----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com>
> As much as it's a bargain for the subscriber, it's highway robbery 
> for the artist.
>
> 40 downloads @ $10.00 is twenty five cents per song....guess how 
> much eMUsic keeps?
>
> Half.
>
> That leaves $0.125 per song for the artist/label to share....remove 
> the mandatory $0.085 for the mechanical royalty to the songwriter 
> and you're left rubbing four pennies together.
>
> The iTunes model is $0.99 per download. iTunes' fee is $0.18 per 
> track leaving $0.81 to be divvied up. Subtract the mechanical 
> royalty and that leaves a healthy $0.725 between artist/label.
>
> THIS is why the indie labels are pulling out of eMusic.

It's still kinda shortsighted.

The number of whole albums I have downloaded via eMusic in the last 
six years undoubtedly numbers in the low four figures by now. 
However, because I consider eMusic downloads the rough equivalent of 
those cassettes I used to make of my friends' albums in high school, 
I've since purchased "real" CDs of a huge number of those downloads, 
and usually, if I like an artist I took a flyer on via eMusic, I 
purchase the proper CD of their later albums.  The labels and artists 
may not make much money out of the downloads themselves, but the PR 
value is inestimable.

Number of whole albums I've purchased through iTunes since 2003: big 
fat goose egg.

In fact, total number of single songs I've purchased through iTunes 
since 2003: 79.

I hope the labels and artists aren't spending that $57.27 all in one 
place.

S