Recommend online music service for music 2play on PocketPC

[2 PDA Man]

I'm considering whether to subscribe to an online music service such as Rhapsody, MusicMatch, eMusic, etc, in order to download music tracks to my PocketPC.

1. I like not having to buy music if I am at my computer, just listening to a channel, same as old-fashioned radio; but I don't want to hear the same tracks every 3 days. (I find that happens when I listen to the "free" versions like SPinner/Netscape radio.

2. I would like to be able to Copy downloaded tracks to my Pocket PC. How are users of these services doing that? Can you play their MP3 downloads on your PocketPC Windows Media Player? If not, can you easily and accurately convert their downloaded tracks from MP3 to WAV files to play on the Wndows Media Player on your PocketPC? OR do you need to install another player due to digital rights protection?

3. ANy thoughts on which services have the most content? I have pretty electic tastes - jazz, blues, country, rock.

Thanks for your advice!

Jim the 2 PDA man

[2 PDA Man]

I'm considering whether to subscribe to an online music service such as Rhapsody, MusicMatch, eMusic, etc, in order to download music tracks to my PocketPC.

1. I like not having to buy music if I am at my computer, just listening to a channel, same as old-fashioned radio; but I don't want to hear the same tracks every 3 days. (I find that happens when I listen to the "free" versions like SPinner/Netscape radio.

2. I would like to be able to Copy downloaded tracks to my Pocket PC. How are users of these services doing that? Can you play their MP3 downloads on your PocketPC Windows Media Player? If not, can you easily and accurately convert their downloaded tracks from MP3 to WAV files to play on the Wndows Media Player on your PocketPC? OR do you need to install another player due to digital rights protection?

3. ANy thoughts on which services have the most content? I have pretty electic tastes - jazz, blues, country, rock.

Thanks for your advice!

Jim the 2 PDA man

[surur]

Just some general comments.

No major music service currently sells mp3's. (not any with well known artists that is). Currently the choice is between wma, and apples itunes aac. wma will play on a pocketpc without conversion, itunes will need to be copied to cd and then ripped to mp3 or wma.

I subscribe to real rhapsody, which does not allow downloads, but does let you burn tracks to cd. I burn to a cd-rw and then rip from there, but that is a tedious process, as the track id3 data is lost when you burn to cd. Ive used Microsoft's MSN downloads, which work ok, but you have to copy tracks to you ppc using Windows media Player, else you will find the licence has not been updated properly, and you have a file on your ppc which media player refuses to play. The best seamless service is supposed to be Itunes with an Ipod, but that of course excluded pocketpc's.

Currently the most sensible solution I think is to use whichever service, but then burn your tracks to a CD-RW disc immediately and then re-rip to higher bitrate (192 and above) MP3's which should allow you to use it in any device you purchase (Ipod, cell-phone, dvd player, various game consoles, various portable and car cd players etc)

My 2p

Surur