Choosing a Music Subscription Service
If "legally" filling up your MP3 player with gigabytes of music
for less than the retail price of a single album interests you,
then it is time to choose a music subscription service. Digital
music is an emerging market with three major players enticing
thousands of people to give up pirating their music and actually
paying for it.
When taken into consideration that people have been stealing
music long before the advent of the MP3 file, which made
pirating music a widespread epidemic, why now are people all of
a sudden going straight? So many, that 2005 was the first year
legal downloads of music exceeded illegal downloads on P2P
sites. Thank Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo Music Unlimited for
finally offering a model that makes sense. Instead of buying
songs or albums, they offer subscribers the ability to rent
their entire collection of over 1 million tracks for a low
monthly fee. Buying thousands of tracks on Apple's iTunes would
cost thousands of dollars, where you can easily download 10,000
or more songs to your MP3 player through a music subscription
service for as low as $4.99 a month. Aside from the cost
savings, renting music has more advantages over buying. For one,
it is convenient. Imaging having over 1 million full length high
quality songs at your fingertips, so whether you want to listen
to your favorite song, something different on an impulse, or are
just curious about an emerging artist, you can have it all. On
top of that, you don't have to worry about slow downloads, poor
audio quality, corrupt or infected files.
Convinced? So which music subscription service is right for you?
While they are all pretty comparable, Rhapsody is probably the
cream of the crop. They offer the most streamlined interface and
the best jukebox functionality, all accessible from any PC
connected to the web. Artist bios, radio stations (which allow
you to skip songs), and advanced playlist features are all
integrated into the interface. For $14.99 a month, this is a
great value. Subscribers also have the option to download songs
for 89 cents a track.
Napster also has an attractive interface with advanced playlist
features and a massive catalog of music that is continually
growing. It has a few nice personalization features, but
transferring songs to an MP3 player can be more difficult with
Napster than the alternatives. For $14.95 a month and 99 cent
tracks, it is still a great value.
Yahoo Music Unlimited is the least expensive option, charging
only $4.99 a month and just 79 cent tracks. It includes a nice
jukebox, radio stations (which allow you to skip songs), and can
integrate with the popular Yahoo Messenger client. If the
appealing price outweighs a lack of extras like artist bios and
a few bugs here and there, then Yahoo is probably the way to go.
With digital music sales soaring, it is a safe bet that all
three of these music subscription services will flourish and
continue to develop even more features, grow their already
extensive catalogs, and convert more and more pirates into
renters.