EMusic
A few months ago at the suggestion of a friend I joined up to E-Music. I thought their rates of $10US/month for a year was quite reasonable. Somewhere in the order of 4 months in, I feel like someone in the corporate relationship is getting ripped off. It ain't me. For about $15 Australian a month I download 2-3 CDs of music a week! And better yet is that it tends to be good rare alternative stuff. E-Music works by concentrating on alternative music. Basically ANYTHING the mainstream labels wouldn't touch. They include Ska, Punk, Goth, Industrial, Ambient, Comedy, New age and on and on and on. Much is recorded in either 192K or VBR MP3s. Maybe not quite CD quality but certainly good enough to keep me happy. It could only get better if they moved over to Ogg Vorbis format. Another nice thing is their lack of digital rights management. Their catch cry is "Copy, Burn, Listen" and it is a good one.

Music I have downloaded in the last 4 weeks.

• Front 242
  
• Mojo Nixon with Jello Biafra
  
• Mojo Nixon with Skid Roper
  
• Noise Unit
  
• The Damned
  
• Tom Waits
  
• X Marks the Pedwalk
  
• Velvet Acid Christ
  
• Zeromancer

and a few compilations...

The labels they cover include 4AD, Metropolis, Cleopatra and Beggars Banquet. This is a small sample. They have somewhere in the order of 200-300 labels.

Very good value for money.

(And if any of the e-music people find themselves reading this, feel free to link! I love you folks!)