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I recently signed up for Napster, and so far it’s a pleasant experience. The price proposition convinced me – unlimited music streaming to your computer AND you can purchase Un-protected (DRM Free) songs for keeps. When you buy 3 months at a time, it comes out to $5 per months which gives you 5 songs and Unlimited streaming of their huge library, whole month.

Actually, what initially convinced me was their recent partnership with Coca Cola’s MyCokeRewards site, redeeming some free single-song downloads. It takes quiet a lot of points, but we had them laying around anyways… Today I noticed they added not just song downloads, but also Subscription plans! I didn’t do the math, but I think 3 months subscription is best value. It gives you 15 song downloads (for keeps) and 3 months of unlimited streaming of any kind of music out there.

Sadly, they don’t let you stream to phones. In fact, they go extra mile to block any streaming from mobile devices, since essentially it should be possible as your mobile smartphone is on the same Internet as everyone.

Anyhow, until Spotify gets here, only sensible option I found is GrooveShark. Their $3 (or less) per month plan lets you stream unlimited music to their iPhone app, but of course many people will be satisfied with free Pandora or Last.fm radio Apps for iPhone.

Enjoy!

In light of most recent RIAA suicide attempt (which finally may be a successful one), I thought it would be a good opportunity to tell everyone about a great music site I discovered some time ago.

Amie Street is an online marketplace of independent artists. It works as a massive self guiding social network, with pricing which starts near zero, and then raises as popularity of a song increases. This way true quality music that everyone downloads raises in price, and becomes reasonable way to compensate the artist and support their further music endeavors. While new, undiscovered, or lower quality works, cost very little (few cents or so), and often stay that way. That’s not to say that there aren’t some gems in the few-cents-per-song crowd, there often is, in fact.

I have only had little time to dig around for gems there, but one example is Amanda Kaletsky, check out her Say You Believe song. Or, want more mainstream, try the world famous band Barenaked Ladies. One thing to watch out for is their built-in media player, it isn’t that good, I found interface unfriendly and confusing at times.

Of course, all Amie Street music is DRM free, as all music should be! Thus, between this and Amazon’s MP3 music store, which keeps adding major labels, there’s hope yet. So, lets work together to Free the Music, while we continue to pay for it, to the artist and not RIAA…