EMusic Sells 150 Million Downloads

Independent online music retailer eMusic -- which claims the number two spot behind Apple's iTunes Store in terms of volume -- says that it's sold more than 150 million downloads.

The news comes less than nine months after eMusic passed the 100 million mark. The company said its run rate is about six million tracks per month. In late July, Apple announced that the iTunes Store passed three billion songs.

EMusic sells songs in MP3 format, which eschew any sort of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. It's a "subscription"-based service -- users pay a monthly fee that enables them to download a fixed number of songs, depending on the fee.

With a focus on independent artists and labels, eMusic president and CEO David Pakman said his company caters to music fans over the age of 25 who are interested in what's happening outside of the mainstream.

"Even as research shows that overall paid download growth is slowing, eMusic continues to attract new customers and sell more music," said Pakman in a statement.

EMusic and AT&T recently launched eMusic Mobile, which enables users of some AT&T cell phones to download music from eMusic over the air using their cell phone.