how to expand your music collection by 40,000 albums, unless you leave the room
Written: Jul 09 '04 (Updated Jul 09 '04)
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I have vanished from Epinions, again, for almost two weeks, again, and mainly this means that moving to a new home is strife and suffering and pain. That explains ten days of my absence: up through Wednesday evening, where I supervised a kindly young They Might Be Giants fan in installing cable Internet on our desktop and laptop. My absence since then had a lot more to do with exploring a music website called Rhapsody.com. It is an amazing place to be, and perhaps it could save _you_ from having to unpack quite so many boxes of albums in your next home.
The basics: Rhapsody costs $9.95 per month, or $24.95 per three months. It's only for U.S.A. users, at least so far, which sucks for the rest of you. There's a 7-day free trial, which I'm still under, so I'm not qualified to discuss their Customer Service (if and when I need encounters with them, I shall update this review) ... but I'm qualified to choose that 3-month plan, and to know I'll use it. What does my money get me?
Streaming audio, that's what, all you fellow cable or DSL users. Let me be more exact: legal, artist-compensated streaming audio of more than 40,000 albums of all types, including albums of amazing importance and recency. Quality sound (within the limits of your computer speakers), fast response time: I right-click an album or song, it starts, just that simple.
Also, if you want to play a song away from the computer – or just have it stored for mix-CD usage, or as a guard against the album disappearing from Rhapsody's store – each song costs 79 cents to download, cheaper than iTunes.
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Want to try Franz Ferdinand's hyped debut, or Morrissey's rumored return-to-greatness You are the Quarry, or Wilco's two-and-a-half-week-old a Ghost is Born, or the brand new album by the Cure? All here at no extra charge (as are Wilco's, the Cure's, and Morrissey's back catalogs).
Are you, like me, a recent fan of hip-hop, trying to catch up on the genre's history? Rhapsody.com has Eric B and Rakim's Paid in Full, A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, Boogie Down Productions's By All Means Necessary, the Jungle Brothers's Done by the Forces of Nature, Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions, and that birthing point in the history of underground rap, Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus (not to mention the entire output of Def Jux Records, and perhaps my favorite rap cd, the Coup's Steal This Album). They also have Snoop Dogg, for that matter, not to mention random bands with names like "Regenerated Headpiece". And, four days after I bought the cd, I discover Mos Def's Black on Both Sides here. (More on how to feel about that shortly.)
What impresses me, in fact, is how many of the big names of _any_ genre show up. Rhapsody.com has multiple albums by the pre-eminent progressive-rock band (Yes); 1970's "singer-songwriter" (Joni Mitchell); black-metal band (Cradle of Filth); prog-metal band (Dream Theater); old-country singer (Johnny Cash, not to mention some Carter Family best-ofs); techno act (Underworld, though _not_ my favorite of theirs, Dubnobasswithmyheadman); and recent plastic boy-band (whether you vote for Backstreet Boys or N'Sync).
Rhapsody has what I think are full collections of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, of Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, of Avril Lavigne (whichever side of that divide you put her on), and of grownups like Abra Moore and retired weirdos like Kate Bush. It has everything by Dar Williams and the Weakerthans, two of my favorite lyricists ever.
I won't pretend the collection is perfect. Spiky old new-wavers can't get their Gang of Four or first-generation Wire fixes here, and the Elvis Costello and XTC collections start more than 20 years into their careers. But Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo is here, along with the second Au Pairs album. Punks can't get Never Mind the Bollocks, though they can get the full Clash and Dead Kennedys catalogs. But hey, Rush is here in full, and so is James Taylor, and so are Sonic Youth and Sting. There's categories for Latin, Blues, Easy Listening, Musicals, Children, and Comedy/Spoken Word as well. "Musicals" don't include Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, or Fame, but that's forgiveable when we can get Hedwig and the Angry Inch, not to mention classics like Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, and four (!) versions of Porgy and Bess. Yes, the acquisition rate really is this good.
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What, then, about the experience? Is there still any point in buying (or even downloading) albums? Again, I'm new here, but I have some speculations.
First, the obvious limitation of Rhapsody – aside from requiring high-speed access – is that you can only listen to the streaming at or near your computer. For me, at least, this is usually terrible for real concentration: I can already tell that Anna Oxygen's All Your Faded Things is a delightful piece of synth-pop fluff, but I'll never be able to tell just sitting here if there's anything _special_ about it, because computers distract me. I'm glad I own Wilco's a Ghost is Born, because it's a maddening, quiet record that demands time to walk and reflect.
Which implies a second, less obvious limitation: that Rhapsody may have too damn much. Psychology experiments have long since proven what modern American history had already implied: that too much choice can make people miserable, paralyzed by all the options. I'm not saying Rhapsody will pressure me or you that directly: it's subtler than that.
The second album I played on Rhapsody was a brand-new one, the Cure. I was energized from passionate reviews by blksqul and by his fiancee (not to mention her even more striking personal essay in which she entwines the album with their courtship). I'd still hesitated to buy the album, because I haven't really cared about a Cure album since Disintegration 15 years ago, but here was a free sample. And on one listen I don't like it: it seems dreary, hookless, and it took all my patience to let it end.
If I'd paid $12.98 for it, I wouldn't stop there. Blksqul and Anvrill are as good a pair of music writers as Epinions has, and I'd be determined to hear what they hear. But you know what? Rhapsody.com has a "library" feature that lets me save as many albums or songs as I want to a list, to peruse later. I have more than 110 albums on that list: a few things that I own on vinyl, but mostly stuff I've never heard. Why would I play an album that I already dislike over those other 110? Why would you?
The answer to that depends on what sort of music listener you are. If you just like something going on in the background, Rhapsody should, for those $24.95 per three months, nicely eliminate your need to ever buy a CD as long as you're a member. Download what you need for your car. That's an amazing deal: you'd be a fool not to at least do the free trial.
If you're someone who cares about albums, but also makes up your mind quickly about them, Rhapsody makes a wonderful sampler. Listen to the first four songs of everything that grabs your eye, and in hours you'll have a fine shopping list. Buy the ones whose lyric sheets and album packagings you'll love and appreciate (the Dresden Dolls, say). Download the ones where you just need more attention to the music. Keep the rest on background. That's my guess what you should do, not my oracular judgment, but it couldn't hurt to keep in mind.
For those us who like a musical challenge, my feeling is: Rhapsody is a great service, but we should be careful. Many albums I love didn't appeal to me at first. I hated Tori Amos's From the Choirgirl Hotel (Rhapsody has loads of Tori), thought Dar Williams's the Green World was too serious and too blandly uniform, thought Radiohead's OK Computer was cacaphonous and ugly (Rhapsody does _not_ have Radiohead). But I invested the time to understand them, and I'm incredibly happy that I did: for me, albums have stories and ideas and worldviews and internal musical logics, and those don't pipe out of computer speakers while I check my e-mail.
So I'm being careful. I'm not exploring 110 albums yet, I've decided; I'm limiting myself to ten at a time, and being patient. I'm not forgetting all the records I own, and I'm not forgetting that I can buy the rights to take any of Rhapsody's music off-line. I can listen to Black on Both Sides here, but thanks to last weekend's premature shopping, I can also lie in bed with it, or run downtown. I'm guessing it will justify that attention.
Meanwhile, Rhapsody's a great chance to like new things, and it's absurdly cheap. I can't believe the price will stay this low for long, but it is what it is. Why not take advantage?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
voxpoptart
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Member: Brian Block
Location: Greensboro, NC
Reviews written: 201
Trusted by: 281 members
About Me:
Epinionator emeritus: a fancy term meaning "Occasionally I'll post something, then vanish again". Enjoy?
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