To Rent or To Own? That Is the Question

I grew up as part of a generation that wanted to own one of everything; our music was no different. And so, my dead music media collection spans records, cassettes, 8-tracks, DVDs, and a few that I've probably forgotten to name.

Dutifully, I switched to digital music, and I've spent untold hours futzing around with my iPod—buying a song here, ripping a disk there, all in the name of ownership. (Actually I'm becoming convinced that, just like farmers had kids to get help in the fields, we have kids to help load our devices!)

If you're just getting into digital music, you may be wrestling with where to get your music, or you may not be totally clear on the types of services. Here's a look at two popular favorites, Rhapsody and iTunes, to illustrate the point about renting music or buying music.

Rhapsody provides on demand music rental; iTunes is a music store. Rhapsody lets you listen to a huge library of music on demand as it's streamed over the Internet. It's sort of like renting all the music you can imagine, but you own nothing—not one song—once your subscription lapses. The music is not downloaded to your PC; it lives on the Rhapsody server, though you are welcome to organize it into playlists or categories.

iTunes sells you music by the song or by the album. Once you buy the song, it's yours (with certain digital rights restrictions) and it lives on your PC.

$10 a month for unlimited listening or 99 cents a track to own. Rhapsody's pricing seems to change as often as its top 10 hits, but it's always a bargain. Currently, you can listen to 25 tracks a month absolutely free. Then you can upgrade to Rhapsody Unlimited, a $10-per-month subscription service to stream (listen to) all the music you'd like. If you want to own a song, it's 79 cents, less expensive than iTunes. If you want to move the music to a portable device, it costs $5 extra per month to use Rhapsody to Go, their mobile service.

iTunes sells individual songs for 99 cents; albums vary in price. A small portion of the content (mostly podcasts) is free. Before buying an iTunes song, you can hear a little snippet of it for free.

Rhapsody lives in a PC world; iTunes lives in an iPod world. Rhapsody requires a Windows PC and supports many MP3 players, but not an Apple iPod. iTunes supports downloading music to your PC or Mac, but will only work with an iPod, not other MP3 devices.

Much like the PC world, Rhapsody has an almost excess of riches. It streams radio. You can create and share playlists. And the music selection is vast. But it's harder to navigate, and users frequently complain about the new Rhapsody to Go service. It took me 20 minutes just to understand the various pricing schemes. iTunes is, like the rest of Apple's world, clean, elegant, and straightforward.

The bottom line? If you want to explore and listen to different kinds of music, Rhapsody is amazing. For $10 a month, you get to listen to a vast collection of music and you still get the benefits of personalizing it with playlists and even buying the tunes you want to own. Those who want a smaller, more static collection of their favorite music to own for all times want to stay with iTunes. It, too, has a vast collection, but you buy, not try, your music.

What do you think? Is owning the old fashioned way? Would you rather own or rent your music collection?