Like a gazillion people out there I have an iPod (20GB) and use iTunes. My biggest complaint is the poor batt life on the iPod...I haven't checked to see if I qualify for the recent class action suit.
My buddy Rob has an iRiver and uses the Rhapsody music service. After yaking with him some I was a bit jealous. His iRiver can display images, has a digital FM tuner, has a removable battery, and is a digital voice recorder...and to top it off costs less than an iPod. Hmm, does more and costs less?...hmm
And after watching him use Rhapsody I'm wondering why anyone would still prefer iTunes? And now Yahoo's new music service is up and running...it's very similar to Rhapsody and it's only $5/mo! No 30s song previews like iTunes...you can listen to whatever you want and download 24/7 if you've got the drive space. Rob has also been using Yahoo Music to compare with Rhapsody. He says Rhapsody currently has more tunes, but that will change as Yahoo gets more established...and Yahoo is cheaper than Rhapsody per month ($5 vs $14.99) and per song (.79 vs .99) if you want to burn 'em.
So I signed up for the 7 day trial of Yahoo Music ... it's sweet and operates very similar to iTunes ... I can search for music and then listen to complete songs/albums, listen to similar artists, create playlists, and then have unlimited downloads to my portable device ... but there's one big problem. It doesn't work with iPods...CRUD!!!
So why are people still flocking to iPods and iTunes? Probably because like me they weren't really aware of the better options...and the hype surrounding the iPod is HUGE!
So unless I'm missing something, I see no logical reason to stick with iPod/iTunes. I mean think about it - For $60/yr you have full access to every song in Yahoo's library and you can download whatever you want to your portable. I've already discovered some new artists I like just by using the "similar artists" feature. With iTunes you can either listen to 30s samples or purchase songs for $.99
Thus I'll be selling my iPod (anyone interested?) and saying goodbye to iTunes soon. Ed is also an iTunes user and is also helping me do a comparo between iTunes and Yahoo Music. We'll report back more complete results in a few days.
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