« Return to: Online Music: New Hits and Misses
| Rank | Service | Monthly subscription cost | Portable downloads/CD burns | Portable download or burn cost1 | Download format | Comments |
| 1 | RealOne Rhapsody | $10 | No2/Yes | $0.79 (burn only) | 3 | Offers cheap CD burns and a no-nonsense interface that acts as a reference even when songs aren't available. |
| 2 | EMusic | $15 for 3 months; $10 for 1 year | Yes/Yes | Included | 160-to-256-kbps variable-bit-rate MP3 | Preview this eclectic selection before signing up. If you find enough albums you want, a subscription saves you money. |
| 3 | Apple ITunes Music Store | n/a | Yes/Yes | $0.99 | 128-kbps AAC | If the PC version's DRM scheme is as good as the Mac version's, this subscription-free service should be popular. |
| 4 | Musicmatch MX Platinum | $5 (Platinum); $3 (Gold) | No/No | n/a | n/a | Low cost and an interesting radio-station approach make this streaming-only service an intriguing option. |
| 5 | FullAudio MusicNow | $10 for unlimited streams and downloads | Yes/Yes | $0.99 | 128-kbps WMA | Sluggish navigation, but streams and downloads sound good, and you can purchase tracks at a reasonable price. |
| 6 | Pressplay | $10 for unlimited streams and downloads4 | Yes/Yes | $6 for 5, $10 for 10, $19 for 20 | 128-kbps WMA | Unfortunately, interface inconsistencies make this otherwise attractive service difficult to use. |
| 7 | MusicNet@AOL 2.1 | $9 for unlimited streams and downloads | Yes/Yes | $0.99 | 132-kbps RealAudio 8 | Organizing your tunes is tedious, and you can't play downloaded tracks in any other media player. |
No service covers all the bases, but some online music sites offer good values and selections. n/a = Not applicable.
1 Per track.
2 You can always rip the track from the CD you burn and then transfer it to a portable player.
3 Streamed files are cached on your hard drive.
4 $14 Deluxe and $18 Premium plans add five and ten portable downloads or burns per month, respectively.
HOW WE TEST: We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the bundled DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software; we use vendor-supplied media or Verbatim media. Tests conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.