Napster

I pretty much use a combo of a few sites to get music. Rhapsody is the best then Grooveshark. After that I use AOL Radio to hear music in different genres, but nowadays it is the same site as Slacker Radio so either site is fine. But I also wanted some genres not in AOL so I use Last.FM. I also have used sites like Mp3Skull to stream and download mp3s or downloaded audio off YouTube to get mp3s with a YouTube downloader. And lastly, I have also used Shoutcast because it has some interesting free streams and music from different countries. But I must add that if you use a tablet the best way to get Shoutcast is using the Xiiaplayer as there is no Winamp or some other alternative type player for at least Android OS.

There is a reason to use Rhapsody or its twins Spotify and Rdio. Some artists and albums are there that you won't find on Grooveshark and they get them first. However, if one must, you could get by with using a mp3 site to download tunes or using a p2p torrent site or using the downloading methods to download off YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo if the album or songs are on their.

There are some other site I recommend. Jango because it has a lot of different genres, but the last time I used it the user interface stunk. Xbox Music was a rather interesting site. Instead of playing artists at random in radio stations, it could play songs back to back by the same artist if you like. Then there was Playlist.com which has become a radio streaming site for free. I found it had obscure genres and stations playing stuff I haven't heard in years or finding new artists.

Rhapsody is decent for what it does. You can hear full albums on it and make playlists. It also has a free radio and a playlist areas. It is not bad. I joined the site long before finding Grooveshark. I only ran into Grooveshark using this website in 2013. Grooveshark's mobile site, I never did download the app, is not very good. If Grooveshark's app is like that then it is not as good as the PC version website. But I must add I never did download the Rhaposdy app on the Nexus tablet I have either. I never checked into it. So far on tablet been using Xiiaplayer and its Shoutcast capacity and using IHeart and Tunein apps to hear radio stations playing classic rock and Alternative music. I only got the tablet last month.

I hope this isn't too messy but I wanted to detail the sites I use.

Napster has a great history of providing excellent music playback

I listen to a lot of music at my computer, and using a service like Napster is a huge convenience. It's like having Pandora except you can play anything you like, even an entire album. I should note that I only use the streaming part of the service with their desktop app (not easy to find on their website). I used to be a Rhapsody subscriber, but Napster is cheaper at $5/month and offers 5 free mp3 downloads per month with it. In my opinion, Rhapsody has a larger library but Napster is close enough and much cheaper.

I exclusively use their desktop app, I really can't stand their web app. The biggest thing to know about Napster is that they are low-budget: you get a cheaper price, but their selection, software, and feature-set somewhat lags behind some of it's competition.

My biggest wishes for the service would be that they get access on Tivo (like Rhapsody), and work towards improving their desktop app. It's obvious that they want to keep costs low, and their desktop app will never compare to the iTunes of the world - they should looks toward improving it in other ways. Either focus on being a plugin for the likes of Songbird, Winamp, etc, or open-source the app and allow it to grow into a more general media player / music organizer.

Sorry about the soapbox at the end.

There's no reason to use Rhapsody when you can get the same functionality out of Grooveshark, for free. Even if you want to go VIP with Grooveshark (in order to get the desktop and mobile apps), you only have to pay $3 a month, compared to $10 a month for Rhapsody.