i'm cool with .49 per track. i'm also okay with the 99 cents per song pricing of itunes, which is less than the price of a chocolate bar for something i'll hopefully enjoy a little longer, though many songs i download a la carte are precisely those consumable bits of pop candy that aren't really going to last the test of time. would prefer albums at around the $7-8 instead of the $10 price point, though, as not all songs on the album are worth the a la carte pricing.

as for emusic, i guess it's a bit of a wait and see. i was a little alarmed at the initial email and figured that it would ultimately mean halving the number of albums i'd purchase in a year. seeing the bonus that tops me back up to my total downloads was reassuring. you're right in that the 'bonus' will probably eventually expire but i wouldn't be surprised if they kept providing it for another year or so. i've been a member since 2004 and have been able to keep my 90 tracks for $24 plan that hasn't been offered for years. when i saw the email, i kind of figured they'd finally gotten around to transitioning me to a smaller plan. even if/when it does go away, i'm still looking at between $6-8 per album, which seems reasonable.

philosophically, and to a question stuart posed to me several months ago, maybe buying less but spending more time with what i do purchase (qual>quan) isn't such a bad thing. being forced to listen to less may therefore be a good thing.

on a more practical level, if the new system increases the number of labels and artists then i'll be very happy indeed. should be interesting to see.