Music Services

[Mogus]

Anyone subscribe to iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, or any of the other music services? What do you like and dislike about them?

 

[CA1900]

I use the iTunes service and like it a lot. The biggest thing I like is that it ISN'T a subscription like some of them are. It's a strictly pay-per-song (or album) service. Some services are basically rentals, which don't interest me.

As for the others... The biggest thing that sold me on the iTunes store is that the licensing is very straightforward -- I can use my music on up to 5 computers (which I can change at any time), unlimited iPods, and burn CDs pretty much all I want. Not sure about the others, but I saw with BuyMusic, each song can have different licensing limits -- some can't burn CDs, others can't be copied to music players, etc. One song might allow 3 computers to access it, while others only two. I pulled up one song that allows unlimited burns to CD; another limits you to 10, then no more CD burns.

I make mix CDs for my car all the time, often including a song a number of times. Those licensing limits would irritate me to no end. And for each song, I have to click the "usage details" link to find out what that particular song's restrictions are, to see if I'm allowed unlimited burning. They also won't let you browse the store with anything but IE. All in all, I was not impressed.

Regarding the number-of-computers limit, iTunes doesn't restrict you to any particular computer. You can de-authorize one computer, and then authorize any other, as long as it totals 5 computers. So when I sold my old computer, I just deauthorized it; I didn't lose my music rights along with it. Nice.

I also find the AAC (MPEG-4) format, used by iTunes, sounds better to my ear than the WMA files. That's purely subjective by me, but hey, it's my money. My vote's definitely for the iTunes store if they carry what you want to hear.

 

[CWASaab]

iTunes

My vote is for iTunes and the iTMS.

One of the things I like most about iTunes is that I can stream audio from my desktop to my laptop over my wireless network. That way if I want to listen to music in another part of the house, I don't have to have copies of my music on each computer.

As far as DRM stuff goes, Apple's Fairplay seems reasonable, and I haven't run into the limits for burning, or even come close.

The selection is always getting better at the iTMS, and they are making one song available free, every week (this week its "James" by Josh Rouse).

And as CA1900 said, no subscription, just buy what you want.

 

[furloughfodder]

One word:

suprnova

 

[Ailerongirl]

One word:

suprnova

So what exactly is a TORRENT file, and how do you play it??

 

[furloughfodder]

And for you South Park fans there is this:

http://www.mrtwig.net/

also if you don't know what a torrent is yet go here (also you can do a google):

http://www.mrtwig.net/i.php?p=btguide

and finally, the best bittorrent client is probably found here:

http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

have fun.