The eMusic/Sony fiasco delivers the greatest example I have seen of how every company that focuses on the web to serve its customers must without fail have a designated Community Manager handling online communications and dealing with straightforward customer complaints. eMusic has not responded to its customer’s very vocal complaints about how they will be raising the cost of their music service. Instead they posted an overview of how great the Sony deal would be for their customers – while those customers are leaving comments all over the web about the rate hike.
This is a massive missed opportunity and eMusic really ought to listen to what their customers actually want as it would appear they could care less about the Sony catalog and care more about cost and the eMusic brand, the fact that it is an oasis of independent music. This is brand bruising.
Here’s some examples of the story spinning out of control:
The Phoenix New Times and HypeBot
Seconded. I think that eMusic has its eyes so firmly on the future customers it hopes to attract with this deal that it’s oblivious to how badly it’s alienating its current customers.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:22 amBut, of course, from a financial perspective, the perfect eMusic customer is the one who signs up, pays every month, and then never downloads anything (like joining a gym and then never going). The rabid consumers of obscure indie music who max out their downloads every month are, in this context, a liability. Ironically, eMusic wouldn’t be in this position of having to choose between casual and rabid consumers if they hadn’t done such a good job of attracting and retaining indie music fans.
Definitely seen people talking via twitter, facebook, myspace, blog articles, and sites. It’s a mess, and definitely a missed opp on their part to engage and endear their customers.
What do you think would be the best ways for them to address their customer’s concerns at this point?
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:29 amdebcha, that is a very succinct comment. I think eMusic handled this very badly. They have some very talented people who work there so it makes me wonder if they polled their subscriber base along these lines – Dear eMusic subscriber, we have the opportunity to expand our service by offering you the Sony Music back catalog. Would you a) enjoy the ability to access music from Sony and if so accept a hike in the cost of our service, or b) retain your current price level of service and not have access to the music from Sony?
A Community Manager would have been tasked to get this message out and to also handle the inevitable backlash that eMusic is now seeing…
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 amJason,
This is like the Dominos pizza fiasco – the horse has bolted so eMusic can’t close the barn doors now. They really should have had a community manager following all the online negativity and responding to it immediately..Comcast does it real well.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 amI have been a loyal emusic customer for 3 years and have talked several friends into joining. I’m nearly certain to leave the service in July. I suppose if they were to raise the price to get subpop and saddle creek, but Sony. They are acting like they don’t know their customer base. They could have simply started a new service which focused on more mainstream artists and had a different pricing structure. I’m very sad.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 amOn eMusic I could afford to be adventurous and sample all kinds of things. Now, not so much. And why? So I can access to downloading loads of music I already know about? Meaning I already own it or don’t care to.
I wouldn’t download Thriller for a ¢01 let alone ¢41/track.
Feels like eMusic was completely unaware of their core customer.
We’re talking about this on the rock blog, http://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/2009/06/02/i-m-so-mad-at-my-emusic
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pmI’ll join the growing list of people who are disappointed in eMusic’s handling of this. It seems as though they hoped the price hike would be forgotten alongside the Sony announcement.
I do find it interesting, however, that we’re all legitimately shocked at how long it is taking for them to respond to this in any meaningful way. I hadn’t considered how much of a corner we’ve collectively turned – expecting immediate customer care, PR, whatever.
Looking forward to how this all plays out – and likely ditching my membership sooner than later.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 pmI’ve been with eMusic for more than 3 years (on a grandfathered plan) and I’m probably done with them once the changes go into effect. A few thoughts:
- The deal with Sony is a perfect cover for raising prices which they probably have been wanting to do anyway.
- Is eMusic changing business course? First Sony and if that deal works out, why wouldn’t the other majors and/or eMusic look at some sort of tie-up? Even if they don’t want to admit it, maybe they really do want to become iTunes Jr. (as mentioned on another blog)
- Is there an eMusic alternative? The people who are into the indie scene I would say are probably more tech savvy than the average person and will be resourceful enough to know where to find the music they want using “other” download means. This doesn’t hurt eMusic nearly as much as the artists.
- Ultimately, I think this will blow over, they will take their lumps, long-time subscribers will leave and eMusic will probably gain a different type of customer. What I’m trying to say is that this is a calculated move (maybe I’m giving them too much credit!) There was a similar response back in 2003 when eMusic was sold, plans were changed and prices were increased (http://bit.ly/wqVQZ)
- Interestingly enough, Vivendi Universal did own eMusic back in 2001 and sold it off in 2003. See: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/EMusic
But I think Dave has it right by saying that a front person like a community manager could keep a lid on things before it took a life of its own. They have lost control of the message and credibility has taken a beaten. Regardless of their business motives, they have failed to guard their reputation.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:37 pmFYI, a facebook group for things related to the emusic price-change fiasco:
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:24 pmhttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81281012678
Glad to see you’re giving this some press. It really sucks… I’ve always LOVED eMusic, but I’ve just canceled my subscription. Can’t stomach the rate hike AND huge decrease in allotted downloads per month. The search is on for a new outlet…
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 pmemusic has begun censoring and removing comments to the ever-growing list of subscriber discontent. In particular, they scrubbed references to the twitter tag #emusicfail that were previously posted in the (800+ and growing) comments section:
http://17dots.com/2009/05/31/more-of-the-good-stuff/#comment-94860
The #emusicfail tag idea and the potential of this taking legs to twitter (and beyond their control) appears to frighten them enough to simply start suppressing the mere mention of it. So perhaps to twitter it should go.
Getting caught censoring the comments that they themselves solicited seems like yet another big mis-step in community management of their formerly loyal subscriber base.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:52 pmSo now eMusic’s CEO is blaming the indie labels for the price increase. This guy’s PR tactics are rather stunning – story here.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:12 pm[...] Dave Allen: So now eMusic’s CEO is blaming the indie labels for the price increase. This guy&#… [...]
June 19th, 2009 at 10:38 amI too am a victim. I joined because of the classical music selection but had second thoughts after the service was changed to one much less attractive ( a rip off-compared to what it was). Now I can’t get in at all and so I can’t even cancel. They’re “service” line (lol here) promises an answer in 2 days. Nothing like good enough. Here in Australia the US has a reputation as rip off artists. I seem to have been caught in another US scam.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:38 am