Thumbplay vs MOG vs Rhapsody vs Rdio

[bstarr3]

I have grown to like the idea of paying a subscription service to have access to any music I want all the time, rather than buying CDs (or downloads). I like Pandora for what it is, but want to have a player that has on-demand like those listed.
I've been using MOG and like it in principle. However, it has some annoying bugs. It seems to lose connection all the time and won't pick back up. If I've got something downloaded I can keep playing with it, but the stream is very inconsistent in my experience. I also don't like how you can't be on the desktop and mobile at the same time.
Does anyone have experience with any of the others? I've heard pros and cons for all. From what I understand, Rhapsody doesn't yet support offline play for android. These are the features I'd really prioritize:

1. Ability to download for offline play
2. Stability while streaming
3. Ability to have two instances signed in at the same time (mobile/mobile or mobile/desktop)
4. Widget for easy use from my home screen.

Any advice on what I should try next? Thanks

 

[jakep_82]

I've used all of these services in search of the perfect subscription service and they all have drawbacks. I'm currently using Rdio and I'm pretty sure that's what I'll stay with going forward.

Rdio handles 1,2 and 4 on your list quite well. Regarding 3, you can be signed in to your phone and desktop at the same time, but you can only play music from one. If you start playing music on your phone it will stop playing on your desktop and vice versa. The Rdio app is fairly full featured with the only glaring omission being a queue. I really like the social music discovery features of Rdio which is the main reason I use the service. The only other drawback is the catalog. They are still missing some key artists that are available on MOG and Rhapsody.

I found MOG to be extremely frustrating to use both in the app and on the web. You can't add albums to your collection in the app (at least as far as I can tell) and it takes several clicks and way too much navigation to add an album on the web. I also find the music discovery features to be pretty worthless on MOG. I ran into numerous bugs on the app that caused force closes and constant logouts. Overall I hated it and dropped the service shortly after the app was released.

I stopped using Thumbplay before they released a version with offline playback. As such I can't really comment on it since it's been completely revamped. I do know that they offer no real music discovery features and require the use of an Adobe Air app on the desktop which is why I don't intend to go back and try it again.

Rhapsody still doesn't have offline playback several months after they said they would. I was a longtime Rhapsody subscriber and they do have an excellent selection of music. Unfortunately the desktop app is notoriously horrible and the Android app is nothing special.

 

[bstarr3]

Looked at Rdio and it definitely seems to have a nice interface. Seems to stream smoothly, too. The thing that's a killer for me, though, is the smaller library. It's kind of like the whole App Store vs Android Market argument - I don't care about the absolute number of songs available, as long as they have the things I want. Unfortunately, Rdio comes up short on some of my favorite bands, so is probably not going to be worth spending money on.

Anybody else have experience with the different streaming services? I think what I really want is for Spotify to come stateside. Their combination of streaming plus your own library plus social music discovery seems perfect. Hope we get it here someday. Meanwhile, guess I'll keep spending money on MOG for now while I try out others.

 

[karmamule]

Being a bit of a subscription music junkie I've used Mog, Rdio, Thumbplay, and Rhapsody too. I agree with Jake that they all have drawbacks, but like bstarr I am very disappointed in Rdio's selection, and because of that can't use them. Their app does seem the most stable of the bunch, and they are aggressively updating it, but if you like some more obscure artists their library is inadequate at best. If gapless playback is really important to you, then that would be a plus for Rdio if the limited selection doesn't bother you.

While I agree that Mog's apps are buggy, they nevertheless are my primary choice right now. The iOS app is especially buggy in my experience, and luckily the Android app is a bit more stable, albeit still with problems. With a deep library, and a playlist generation feature that works *really* well it's a lot of fun to use. I have to disagree with Jake's assessment about music discovery and Mog: between this radio feature, which lets you easily weight a playlist to one artist or a mix of similar artists, and the wealth of social features I think music discovery is actually one of its strengths.

Rhapsody is just too clunky for my tastes, and their $10 per month only covers one mobile device, and I have two (an iPod Touch and my Incredible). I'd have to pay $15 with them to have both devices covered, which is too much. Plus I find their music recommendation engine the weakest of the bunch. They do run on other devices like TiVos and such, and also have the largest library (although I couldn't see much difference between them and Mog for the music I like.) So, they do have some pluses, but not quite enough to pull me away.

Thumbplay is the closest contender to Mog, and has a couple nice strengths: they stream at 96kbps AAC vs 64kbps that Mog and most of the others use, and the difference isn't huge but still is noticeable. They also do a good job of keeping your playlists and favorites in sync between your PC and all your mobile devices, something Mog is planning to do but hasn't yet. Their library is good, albeit a touch less comprehensive than Mog's. Their playlist 'genie' is pretty good: not as flexible as Mog's features, but it still does a pretty good job. I've renewed them again for another month, and at the end of that I'll decide between them and Mog.

In any case, I hope you have as much fun with these apps as I have, it's great to have all this music (and now all these services!) to choose from....

 

[popcycle4]

I mostly listen to classical music and wondering if there's a clear winner between mog, rdio, rhapsody, etc. Here i'm looking for the biggest selection and i can't find anywhere.

 

[Sokudo Ningyou]

I've been trying out Grooveshark, and it's been pretty incredible for music selection: I've found bands I've never been able to find on others. However, that's because the music collection is from an old torrent site, apparently, so there's a lot of duplicates, dubious audio quality, and wrongly titled songs. It's $9 a month, and it's been honestly spotty connection-wise for me, likely because of where I live. I plan on buying a network drive I can devote solely to installing subsonic on to stream my personal music collection because that seems to be the only way to really get what I want.