Unlimited Music Review: Napster, Yahoo and XM Radio

Ever since Napster’s Super Bowl half-time commercial I have been thinking I should take another look at subscription based music services. I decided to try out Napster, Yahoo, and XM Radio services. Each service is different but they all give you some type of unlimited music each month for a monthly fee.

XM Radio

XM Radio is a satellite radio service where you can get 150 different commercial-free music channels that include talk radio, sports, comedy and more. Normally you would need to buy a XM Receiver in order to receive XM satellite radio but they also offer XM Radio Online so that’s what I signed up for. They also have a portable player called the Delphi XM MyFi that you can use anywhere.

(If you have Windows Media Center 2005 then through Online Spotlight you can sign up for a free 3 day trial and it does not require a credit card) XM Radio is $12.95 a month and XM Radio Online is included in that price.

This is what the XM Radio Online service looks like through Media Center 2005. You can scroll the radio stations and also browse by different categories.

When you browse by categories, the interface highlights the different channels available in that category.

You can also use XM Radio Online through Windows Media Player. The interface is about the same.

There is not a whole lot to the XM Radio interface and I like that it is simple like using a radio is suppose to be. The stations are commercial-free but there are DJ’s and XM announcements on the stations – so it’s not solid music as I thought it would be. While there are 150 channels the content available is pretty limited. But on the same hand that’s what differentiates XM Radio from everyone else – they have the opportunity to have unique content that no one else has.

I did like using XM Radio Online – there was something nice about picking a station and just letting it play and not having to listen to commercials. My favorite station was 75 The Hear Music Channel which is the same music that most (if not all) Starbucks play. But for $12.95 I felt like I wanted to get more variety out of my music service. I have heard some rumors that XM Radio is thinking about adding some type of download service as well so that may make the service more appealing.

Napster

Napster offers unlimited music streaming and downloads for up to three computers for a monthly charge of $9.95. The music files are encrypted Windows Media Audio files and only play on Windows. For $14.95 you can get the Napster-to-Go service where you get all of the above plus you can transfer your songs to compatible MP3 players. (Not the iPod though) Napster has a free 7–day trial but you do need a credit card to sign up. (If you just want to buy songs you do not need a credit card to setup an account for what they call Napster Lite)

Napster has an interface that you can use through Windows Media Center. You can access it by going through the Online Spotlight section.

The main interface in Windows Media Center is not that user friendly. First off, you can’t use your mouse – I guess they assume that you would always be using your remote control. The service is slow to search for music and load up your songs if you are just going to stream them and not download them to your computer. Also when streaming your music sometimes it skips and stalls which can be annoying mid-song.

Selecting an album pulls up the standard information. You can choose to play the album or you can download the songs to your computer so you can listen to them without having to use the Napster interface.

The interface has the main menus on the top that allow you to search by genre, artist, go to your library to see all of the songs you have downloaded and see what you are currently playing.

Using the search section you can search for artists by name, song, etc. You get the whole ‘discography’ of a particular artist plus you get recommendations of similar artists.

When you click on a song to download it will be downloaded to your computer in your My Music folder. (You can specify this folder in your settings) By going to the Library you can see which songs you have downloaded.

Update: Napster music is encoded at a bit rate of 128kbps.

The nice thing is that the downloaded songs automatically show up in your My Music folders and Media Center adds them to your view.

When you select the properties of a downloaded song you can see the bit rate and that the file is protected with DRM technology.

If you don’t like the Media Center interface (or don’t have Media Center) then you can access the Napster service through Windows Media Player.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Media Center interface – it was slow, you couldn’t use your mouse and it did not have all of the features available that the Media Player interface has.

Overall I really liked Napster. It was fun to be able to listen to any CD that I wanted. I listened to three or four new CD’s that would of cost me $60 dollars to buy! Napster has a big music selection and there was only one or two artists that I could not listen to. My only complaint is that some songs you can only buy and cannot download which doesn’t make sense to me if you are paying a monthly fee for ‘unlimited’ music. Napster has a lot of other features like internet radio stations and exclusives.

Yahoo

Yahoo has a couple of different music services going on. Musicmatch for Media Center was just recently launched and allows you to listen to different artist radio stations via streaming music and you can also buy the songs. You can also get to MusicMatch through Media Player.

Yahoo also recently launched the Yahoo Music Engine with unlimited music for a monthly fee of $4.99 that allows you to put your music on a compatible MP3 player. (Compared to $14.99 a month for Napster’s service) At this time they do not have a Media Center or Media Player interface so you need to install it separately. You need a credit card to try out any of the Yahoo services. When you install the Music Engine it also installs Yahoo Messenger and asks to change your homepage to Yahoo which I did not like.

Once you install Music Engine it asks to search for your music and if you want it to be your default player.

Music Engine reminded me a lot of iTunes. You can search for artists or songs, and since Music Engine is actually a media player you can play all of your music through it and create playlists. You can also get access to the MusicMatch Yahoo radio stations.

When you download or add music to your library you can get all of the standard meta info. Once again, it’s looking a lot like iTunes to me.

Update: Yahoo music is encoded at a bit rate of 192kbps.

Using the Launchcast feature you can listen to commercial free music based upon genres.

Selecting an album you can choose to download it to your computer or you can purchase the tracks.

Checking your account profile you can see what your right are for your downloaded music.

I didn’t like the Yahoo Music Engine as much as I did Napster. The program is a little buggy (granted it’s still beta) and not very original in my mind as it looks just like iTunes. What I really didn’t like was the lack of music choice. There was way more artists that I couldn’t listen to in Yahoo than Napster. From my unscientific study it seemed Yahoo had plenty of new music available but if you were looking for older music then you were out of luck.

And the winner is …

First, XM Radio is really not a contender in my mind. To pay $12.99 a month for only a 100 or 150 channels is way too limited. XM has the opportunity to add some original content that may bring subscribers but I don’t think they can make it against a Napster or Yahoo service.

Yahoo certainly seems to be the winner on price but I didn’t like their initial selection of music. Their Music Engine software wasn’t that impressive either but nobody is really winning in the category in my mind. I’ve also read and heard some things that make me believe that this low-low price will not last beyond the first year.

Napster is the winner in my mind – the interface isn’t great but it works well enough to get the music you want. The best thing about Napster is the music selection which I thought was very solid.

Not having said anything yet about buying vs subscription music services, all I will say is to try a service yourself and you may be surprised how well you like it. People lease cars, apartments, cell phones – why not music? Unlimited music for less than the price of one CD a month – sign me up.