RTP-area local music and culture

[ron thigpen <ron AT fuzzsonic.com>]

Chris Rossi wrote:
> so remember how a while back some of you were using emusic but then they 
> changed it around and all you stopped using emusic?  did any of y'all 
> find anything else to replace it?  or did you actually just stick with 
> emusic and pay more for less music?

i stuck it out.

lots of labels i like, so still a good value for me.  matador, kill rock 
stars, sympathy, in the red, some ryko, fantasy jazz labels, etc.

plus i still have everything i hit during the unlimited period in my 
'personal library'.  downloads are much faster than they were in the 
unlimited days (duh).

the site has been redesigned, mostly for the better.

mp3 audio quality is better now that they're using LAME VBR encoding. 
the tracks are very consistently ripped, tagged and named.  this in 
stark contrast what you'd find on the P2Ps.   and, of course, the 
artists and labels get their cut of the revenue.  sometimes they get it 
twice as i'll search out vinyl or CD on the stuff i really like.

all in all, a good way to access a nice swath of the indie label spectrum.

--rt