I finally got a paid music service. I chose Rhapsody because Jef has it and they semi-support Macs (not that that’s a big problem now! Ouch. I hurt myself. Too soon for jokes.). So far I love it. I pay $9.99/month and I have a practically unlimited supply of music. I say “practically unlimited” because it does has limits. I’ve entered some obscure searches to try and trick it, and while it doesn’t have EVERYTHING, it has about 97% of what I want. And some things I had no idea I wanted, which is part of the fun of these services (i.e. listening to their recommendations based on my play history - “if you like Jack Johnson, you’ll probably like so-and-so”). This all started because I wanted to listen to Soul Coughing on a particularly stressful day and didn’t have the CD at work. They are loud and fast and upbeat enough to keep me going and damnit, I needed it. CRAVED IT. Finally after hemming and hawing, I thought, “It’s 10 bucks a month! Get over it!” and here we are. :)

I was torn between Rhapsody and the Yahoo! Music platform (they are very up and coming) but Yahoo! doesn’t support Macs (yet?). Rhapsody also offers a web-only interface so you don’t have to download a huge program onto your already-cluttered computer. Just go to their website, enter your user/pass and wham! a gigantic jukebox at your fingertips, just waiting to be played. There are advantages, of course, to downloading the full Rhapsody program to your computer (if you are PC based), the biggest, I think, being playlists. You want to listen to Soul Coughing, Jon Dee Graham, Guns n’ Roses and round it out w/ a little comedy by Eddie Izzard all on the same day? Do it, save it as a playlist and tomorrow you can listen to it again. You don’t have to go back and find it all again and add it to your player. Save a “Sad Day” playlist and a “My Boss is an Idiot” playlist and a “Cleanin’ the House in Mah Jammies” playlist. The possibly are endless. The web version, while convenient, just isn’t as robust. It’s “play only”, so no saving lists. BUT, you can see your play history. In other words? There’s no hiding the fact that you’re a closet Barry Manilow fan anymore, it’s all there on your history chart.

Rhapsody, like other music service, also offers the ability to buy music a song or CD at a time, but also allows you to sync your library (if you have the full program) w/ an MP3 “PlayForSure” compatible devise (see Jef’s post for more on that topic). I haven’t purchased any music thru Rhapsody yet, I still like the idea of physically flipping through the liner notes and cursing over the plastic wrapping, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. This service won’t stop me from buying CDs and the artists get credit for every song I play. In the end, it’s convenient, it’s cheap and I think it’s DEFINITELY a step in the right direction.