buy albums, which is a shame because I feel like their community was more into indie albums than mainstream singles. Perhaps, I only represent a small minority of their customers.
I'm an avid music collector acquiring an average of 805 songs per year or 67 albums if you estimate an average of 12 songs for each album. My eMusic plan is $15.99 per month with a $1.00 bonus each month. This amounts to approximately $192 per year spent on music. If we add 12(1 bonus dollar each month) to 192 and divide by seven, that's 29 albums per year purchased through eMusic or 349 songs.
In contrast, I used to spend $20 per month for 75 songs, which amounts to $240 per year and 1500 songs. It seems my money used to go a lot farther with eMusic.
$5 albums an AmazonMP3
has been a great place for music downloads with weekly specials. They have featured 100 albums for $5 each week and these are often different from week to week. Quite often there are great albums for this price that one cannot avoid purchasing. Couple that with the AmazonMP3 daily deals for $3.99, and I've spent a nice chunk of change with AmazonMP3 over the years. They're MP3 store remains one of the best places to get music online for those of us that want to own it.
iTunes paved the way
Before anyone else was in the digital downloads market, Apple paved the way changing music forever with the introduction of the iPod and the iTunes music store. No longer was it necessary to carry a huge book of CDs around. Rather, you could bring your iPod with you and have many more albums than if you were lugging around big CD books. Recently, iTunes has changed the 30 second sampling to 90 seconds, so you can hear more of a song before deciding if you want to purchase it, but iTunes remains the most expensive of the online models with some of the lowest priced albums coming in at $7.99.
Enter Mog
Most recently, I have discovered Mog. For five dollars per month, you have unlimited access to their entire catalog of 9 million songs. If you would like to access this catalog on your iPod touch, iPhone or Android devices, the monthly cost is $10, and it seems highly worth it and gratifying. For $120 per year, you can listen to any of 9 million songs anywhere you are. Suddenly, it doesn't matter if you own the songs because you can access them any time. If you know you're going to spend money on music, and you always want to hear the latest albums, Mog is irresistible!
If you decide you really love something and you want it to be in your library forever, Mog includes download links to AmazonMP3, so you can still choose to purchase an album, but you really don't need to unless you plan on canceling. The truth here is that having access to 9 million songs is truly exciting. If you're a music fanatic, you need to try Mog. The money you save will put a smile on your face, and you'll be listening to way more music than you were listening to while you were buying albums.
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