I’ve been experimenting with subscription music services. A while ago I started with Rhapsody, and while I despised their darn application (why not just be an add in in Windows Media Player?!), I enjoyed their service. Unfortunately, after I converted to Windows Vista (super duper edition), I discovered that Rhapsody didn’t work with Vista.
So I cancelled my Rhapsody subscription which was a painless process, but it did require a phone call. Kudo’s for Real (<shiver>) for making it easy to leave the services – it makes me more willing to go back to it.
I then joined Urge. After a while, I kind of got used to the interface, but I still haven’t found an easy way to "tag" music that I want to listen to again, short of putting it into a big messy playlist. Rhapsody had this part down pat.
Over the past month or so, I’ve noticed that my hard drive has been getting accessed nonstop. At first I thought it was Vista doing some indexing stuff, but even after leaving the machine alone for 24 hours, the hard drive was still clicking. I finally narrowed it down to Urge causing the problem. A few seconds after I close Windows Meda Player, the hard drive quiets down. I reopen WMP and it goes nuts again. I uninstalled Urge and the problem went away. I reinstalled Urge and it came back.
I have a fairly noisy 10,000 RPM drive, so having it clicking all the time is quite annoying. I wish I knew if this is a problem that is going to be cleared up soon, or if I need to move back to Rhapsody…
Rhapsody has worked on Vista for quite a while now. And the re-sign up process is even easier than their easiest-ever cancellation: You can do it right in the app. I cancelled Rhap once I bought a Zune, but the Zune Marketplace "experience" has been so bad that I’ve RE-subscribed to Rhapsody just so I can use the app! 🙂