Best Digital Music Service?

I hate lyric sheets, so it's not a problem.

emusic definitely seems to have the depth, if'n you like that weirdo indie stuff. and it's got the price. i was a very happy member back int he days of unlimited downloads, and i have 2 "music-head" friends who are still members, and love it.

I took the plunge, and am in the midst of my month-long trial period with eMusic. I'm really impressed so far. Beyond the deep catalogue and the user-friendly nature of the site, I really enjoy the articles and reviews offered on eMusic. They've got a series called the eMusic dozen, in which a writer selects 12 albums from the eMusic catalogue, clustered around a theme. I've seen that before, but the obvious enthusiasm of the authors is infectious, and they offer nice insight into a genre, sub-genre or music scene. Also, the eMusic live series is a nice feature.

Unless something unexpected happens, I'm going to continue with eMusic's Basic Plan after the trial period. While I still prefer getting physical discs for albums that I anxiously anticipate (for the booklets, liner notes and/or lyric sheets; see, e.g., The Numero Group's albums), I recognize that eMusic has a lot of albums that I wouldn't otherwise buy, but which I'm thrilled to explore with my 40 downloads a month.

*cough* SPAM *cough*

Mine, Alex? No, I promise. I have no affiliation with eMusic -- or the music industry -- whatsoever.

If you're into your iPod and you're not into the iTunes Music Store (which has all the personality, warmth and charm of your average Office Depot), I think eMusic's pretty much your only bet as far as subscription / download services are concerned. Everyone else wants you to subscribe to tethered media and use Windows Media, which is a pain in the ass.

I will put in a word for Bleep and Beatport, but only if you're really into the various post-techno and house genres. Bleep is generally cheaper, Beatport has the greater selection, but both sell at high bitrates (cuz their tracks are intended to be used by DJs in Final Scratch or whatever) and have a good previewing system. I bought an assload of Surgeon off Beatport earlier this year and was very satisfied, as most of that stuff will never see CD aside from DJ mixes and ripping it all myself would have been an enormous pain. Bleep's affiliated with Warp, fwiw.

There's also allofmp3.com, still (for now?), but if you're going to use them you might as well just hit up your torrent site of choice, because it seems highly unlikely (given the prices they charge) any of the money they make is filtering back to the labels, much less the artists or songwriters.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I actually work for one of the big legal subscription services (to avoid the appearance of spamming I won't say which one), and I think we've got a solid catalog, reasonable sound quality, and a respectable focus on editorial content, but our editorial team is overwhelmed by its job (there's just too few writers and editors, in my opinion) and seems to be squarely targeting itself towards the mainstream (given that that's the most bang for the buck). We don't support iPods or Macs (except via our web interface), but we do have some interesting things going on with device support, both in terms of Sonos-type console dealies and portable players. I was on the fence about our service when I started here, but I find myself using it more and more as time goes by, because as much as I like, say, ABBA, I don't find myself compelled to *own* _Voulez-Vouz_, you know?

umm, URGE anyone? it's pretty stellar

I cannot get Urge because I cannot upgrade to Service Pack 2