by SHANE SINNOTT

Well, fellow Canadians, the big news this week is that the eMusic download service (www.emusic.com) has officially launched here. As of April 29, the subscription service has been available, offering us Canucks a viable alternative to the iTunes music store. There are three main things to know about eMusic. One, all of their songs are in DRM-free, regular MP3 format, so you can do anything you want with them; two, because of that first thing, there’s no music on major labels in the catalogue; and three, it’s a subscription service, by which you pick a plan and pay a monthly free for a certain amount of downloads.

The site’s been around since 2000 (which makes it older than the iTunes store) and is now the second biggest player in the market. The pricing can be as low as about 35 cents each. Where the site deserves biggest praise is in the decision to go DRM-free. DRM (Digital Rights Management) is this big pile of bullshit attached to most online music sales, in which a digital signature is applied to the files you download that restricts their use—usually, you can only copy a song to a certain number of devices, or burn it a certain number of times.

The regular (which they call “plus”) eMusic subscription is $17.99 per month, and you get 50 downloads. The logic being, I imagine, that for the price of a regular CD, you can download at least two, track-wise. They’ve recently started offering audiobooks as well (one for $11.99/month, two for $22.99), and have exclusive material from McSweeney’s. If you’re the adventurous type (which you are, if you’re reading this column), you can sign up now and get 50 bonus songs for free. And then, if you’re the cheap, sneaky type (which you are, cause you’re reading this column), you can cancel your subscription due to not being “satisfied” and keep those 50 songs. To see what they have in their catalogue, go here: tinyurl.com/h3qf8. If you like it, I suggest you give it a try—you’ll be able to sleep the guilt-free slumber of those who pay for their music.