Recently I’ve been wondering what’s the best way to find and get new music. Back in December, I bought a Creative Zen MicroPhoto so I could try out some the of subscription music services such as Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo!. I really enjoyed this approach at first, because I had a near infintie supply of music at my fingertips. Every Tuesday, I could listen to the latest albums with no commitment to buy them, ignoring the monthly subscription fees. I liked Rhapsody the best, and now am fairly impressed with the new Urge service. My main problem with these services is that I never own the music. It’s a great way to try new music and avoid purchasing CDs that suck, but at the same time I find it dissapointing that if I stop paying the montly fees, a large chunk of my music library will vanish. The problem is that I dropped my Zen, and now the hard drive is fucked. I’m back to using my iPod Mini, which is still a great player once I was able to replace the battery.

I’ve also been using eMusic, which is another montly service, but you download high quality MP3s without any copy protection. The only option is to download individual tracks, but an entire album will still end up being less than $4. The downside is major artists down participate, so you’re stuck with mostly smaller labels. I love these smaller bands, but at the same time I wish I could easily download Pearl Jam’s new album. For anyone that hasn’t tried eMusic, you should at least give it a try. You get 50 free downloads that you can keep as a trial. Here’s a list of albums that I highly recommend from eMusic.

• Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
• Arcade Fire, Funeral
• The National, Alligator
• Tapes ‘n Tapes, The Loon
• Better than Ezra, Before the Robots
• The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
• Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll
• The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come for Free
• Interpol, Antics
• Sufjan Stevens, Come on and Feel the Illinoise!

There are more I could list, including all the White Stripes albums, but I think that list is long enough. The other music service I’ve been trying out is very new, and I’m not sure how hard it is to sign up for.

It’s call La La, and is a CD trading website. The idea is that you list all of your CD’s online, then make a list of all the CD’s that you want. If another member wants a CD that you own, you have the option of sending it to him. Once you ship a CD, you get a CD off of your want list. The total cost of the trade is $1.50, and La La supplies the shipping envelopes for you. It’s a neat service, and a great way to get rid of CD’s you no longer own and try some that you want. I have 9 invites left, so if you’re interested send me an email.