What's your favorite service for legal music downloads?

Question

I've got the 30GB iPod and I will probably fill it up sooner or later. I've already imported the good stuff from my CD collection and want to pick out a subscription service for downloading more stuff. There's a ton of services out there so I need some suggestions. It MUST be a legal service, no torrents (I work for a software company so I am totally against any sort of piracy). It should be a subscription/monthly fee service, not a pay-per-song one unless the songs are really cheap. I will go broke at a buck a song! I don't listen to top 40 or rap so there should be a good selection of indie, alternative, rockabilly, etc.

What's your favorite service? How much do you pay? How many songs do you get? What kind of music? Tell me which you like best and why!

I know I can look a lot of this info up but I want to hear from customers. All of the sites tell you they're 100% legal and the best!

Thanks!!!!

A couple of details... thanks for the answers so far...

I don't need this to be free. I just would prefer a monthly subscription price over a pay-per-download price.

I'm not interested in file-sharing programs because I don't really think that is legal.

This needs to be compatible with iPod. I was using Rhapsody-to-go for a while but you can't transfer their files to an iPod (you can use other devices though) so it doesn't help... but that kind of service is what I want. Pay a flat monthly fee, download whatever you want and put it on iPod.

More details...
LimeWire is not a legal way to obtain music unless it is the artist himself/herself putting it out there for download. If you use LimeWire to dowload the same music you hear on the radio, you're not keeping legal. And because of the company I work for and the job I do there, I must keep 100% legal.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, iPods do not support subscription music services. Several years ago I heard an Apple representative on KFOG-FM say consumers don't want to rent music, they want to own it. WHAT? That may be true of people who don't consume much music, but I was one of the people who DO want to rent music.

So iPod DRM does not support rental, only purchase.

If you want to download subscription music onto your player, you need a PlaysForSure subscription compatible portable music player and a music service such as Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go, Rhapsody To Go, or Napster To Go.

I used to use Rhapsody but Yahoo Music is less expensive. For as little as $10 a month with a one-year pre-paid subscription, you can get all the music you want. I have over 2000 songs in my subscription library and I have almost 1300 songs on my Creative Zen Vision: M. Right now, this works out to less than a penny a song a month for rental.

I figure that the ZVM will hold about 5000 songs on it's 30GB. There are no restrictions on the number of songs that I know of. I should be able to fill it with 5000 songs. Right now the biggest limiting factor is that I only have 3GB free on my laptop to store the subscription tracks for transfer to the ZVM.

I have 20's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's music. Genres include rock, modern rock, adult alternative, jazz, blues, r&b, soul, comedy, reggae, dub, kids music, ...

The services I listed offer classical. Rhapsody has more Classical than Yahoo at this time. They all offer about 1.5 Million songs or more (not all are available as subscription tracks though). It's not ALL of the music that I want. But it is most of the music I want. The rest I buy on used CDs or, occasionally, I'll do a purchase.

So, the reality is Apple doesn't want to let you rent music. Heck, they don't even want to you to buy discounted songs. Apple wants you to buy their players, their music, and pay their prices. The music companies want to charge less for back catalog music and more for current hits but Apple insists on one price fits all pricing of 99 cents.

So, if your concern is getting the most music for the money, sell your iPod to someone else and get a PlaysForSure subscription compatible music player such as the Creative Zen Vision: M. I'm not trying to be flip. If Apple supported subscription music, I'd tell you otherwise. But they don't.

Answer 2

Are their really any true free legal music download sights? I thought they were all just a thing of the past thanks to all the greedy musicians that were upset that the same song that was played over the radio for free was being listened to by the same fans for free from the computer. It is sure sad that a few rotten apples had to hurt the everyday folk. Hats off to the musicians that didn't mind their music passed down for listening (THEY TRULY NEW THAT FANS WOULD STILL BUY THEIR CDs FOR THE SOUND QUALITY).

Answer 3

Limewire Pro

Answer 4

Rhapsody

Answer 5

my favorite- file sharing networks. not everyone is for them though so i'm guessing you might not be either. for me, if it's a company handing out music, that's wrong, but as far as places to pay for subscriptions, Rhapsody isn't too bad.

Answer 6

get limewire and download all the songs u want then transfer(by cliking on them and moving) them to itunes and go to file import and the songs will go to ur ipod for free! it is legal.

Answer 7

i have 360share. its PERFECTLY LEGAL. i think i only payed around 30$ for a lifetime of music downloads. its much better than having to pay 99cents per song on other places

Answer 8

well from what ive heard ipod videos are NOT compatible with subscription music most subscrition music is wma-DRM ipods are GAY GAY GAy and only support mp3 and aac like i said they arevery much gay u should trade it in for the creative zen vision m

Answer 9

http://burnlounge.com/mlbliss
they are legal and very user friendly