Paid Subscription for Legal Music Download Sites Review

I have summarized and reviewed music service site who offers paid subscription for legal music downloads below. Technically it is the safest way to download music and RIAA will not sue you at all for this, because downloading copyrighted material without expressed permission is illegal. Such music must be purchased in order to be legal.

1. Rhapsody

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 128kbps, 160kbps, 192kbps
Download Type : Rhapsody software
Pricing : $0.89-0.99/track, $8.99-9.99/album, $9.99/month Subscription
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 1,000,000+

Better than any other service, RealNetwork’s Rhapsody has captured the promise of on-demand music. The player software that comes with Rhapsody is well designed, providing good sound quality and a good interface for browsing and music discovery, one that significantly adds to the value of the service.

Unfortunately it is available only for Windows PCs. Upon logging in, users will see a search box, a music genre browsing menu, and music that is currently being highlighted by Rhapsody’s editorial staff, including a featured album, a radio station, and a featured playlist devoted to a particular theme. Also visible are a list of the most popular artists on Rhapsody and a list of just added albums. Photographs and album art add to the display.

Rhapsody provides 90 plus stations of commercial free radio and gives you the ability to create custom radio stations by entering the names of up to ten artists whose music you like. The pre-programmed stations include a wide variety of genre specific and thematic stations (including Classical). Five stations are programmed in conjunction with Rolling Stone magazine, including a Top 500 songs of all time station and a “New Faces” station featuring up-and-coming artists. Rhapsody also has a “Best of 2004” station, which features music selected by Rhapsody’s editorial staff.

Content from all Big 5 record labels is included: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Group, Warner Brothers Music, and BMG Entertainment. Content from over 450 independent labels is also included.

2. Napster

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 128kbps
Download Type : Napster software
Pricing : $0.99/track, $9.95-$13.95/album, $13.95/month Subscription
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 1,000,000+

Napster now offers a browser-based service and free accounts that let users stream almost any track in the Napster catalog, and these free accounts work on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. The downloadable version includes personalized recommendations with the nifty Playlist of the Day feature and offers a streamlined community-friendly interface.

Songs streamed with Naspter's free account can be played only five times and are encoded at 32Kbps. Plus, free streaming doesn't work on Apple's Safari browser or Internet Explorer for Mac, and it has glitches with Firefox on a Mac. Virgin Digital and Yahoo Music Unlimited both offer cheaper subscription plans, and Napster's library doesn't monitor music folders for files created in other programs.

3. eMusic

File type : MP3
Bit Rate : 192kbps VBR
Download Type : Web Browser
Pricing : 40 tracks: $9.99/month, 65 tracks: $14.99/month,
90 tracks: $19.99/month
DRM : None
Catalog : 500,000+

eMusic’s legal music downloads are in the MP3 format, free from the usage restrictions and digital rights management (DRM) schemes imposed by the other downloading services. This means that you can play your music on almost any portable music player, and can move your files around, hassle-free. eMusic subscriber can share their opinion through message boards , also each subscriber can create its own profile.

Each monthly allocation of legal music downloads expires at the end the month. If you don’t use them, you lose them. The newly available “booster pack” downloads, which cost more and do not expire, help to address this problem. But they make using the service that much more complicated. Some albums contain MP3 information tags that are inconsistent from track to track. For example, there might be slight variations in the album name that cause songs to appear as though they are on two separate albums. Track tags have to be edited to correct this problem. eMusic’s legal music downloads service available to Windows, Macintosh, and Linux users

4. iTunes

File type : AAC
Bit Rate : 128kbps
Download Type : iTunes software
Pricing : $0.99/track, $9.90-$13.99/album
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 1,500,000+

iTunes put a few restriction on the music that can be bypassed. You cannot record the AAC/MP4 as files to a disc like you can mp3s, you can only record them as audio discs. Your original legal music download which is AAC/MP4's format can only be on three authorized computers at a time. AAC is not a bad format. To be honest I cannot hear any difference between AAC, regular CD, or MP3 format.

5. MSN Music

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 160kbps
Download Type : Web, Windows Media Player
Pricing : $0.99-$1.99/track, $7.49-$12.79/album
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 800,000+

MSN Music’s download type is very user-friendly because it can enable users to download music using either Internet Explorer directly from their server, or through the "Music" tab of Windows Media Player 10. One great bonus of the MSN Music library is its association with Garageband.com, featuring up-and-coming artists from Garageband's extensive independent music line-up. If you are a big Windows fan, MSN Music and Windows Media Player 10's seamless integration into the Windows Operating System is an excellent perk.

6. MusicMatch

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 160kbps
Download Type : MusicMatch software
Pricing : $0.99/track, $7.90-$9.90/album
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 1,000,000+

MusicMatch delivers mostly ease-of-use refinements designed to help music lovers better organize and play their collections. Unlike WMP 10 and RealPlayer, which aim to help you manage all your digital media, MusicMatch (which runs only under Windows XP) focuses on audio. It does not aspire to organize and play your entire multimedia library (music, photos, videos); it's trying to be the best music-management solution for serious enthusiasts.

One new feature is the completely revamped AutoDJ tool. With it, you select a few artists to build a playlist around, set the controls for how much variety and how many songs you want, and let the program do the rest. If you subscribe to Musicmatch's fantastic On Demand service, which lets you stream all the music you want (from the service's 800,000-track library) the AutoDJ can even include On Demand content. This is a great way to discover new music. Fans of the previous AutoDJ tool, which uses filters to create playlists, will find that it's been improved and is now called AutoDJ Classic.

7. Yahoo! Music

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 192kbps
Download Type : Yahoo! Software
Pricing : $0.79-$0.99/track, $4.99-$6.99/month Subscription
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 1,000,000+

All-you-can-download subscription service with lower fees than Napster's or Rhapsody's; songs can be transferred to compatible portable audio players but not iPods; playlists are easy to make, access, and share; unlimited burns of purchased tracks; high-quality audio streams and downloads; integrates with Yahoo Messenger; now compatible with certain home-network music players.

Yahoo! Music is no longer the cheapest digital music subscription (see Virgin Digital Red Pass). It also has sluggish page loading, less-than-encyclopedic catalog, working on Windows only, no ripping to WMA, can't skip backward in radio playlists, paltry editorial, and does not have enough community options.

8. Wal-Mart

File type : WMA
Bit Rate : 128kbps
Download Type : Web Browser
Pricing : $0.88/track, $8.80-$9.44/album
DRM : Yes
Catalog : 500,000+

You won't need to download any software, but you must have at least Windows Media Player 9.0 to play purchased music or transfer it to a CD or a supported MP3 player (You also must have at least Windows 98 SE or later-Mac and Linux aren't supported). You can store and play music an unlimited number of times on up to three PCs and transfer songs as many times as you want to portable devices that can play protected WMA files.

I also discovered Wal-Mart's Music Downloads customer support excellent. In addition to an extensive FAQ section, the company offers 24/7 toll-free phone support. E-mail questions are answered swiftly. You can receive a response in less than an hour using an anonymous address.