Best bang for buck with Music Services

[smkelly]

Up to now, I've been using my SBC, SBR, and SB2 with Internet Radio stations such as the Sky.FM/DI.FM status streamed through SC. However, I've decided to explore the various music services available to me through SC/SN.

Yesterday afternoon, I subscribed to Rhapsody to try it out. I had evaluated it a while back, but don't really remember it well. I also have a Pandora account and have used Slacker some as well. However, I've not been paying for any of these.

I guess my question is what people's opinions are on the best bang for my buck in music services selection would be. They all cost around the same ($5-15/mo), but some offer different features such as artist recommendation and access to wider selections of music.

What combination of services are people using out there on a budget to get the most out of their listening experience?

[Mark Miksis]

IMO, if you're on a budget, there's no reason not to love the free versions of both Pandora and Slacker.

[kh6idf]

I subscribed to Pandora before it was free, I think it was $3 per month, I paid $36 for 1 year. Definitely worth it and I understand this will keep my stream ad-free. Then I tried the 30-day free trial of Rhapsody. There is no way anyone can use Rhapsody for 30 days and not end up subscribing, it's a trap! :-)

I think Pandora and Rhapsody complement each other, Pandora plays lots of new and interesting music, but doesn't let you play any one particular song when you want. Rhapsody lets you play anything you want right now, play it 10 times in a row even. And you can build a large library of favorite albums from their huge database.

While listening to Pandora, if I hear something I like I can select the "on Rhapsody" item under the now playing menu and go add that album to my Rhapsody library to explore the artist further, all without stopping the music on Pandora. This is a really great feature.

The bitrate on Rhapsody is higher (192k vs 128k)so the sound quality is better, but Pandora still sounds very good on my system at 128k.

[mortslim]

The way I look at it, my Rhapsody subscription is a lot less than my cable TV bill and I use my Rhapsody much, much, much, much more than I use the cable TV. Great deal from that perspective.

[socistep]

The way I look at it, my Rhapsody subscription is a lot less than my cable TV bill and I use my Rhapsody much, much, much, much more than I use the cable TV. Great deal from that perspective.

Stop it...its not fair....for us UK residents we get last.fm only, I'd love to try out Rhapsody and the like...

[Mark W]

Rhapsody is an undescribable feast for music lovers and an excellent value. I agree with kh6idf, if you like music, once you try it for 30 days you won't be able to stop. The other feature I love, is with the To Go Account, you can load your MP3 player for when your not at home. It's not without its problems though. It periodically glitches when playing on the Duet and more frequently than you'd like, their servers go down. But the pluses far outweigh the minuses in my opinion...

[maggior]

I tried Rhapsody when support was first added to the SB. It had all sorts of strange problems that made it really annoying to use. I tried it again 6 months later and the same thing.

You guys are not having any trouble with Rhapsody now?

I've subscribed to Pandora and have used Last.fm and slacker. I've been using Slacker a lot lately - I love it.

[Mark W]

Yes, there have been problems with Rhapsody, mostly connection problems due to their servers going down and the way they process accounts- I think. I also have a Pandora account that is much cheaper ($3 vs $15 per month), it's much more reliable, and I like it's ability to zero in on what you like for music.

But, I just really like having access to all of the music directly (like listening to an album...), and the ability to load it into my MP3 player. So, I would say that if you want to have just one music service with very high reliability, and very low cost, Rhapsody isn't there yet. But it still has so much going for it that I'm willing to put up with the problems for now, and hope that they'll become more stable over time...

[stovis]

Up to now, I've been using my SBC, SBR, and SB2 with Internet Radio stations such as the Sky.FM/DI.FM status streamed through SC. However, I've decided to explore the various music services available to me through SC/SN.

Yesterday afternoon, I subscribed to Rhapsody to try it out. I had evaluated it a while back, but don't really remember it well. I also have a Pandora account and have used Slacker some as well. However, I've not been paying for any of these.

I guess my question is what people's opinions are on the best bang for my buck in music services selection would be. They all cost around the same ($5-15/mo), but some offer different features such as artist recommendation and access to wider selections of music.

What combination of services are people using out there on a budget to get the most out of their listening experience?

Rhapsody is incredible. I haven't had any problems with them. I got the "Rhapsody To Go" account for $2/month more and use it with my Rhapsody ibiza mp3 player - it's like having a Squeezebox on the go.

Like others have said, you can use Pandora and Sacker and last.fm on the Squeezebox and add artists to Rhapsody directly from the SB menu - cool feature. Great way to find new artists and albums. I love being able to hear about an album from a friend and be listening to it a few minutes later. You won't be able to listen to albums the day they are released, but they seem to get most of them out fairly quickly - within a month or so. Also, they don't have everything (not much Chameleons or Midnight Oil for example) but they have about 95% of what I'm looking for, and I am looking for mostly non-mainstream stuff. Some things will how up later too - they didn't have any Radiohead until recently - now they have all of them.

With a 30 day free trial, you have nothing to lose. If it saves you from buying 1 or 2 CD's you don't like a month, it pays for itself. Trust me, if you're a music lover, you'll love it.