Epitaph pulls catalogue from eMusic

Digital music pioneers eMusic have been dealt another blow, as Epitaph Records along with their associated labels like Anti– and Hellcat, have pulled their catalogues from the service. The blog 17 dots, which is run by eMusic employees but not an official endeavor of the company, posted an commentary and offered some background on the decision:

As many of you know, Epitaph has been a notable supporter of eMusic for many years, back to when eMusic was just beginning. Unfortunately for all of us, they have decided that we can only continue to sell their music to you if we agree to charge you iTunes prices -- 99 cents a song. Obviously this isn't something we're comfortable doing.

At a time when the music industry is in such steep decline, our research and experience shows us that consumers are still willing to buy music, provided the value is right. And 99 cents a song is not an acceptable price point for all consumers. That's one reason why eMusic exists and has been so successful; those consumers who are willing to spend more on music (provided the price is right) do so with us. You spend more than 14 times as much as the average iTunes customer at a time when per capita spending on all music and audio is under $24. You buy twenty times more music than the average iTunes customer.

eMusic touts itself as the world's largest retailer of independent music and is the second–largest digital music service after iTunes. They've sold more than 150 million downloads, but their DRM free model and low pricing (which can dip as low as 27 cents per song depending on the monthly subscription model chosen) has made it unpalatable to the major labels and several large independents. In April of this year Victory Records also pulled their catalogue.