Seasons Greetings!

I had a friend at the office ask me for a recommendation on which subscription service offered the best selection / features / price / etc., and I could not answer. I do not really download my tracks, but rip them myself. So, what is the current preferred service and why do folks like it?

I used to use emusic before they screwed that up. Currently I believe all you can get are ones that let you stream to a pc for a monthly fee and if you want to put the track on a portable you have to buy each track or album.

Link

This is what I have been waiting for so I hope it really comes out soon. I would prefer someone like emusic that has more inde stuff did it this way but I will try it out with napster anyway.

I don't know subscription services, but the streaming service Rhapsody (listen.com) is pretty darn nice. Like $25 for 3 months of listening to most any major label stuff you could want. If your friend is into mainstream, that seems like the best bet.

AllOfMP3 has rather haphazard selection, but quality is good and it is almost free.

I've used MP3Search.ru for over a year. Haven't had a problem with any of the files yet, and it too is pretty close to free. I've never had a problem with the billing (through PayPal) in any way, either. You don't pay by the month, but by the bandwidth (ie. pay per GB)

And to think I have posted on how most downloadable music services are all 128Kbit
This one looks really good.
How has your experience been with them? For many of the links I tried I got a "server busy" message.

My experience with AllOfMP3 is generally good, except with what you mentioned: they seem to be victims of their own success and 'server busy' messages are quite frequent during some parts of day. However, once you manage to "order" your music, downloading (using their pretty good download manager) goes smoothly.

I have been using allofmp3 for a short while now.
Very impressed with the selection and convience of the download manager.
Obviously the price does not seem to limit their ability to provide a good service.
I can even live with the impending price increase.