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| Zolved TechNews |
iTunes vs. Rhapsody
Ha! Like there is a competition.
In the last month, I paid about $15 to Rhapsody and about $11 to iTunes. On Rhapsody, I have listened to about 240 hours of music from hundreds of artists on both my computer and my Creative Zen Sleek, both using my Bose QC2's.
With iTunes, I've listened to the same album from the same artist a few times.
With iTunes, I can usually get exactly what I want (although they don't have everything).
With Rhapsody, I can usually get exactly what I want, but if I don't, I'll just find something else because, hey, they have billions of songs. Well, probably not billions, but they have a lot.
Rhapsody vs. iTunes Breakdown
|
|
Rhapsody |
iTunes |
|
Price |
$10/month for unlimited listening from your Win XP box. $15/month if you also want to transfer music to your MP3 player. |
$1 per song. Are you kidding? I listen to 500 to 1000 songs a month. How can everyone afford these guys? |
|
Music selection / have what I want? |
99% |
99%, but I can't afford it |
|
Do I have to rip those crates full of CD's that I have? |
No. They are almost all available on Rhapsody, so just pack them away in your garage. |
Yes, unless you are rich enough to just buy your music all over again. |
|
Do I have to backup my music? |
No. Just keep your subscription going. No problems here, I couldn't live without it. |
Yes. Amazon's S3 now makes this affordable, but it is still a pain in the ass. |
|
Global access to all my music? |
Yes. Just log into the browser interface and play away. |
No |
|
Works on a Mac? |
Yes/No. You can use the web browser interface, but you can't transfer music to your MP3 player. |
Yes, well, I hear it works on a Mac, but I'm one of the unfortunate masses living with a WinXP box. Why can't it just break so I have an excuse to get a Mac? |
|
Allows you to explore different artists on a whim? |
Yes. Go ahead and try some Velvet Underground or Stevie Wonder. |
No |
|
Allows you to indulge in tunes you would be embarrassed to buy? |
Yes. I'm a Jazz guy, but I can indulge in Mickey Avalon's "Jane Fonda" or even Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" |
No |
What about the other guys?
Yahoo Music vs. Napster vs. Rhapsody vs. iTunes
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A year or so ago, I tried out Napster, but their music database was a total mess with a lot of duplicate tracks in their index, which made searching a pain.
Yahoo's service is a little cheaper than Rhapsody, but the last time I tried it, I didn't care for the UI, so I stuck with Rhapsody, but they do appear to be very competitive with Rhapsody.
iPod vs Creative Zen
Well, I don't care what is playing the music, I just care about finding it online easily and pumping it to my ears with some fidelity.
iPod's are mainstream now, so they no longer make you look cool, so my advice is to pay more attention to how you are scoring your juice and the delivery method (can't beat Bose Quiet Comfort's).
Trials
Rhapsody (and Yahoo Music) have trials, so judge for yourself. You just might want to ditch iTunes and iPod.
Some Useful Links
- iTunes on Windows Vista : Unstable (for now)
- My iPod screen is frozen on ...
- My iPod is not mounting/not showing in My Computer/not recognized by iTunes.
- How to transfer music from your iPod to iTunes/your computer.
- I get the "sad face iPod" on the screen of my iPod.
- How do I reset and/or restore my iPod?
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- Posted by: fdjieur_7629 at 30 Mar 13:57 permalinkOne of the problems I've had with Rhapsody is finding simple ways of navigating through their collection. The best tool that I've been able to find that solves that is at http://www.onellama.com . There are other tools like Fiql which have rhapsody links, but I can't sometimes make them work.
- Posted by: keithwright_1295 at 24 Aug 19:59 permalinkI just bought an 8GB Insignia Pilot for $50 from Best Buy. Holds Rhapsody Channels for Rhapsody-To-Go (currently on my Pilot...25 channels and 3000 songs...updatable by a few clicks), Plays Audible files, Has FM radio (with RMD...shows Artist, station name, song name...for stations so equipped), Plays videos, text files, photos, and has an SDHC slot that will give you up to...?GB (largest I've seen loaded with music is 32GB) to swap on-the-fly (unlike the iDud). This will give you about 400 HOURS of music (if you only use your player at work...that's two YEARS of music @ 8rhs/day/5 days/week!!!!!)...Line-in recording and video out (so you can output the video to your hotel TV without using your laptop) I output mine to my projection tv but the picture was eh. Also supports Vorbis, M3U, and WMA Lossless. For $50. It's worth it for just the 8GB of internal storage and the basic features!
- Posted by: keithwright_1295 at 24 Aug 19:59 permalinkI just bought an 8GB Insignia Pilot for $50 from Best Buy. Holds Rhapsody Channels for Rhapsody-To-Go (currently on my Pilot...25 channels and 3000 songs...updatable by a few clicks), Plays Audible files, Has FM radio (with RMD...shows Artist, station name, song name...for stations so equipped), Plays videos, text files, photos, and has an SDHC slot that will give you up to...?GB (largest I've seen loaded with music is 32GB) to swap on-the-fly (unlike the iDud). This will give you about 400 HOURS of music (if you only use your player at work...that's two YEARS of music @ 8rhs/day/5 days/week!!!!!)...Line-in recording and video out (so you can output the video to your hotel TV without using your laptop) I output mine to my projection tv but the picture was eh. Also supports Vorbis, M3U, and WMA Lossless. For $50. It's worth it for just the 8GB of internal storage and the basic features!
