iTunes vs Urge vs Rhapsody

I don’t want to constantly pay to listen to music. Seems most people agree.

I’m glad you like URGE.

Few people have the URGE to spend money every month to listen to music. It’s like being nickeled and dimed to death for life.

Like almost all people, I prefer to buy my music once and use it all the time, without having to pay anything ever.

In the mood for the Doors – BAM! I already bought them years ago. It’s easy to have them all stored on an 80 GB iPod.

Want to have more the 80 GB? BAM! Buy another 80GB iPod. It’s easy.

Don’t have the money? BAM! Got a good job. Don’t have one – go to college, get a second job, etc. The world is your oyster!

So basically, you’re paying for radio where all of the music is your selection. If I wanted radio, I’d get an XM. I still prefer to purchase what I want.

So basically, you’re paying for radio where all of the music is your selection. If I wanted radio, I’d get an XM. I still prefer to purchase what I want.

Let’s face it, if you have a decent CD collection, you don’t need a subscription service. You just have to add a few to your collection when you hear something new that you like. Radio is the best source for new music. There is an FM station for every genre.

If you have no music collection, subscription is only $15 per month, plus the playback device that works with subscriptions, plus the Internet connection and the computer. If you have the computer and the Internet connection, you have access to P2P sites. It’s really tempting to save that $15 a month for the rest of your life and download a free music collection from P2P sites.

Many music users have done just that. Many others have paid a subscription service $15 for a couple of months, circumvented the DRM with audio hijack and cancelled the subscription when they have the collection they want.

The reason subscription services are going bankrupt is not that they have no access to the iPod. The reason not very many people use them is because they don’t want to rent their music for the rest of their lives, they want to own it.

Preferences really depend on your tastes, listening styles, and lifestyle. I use an iPod for the music I own, but listen to Rhapsody often to suit my tastes in classical and obscure forms of music such as New Age. I used to listen to Yahoo music, but found it to be rather juvenile in scope for my tastes. IMHO, iTunes fall short in a couple of ways: 1) you can’t test drive the musicl, 2) there’s no subscription content (not talking about podcasts here). So overall, Chris, I’m probably more of a music rental fan than a music ownership fan. Thanks for the article and chance to comment.

When my daughters recieved mp3 players for christmas in 2005 I signed up for MusicMatch for them. Unfortunately I paid for a full year up front. The problem with MusicMatch through 2006 (they have since merged with yahoo and I have no clue how good or bad they are now) was that their software did not update licenses for the music correctly or something. We had a great many issues that would take a great deal of work on my part to fix.
Then we went to Urge. Urge worked well until my daughters mp3 player needed to be replaced, and when I deauthorized her’s and then had to wait 30 days to authorize another one? Please! That was insane in my estimation so they got dropped. Now we are with Rhapsody. Although Rhapsody only lets you have three authorized players (hello if you rent a DVD and have a household of five you all can watch it, why can’t five mp3 players from the same household rent the music) I have had very few issues with the service, and when there was player issues I was able to authorize and deauthorize without having to wait. For 15 dollars a month, I am pretty happy with the service, and my girls and husband (you would not believe the varied taste in music they have) can listen to pretty much everything they want.

One last thought. As to Rhapsody being a RealNetwork product and the issues with RealNetwork invading your system, a) you do not have to have the RealPlayer installed to use Rhapsody b) if this has changed and I am not aware of it, Startup Monitor (which I believe I found via a lockergnome recommendation forever ago) will keep things under control.

One last thought. As to Rhapsody being a RealNetwork product and the issues with RealNetwork invading your system, a) you do not have to have the RealPlayer installed to use Rhapsody b) if this has changed and I am not aware of it, Startup Monitor (which I believe I found via a lockergnome recommendation forever ago) will keep things under control.

ya. i prefer to purchase. I’ve done the subscription thing but then I realized the music I listen to I have the CD for so why not copy the music of my cds and into my ipod. And while we’re at it. since I have an ipod lets use itunes to purchase any songs I don’t have. and that’s where it started. now only use itunes. I’m going to be sad to see NBC no longer be part of itunes cause I purchase shows also on it. like Stargate sg1 and battlestar galactica.

why ipod? cause apple got it right. It’s the BEST interface EVER! … i tried others and they all sucked. finally, MS got smart and made one (zune) like the ipod. but ’s to late for me… I have the ipod and itunes.

btw: out of the subscribetion services (i tried musicmatch and rhapsody) … musicmatch is better… never tried Urge that was after I went iTunes.)

:D

TODAY, 5Oct’07, I’ve been hit with a Double Whammy! Lonnnnng standing with MMJB… they go to YaPoo and my Lifetime Code goes OBS. It was so easy and now I must choose once again.
Two years ago I discovered & Subscribed to Rhapsody. Buying a Track or CD seemed fair enough, but rarely used, since I could Transfer all I needed/wanted songs to my 1gig Sansa… use in Car or any Head Unit, as a JamBox, etc. There were MAJOR downsides to it though. REAL constantly changed formats and had major conflicts with Windows SP2, WMP and IE6 & 7.
Yesterday I finally dumped MMJB/YaPoo Jukebox and downloaded WMP 11 to Load Library & all my 1500+ CDz… go from there. OMG, now Rhapsody has moved into here too. Delima? Only if I want to deal with Rhapsody ineptness. I hear eTunes is the way to go, without the DMA probz at all. I don’t BUY, but if I want2, at 33 cents a Tune, I may rethink. I still want the ability to Transfer songs to my MP3 Sansa Player… I want it BOTH ways… $9-15 is worth paying, if it is Simple and Progressive. All this Jockeying Sux~ The Crux
Suggestions?

Having Rhapsody is like having a friend with a quarter million CDs. For $15 per month, he’ll let you come over and listen to whatever you want. You can even borrow it for as long as you want, as long as you keep paying him $15 per month. All that stuff you never would have bought but you kinda wanted to hear? He’s got it. The stuff that you’ve never heard of but looks interesting? Now you don’t have to buy it to try it out. It’s right there.

Personally, I find that the $15 per month that I give Rhapsody is well worth the $5,000 per month that it saves me. I’m well aware that I won’t want to keep these songs forever. I understand that it’s hard for some people to switch their mindset from “own” to “borrow”, but hey. It’s the future!

It’s really about the individual and his/her listening habits and also the mindset. Many of my 30-something friends are still listening to their 90’s ‘alternative’ CDs, only now, it’s on their iPods; they’re sort of locked into a particular genre, and became disinterested in listing to new progressive forms of music once they reach their mid-twenties. Or, perhaps, their tastes are sort of limited and they are only apt to purchase albums by particular artists. I think those of us who prefer the subscription services are more or less interested in constantly exploring new, obscure artists who we would probably never experience if we had to purchase each album/track ala carte.

Stinks that Urge got bought by Rhapsody. I love the subscription model because my tastes change over time. But I switched to the Zune market place and it rocks.

I listen to a much wider variety of music now and more frequently than I ever did before.

Yeah its subscription all the way for me too. I could never afford to buy all the music I listen to and then get sick of and delete if I didn’t subscribe to Rhapsody. And hey, what do you think OWNING has to do with anything, a song still sounds as sweet when rented and if you think ANYONE will want to keep ALL your music when YOU can no longer enjoy it; WRONG, someone will do what I had to do with all my MOMs music when she died this summer, chuck it, thats what. You will never catch me listening to a Carpenters CD or Barry whatshisname!!!!! Sell um on Ebay?, nope, when you are grieving, you will chuck um out just like your kids will or who ever cleans up when you are gone….. so renting is all the way for me. My only dilema now is having received an ipod nano for Christmas because my little 1 gb sandisk was tooo small for all my music. I did not want an ipod because I dont want to use itunes not now not ever sooo…..anyone want to buy a brand new nano 4GB silver. I wont be married to the Apple man!! Here it is almost New Year’s and I haven’t even been tempted to download itunes on my computer!!!!!!!!!!

So to pay or not to pay is a personal issue. Let;s say the answer is yes – then you cough up $180 per year to have
access to a million song database.

Now I am guessing that like most of us we have a fairly narrow musical preference, something that can relate to
our youth and forward (30 Years), and in a specific genre
of music ( rock, country, soul etc.).

So having the access does not guarantee that one will like all the music that is offered by the service.

If you are a collector of music then buy so you can
share listening with friends. You can have customized libraries to set up for the occasion, take with you and sync with
your player.

10-30 GB music is a lot. Now to give you an idea an average
live band plays about 40-50 songs an occasion in 4 hours.
So having about 8000 MP3 songs/tunes in your player is almost an overkill unless you prefer jukebox random playback.

Oh and have you checked out the garage sales lately where
you can buy your favorite artist’s CD for 25 cents on a dollar
instead of a buck a song ?

Also I have satellite TV which offers many different genre of
music about 60-80 that runs 24/7 and it’s free because it comes with your subscription already. Choose you genre and
kick back and listen commercial free in digital quality.

So many choices…..so little time.