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$12.99 |
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$.89 |
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Music Download Article
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Music Download Industry News
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The music download industry keeps evolving, as more players enter the game and alliances are formed each day. We’re all aware of AT&T partnering with giant Apple Inc. to promote the iPhone, which of course uses iTunes for its ringtone capabilities. As more mobile phones encompass multimedia functions, the music and telecommunications industries are realizing their unfolding opportunities to meld together.
AT&T and Napster, one of the original music download services, are joining together and providin...
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Top Rated Music Download
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Real Rhapsody
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Overall Review: |
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 For a while it seemed like those who didn't have iPods were really out of luck when it came to great music download services. Rhapsody, however, is definitely giving iTunes a run for their money. They've got more than 4 million tunes to choose from, 4 different ways to buy music and a customer service department that is hard to beat.
- Unlimited Songs On Your PC For One Monthly Fee With Rhapsody Unlimited
- Free Rhapsody To Go Through Virgin Mobile
- Get The Lyrics To Your Favorite Songs
While Rhapsody doesn't offer movie and audio book downloads like some of the other services out there, they do have an extensive music selection. They also have membership plans to meet anyone's needs. Find yourself downloading hundreds of songs a month? Then go with their Rhapsody Unlimited (if you only listen on your PC) or their Rhapsody To Go plans for one low monthly fee rather than paying for each song you download. Don't download that much? Forgo the subscription plans and pay just 99 cents for each song you want.
Of course, the fact that Rhapsody offers live support via both phone and chat is icing on the cake. We have to say that the overall customer service offered by Rhapsody is top notch!We feel they truly earned our Top Rated spot and we gladly give them 6.0 Stars!
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Most Popular Music Download
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iTunes
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Overall Review: |
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 In all honesty, we'd have given iTunes a full 6 Stars all the way around except for two things – the fact that iTunes doesn't really work with players other than the iPod and the fact that phone support is only offered to iPod buyers within the first 90 days of purchase. While Apple store employees can make up for the lack of live help, they are by no means obligated to and your mileage will very depending on who answers the phone, how much they know and how busy the store is when you call.
- Music, movies, educational materials and audio books.
- No monthly subscription fee.
- Previews of songs.
That being said, we still think iTunes is one of the best choices when it comes to online music downloads. They don't charge a monthly subscription fee like many of the other services do – you just pay for what you buy. The iTunes Store, is also one of the most intuitive and user-friendly we've come across. Add that to the fact that iTunes has one of the biggest selections of music, movies, television shows, and audio books available and you've got a clear picture of why they've been able to capture so much of the market. We feel that they deserve our Most Popular spot overall. They receive 5.5 Stars!
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Music Download Reviews
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Overall Review: |
 Who'd have thought that Amazon.com would be the place to go for online music downloads? We were as surprised as you that they came in as one of the best on the Web. Hands down, it's hard to beat Amazon MP3's pricing, convenience and ease of use. - Compatible with all media players that support MP3 files.
- All songs compatible with iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Forget about lengthy download and install processes. It took us less than five minutes to download and install the Amazon MP3 downloader and downloading songs was just as fast. We were very impressed to see that the Amazon MP3 downloader added the songs we downloaded directly into our iTunes library without us having to do anything. Talk about user-friendly! The only thing we could find "wrong" with the service was the selection, and even that wasn't too much of a problem. Amazon.com has about 2 million songs available, while the competition's 4 to 6 million. However, that's still an impressive number and because Amazon's prices tend to be lower than the competition's, it might be best to check Amazon first. Amazon gets 5.5 Stars!
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Overall Review:  |
If you don't want to pay 99 cents per song you download, but don't like the idea of losing all of your songs if you cancel a monthly subscription service, eMusic can be your happy medium. One low monthly fee allows you to download a specified number of songs each month. If you cancel your subscription, those songs are yours to keep. - 3.5 million songs to choose from.
- eMusic toolbar.
- Works with any MP3 player.
The selection of songs available is huge. There are literally millions of songs to choose from. However, there seems to be quite a few independent artists on the site so finding mainstream music you want may be harder than expected. Customer service may be a bit of a problem, eMusic doesn’t offer live support. Instead you're stuck browsing through the FAQs or waiting for email support to get back to you. If you are willing to forgo top-notch service for the benefits the site offered, then eMusic might be your choice. eMusic deserves an Overall Rating of 5.0 Stars!
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Overall Review: |
 Those of us who knew the Internet back in its infancy are familiar with the Napster name. They were, after all, the ones who pioneered the music download industry. It was good to see that they had evolved with the times, offering more than 6 million songs and 3 different types of memberships to choose from. - Pay per month or pay-per title.
- MP3 files to support almost any media player.
- Over 6 million songs to choose from.
The one thing we didn't like was the fact that Napster doesn't really advertise its Napster Light membership. This is the membership that allows you to pay 99 cents per download rather than paying a monthly fee. We had to dig a bit to find out whether or not Napster even offered this type of a program. They do, you just have to download the software without signing up for a plan and then register for Napster Light from there. One of the things that impressed us most was Napster's wide range of player compatibility. Even iPod owners can use Napster service, which is huge since many music download sites don't support this Apple product. If you're an iPod owner and iTunes doesn't have a particular title you're looking for or you prefer a monthly subscription service, Napster may be a saving grace. Overall, we wanted to award Napster 5.0 Stars!
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Overall Review:  |
We thought AllCoolMusic had a pretty impressive website interface, with eye-catching colors and a snazzy design. It was simple to browse through, as tabs linked us right to what we needed: music, downloads and a members area.
AllCoolMusic is a no-fuss music downloads service that lets customers shop and compare music downloads, burn CD's and choose from their 12 million unlimited song database.
- MP3 software for members, music player, pop-up blocker, CD/DVD burning options.
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Compatible with all iPods, MP3 and CD players (100% Satisfaction Guarantee)
Star Reviews feels that although this site was easy enough to navigate and understand, they didn't really offer a community feel, which we think is vital to a music download service, as customers are more likely to download songs that others are raving about. We didn't like that you had to become a member in order to browse through their music downloads.
Membership fees are currently $1.44/month, which is relatively low. There is no telephone support, but there is a pretty decent FAQs section and email support. A live chat window pops up, connecting you to a rep if you choose to leave the site. We wondered why this wasn't offered on their Support page. They get 4.5 Stars!
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Overall Review:  |
When we surfed through BuyMusic, we liked how they were a part of the shop-for-anything site Buy.com. We think the website interface is pretty self-explanatory and anyone used to this online retailer should have no problem navigating it.
A major bonus to this music download service is the choice it gives you to download buy the song, by album or even purchase by CD if that's more down your alley. However, BuyMusic certainly isn't groundbreaking in their site design, as it appears to mimic older versions of online music retail stores, with no-frills boxing and long lists of tracks.
- Similar product matching, album reviews, recently viewed items, wishlists, video reviews, audio samples on select tracks.
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Top-100 tracks and album downloads
Overall, Star Reviews felt BuyMusic was good enough, but definitely not out of this world. It is not a music on demand site, leaving it trailing behind some of the best music download sites. Song samples are available via Windows Media Player and to download tracks, your PC must be compatible with Windows Media Rights Manager 9 Series.
We loved that Buy.com offers anything under the sun like cool gadgets, DVD's, and camcorders, but their music download department can use some improvement. Individual songs are $.79 to $.99 and entire albums are typically $9.99-$13.99. Customer support could improve, as all they offered were Help links that were attuned to Buy.com itself and not so much technical issues with the music download area. We give them 4.0 Stars!
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Overall Review: |
 We really try to be objective in our reviews and we don't like to bash a company, but the fact that MP3DownloadHQ is nothing but a pay-per-month version of a free P2P sharing network. We question the legalities of using this service since file sharing of most music files is illegal, you may want to look into this further before trying this yourself. Also, remeber that since you're downloading files from other P2P members and not MP3DownloadHQ directly, you risk getting spyware, viruses or other malware threats with the songs you download. - Access to 120,000,000 songs (via a "file sharing" platform).
- FREE customer service.
The upside is that MP3DownloadHQ does offer free customer service. There is, however, a difference between customer service and technical support. Unlimited technical support will cost you $9.88 per month. We wish we could give MP3DownloadHQ a more positive review, but we feel that our readers need to know exactly what they're getting into when they subscribe to a service. Pay-per-month P2P file sharing access is not something most of us want to subscribe to.They receive 4.0 Stars!
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Overall Review:  |
When we first came across MyMusic, we were pleasantly surprised with the selection and vibrancy of their homepage. However, they don't really offer music downloads, so all you CD-lovers out there, this is the site for you.
MyMusic
definitely has an eclectic mix of albums, as we saw artists and bands we've never even heard of. The main page is a little busy, but well worth a look if you're interested in obscure artists and titles.
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Critic's Choice-See what industry experts and music business leaders are raving about...you may just find an all-new favorite.
- Pre-order brand new titles, purchase DVD's, check out Featured Titles and get FREE shipping when you spend $29.98 and up in the US and Canada.
Even though this service doesn't provide music downloads, we loved how they're keeping tradition alive and remaining a bit 'old-school.' That being said, we think they should offer more album reviews and song samples, as this can make or break a customer's decision on purchasing an album or not. There are no membership fees, as CD's and DVD's can be purchased individually. We saw CD's around $11.99-$23.99, which is a bit pricey for a site that doesn't even offer sound clips. They offer good customer support via email and telephone. We think they deserve 3.5 Stars!
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