There are so many different music subscription services out there, such as Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited, that who really knows which one is best? They all claim to have millions of songs, and all are – in certain respects – very similar. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tried out the free trial option for all three of the aforementioned services, and have come to the conclusion that there is a very clear “winner” amongst the three. My conclusion may come as a surprise, and I doubt very much that the service I like is the most popular… but it should be.
In comparing services such as these, I think it’s important to figure out exactly what I’m looking for before I start comparing. I thought about it, and came up with the “features” I most want in a music subscription service.
1. Lots of Content
2. Fast Downloads
3. Good Quality Music
4. High Quality Music Player
5. Cost
Not all my above criteria are given equal weight. For instance, if a music service is completely free, but has nothing I want, then I won’t use it, so having a lot of content is a bit more important to me than cost. I’ll discuss the importance of each as I go over how the different services performed in my testing.
1. Lots Of Content – It’s actually kind of hard to declare a winner in this category, since every person likes different types of music. I may be thrilled that Rhapsody and Yahoo seem to have a ton of Broadway musicals, but that may not make a difference to someone else. All I can say is that Rhapsody claims to have over 3 million songs, Yahoo Music Unlimited states they have over 2 million songs, and Napster says they have millions of songs (but doesn’t put a number on it). In my book, all of those are pretty good, but certainly not record-breaking. The iTunes Store, by way of comparison, has more than all of them. At a recent presentation, Steve Jobs said that the iTunes Store now has more than 6 million songs available. So, the three I’m comparing are good, but could definitely improve. Winner in this category: toss up.
2. Fast Downloads – I’m putting this criteria near the top because once again I don’t see any real winner in it. Plus, although I do like a good, fast download, I’m honestly as hung up on it in this instance as one might think. Sure, there could be instances in which I really want to download something NOW, but for the most part, if I’m downloading a bunch of stuff, I’ll start before going to bed. If it’s finished downloading when I wake up, then I’m happy. And I’m happy with all three services in this regard. Once again, this category is a toss up with no real winner. They’re all good.
3. Good Quality Music – This is where the three services begin to separate themselves. I’ll leave it up to individual listeners as to whether or not the difference in the music files is enough to sway them, but here are the facts of the matter. Napster provides users with WMA files encoded at 128 kbps, which is pretty standard. Rhapsody ups the ante by providing WMA files, only theirs are encoded at 160 kbps, which means there should be 25 percent “more” music per each file, which makes for more response and crisper sounds. But Yahoo Music Unlimited beat them both, again offering WMA files, but Yahoo encodes theirs at 192 kbps, which is 50 percent more than Napster and 20 percent more than Rhapsody. Sure, the files are larger and as such take longer to download, but if quality is what you’re after, then my opinion is go for the best. In this category, Yahoo is clearly the best.
4. High Quality Music Player – This may seem, at first glance, to be an odd criteria to consider when comparing music download services. Why should their bundled music player be brought into the equation? For the simple reason that I don’t want to have part of my music collection available over “here,” while the rest of my collection can only be played through a different player. If I’m going to have part of my music collection be from a subscription service, I’ll likely use that service’s player for all my music playing needs, so it needs to be good. In my testing, the only player I’d even want to use on a part-time basis was the one from Yahoo Music Unlimited. Their player is actually available as a free download even without the service, and it supports a lot of library management features I like, and is just a whole lot more fun to use than the players offered by Rhapsody or Napster. The Rhapsody and Napster players, to me, don’t really seem set up to accomodate a large music library, and since I have a large library, I notice when a player slows down or makes finding my music difficult. Once again, Yahoo wins this category.
5. Cost – Again, the pure numbers should be enough to persuade most potential users as to which service is most cost effective. If you use Rhapsody, you will end up paying $12.99 per month, which allows you to download and play as much music as you want on your computer. The identical offering from Napster will cost you only $9.99 per month, a three dollar savings. Yahoo, once again, beats them all. Their monthly download service only costs $8.99 per month, but if you pay by the year instead of the month (an option not offered by the other services), the monthly cost is only $5.99, four dollars cheaper than Napster and less than half the cost of Rhapsody! None of those prices, however, include the option to transfer the music to a portable device. If you want that option, Napster and Rhapsody are charging the identical $14.99 per month. So is Yahoo, actually, but again, if you pay by the year, you’ll only pay $11.99 per month. And what if you want to actually PURCHASE some music (instead of this rental model)? In that case, each track from Napster will cost you 99 cents. So do the tracks from Rhapsody, but if you’re a monthly subscriber, you get a discounted rate of 89 cents per track. Yahoo as well charges 99 cents, but if you’re a subscriber, you’ll get a twenty percent discount and only pay 79 cents per track. Once again, in my book the winner is clear. All across the board, Yahoo is cheaper than the others.
CONCLUSION: It’s probably obvious if you’ve read through my five criteria, but in every instance where I saw a clear winner, the winner was the Yahoo Music Unlimited music service. There’s just no question in my mind that it’s better than the others. Of course, as I also mentioned, the price and speed and quality don’t mean very much if you can’t find music you like, so my suggestion would be to take the companies up on their free trial. Take the service out for a spin, so to speak, and discover for yourself which one is best. I’ve done that, and I think it’s Yahoo, and in my mind it isn’t even close.
