eMusic is online music retailer of DRM-free music second only to Apple’s iTunes store. The online store was the first to sell music in the mp3 format and continue to do using a subscription service, rather than per track or per album. Music fans can choose between two subscription plans with one letting them download up to 30 tracks per month and the other letting them download up to 75 tracks per month.

The nice thing about eMusic’s subscription service is that music fans get to keep their downloads when their subscriptions run out, as opposed to competitors like Napster who take back user downloads. This is a great feature because it means that tracks aren’t tied down to an eMusic player, they can be played and moved to whatever player you want.

Another distinct quality to eMusic is that they carry mostly independent artists and smaller labels, which is probably a result of them being long-time DRM-free promoters.

The site launched as Good Noise in 1998 and changed the name to eMusic in 1999. eMusic was acquired in 2001 by Vivendi Music and then re-acquired by Dimensional Associates in 2003. DRM-free retail competitors include AmieStreet, Audio Lunchbox, gBox and Wal-Mart.