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Summary

This service really didn't interest me until I discovered a free no credit card two week trial. This is because there is a monthly fee that can't be avoided.

But if you want to listen to music via the net, this is the only thing worthwhile out there! You can play any song in any order from a very large library, far larger than the downloadable libraries. The download selections are as limited as the other services right now. Having all those albums to stream and noting what tracks don't have the little flame icon (burnable) make you notice.

The play lists and other preferences are store on the server. Since you can login from any machine without restriction, your settings go with you. This is a feature I missed but Rhapsody pointed out to me, pretty handy.

Another feature that was pointed out is recent. If you use Blogger or Moveable Type, you can make links to your playlists, examples are at http://talkingragtime.blogspot.com/

I can't recommend this for just purchasing music because of that fee. Also, you can't really download playable protected files at all. You must burn the songs when you buy them right to CD. Not handy at all for computer/portable only based people. But oh that streaming.

Since the tracks are all .79, albums can cost less than $10 if there are 12 or fewer tracks. Rhapsody is re-encoding the streams to 128kbps wma, and they claim the quality will be the same as what it is now (wma 128).

Pros: Great selection if you want paid streaming

Cons: Monthly streaming fee/service required, only option is burn to CD

Costs

Tracks are .79, 9.95 for many albums. And that monthly fee is 9.95, which gives you no downloads for free, just the streaming and option to download.

File Format

I am told the file format is currently 128kbps WMA, but they are re-encoding to Real audio's proprietary format 128kbps, and it should be indistinguishable. Other than sound quality, this has little effect since burning or streaming are he only options anyway.

DRM Restrictions

Since the only way to get music is to burn it, there is no DRM per se, you end up with a normal audio cd, which you could then use to rip to a portable player or computer.

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