Online and Paper Music Subcription Services

February 4, 2005 7:04 AM

Recommendations for Music Subscriptions? [+]

I love getting new music in the mail, which is why I join every swap I can. I currently subscribe to The Wire, Sumosonic, and will be signing up with Little Darla come next payday. I prefer subscriptions that are not limited to releases from one label. Rough Trade's Album Club is too expensive, but it's kinda what I'm looking for. What other subscriptions would MeFite indie rock and IDM fans recommend?

posted by mds35 to media & arts (8 comments total)

If you're interested in a digital music subscription I highly recommend Rhapsody. You need to play with it to really get how cool the music discovery features are. Check out Rhapsody Rock School and Rhapsody Radish for gems and playlists.
posted by donovan at 7:16 AM on February 4, 2005

I've dabbled with Rhapsody and eMusic and the iTMS, but I'm more interested in having a physical CD show up in the mail every now and then, one full of music I haven't heard of or thought to check out. Having the physical cd forces you to give it a full listen. For the most part, the digital services fail, so far, to offer much of the oddball and out-there music I tend toward. I recently submitted my own iMix to the iTMS and less that 25% of the songs on my playlist were available. Thanks for the gem and playlist links, however, I will check them out.
posted by mds35 at 7:58 AM on February 4, 2005

I used to subscribe to CMJ new music monthly entirely for the cd.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:35 AM on February 4, 2005

I just checked out Sumosonic thanks to your link, mds35. Are there any drawbacks/catches to their subscriptions? It looks like a good deal, but it kind of seems like too good of a deal.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2005

There don't seem to be any drawbacks to Sumosonic. I have only been a subscriber since September. The music is mostly good and diverse. It's basically a marketing tool for Diesel, Axe and other youth brands. But I didn't seem to get any spam from signing up, and it's free except for the postage.
posted by mds35 at 9:25 AM on February 4, 2005

I subscribe to Magnet for their CD, and because of the variety of opinions expressed there. In the same issue you can find one CD held up as "best of the year" by one reviewer and dismissed as "completely overrated" by another. The reasons why make for good reading, and you can listen to the songs included on the CD to make up your own mind.
posted by cali at 12:06 PM on February 4, 2005

I highly recommend paste magazine. Great articles, includes a CD and DVD.
posted by mudhouse at 12:26 PM on February 4, 2005

Thanks for the great recommendations everyone. I have placed subscription orders and look forward to hearing what Paste, Magnet and CMJ compile for their readers.

Also, donovan, thanks for the links to the "gem" lists. I would have appreciated Rhapsody a lot more if I had know about these sites when I subscribed. I spent some time checking out the recommended tunes and found some neat new music, so I thank you.
posted by mds35 at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2005