Music Downloads Other Than Rhapsody

This is the second time Rhapsody has corrupted my Sansa Clip+ MP4 player.  Looking for other streaming music services & hoping someone out there can provide me some recommendations. Thank you in advance for your help.

Unfortunately, you’re stuck with Rhapsody as a streaming service on SanDisk players. It’s the only one available. 

If you can explain what “corrupted” means, either SanDisk tech support or Rhapsody might be able to help you fix it.  

All streaming services use DRM (digital rights misery) technology that restricts what you can do with the music and sooner or later will probably result in some songs not playing, if not worse. Making your consumer experience fairly annoying is the only way the record labels will allow them to offer such a huge catalog of music.

Since you are paying for the service Rhapsody should help you make it work. 

https://help.rhapsody.com/entries/24132393-Contact-Us

Ty for answering my question. I tried working with Rhapsody for 2 days and they kept blowing me off and saying it was a SanDisk problem and when SanDisk heard the way Rhapsody was treating me and pushing the problem off on SanDisk, even though when I wasn’t on Rhapsody, SanDisk & I troubleshot my player & there was no problem or error messages, they decided to send me a new one. Some1 had said that I can get music from iTunes and convert to my player…sounds like a hassle, so I don’t know if I’ll do that. I appreciate your input as I’ve seen your reviews and you’re very knowledgeable.

The good thing about a subscription streaming service is that you pay one fee and get to sample all you want, and usually you would listen to more songs than the subscription fee would buy individually. The streaming service also allows you  to check out things you’re curious about, and find new stuff without committing to buying it. It’s a great thing for music fans. 

I hope you can make Rhapsody work on the new player. 

As for iTunes, your informant wasn’t quite right. You can buy individual songs from other services like iTunes, Amazon and eMusic but that gets expensive at $.99 or $1.29 per song, or $9.99 per most albums. 

If you do choose to do that, you have better alternatives than iTunes. Amazon and eMusic are already in mp3 format; ready for the Sansa. Amazon and iTunes both have most of the musical universe, though there are a few exclusives on iTunes. Amazon also runs weekly specials where you can get an album for a very low price–that’s how Lady GaGa had huge first-week sales.

For iTunes, you have to download the song in Apple’s own m4a format and convert to mp3. You can do the conversion  in iTunes (highlight the file or files, right-click, Create mp3 version) but it’s an extra step. And then, because iTunes doesn’t like to tell you where the music is on your computer, you have to find the files, make sure you have the .mp3 and not .m4a versions, and send them over to the Clip.

It’s annoying–designed to push you toward buying an Apple player with a higher price and fewer features, but “it just works” with iTunes. 

Streaming services are really moving toward smartphones, which are destroying the market for standalone mp3 players. I like my player because it doesn’t use up battery life on the phone, and it has slightly better sound, but that’s probably a rear-guard view. 

Rhapsody has a smartphone app, and so do Spotify (which I use–it’s pretty good, though the cataloguing can be sloppy) and the new Beats Music. If you have a smartphone, you might try one of those, and just  use the Sansa for music that’s already in your mp3 collection, for audiobooks, etc. 

Technology marches on. Not always in the right direction. 

I can’t thank you enough for all your time and help. You’ve been more help than anyone from SanDisk & Rhapsody and I really appreciate it. Thanks for the info also on where else to get the music from that’s less expensive. Have a great weekend. AnnMarie

It’s kind of a long shot but can you by any chance post the exact error message here? Maybe we can find some hints on what went wrong. 

@mikkirourke wrote:

. . . can you by any chance post the exact error message here?

I’m gettiing tired of sounding like a broken record . . .  but please start READING before replying! The OP stated “SanDisk & I troubleshot my player & there was no problem or error messages.”

Give up, Tapeworm. mikkirourke will provide endless wrong turns. 

Amazon music is not available outside US, Napster doesn´t work on mac very well (no sound), With Spotify I can´t download to my sansa although I can play some of the music already on my Sansa

I think I might just go illegal