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October 02, 2006
Get Your eGroove On
There are many options out there today to legally download music online. Some services, such as iTunes, offer buying songs or albums, while others, such as Napster, offer subscription services. Both have their pros and cons, and it is up to you to decide which type of service makes the best fit.
Let’s start with the traditional method, purchasing music. Naturally you can still go to a music store and buy an album. Online music stores, however, offer you the ability to download a single song or the entire album. The advantage of this is clear, if you want just one song, there is no need to purchase the entire album just to get it. Not to mention the difference in price. Purchasing songs online cost $1 or less, whereas the typical album costs about $18. In addition, you can almost always preview any song online, so you can decide if you indeed like the song or album before making your purchase.
There are several online stores that offer downloading music such as iTunes, Rhapsody and eMusic. iTunes, although most popular, uses a special format that cannot be played on all MP3 players. If you want to transfer your purchased music to your MP3 player, it better be an iPod, otherwise, you might not be able to listen to it. eMusic offers MP3 downloads which can be played on virtually any computer or portable music device.
The new alternative to purchasing music is renting it. Subscription services usually offer an enormous catalog of music that you can listen to for about $10/month. You can usually listen to any artist in the vendor’s library at any time. Different vendors, though, offer variations on this theme. Some of the more popular vendors are Yahoo Music, Rhapsody to Go, Napster and eMusic. Yahoo and eMusic also allow you to purchase an individual song if you want to own it. You can also develop “playlists” of you favorite songs or different genres of music.
The advantage to subscription services is that you have about 2 million songs ready to go at any time. Throwing a dinner party and want to set the right mood? You can use Rhapsody or Yahoo’s radio station, say Martini Lounge, to delight your guests. The advantages of one subscription service over another are less pronounced. All offer large libraries of music, but some offer radio stations (Rhapsody and Yahoo), while others (Napster) offer browsing by Billboard chart and staff recommendations.
While you have to decide for yourself which service suits your needs best, I thought I’d include my favorites as a starting point. I love iTunes and at 99 cents a song, or $10 for an album, it is quite affordable. I do have an iPod, so compatibility issues are not a problem. In addition to purchasing music, though, I do enjoy discovering new music and have a subscription to Yahoo’s LaunchCast. LaunchCast has over 100 Radio Stations that I can listen to at home or work for only $3/month. You can also create your own station by rating artists, songs and genres. The more you rate, the more LaunchCast learns what you like, and what you might like. Best of all it has a skip feature, so if you don’t like a song, you don’t have to suffer through it and wait for the next song. Get started by visiting the vendors’ websites and seeing what services are right for you.
