I joined this online music service a short time ago and I am still in the first flush of enthusiasm. It offers plans starting at $9.99 per month for 40 downloads, which works out at 25 cents per downloaded song. The download functionality is exceptionally smooth and intuitive and (get this) .. all downloads are in mp3 format. A side effect of this, which is actually not too bad, is that the major record labels do not want to play ball with emusic, as they have no guarantee that the music files will not be copied. And so it is classical music, independent labels and less mainstream music in general that feature high in their 1 million+ tracks online catalog. For instance, searching on 'Psychic TV' returned 14 albums, 'Glenn Branca' returned 10. Searching on 'Britney Spears' returned nothing. This is a virtual music universe that has appeal to me.

If Napster ever gets shut down, eMusic is going to be my music destination of choice. They have relationships with many of the major labels and artists, including Elvis Costello, Rancid, and L7. They offer nice "all you can eat" MP3 monthly packages - if you ever have to pay for online music, come here first.