Music Subscription

very easy answer... If you have the Sandisk M series and bought it between 10/3/2005 and 2/28/2006 you will want to use Rhapsody - here is why:

www.rhapsody.com/rebate

Sign up for a 6 month commitment for $90 ($15/month) and since you bought a sandisk you will get an $80.00 rebate. SOOOOO... $10.00 TOTAL ($90-$80) for 6 months of to go service!!!!!!! TOTAL - Not $10 PER MONTH - TOTAL!!!

I have only used Rhapsody, so I am not qualified to compare them to Napster etc. BUT I can say to date I have found Rhapsody to be easy to use, have plenty of selection etc.

Note - be careful in what service you sign up for. Usually there is a base subscription service on these sites for like $10/month. That allows unlimited streaming to your PC. BUT if you want to transfer to a player, you need a "To Go" service, which is usually more like $15/month

But again, if you have the Sandisk Sansa and do not do this $80 rebate you are crazy.

I had the opportunity to have a free subscription to Napster for a year (only on my computer, not the ability to convert to my mp3 player). When the subscription ran out, I had to decide what I wanted to do.

What I did, and what I recommend to you, is that you try out all the services to see which one you like better. Rhapsody has a 14 day free trail period, as does Napster, except for Napster you have to give credit card info (just call Napster customer service and talk to a person so you can make sure they cancel your account if you dont want to continue with it). I have not used Yahoo so I don't know.

BUT BEWARE: If you want to use the 80 dollar Rhapsody rebate, I am pretty sure you may not be able to use the 14 day trial period (I could be mistaken though, just look at the rebate offer that came with your Sansa). Also, I believe the rebate comes with the m200 series, not the earlier e100? series.

I bought a 1 Gig Sansa m240 just because it was pretty much free with the Rhapsody rebate and the 13 dollar rolling stone rebate. When I called to inquire about the rebate I was told it was still availabe until the end of march (although I forgot if they said you can buy a player until the end of March, or your rebate must be postmarked by the end of March).

Anyway I chose Rhapsody because it had a better music selection in what I was interested in (Jazz-Funk, such as John Scofield and Medeski Martin and wood, and Jimi Hendrix to name a few). Napster had the same artists, but they were "buy only" and not available for subscription downloads. Also Rhapsody streamed music extremely well onto my laptop, whereas to listen to a song on Napster it was pretty much essential to download it to your hardrive.

Hope this helps.