Players in the subscription music space.
Glad to see you are enjoying what Rhapsody has to offer. The nice about the windows Janus DRM ecosystem, from a consumer point of view, is that there is competition amongst the providers, with very little switching costs. Of course, the prepaid subscriber is locked in somewhat, presumeably by choice, but the same devices will work with competing services and the downloaded files can be easily replaced.
In my opinion, Rhapsody has the cleanest, most intuitive interface, and the focus is on streaming, rather than downloading music. In that regard, it seems to be most responsive, with the least lag before initiating playback. There are no messy files to clutter your local hard drive, and you have access to the same playlists and personalized radio stations at any computer in which you log into the service. A true celestial jukebox, for as long as you have a connected windows PC.
I have a MediaCenter PC hooked up to my home stereo, so I appreciate the fact that Napster, with it's subscription service, has developed a client that works with the remote control interface. Napster's service seems to be the most focused on "community based" exchange of music recomendations and discussion, fostering social exchange based on shared tastes in music. Works for some. Napster also seems to have the easiest method to generate a giant personalized playlist based on your musical tastes that can easily be transferred in whole to Janus-supported player. This is a very compelling alternative to radio, IMO.
Yahoo excels in the category of personalization and price. For $5/yr (on an annual subscription), you get the equivalent of Napster2Go or Rhapsody2Go's $15 premium service. I think it's an extraordinary deal, but I wouldn't say that the Beta software is completely free of bugs just yet. Certainly one to watch.
Like iTunes Music Store, all of the above allow the option to download and "own" DRMed version of any song for $1 (with a discount for subscribers). But I have to wonder whether anyone will actually buy ANY music during their subscription period... |
