LiveMusicBlog

Okay, it is time for me to finally say nice bye to my portable disc player, and join the Web and portable music revolution. Okay, the revolution isn’t so new any more, nor is my PC, but as I wade through the sea of options for how to download music, listen to and buy Web tracks, I grow more eager to get my feet wet and eventually suit up to take the plunge. But I happen to be a bit more practical than that. So, I have spent a considerable amount of time over the final few weeks trying to determine what’s perfect for my lifestyle, my wallet and my PC.
1st thing I realized when searching all of the music services is that things seemed to work a lot smoother with a cable connection (and the majority services seem to point that out from the get go). Just like my CD  Walkman, the time had come for me to lose my ancient dial-up connection to the Web experience. It actually turned out to work in my favor as my cable company gave me a nice deal on high-speed, and also threw in a discount on my existing costs for cable television.
Now that I was “connected” at an acceptable speed to the Web, I had to determine, what I was trying to get out of the Web music experience. After some intense melodious soul searching, I realized that the only thing the separated me from the perpetually hip is perhaps the categories of music I was searching for, and the amount of time I wanted to spend Web searching for music.
The guy who sits next to me has a 60 GB iPod, and is complaining that it is al the majority full. That’s over seven thousand tunes. I do not know that I would even live long enough to listen to that many tunes. My needs were simple r. I had an MP3 player still in the box from two Christmas’ ago, and it promised to hold over 500 tunes. That would be perfect for me, at least in the short term.
Next, what was I looking for in my new Web music experience? Did I want to listen to music on my PC, in my car or on my MP3 player? Yes to all three. Did I want to listen to the radio while I was on my PC? Again, yes. Did I want to trade music with others Web in a peer-to-peer Napster- like environment? Eh, that one scared me a little, and I decided that opportunity up my files to strangers made me feel dirt, so I put that one on hold.
My next prohibit in determining how I would “music Web ” was price. I searched dozens of websites and services, but narrowed my sights to three of the ample guys: AOL Music Now, iTunes and Rhapsody Music Service ( offer d by Real Networks).
I already had AOL, so I signed up for their Music Now product for $8.99/month ( that’s in addition to their monthly cost as an ISP). I was able to download tunes, listen to them while “offline” and burn them to CD  or move them over to my MP3 player for an additional cost per song. That seemed to be standard across the majority of the services. Music Now was a follow up to the original AOL Music Net, which I actually like d better because it ran local/regional ly on machine and the new Web-based Music Now takes much longer. AOL also has a partnership with iTunes, so you may be on AOL, but iTunes will launch and then you are actually in the iTunes application. It’s confusing. If I want to move my downloaded tunes to my MP3 player, the monthly cost jumps to $14.95 per month, and if I want to put them on a CD, I pay and additional 99 cents per track. This is too much resources for me. I typically buy one or two CD ’s a month, and that would be cheaper than this Web service. Not to mention you have to be an existing AOL member (more resources per month) in order to even use the product. I am passing on AOL Music Now.
On to iTunes. Okay, so there is no monthly cost for iTunes. Love that. And I may purchase tunes for 99 cents per track. Love that too. But wait. I do not have an iPod, and iTunes has tunes in their proprietary MP4 format. Ugh. The cheapest iPod out there is around $99 (so much for no monthly fee), and it is not the model I would select. I like my MP3 player. If I already had an iPod, this may be the route I would go, but Apple tends be decidedly inflexible, and I hate to be tied to one offer r, player and format. There’s also a limit to how you may share the tunes on your home network. I feel like even though I own the song, I am being watched on what I do with it. Good bye ample brother.
Rhapsody Music Service from Real Networks. So far they are the least expensive. $9.99 per month and that’s with unlimited access to over 1.3 million tunes. I do have to have pay the additional 99 cent cost if I want to burn to CD  or transfer to my MP3, but that’s the industry standard for paying the artist s, and the monthly cost is five dollars less per month than AOL. The music comes over in the more expansive ly guide ed MP3 format and the tunes are mine to rip transfer or share with my other PC’s on my home network. like the other two, I may listen to live radio on my PC, but I like the freedom I get with Rhapsody Music Service. I am not being watched, and the music is mine.
Now that I know how to download music and have chosen Rhapsody Music Service, I am on my way to joining the new world of portable digital music. I have already burned several CD ’s for my car, albeit with an older man’s twist on today ’s favorite s, and transferred those same tunes over to my little antiquated MP3 player for those long weekend walks.