Times change. Time to start a new thread on this topic.
I want to accumulate music for personal use. In the heyday of “old” Napster, it was wonderful for someone who likes to find nuggets in obscure material. I love to get 5 different versions of the same tune and compare artists’ interpretations.
So what are the choices today? For my purposes, it must be:[ul][li]Legal, at least in the USA.[]Music must be in a universal format like MP3 that is likely to be playable for a long time on a largest number of media players or program and can be handled without DRM restrictions. Nothing that expires or requires a renewal or payment or connection to continue to listen after initial purchase/download. I buy it, I own it, I burn it.[]The price per song or album must be as low as possible, so a subscription sounds better than per-tune, but what happens if you stop the subscription for a few months, then resume? I hate the idea of paying for nothing if I get too busy to download one month. Are there any subscriptions that are llimited only by your download bandwidth?[]Quality must be in the high range.[]Selection and variety must be large, and not limited to one genre like garage bands or hits only.[/ul][/li]Anyone care to contrast the services available today? Itunes, Napster, Etunes, whatever.
Some of the subscription models use the ‘listen to anything as long as you’re subscribed’, but those involve DRM and you lose what you had once you leave.
Emusic doesn’t have DRM; I think subscriptions are based on x number of songs per month. I don’t know what happens if you don’t pick them up in that time.
In a couple months, the iTunes Store will have some tracks DRM-free (at the moment, only EMI’s catalog). The DRM-free tracks will also be higher quality (256k AAC), and will cost more per song ($1.29), but not per album.
Emusic is indeed DRM-free (.mp3 format), so once you buy it, you own it for good. Another good thing about them is that you can re-download anything that’s still in their catalogue (they’ve lost a few labels over the years, though I haven’t had that happen to me for a year or two now) for free, anytime you want.
Prices for subscriptions are X number of tracks per month. This can be good in the case of classical and jazz, where the tracks might be longer, but terrible for other things where tracks tend to be shorter (standup comedy, I’m looking at you). If you don’t use these downloads, they DO NOT carry over from month to month. Also, once you have used up your downloads for the month, you have two options: wait until your downloads refresh at the end of the month, or buy a booster pack. A booster pack costs a certain amount for x number of tracks per month, but these downloads DO carry over until you finally use them all up. Also, emusic offers referral bonuses, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I like emusic, I’ve been a member for a couple years at least. The variety is pretty astounding, but there is a lot of crap too. If you need any help navigating the site when you’re checking it out (it can be counterintuitive sometimes), drop me a line.
Ok, I’m going to do something bad and recommend a service that clearly doesn’t fit in the parameters of the OP. What is it and why?
It’s Rhapsody. Real’s*** subscription-based music service.
Pros:
[ul]
[li]Variety - you want nuggets and obscure songs? They’re here. It’s got almost as many songs as iTunes, but it costs a whole helluva lot less to listen to them once you’re on a subscription. As for variations - I’ve found quite a few covers/bands just from poking around on there / poking around in conjunction with Dope music threads. It really feels to me like the heyday of Napster. Like something? Go download it / start listening. [/li][li]Legal - This was important to me as well - I needed to quit my old college habits! [/li][li]Compatible with MY MP3 player - the songs load over to my Sandisk player with little to no hassle. When it’s maxed out, it can get a bit slow in transitioning from song-to-song, but I don’t have to connect it so often that I really notice it (also because I’m constantly updating my MP3 player).[/li][li]**Cost **- I started out on iTunes once I started paying for music. And I almost broke myself. 10 an album?! .99 a song?! I much prefer the subscription method - a low price and you’re ready to get as much music as your little black heart desires. Also, although I don’t burn - you can pay a little extra in Rhapsody to burn things. [/li][li]Free trial - 14 days for you to see if you like it. The new / legal Napster is a similar service and offers a similar “kick the tires” period. [/li][/ul]
Cons (especially for you):
[ul]
[li]Music expires - if you stop paying for it. [/li][li]DRM[/li][/ul]
Honestly, and I don’t mean to sound like a salesman - try a subscription based service for a month or so. If, like me, you find you like the subscription - you’ll NEVER look back. I promise - this is very much a love/hate sort of thing. If you hate it, then just delete the program and get iTunes or eMusic for your needs.
*** I know, I know. I too have suffered through the bloat, flotsam, and irritation of Real products. Rhapsody is the first one that hasn’t made me want to strangle a kitten. Consider that my stamp of approval.
Doc, I appreciate your advice, and I’m sure that kind of service is just fine for some people. But there are too many schemes that no longer work since the company is no longer in business and codes are no longer available.
In contrast, I have music in some form (disks or tapes that are still playable) going back to the 1930’s. To an archivist, the idea that those would become useless any time soon or that I would have to pay extra to transfer them to another medium is at best, annoying; at worst, frightening.
I have seen protection schemes come and go, and for good reason. I refuse to support them and in the interest of historical preservation, I feel they should be circumvented.
So, just to be clear, what’s your position on the music stores who ‘sell’ you music in a DRM form, but allow you to burn it to CD included in that price. (Maybe with a limitation on how many copies of it you can burn, maybe not.) Once it’s burnt, you’ve got a copy that will last for as long as CD-R is good for, and could I believe rip that CD back to MP3s with little practical problem. (I’m not sure if re-ripping is considered ‘DRM circumvention’ and against TOS with most of those places, but in any event they’re not going to know.)
The fear of the music becoming unplayable is understandable, but the fact is that the formats (disks and tapes) are going to become obsolete or at least require some investment in equipment in order to play them (players of any type will eventually fail and need repair or replacement). Transferring to a different format is going to cost something, even if the equipment to do so is something you have for other purposes (in the case of a computer). An archivist is going to invest in the equipment he needs to do his job.
For this reason I wouldn’t throw out the idea of the subscription services. If you were doing this with regular purchased downloads at 99 cents per track, that one comparison will cost almost $5. The normal pricing for a subscription service is $10 per month ($15 if you want to put them on a portable player). Exploring music and comparing artists is easy to do with subscriptions. It is worth taking advantage of the trial period to check thing out.
The value of the subscription service is discovering new music. If you are curious about an artist, you can download a few albums and listen to them at no additional cost. I like to use a service like Pandora or SomaFM to find artists or songs I like, and the subscription service to explore the ideas I get. Sometimes, you find something you really like, so you can download it and keep it. Quite a bit of the stuff you end up not liking, so you don’t keep it, but at least you were able to listen to the full songs, and not a 30 second sample. If it’s something you really want to archive, you are not likely to be happy with a compressed file anyway, DRM or not. You’ll end up doing something like buying the CD or lossless files.
I use both Rhapsody and Yahoo music subscriptions. Both work fine, and either one would be ok alone. However, I would recommend Rhapsody due to their better (beleive it or not) customer service. You do have to supply a credit card, even when using the trial period, but cancelling the subscription and getting the card credited is fast and easy. I know this because I had to reload the program last month and mistakenly created a second account while doing so. All that was due to a reinstallation of Windows XP that I had to do for other reasons. One toll free call to customer support took care of it.
A note about eMusic.com - they have very, very few popular songs. All the new songs you hear on the radio? Don’t have 'em. If that’s what you’re looking for, best go with another service. If you’re into little-known artists, it’s perfect.
[/li][li]Compatible with MY MP3 player - the songs load over to my Sandisk player with little to no hassle. When it’s maxed out, it can get a bit slow in transitioning from song-to-song, but I don’t have to connect it so often that I really notice it (also because I’m constantly updating my MP3 player).[/li][li]**Cost **- I started out on iTunes once I started paying for music. And I almost broke myself.