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View Full Version : Interesting new music "rental" program: Competitor for Itunes?

SirFozzie
05-27-2008, 07:23 PM
http://michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=265

Apparently some of the record conglomerates is trying this new service out. It's similar to streaming radio in a way.

You get one "free" listen of each particular song. After that, it's a 30 second preview.

You can add the song to your "library" for the cost of 1 credit. You get 50 credits for signing up. Further credits cost only a dime. Once a song is in your library, you apparently get unlimited plays.

However, the only way you can access the song is via the web. You can't download it. You can't place it on a CD. You can't place it on an MP3 player. You always have to be online. And if the service ever stops? Well, you've just lost everything.

I have to admit, the price is reasonable (10 cents a song). I'm not sure that the terms are for me though. For everyone, having music with them always (in the car, working out, anywhere really with a MP3 Player) is now a given, and I'm not sure that folks will be willing to give that up for this service.
Deattribution
05-27-2008, 07:32 PM
Doesn't Rhapsody already do that, and for cheaper?
Groundhog
05-27-2008, 07:37 PM
I listen to the vast majority of my music in the car or on my ipod - rarely at home. Besides, don't they realise that it's amazingly easy to record the song you are streaming from your PC to a file using any number of free audio applications if you wanted?
SirFozzie
05-27-2008, 07:38 PM
Rhaspody, Napster and Yahoo, are all-you-can eat plans for $20/month. This apparently is a one time cost to add it to your library.
Young Drachma
05-27-2008, 07:52 PM
Rhaspody, Napster and Yahoo, are all-you-can eat plans for $20/month. This apparently is a one time cost to add it to your library.

I use Rhapsody's service. $15 a month. Works great if you're like me, listen to a lot of stuff for a while and then never again for a while. And for the cost of an album a month. I stopped buying CDs pretty much after 2002 or so and have used it since around that time. I think it depends on your musical tastes, though.
samifan24
05-27-2008, 07:53 PM
You can listen to individual songs for free at free.napster.com.
lordscarlet
05-27-2008, 07:59 PM
Rhaspody, Napster and Yahoo, are all-you-can eat plans for $20/month. This apparently is a one time cost to add it to your library.

...that can't be listened to in the car, on the train, on a plane, on a run or at the gym...
SirFozzie
05-27-2008, 08:15 PM
Well, then again, at least with the cheapest rate, you can't do any of that with Napster/Yahoo.. you have to buy their plus service
Young Drachma
05-27-2008, 08:49 PM
...that can't be listened to in the car, on the train, on a plane, on a run or at the gym...

Sure they can. You download them to your MP3 player.
lordscarlet
05-27-2008, 08:53 PM
Sure they can. You download them to your MP3 player.

With the site SirFozzie posted? He said it is only via the web.
Young Drachma
05-27-2008, 08:53 PM
Sure they can. You download them to your MP3 player.

Sorry, I was reading that wrong.
Mota
05-28-2008, 05:52 AM
I use Rhapsody's service. $15 a month. Works great if you're like me, listen to a lot of stuff for a while and then never again for a while. And for the cost of an album a month. I stopped buying CDs pretty much after 2002 or so and have used it since around that time. I think it depends on your musical tastes, though.

I would miss owning the stuff. I'm still backing up some of my old cassettes so that I don't lose any of the music that I own. I'm guessing that I'm the exception though.
Ksyrup
05-28-2008, 06:29 AM
I want to own it. And since the majority of my listening is in the car, I still want the highest quality sound, so CD it is.

I don't foresee changing my buying habits until someone comes up with an easy/included way of hooking my MP3 player up to my car stereo and making it sound as if I'm playing a CD. Right now, that option doesn't exist unless I want to go out and spend money to have someone hardwire a connection directly to my stereo. And even then, I'd have to bump up the encoding of my burned songs to like 320 for it to sound as good as a CD. And that's not even getting into the DVD-A issues, which an MP3 player could never replicate.

I see this issue much like satellite radio - I wasn't interested until I bought a car that came with it. No hook-ups, no add-ons, just pay for the service that was integrated into my car stereo.