Thoughts on Rhapsody music service?

Anyone have any thoughts on Rhapsody's music service? I've got an $80 rebate towards a 6 month subscription. Sounds like it's worth checking out, eh?

Never tried it..

Any obligations go with that rebate?

If not, might as well go for it.

I have had Rhapsody for about 2 years. Even if you don't use it to burn CD's you can make and maintain a playlist that you can call up any time. I use it all the time I'm on the internet. Not a bad deal if you don't burn music. I think we pay $9.00 a month.

The only obligation I can see is they want me to sign up for their Rhapsody To Go plan ($14.95) for 6 months - but the rebate is for $80, so the resulting $10 for 6 months isn't a bad deal.

The basic plan (probably the one that propcut has?) allows streaming music & playlists etc from about 1.5 million albums, of course only when you're connected to the internet. I believe they charge $.99 a song if you wish to download/keep/burn songs.

Rhapsody To Go allows unlimited songs downloaded to your portable device as well as your computer, but you need to keep up your subscripton or (the way I read it) if you let your subscription lapse - they'll kill the songs when you go to sync your device. The download charge with this plan (again to keep/burn the song) is $.89 per song. I think they have "album prices" too?

It's actually not a bad way to go if you want to keep up with all the latest/greatest/newest tunes as well as being able to search through 1.5 million albums. All for the price of a CD per month.

I would never do any of that DRM stuff. If I'm going to pay for music, I want to buy it, not rent it. You can't load your player with DRM tunes and then decide to switch to another brand of player with different DRM (e.g. Ipod) and keep access to the music. And who knows if the company will stay in business? Anyone remember DIVX movies? Anyone who bought those is completely hosed now: the company went out of business and the discs became unwatchable. 89 cents per song is about as much as CD's cost, so it's better to just buy the cd's and rip them, to full quality WAV files instead of lossy, compressed mp3's.

The rebate comes automatically when you buy one of the current Sandisk mp3 players. I haven't decided whether to return my player to the store, but I certainly don't plan to use that rebate, so if I keep the player I'll post the rebate code here. But I hope no one uses it since I think DRM should be boycotted.

VERY GOOD POINT paul - I needed that to "think".

Then again, if one was into putting together a mix of songs here & there without buying the whole album, then it's a good way to "sample" everything and then buy at $.89 each. However, I do like to explore & discover the "B" sides on albums.

I used to put together "mix tapes" on an Akai reel-to-reel...folks would say, "Hey, who is this, what's this song?"...because I like to find those "B" sides treasures. I really hate "Top 40"!!

I've had Rhapsody for several years. I agree with paulr that it is a poor way to obtain music, but I don't use it for that.

I use it to listen to a broad cross section of music that I would otherwise not hear. I love finding new artists and new tunes that I would have no chance to hear on the radio. Radio has gotten so bad it is not even worth listening to.

I can easily explore all types of music and have found some incredible songs. I have never bought any of them from Rhapsody. I just buy the CD if I want to add the music to my collection. The quality of MP3s is lacking, so buying the CD is the way to go.

Yahoo also has a good subscription service. I paid $60 for one year. Don't know if that deal is still available.

Another fun way to find new music is live365.com. It is streaming radio and is free, although you can pay for better service. Basically, individual people have created their own favorite playlists and you can listen to them. Another great way to find new songs.

The internet has been a boon to music lovers, especially those who like to explore and not just listen to the same old music all the time. I say sign up--it is a fun ride. :rock:

According to wikipedia, Rhapsody has been decreasing the amount of sample-able stuff and making more of it pay-only. I didn't realize that you could burn non-DRM'd cd's for 89 cents a track but that's still not attractive, and I would not give 89 cents to this despicable DRM industry any more than I'd give it to Osama.

Really, if you want to try out cool, non-top-40 music, check out Magnatune.com. They have a few hundred cd's (ok, not the widest selection in the world, but the quality is quite good), there is no DRM on ANYTHING, you are allowed and encouraged to give copies of your downloads to your friends, and you can listen to and download every track on the site for free (mp3 128k format with a voice blurb at the end; paid downloads are available as lossless WAV/FLAC). This is the only record label I buy anything from. I haven't even bought any RIAA CD's in about 5 years. (I do buy occasional indie cd's recorded by personal acquaintances).

Plus, there's infinite amounts of completely gratis music like at http://etree.org (mostly live recordings) and other such places.

Downloads.com has a good variety of free sounds & tunes. I spend some time lookiing around there...I do like variety.

BTW paul - PM sent...

I've had Rhapsody for 2+ years too and as others have said it's great for finding and streaming music. I never even touch my CDs anymore, just stream them. I like the feature where, when listening to someone you like you can see other artists similar to the one playing. I find other lesser known artists that way. It's been pretty accurate at predicting other artists I'd like. I believe that Rhapsody now has an online version that gives you 25 songs per month for free. It's not much but you can try it out that way for free. (if the offer is still good)