eMusic.com, the subscription-based music download service, has began what seems to be a gradual redesign of their website. I wanted to bring attention to this because I’ve been a subscriber for a while and can now say that a lot of my most listened to albums have come from eMusic. I’ve never liked the site’s design much, so it’s great to see that they are working on making their service even better in this way.
The best example of the redesign is currently the album info page—it’s way nicer to look at and better organized. You can collapse and expand the various sections of the page, which include a brand new one that pulls relevant YouTube videos and the artist’s Wikipedia page. The user reviews are also given more prominence.
Because of its DRM-free service, eMusic has gravitated towards representing independent labels and artists, a turn of events that it has embraced and capitalized on. The major labels do not want a DRM-free contract, and it’s for this same reason that I keep renewing my subscription—it’s a great place to find indie music I might enjoy.