One of the big challenges in building Web applications is the question of how to create a good user experience that “sells” your products or services effectively. Obviously the site’s look and feel are crucial but the other “magic” ingredient is the embedded selling process … how you get users to register, sign up for premium service, and then keep them signed up.
Over the years I’ve seen a number of online companies struggle with this problem. For example, I signed up with eMusic when the company first opened its virtual doors. EMusic, not surprisingly, sells music and specializes in independent labels and has never used any form of digital rights management. Having access to hard to find artists and genres and no DRM was a very compelling proposition as was the initial offering: Unlimited downloads for a low, fixed price.
After a short while it became obvious that eMusic had a problem: Some people were downloading music at a rate that the company found unacceptable. I was downloading, on average, a couple of albums per day which must have been considered OK but several other users publicly complained that eMusic had cancelled their accounts for excessive downloading.
This brought in to question what eMusic considered excessive given that what they offered was defined as “unlimited downloads” – unlimited either is without limits or it isn’t unlimited. I discussed this in my Backspin column back in 2002 and despite what was a potentially litigious point, no one, as far as I know, ever pursued the issue in court.
Eventually eMusic changed its offering; no more unlimited downloads but, instead, a fixed number of tracks per month – a use ’em or lose ’em scheme.
While a change in terms such as this was disappointing the number was high enough for the service to still be good value and founding members like me got a better deal than new members.
The eMusic lowered the number of downloads. The service was still good value … not as good, but still not at all bad. Then earlier this year, eMusic removed the founder’s benefit and started making some albums cost more than the number of tracks on the album – in other words, the pricing was no longer in “tracks” but rather in in-service “credits” which allowed for variable album pricing.
The whole evolution of eMusic’s pricing was really pretty clever as they first managed to dig themselves out of what I suspect was a potential financial disaster with their initial unlimited pricing and then managed to increase the average per unit revenue with variable pricing.
Obviously, as a founding subscriber who had a long taste of the original, incredible deal, these changes have been irksome but they aren’t so bad that I’ve felt like cancelling – they still are a good deal and in many respects, a unique service.
That said, their site performance has recently been pushing the limits of my patience. Recently I found a bug where I was charged for tracks I hadn’t downloaded. Sure, eMusic support credited me for the tracks but wouldn’t admit that their system was flawed so the task of convincing them there was a problem took more effort than I would have preferred.
So, for the time being, I’ll be sticking with eMusic because they still provide something that I value but it’s not made me feel good about the company. Some might argue that me feeling good doesn’t matter; eMusic is a business and its main focus should be on maximizing revenue but the loss of the good will of your customers shouldn’t be treated lightly … some of them might just be journalists who decide to write about you.
