Did all of you Canadian emusic susbscribers just get the same message I got? The one that informed me that all of their songs will henceforth be priced at 49 cents, and all albums will be priced as the sum of their tracks? It assured me that my monthly fees will not change, and that I will get as much music, if not more, as before.

In my case, my original fee of $11.99 will remain the same, but will be supplemented by a "bonus" of $12.51, which will enable me to continue to download 50 tracks. But it seems inevitable to me that the explicit introduction of the "bonus" foretells the end of my admittedly long stretch of very cheap on-line music purchases. It's only a matter of time before my bonus will expire, and I'll be left with the $.49 per track fee instead of the $.24 that I've enjoyed these last few years. It's understandable that they need to ensure that their business model is profitable, but it's very disappointing nonetheless.

So the question is - is $.49 per track an appropriate price? I certainly felt that $.25 was fair, and I always thought that the iTunes $.99 was exorbitant. On the other hand, I do appreciate the fact that the cost of an album on iTunes is slightly discounted from the sum of the tracks. That seems appropriate to me.