Are the Major Labels starting to...get it?

A couple of recent articles have made me wonder if the major labels are finally starting to retract their heads from their asses when it comes to dealing with the internet. Last week, the New York Times reported that music labels are now striking more favorable terms with Web companies, and now we learn that Sony will sell songs that are more than two years old on eMusic. That's a big deal.

Of course, we've seen deals like this before, and what can happen with them. And this statement shouldn't sit well with potential eMusic customers: "As part of the deal, eMusic says it will slightly raise prices and reduce the number of downloads for some of its monthly plans." I just logged into my account where I had been getting 40 songs per month for $11.99 (which was a non-standard plan, grandfathered in when they raised the prices on their basic plan from $9.99 to $11.99). Now I see a message saying, "Effective Jul 30, 2009, your plan will change to the new eMusic Basic plan which gives you 30 downloads for $11.99 every 30 days."

Looks like brand new customers will only get 24 songs/month for $11.99. Which kinda sucks, actually. You can buy used CDs for that. We'll see how it goes. Still cheaper than iTunes though.

Image by Warren Chappell for the Rockford Papers.