The Online Music Service Debate
It’s no small secret that I’m a music lover. I listen to a lot of music, and wide range of styles. My digital music collection is slightly insane by most standards. I have the 120GB iPod, and not even that can hold my entire collection. You get my point – I own a lot of music. Needless to say, I’ve tried a lot of the online music services that have popped up over the last few years. Here’s my review of the ones I’ve tried, and keep in mind that I am picky when it comes to these types of services.
Pandora
Pandora is a mostly free service that tailors radio stations to your tastes – either by genre, or a particular artist. Rating the songs with a thumbs up or thumbs down helps define your likes and dislikes and determines what songs the station plays. I say that the service is mostly free because of two conditions:
- You are limited to listening to 40 hours of music per month. If you hit the 40 hour threshold, you’re asked to pay $1 to listen an unlimited amount the remainder of the month, or…
- Pay $36 per year to listen unlimited with no ads.
For my money, I’ll just pay the $1 whenever I hit the 40 hour threshold. The ads aren’t too annoying or overbearing, and I’ve only hit the 40 hour threshold once since I’ve been a Pandora user. While I love to have control over what I listen to, Pandora is great for discovering new artists, or for rediscovering artists I haven’t listened to in a long time. It is also great for days when you want to listen to music but don’t want to think about it too much.
Another plus is their iPhone app, which is awesome! I am able to use the app in my car while driving and listen seamlessly to my stations, even if I’m on the Edge network. Very impressive.
GrooveShark
My best friend swears by GrooveShark. He loves it. It’s a free streaming service that has a large collection of music. You simply search for an artist or song, and – if they have it – start listening. The key phrase there is “if they have it.” I’m picky about these types of services. The same reason I keep 120GB of music on my iPod is the same reason I’d use one of these services. I want to be able to go from listening to one artist to another, one style to another, and not be hindered by the song, album or artist not being available. This is where GrooveShark falls short for me. Far too often for my liking, my searches came up empty, or an album was only partially available. It might be a good service in a pinch, but I won’t use it too often.
Mog
Mog looks interesting. They certainly aren’t modest. They claim they’re the “best new online music service” on their site. Their unlimited listening plan is only $5 per month. I signed up for a free trial and gave it a spin. Immediately, I was disappointed. Newer albums, and even albums that have been out for at least six months, have yet to be added. But, for the most part, they had a far greater selection than GrooveShark offers.
eMusic
eMusic offers several different subscription plans that give you different amounts of downloads each month. I have been a subscriber for over a year now, and I have enjoyed this service. eMusic is different from other services in that they specialize in independent artists. You won’t find a great deal of mainstream music on eMusic. But, in the past year, I’ve also witnessed eMusic grow. They struck a deal to add Sony’s back catalog – albums that were released at least two years ago and older. I have no basis for this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future they struck a deal with the other major labels along these same lines.
I pair my eMusic subscription with Pandora. Chances are, if I hear an obscure artist on a Pandora station that I like, eMusic will have that artist’s music.
Rhapsody
I joined Rhapsody a few months ago. For $15 per month, I’m able to stream music from a very large selection. While I have run across a few albums or artists here and there that are unavailable on Rhapsody, their selection, compared to the services in this post, is by far the largest. They also offer an iPhone app, which is a plus for me. The app does not do well while driving in a car, but works great otherwise.
Rhapsody has been an awesome service for me to “try before I buy.” I’m able to stream albums to see if I’d actually like to spend money on the entire thing. Even still, most of my music listening happens in my office at work. I usually pass on buying the album and just listen to it while I’m at work.
Conclusion
For my tastes, the combination of Pandora, eMusic and Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money. In the past, I’ve spent as much as $100-200 in month on music, only to be disappointed if the entire album wasn’t great (yes, I’d rather buy the entire album instead of just singles). Over the last few months, I’ve spent $35 per month on these services and it’s been rare for me to buy albums through iTunes, Amazon or in stores. I can basically listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, so I haven’t needed to purchase as many albums to put on my iPod.
