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jmFightSpam

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2007
115
0
While speculation runs wild whether Apple will come out with their own music subscription service --- what is a Mac user to turn to if they want to use a subscription service to put music on their iPod? What is good and available for the Mac in that regard?

Thanks.
 
You have nowhere to turn. All the providers use WM-DRM and iPods do not support that.
 
While speculation runs wild whether Apple will come out with their own music subscription service --- what is a Mac user to turn to if they want to use a subscription service to put music on their iPod? What is good and available for the Mac in that regard?

Thanks.

Do you mean one of those awful rental subscription type things or one where you pay monthly to get a certain number of downloads each month?
 
Do you mean one of those awful rental subscription type things or one where you pay monthly to get a certain number of downloads each month?

I'm sure the OP means the subscriptions where you pay say $15 a month and download unlimited songs. I like that because I can demo the whole songs before I buy them.
 
I'm sure the OP means the subscriptions where you pay say $15 a month and download unlimited songs. I like that because I can demo the whole songs before I buy them.

In that case emusic.com is good if you're interested in more obscure music. It no longer gives you unlimited downloads though.
 
Yeah, like Rhapsody. You pay $15/mo or whatever and you can download as many songs as you want until you cancel your subscription.

I like it too because 30 seconds is not enough to know if I like a song or not.
 
This is never going to happen. Why? Simple.

People want to own their music.
They don't want to lose it after they stop paying.
I wouldn't dare to imagine to lose all my 10000 songs after I stop paying.

Music subscription = fail.
 
This is never going to happen. Why? Simple.

People want to own their music.
They don't want to lose it after they stop paying.
I wouldn't dare to imagine to lose all my 10000 songs after I stop paying.

Music subscription = fail.

You know, while you have a point, I have a counterpoint.

If you "buy" songs -- you don't really own them either. Well, you own them insofar as you can play them DRM'd on your current system. If you buy songs at 99 cents on ITunes, you are stuck with ITunes and iPod, period. Unless you do crazy things like burn to wav files and all that crap.

With subscriptions, if you see yourself spending $400-$500/yr on music, then maybe a lifetime of subscription is better. I mean when you're dead, are you going to pass on your music to your children -- and by that time the whole system will have changed anyway, it won't matter.

It all depends on the type of listener you are and how many songs you like to listen to.
 
So you were looking for a rental service. No idea, the rental model is rubbish.
Say you paid $15/ month for a year, that's $180 (not much, I'll grant you that). You then stop paying. What do you have?

Nothing.

You could have downloaded 10,000,000 tracks, but at the end of it you have 0.
What's the point.

emusic is DRM free, BTW.

Also with iTunes you can burn a normal audio CD.
 
You know, while you have a point, I have a counterpoint.

If you "buy" songs -- you don't really own them either. Well, you own them insofar as you can play them DRM'd on your current system. If you buy songs at 99 cents on ITunes, you are stuck with ITunes and iPod, period. Unless you do crazy things like burn to wav files and all that crap.

With subscriptions, if you see yourself spending $400-$500/yr on music, then maybe a lifetime of subscription is better. I mean when you're dead, are you going to pass on your music to your children -- and by that time the whole system will have changed anyway, it won't matter.

It all depends on the type of listener you are and how many songs you like to listen to.

And I have a counterpoint for your counterpoint. First of all I don't buy music. I download. This is legal in The Netherlands. I'm 16 years old and I don't have the money to pay it all. When I'm adult and have a job I'm keeping a promise to myself I will pay then. What will I pay for? DRM free music. Simple. That doesn't stuck me with iPod. And besides, iTunes is (imo) the best software out there for it so I won't even think about changing to something else (limewire, winamp, windows media player? Ha, are you joking).

The other problem is with music subscriptions, if the company you rent of dies, no matter what you paid, your music is gone.
 
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