My daughter says she can sign up for unlimited downloads for about $10 a month.
Sounds too good to be true …
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What would prevent you from downloading 24-7 and then stopping your subscription?
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Are there some/many artists not represented?
The files have a timer built into them. When you stop your subscription, you stop being able to play the songs. The audio is also not as good as CD quality.
That said, it’s not a bad service. I used it for a trial month and very nearly continued my subscription. If you don’t mind renting your entertainment (something people seem to have a big problem with when the entertainment in question is audio, and less so when video) The deciding factor for me was the quality.
I was wary of that but also told that files could be played on MP3 players or burned to a cd. I’m no techie but it seems it would be impossible to have a timer mechanism under those circumstances.
For $15 per month (the next and highest tier in the service), the songs can be loaded onto an MP3 player. The player has to support the digital rights management that Rhapsody uses, which I think is Microsoft Plays For Sure. My Creative Zen Micro supports it as do many other players. However an iPod will not work. I use and like Rhapsody. I’ve posted my experience with Rhapsody somewhere around here before. I’ll see if I can find it.
As for burning the songs to CD, you have to buy them. I think the usual price is 89 cents per track. Most full albums go for less than $9. The quality is 160 Kbps WMA. Not super quality, but not bad.
If your daughter buys more than 1 or 2 CDs per month, every month, then the subscription service might make sense. Plus her account can be on up to three computers, so you could listen too (although only one computer can be logged on at one time). I also think up to two MP3 players can be used.
Nope. Can’t do that.
You can play them on “Rhapsody enabled” portable players, but you have to resynch the license every once in a while or the music stops playing.