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General discussion

Online Music Service

Nov 1, 2005 10:16PM PST

I'm thinking about buying an mp3 player very soon (probably Creative Zen Sleek). I've done some research on the various online sources, but I'm still not sure. Right now, I'm just looking for a service in which I can actually buy tracks. Obviously, the better selection and sound quality of the music, the better. I may eventually like to move forward to a 'to-go' service, but I'm not too thrilled about spending $10-$15/month for unlimited music, only to have it not work if I ever want to cancel my service. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Yahoo Music
Nov 1, 2005 10:44PM PST

I would go with Yahoo. I hear they are raising their prices this week but for now it's only $5 a month with a one year sign up. This is $10/month less than Napster! And this gives you full streaming and downloading to mp3 players which support the Janus WMA10 DRM. I have it and it works great. It's the best deal right now, but they are raising their prices up to nearly Napster levels any day now so it won't be a deal much longer.

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One more thing
Nov 1, 2005 10:46PM PST

Yahoo's files are 192K WMAs, Napsters are 128K WMA and Rhapsody I think are 160K streaming and maybe 128K download, but I am not sure about them since the Real acquistion. Finally, Yahoo is 79 cents to purchase, the rest are around a dollar.

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Re: One more thing
Nov 1, 2005 11:31PM PST

Let me make sure I have this straight. If I go with Yahoo, I can subscribe for $5/month, which will include $.79 downloads. Or, I can pay $.99 for downloads without subscribing? Basically, I just want to be able to save them to my computer, and then possibly transfer to an mp3 player or burn to cd at a later date.

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Yahoo subscription not required for purchase
Nov 2, 2005 12:43AM PST

You don't need to pay the membership fee. If you don't you pay 99 cents per track. But then much of the advantage of Yahoo is lost and it becomes very similar to the other services.

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Thanks
Nov 2, 2005 12:51AM PST

Thanks for the advice. I think that I'll just buy a couple of songs whenever I get my mp3 player. Then, if I'm happy with the Yahoo service, I'll step up the their Yahoo to-go subscription.

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if you plan on burning tracks to cd or...
Nov 2, 2005 7:50AM PST

if you plan on burning tracks to cd or saving them on your computer forever, a music service isn't the best thing. although if you wanted to go music services go Musicmatch On Demand. It has a lot of songs that perfectly fit my music tastes(indie). you cannot however, with any music services, save them to your computer forever or burn them to a cd. This feature would obviously get out of hand with people downloading thousands of songs and burning them to cds. I would just buy the individual tracks. try to stay away from iTunes music store unless you have an ipod because they have their own format that isn't really transferable over a network and it is secured as well. The best place to buy tracks from is Musicmatch and Musicmatch also has Ondemand and a great radio that comes with on demand that is cd quality.
just my 2 cents.

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You could try napster, and except the To-Go service
Nov 2, 2005 7:58AM PST

Napster from my logic is soppose to b pretty good. If not, why not try the free services? Limewire/Bearshare?

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(NT) (NT)
Nov 2, 2005 7:59AM PST