what is the best online music site?

[2uberoller]

I read today that apple has now replaced walmart as the #1 music retailer. I also read that unlike rhapsody and other subscription music site, emusic lets you copy all your music for a flat monthly subscription of $19.95/month which you can use to put on your digital music server or burn cd's. Most of the music on the emusic site may not be the most up to date however. Has anyone tried emusic ? How is the quality ? I do believe the future is here in this genre of music distribution. I have to say except for best buy or chain book stores there are not too many stores I can shop in which have a decent selection of music.

[roseskunk]

i've used radioio and a few other online 'radio' stations. you can't download music, but it's a great way to find out about new music. i just checked into emusic... too bad the downloads are mp3. that doesn't interest me at all...

[winston1156]

Pandora.com
Free and expansive.

[pmsummer]

Pandora is wonderful, but my favorite on-line music site to PURCHASE music is Magnatunes. They aren't evil.

[Tom Bavis]

I was briefly a member at eMusic in 2006... but their selection was not that great at the time. The MP3s don't SOUND that great, either, though I don't have CDs to compare. I think it's likely that both have improved but I will keep buying CDs...

[cp2buy]

I used napster. I never download anything but it is nice to have a music library to check out old stuff that is new to me.

[Art K.]

radioio and Pandora are both very good. I don't buy downloads but I do by cd's from yourmusic and BMG. Just ordered 21 cd's from BMG for an average 4.73 apiece...that rocks. All new...no little children peanut butter enriched fingers have ever touched them...priceless!

[d-ray657]

I have used emusic for about a year and a half. Part of its appeal is that it does not have very many big name artists. I have learned of or learned more about a number of artists from emusic, for example, the Black Keys, Adrian Legg, the Boll Weevils, Richie and the Creeps, and the Dropkick Murphys, to name just a few. I have also found to past treasures from better known artists like CCR, Chick Corea, John Lee Hooker, Roy Rogers, Leo Kottke, and the White Stripes.

This month I tried to learn some more about Jazz, so I downloaded Chick Corea and Friends, finally found tracks from Al Foster, an artist we had seen in the Village Vanguard, and I was introduced to Michael Petrucciani and Michael Brecker. In other months I found some very early blues, some fantastic guitarists, and listened to some of the punk I had never paid much attention to. It really got me into the music of the Pixies and Frank Black.

Every month I say I don't really need this subscription any more, but I end up downloading all 75 tracks in the first week. The rest of the month, I will check back once or twice to see what new artists they are offering for free. That's how I discovered the Black Keys, with a free track.

By the way, I guess their mp3 quality has improved. I immediately burned some of the downloads to disk, and the disks sound very good (to my untrained ears) on the main system.

This is not a paid endorsement.

Regards,

D-Ray

[jazzwolf]

I've used Emusic and the mp3's have improved. They use VBR and they are really good quality. They "didn't" have too many big artists BUT today I received an email that they now have the Rolling Stones ABKCO catalog and that is a BIG plus! I just checked it and all the STONES recordings from the 1st album to "Let It Bleed" are there. They even have the UK and US versions of "Aftermath and "Out Of Our Heads"

[tboat4]

Bearshare @ $7.95/month has been okay. I hadn't heard about Pandora, so I'll give them a try.

[Squonk07]

Some colleges--mine among them--participate in a service called Ruckus, which offers free, DRM-protected downloads to students who can verify (through a college E-mail address and student ID number) enrollment in a major university. In my experience the selection has been hit-or-miss. I mainly use it for those "impossible-to-find" songs, or for stuff I heard about from somebody else and don't feel like outright purchasing.

There's a million restrictions, and the player they force you to install for downloads is obnoxious and ad-ridden. But, you get what you pay for, and if you don't pay anything, then I guess you should anticipate some headaches. The one main problem for me is that the Genesis albums were all encoded in low quality WMA, whereas virtually everything else on the site is encoded in 192 kbps. Therefore, I can't stand to listen to any of the Genesis stuff except for exploratory purposes, which is a real bummer.

Personally, I'm sure the other services mentioned are loads better, but I'm a hard copy kind of guy (better quality, built in backup copy, etc.), so I don't do the whole online music store thing. Unless it's free. :music:

[rsfmotoman]

I have been downloading 90 songs a month from eMusic for several years now. I keep telling myself that there is nothing left to download, but I always use all 90.

I love eMusic, the artists they carry are right up my alley. If find a band that I like after listening to WOXY, I can usually find them on eMusic. Alot of my favorite bands of the last five years, have come from digging through eMusic.

I do not mind taking the time to search out good music from reading different publications, blogs, and websites...that IS the way to find the good music out there.

People who complain about the fact that there is nothing good out today, IMO are not taking the time to search and find it...because you certainly are not going to hear it on the corporate radio stations. Nuff said!