Messages from the Ether

Music subscription comparison sites

My bro might be interested in joining a music subscription service. I've really only had experience with Rhapsody but have heard with interest that new, more competitive pricing structures have appeared, along with greater competition. My observations of Rhapsody:

• Pros
  • streams content (some services are only for download)
  • allows you to view items missing from their library (good for reference)
  • lists artists' influences and contemporaries
• Cons
  • clumsy client that wastes screen space with glitzy graphics
  • often uninformative and sophmoric reviews
  • they lie about recent additions to their library by padding the list with older additions
  • missing several big names along with, of course, many small names

Here are a few comparison sites I've found:

• A VC compares Napster v. Rhapsody v. Yahoo! - short write-up with a comparison (provided by Yahoo!) and a few comments
• Extreme Tech compares Connect v. eMusic v. iTunes v. MSN v. MusicMatch v. Napster v. Rhapsody v. Virgin v. Wal-Mart - large grid with point-by-point comparison
• CNET compares BuyMusic v. iTunes v. MusicMatch v. Rhapsody - very short paragraphs of review with editors' and users' ratings (out of 10) plus hundreds of comments from users
• Compare Online Music compares eMusic v. musicnow v. Napster v. Rhapsody v. Yahoo! - quick but clean overview (found in a GoogleAd and apparently containing paid, click-through links to the providers reviewed)