Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-11 Thread stovis

smkelly;365381 Wrote: 
 Up to now, I've been using my SBC, SBR, and SB2 with Internet Radio
 stations such as the Sky.FM/DI.FM status streamed through SC. However,
 I've decided to explore the various music services available to me
 through SC/SN.
 
 Yesterday afternoon, I subscribed to Rhapsody to try it out. I had
 evaluated it a while back, but don't really remember it well. I also
 have a Pandora account and have used Slacker some as well. However,
 I've not been paying for any of these.
 
 I guess my question is what people's opinions are on the best bang for
 my buck in music services selection would be. They all cost around the
 same ($5-15/mo), but some offer different features such as artist
 recommendation and access to wider selections of music.
 
 What combination of services are people using out there on a budget to
 get the most out of their listening experience?

Rhapsody is incredible. I haven't had any problems with them. I got the
Rhapsody To Go account for $2/month more and use it with my Rhapsody
ibiza mp3 player - it's like having a Squeezebox on the go.

Like others have said, you can use Pandora and Sacker and last.fm on
the Squeezebox and add artists to Rhapsody directly from the SB menu -
cool feature. Great way to find new artists and albums. I love being
able to hear about an album from a friend and be listening to it a few
minutes later. You won't be able to listen to albums the day they are
released, but they seem to get most of them out fairly quickly - within
a month or so. Also, they don't have everything (not much Chameleons or
Midnight Oil for example) but they have about 95% of what I'm looking
for, and I am looking for mostly non-mainstream stuff. Some things will
how up later too - they didn't have any Radiohead until recently - now
they have all of them.

With a 30 day free trial, you have nothing to lose. If it saves you
from buying 1 or 2 CD's you don't like a month, it pays for itself.
Trust me, if you're a music lover, you'll love it.


-- 
stovis

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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-02 Thread maggior

I tried Rhapsody when support was first added to the SB.  It had all
sorts of strange problems that made it really annoying to use.  I tried
it again 6 months later and the same thing.

You guys are not having any trouble with Rhapsody now?

I've subscribed to Pandora and have used Last.fm and slacker.  I've
been using Slacker a lot lately - I love it.


-- 
maggior

Rich
-
Setup: 2 SB3s, 1 duet, 1 receiver.  SuSE 11.0 Server running
SqueezeCenter 7.2.1, SqueezeSlave, and MusicIP (thanks to ghan for
solution to seg fault issue!!).
http://www.last.fm/user/maggior

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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-02 Thread socistep

mortslim;365475 Wrote: 
 The way I look at it, my Rhapsody subscription is a lot less than my
 cable TV bill and I use my Rhapsody much, much, much, much more than I
 use the cable TV.  Great deal from that perspective.

Stop it...its not fairfor us UK residents we get last.fm only, I'd
love to try out Rhapsody and the like...


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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-02 Thread Mark W

Rhapsody is an undescribable feast for music lovers and an excellent
value.  I agree with kh6idf, if you like music, once you try it for 30
days you won't be able to stop.  The other feature I love, is with the
To Go Account, you can load your MP3 player for when your not at home. 
It's not without its problems though.  It periodically glitches when
playing on the Duet and more frequently than you'd like, their servers
go down.  But the pluses far outweigh the minuses in my opinion...


-- 
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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-02 Thread Mark W

Yes, there have been problems with Rhapsody, mostly connection problems
due to their servers going down and the way they process accounts- I
think.  I also have a Pandora account that is much cheaper ($3 vs $15
per month), it's much more reliable, and I like it's ability to zero in
on what you like for music.  

But, I just really like having access to all of the music directly
(like listening to an album...), and the ability to load it into my MP3
player.  So, I would say that if you want to have just one music service
with very high reliability, and very low cost, Rhapsody isn't there yet.
But it still has so much going for it that I'm willing to put up with
the problems for now, and hope that they'll become more stable over
time...


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[slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-01 Thread smkelly

Up to now, I've been using my SBC, SBR, and SB2 with Internet Radio
stations such as the Sky.FM/DI.FM status streamed through SC. However,
I've decided to explore the various music services available to me
through SC/SN.

Yesterday afternoon, I subscribed to Rhapsody to try it out. I had
evaluated it a while back, but don't really remember it well. I also
have a Pandora account and have used Slacker some as well. However,
I've not been paying for any of these.

I guess my question is what people's opinions are on the best bang for
my buck in music services selection would be. They all cost around the
same ($5-15/mo), but some offer different features such as artist
recommendation and access to wider selections of music.

What combination of services are people using out there on a budget to
get the most out of their listening experience?


-- 
smkelly

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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-01 Thread Fletch

IMO, if you're on a budget, there's no reason not to love the free
versions of both Pandora and Slacker.


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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-01 Thread kh6idf

I subscribed to Pandora before it was free, I think it was $3 per month,
I paid $36 for 1 year.  Definitely worth it and I understand this will
keep my stream ad-free.  Then I tried the 30-day free trial of
Rhapsody.  There is no way anyone can use Rhapsody for 30 days and not
end up subscribing, it's a trap! :-)

I think Pandora and Rhapsody complement each other, Pandora plays lots
of new and interesting music, but doesn't let you play any one
particular song when you want.  Rhapsody lets you play anything you
want right now, play it 10 times in a row even.  And you can build a
large library of favorite albums from their huge database.

While listening to Pandora, if I hear something I like I can select the
on Rhapsody item under the now playing menu and go add that album to
my Rhapsody library to explore the artist further, all without stopping
the music on Pandora.  This is a really great feature.  

The bitrate on Rhapsody is higher (192k vs 128k)so the sound quality is
better, but Pandora still sounds very good on my system at 128k.


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Re: [slim] Best bang for buck with Music Services

2008-12-01 Thread mortslim

The way I look at it, my Rhapsody subscription is a lot less than my
cable TV bill and I use my Rhapsody much, much, much, much more than I
use the cable TV.  Great deal from that perspective.


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