I think this should be right, but the new price structure is confusing.

Monthly plans - Charged every 30 days. The price is also your base amount of credit, and some plans accrue bonus points. The price levels are: $6.49 (+$0 bonus), $11.99 (+$0), $15.99 (+$1), $20.99 (+$2), $31.99 (+$4), $79.99 (+$15)

Quarterly: $28.99 (+$1), $52.99 (+$4)

Bi-annual: $95.99 (+$9)

Annual: $99.99 (+$3.66), $133.99 (+5.82)

FWIW, I'm considering dropping membership. Not sure it's worth it after the price structure and catalog changes.

Dang, I was about to post the same thing, but the Annual plans are extra-confusing since they promise $11.99 in monthly credit for $99.99 a year or $16.99 for $133.99; so the bonuses on them seem to be prorated monthly while the quarterly aren't.

There are a lot of problems since they switched from their 'point based' purchasing plan to purely dollars-and-cents based, the biggest of which is that everything there costs more, some tracks or albums a little more, some a lot more. But it's still always cheaper than iTunes and usually cheaper than Amazon (except their $5 or less album specials). But you still can't rollover a balance from month to month so you'll always lose a few cents every month (or more if you forget you have a balance - I did that a couple times on the point system, duh.) They have lost some of their core 'indie' labels while picking up catalog from the 'majors'; not too much but some key favorite artists according to the grumbling.

And I'm probably dropping membership too (even though I'm 'grandfathered' into a slightly higher bonus).

Are you sure the small change doesn't roll over now? I had $0.10 or something significantly less than a dollar at the end of the last cycle, and this cycle I had that much more than my prior amount. I'll tell y'all more at the beginning of next month (unless I remember and look for more information sooner).

Whoa. I need to check my account. I really hope I don't have to cancel.

Yep, the change rolls over:

If at the end of the month you have less than $0.49 left in your plan balance, not enough to buy even a single track, that loose change will be carried over and added to your next month’s available balance. Please note, loose change leftover from booster packs, free trial bonuses or other bonuses, will not be carried over.

Also:

Track prices

Single track pricing for members will vary as follows:

* $0.49 for most tracks available prior to November 18, 2010
* $0.69 - $0.79 for some popular tracks
* $0.89 for tracks that generally sell for $1.29 at iTunes

I'd noticed the points being stingier a few months back, October I guess, so I think this may be more of the same. I generally only download like once a quarter, so I'll have to see if the experience is better or worse or the same.

My leftover cents last month were not rolled over, and I'm sure it was less than 49 cents. Weird. So maybe emusic just hates me (like many of the other enterprises I do business with).

So, is the trial offer worthwhile?

Emusic was the worst offender in this incident, and despite notification that the account was fraudulent and immediately closing the account AND hitting "unsubscribe" on a few mailings, they are continuing to send junk to my email addy (it's now filtered, of course, and I only see it when I check my junk mail folder).

"WE miss you, come back!" Yeah. "WE got your email addy through fraud, give us money!"

I had an emusic trial a while back.

After that I used to get spam to the email address that I had used only for emusic. Not music related spam either, just the general garbage trying to fool you into thinking it was from someone you knew so you'd open it.

Between that and the price hikes over the years, I'm not an admirer.

I still (grudgingly) use them because I don't know where else to get legal downloadable non-DRM audiobooks. If anyone can suggest a better source, I'm out of there.

Man, I only ever used eMusic for a free 50-song trial. And I think, without any foresight, gave them an email address I don't have/use anymore. So that's cool. But it's sad to hear they've gone scummy. Too bad.

I've been a member for several years but I'm thinking of quitting. I liked it when I was paying next to nothing for access to their catalog of very old, obscure or indie stuff. It meant you could afford to experiment with new artists without worrying about the price. Now, it seems like they've replaced some of the indies with the Sony/Columbia and BMG(i think) back catalog and the prices have gone up. Still s reasonably good deal as long as you use up all your points but nothing like the $19 for 90 tracks I got when I first joined.

I'm a member, and even though I am very disappointed in the recent changes, I am keeping my account because 1. It's still cheaper than iTunes 2. They don't use DRM. Until one of these changes or they do something super evil, they are the best of a bad situation. However, I haven't had the spam problems others have had.

Late follow-up: I just bought a single track (which I actually am enjoying quite a bit) and am now down to $0.37, and the usual Music Balance statement on the top of the page now says:

music balance $0.37
will carry over

We'll see in a week.