rblog

I know that this is a raging topic out there, so here are my thoughts based on my experience with both services. First, I should say that I am now a big believer in subscription music services. This is something that you can only understand by experiencing. Before Rhapsody/Yahoo I was not much of a music fan, in fact, I only really started listening to any music about two years ago (after a 20 year hiatus). What is truly phenomenal about a subscription service is that you get instant access to the latest albums (e.g. on the day they are released) and you get to explore all types of new music - especially music that is related to music you already like.

As far as the issue of "renting" the music - there are many things that I rent (water, electricity, phone services) - I never plan to cancel any of those, just as I never plan to cancel my rental music.

Now to the issue of Yahoo Music vs. Rhapsody. I began the service with Rhapsody (as Yahoo didn't exist yet) and in general, I have been very happy. The catalog of music is extensive indeed - although holes do exist. I was surprised not to find any Billy Joel (since added), Madonna, Beatles, or Grateful Dead (after 1972). And once in a while, an artist will be represented but not all their albums (e.g. Luce's new album is missing, but their first album is there). But in general, over 90% of what I wanted was available.

Both user interfaces make it easy to find music and to add music to playlists and to one's music library (I just use my library as a giant playlist). Both products provide recommendations and similar albums/artists for exploration. Both systems allow you to download music to a portable player. After this, differences begin to emerge.

Rating Systems
Yahoo allows users to rate songs, albums, and artists and then uses this information to suggest new music or to allow for a customized radio station. Rhapsody provides a much finer granularity of music genres and sub-genres to allow users to find music that meets their tastes. I prefer the songs that Yahoo generates when I use the "My Radio" feature, but I prefer Rhapsody's detailed genres when looking at new releases that may be of interest to me. In this area, the two are different, but it is hard for me to prefer one over the other.

Reviews
Rhapsody provides artist and album reviews. Yahoo does not. Rhapsody gets the nod here.

Sharing
Rhapsody allows you to share music via Playlist Central, email and blogs. Originally, I was very excited about the blog sharing as I thought it would be so cool to post playlists to my MovableType blog. But alas, the sharing only worked if you had your blog hosted by MovableType. I never shared my music via Playlist Central - but I did listen to other's playlists. Yahoo allows sharing by Yahoo IM, but I haven't tried it out - it seems pretty cool as your IM buddies get to listen to music for free (as near as I can tell). There is a way to connect with members with similar music tastes, but I haven't rated enough music to find any members with similar taste. Too early for me to pick a winner here. Note: although technically not sharing, Rhapsody offers "Rhapsody 25" a free (yes, free) service that allows you to listen to 25 songs per month - but you can only have 25 total "plays" - if you play a song twice it counts as 2.

User Interface
Much has been written about Rhapsody's superior user interface and, in general, I would agree that it is better - but I nothing really sticks out (ok, Yahoo doesn't adjust the "Now Playing" list to always indicate the track that is currently playing, but that is minor). One thing that is noticeably different is the performance of Yahoo is slower, especially when I navigate to the Home or Yahoo Unlimited pages - where the engine is trying to customize the presentation of the information. Rhapsody seemed snappier in this regard.

Portable Music
Although Rhapsody and Yahoo both claim to support the PlaysForSure/Janus DRM (Digital Rights Management), their list of supported players differs. While the lists are rougly comparable, with much overlap, there is one glaring difference - the Yahoo list does not support ANY flash-based players. I tried to use the Sandisk Sensa with Yahoo, but it failed (and Sandisk confirmed it would not work) - although the player is supported by Rhapsody. Copying songs to a portable player is also a problem spot for both services, based on a friend's experience and what I have read on the web. Advantage Rhapsdoy.

Stability
Both products have their issues. I have run both products on about 5 different computers, including one very lame system. I have had more network problems with Rhapsody (Yahoo seems to be a more reliable connection), but I had installation problems with Yahoo (resolved by running the install as an Admin user - although the error message was a VC++ runtime error with no indication that admin login was the issue). On my lame system, both products ran into DRM problems that were pretty much unresolvable (Yahoo was totally broken, Rhapsody managed to limp along.) Moving to a new system fixed the Yahoo problems. No real winner here.

Price
The big issue here is portable music. If you are not going to go with a portable player, then the prices are:
Yahoo - 6.95 (monthly), 4.95 (one year prepaid)
Rhapsody - 9.95 (month), 8.33 (one year prepaid)

But when you add in a portable player, the fees change for Rhapsody to $14.95/month (monthly billing), but the fees remain the same for Yahoo. So, it becomes 6.95 vs. 14.95 (monthly billing). Now, if you sign up for a 12 month Rhapsody "ToGo" service, you can get $100 off the iRiver player - which is like an $8.33 credit per month, but only for the first 12 months and only if you purchase the specific iRiver player.

Big advantage to Yahoo here - and it is the reason I ended up switching. Note: When I told Rhapsody I wanted to cancel, they gave me two free months - just something others might want to keep in mind.

Links:
Rhapsody
Yahoo