eMusic To Focus On Indies

eMusic, one of the oldest legal music download sites (it was founded in 1999,) is launching a redesign this week, and with it, a revised definition of its mission. Lagging well behind the subscriber numbers of downloading juggernauts RealNetworks, AOL, and MusicMatch, eMusic has decided to focus on the grossly underserved independent music market. The new eMusic catalog will offer 500,000 tracks from 3,700 indie labels, and will give the small-timers front page treatment. “The aim is to help fans locate the small, the obscure and the eccentric; help musicians find their fans; and grab a chunk of the more than $2 billion in revenues generated annually by independent music labels.”