# What is your preferres music service? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407 "2013-01-26T04:07:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/1 "2013-01-26T04:07:56Z")
I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to own a million tracks. I’d rather have a service that allows me to access the music I want, when I want. I don’t mind listening to stations a la Pandora. I will pay a monthly fee to not hear commercials. I DO want to be able to hear the song I want, when I want. If I want to hear “99 Luftballons” somebody better start queuing up the German ode to post apocalyptic and latex sorrow post haste! So here are the options I am away of. Please feel to rate them or share ones I am not familiar with: [ul] [li]Pandora[/li][li]8Tracks[/li][li]Grooveshark[/li][li]Spotify[/li][li]Songza[/li][li]Slacker[/li][/ul] Any others? I appreciate your input! ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/2 "2013-01-26T04:18:44Z")
Typo in the title. Classy. Mod - can you make that “preferred”? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/3 "2013-01-26T04:25:44Z")
Rhapsody works well for me. Flat monthly fee, and you can listen to all the music you want. And they seem to have the rights to just about everything. Their only weakness (and this may not be so important if you’re mostly listening to pop music) is that the liner notes (do they still call them that?) for classical and jazz records are not available on the site. Those notes had a \*lot \*of important information. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/4 "2013-01-26T05:04:49Z")
I usually listen to Pandora. I used to use Live365 quite a bit, but they have way too many commercials. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/5 "2013-01-26T05:06:21Z")
If you go premium on Pandora, are more able to focus your music? ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/6 "2013-01-26T05:34:25Z")
Spotify is free streaming to desktop computers (mobile costs money.) I highly recommend trying it out. The selection is pretty good. Building playlists is easy. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/7 "2013-01-26T05:41:50Z")
I use Rhapsody, with my home computer, work computer, and on my phone. Been using subscription service for I think 5 or 6 years now and haven’t regretted it at all. I think it’s totally worth it because I would never be able to afford buying all the tracks and albums I have in my library. No ads at all, and $10 a month. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/8 "2013-01-26T06:27:53Z")
I haven’t tried them all to compare, but I use Spotify and I love it. There’s probably a feature comparison chart out there, maybe even on wiki. I suspect they are all probably pretty good and which one you choose depends on which features are important to you. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/9 "2013-01-26T07:04:57Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > I DO want to be able to hear the song I want, when I want. What if you want to hear the song when you have no internet connection? Don’t all of these services require that (if you don’t “own” the song by downloading it), so wouldn’t that eliminate them as choices? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/10 "2013-01-26T07:19:24Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > What if you want to hear the song when you have no internet connection? Don’t all of these services require that (if you don’t “own” the song by downloading it), so wouldn’t that eliminate them as choices? No, at least two services allow you to download tracks to play back when you have no internet. I use both Rhapsody and MOG. Either one will meet the requirements of the OP. Both cost about $10 per month. And both allow you to play via a PC (a web browser player) or to a smartphone or mp3 player. Android phones, iPhone and iPod touches are supported (and also Squeezebox devices). For $10 per month, just about everything you might want to hear, when you want to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/11 "2013-01-26T07:26:09Z")
With Rhapsody, you can download all you want and listen offline to your one authorized mobile device or Mp3 player. For an additional $5 a month, you can download to three mobile/Mp3 devices. The downloads are “good” until your next renewal date each month. The 30-day licenses are renewed whenever you connect after that date each month. You can stream whatever and for how long and however many times you want on up to three computers, but I believe those can’t directly download, so for those you’d need a live internet connection. But if you have a dock or way to plug in your mobile/Mp3 to speakers if you don’t want to use headphones, you’re good to go for that $9.99 a month. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/12 "2013-01-26T14:12:20Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > What if you want to hear the song when you have no internet connection? Don’t all of these services require that (if you don’t “own” the song by downloading it), so wouldn’t that eliminate them as choices? My phone will be my primary device so I will have Internet access 99% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/13 "2013-01-26T14:36:42Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > If you go premium on Pandora, are more able to focus your music? No; Pandora’s paid service simply removes ads. You cannot queue up a song and play it with Pandora; you can only set up stations based on songs and/or artists. The service does a pretty good job of playing stations dedicated to a specific taste profile (due to their “music genome” project), but is not an “on demand” option. Spotify is, though, and will allow you to queue up any song in their library and play it on demand. I’ve no experience with the others. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/14 "2013-01-26T15:04:44Z")
Spotify. Free and with an amazingly large number of artists. I’ve been going through all the albums listed in “1000 Albums tot hear before you die,” and it’s rare not to find someone listed (though the exact album may not be). ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/15 "2013-01-26T16:04:27Z")
I’ve been using Xbox Music, though I believe it only works with Windows 8/Windows Phone 8/Xbox. Lets you stream anything on demand, and has a Smart DJ that works like Pandora, though not nearly as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-preferres-music-service/648407/16 "2013-01-26T16:15:55Z")
Pandora all the way for me. My wife uses\*\* Myspace \*\*as well, which she loves since their relaunch.