 Digital music and online subscription services are presenting us all with new opportunities for enjoying music. Don’t think that these services are only for the teenyboppers – they can be useful for all of us.
I bet many of you are like me. You really enjoyed music in your teens and your twenties. Then the pressures of earning a living and rearing children took command of your lives and music took a back seat. If that sound familiar to you, you may want to check out some of the new online music services that are waiting to help you rediscover music.
The music site that I’ve recently tried and liked is AOL Music Now (www.aolmusicnow.com). This website lets you listen to millions of songs and music videos for $9.95 a month. They also have several hundred radio stations including seventy XM radio stations. You can download as much music as you want. Although the service is not compatible with iPods, you can play your music on most other digital music players including the new Microsoft Zune player.
Imagine that, millions of songs for $9.95 a month! What’s the catch? Well, if you stop paying the monthly fee, the music goes away. But don’t get turned off. This is still a very useful service, especially if you love music and want to reintroduce it into your life
AOL Music Now has a unique offering as part of their service. It’s called “Daily Mix”. You pick the artists and type of music you like and the website puts together a daily mix of that type and style of music. Your Daily Mix will include artists that you have named as well as other artists that have a similar sound. The mix changes everyday so each day you get new songs, most of which you are sure to like. This is wonderful for three reasons. First you don’t have to play around with creating play lists of music. Second, you get new, likeable music each day, and last but not least, you get to discover new artists and compositions. Your Daily Mix can be as varied as you like. I have a combination of James Taylor, Willie Nelson, Manhattan Transfer, Nora Jones, and Glenn Miller. Some of you may find that an unusual combination of artists, but I can listen all day and be happy with the music presented.
The AOL Music Now radio stations, which are part of the service, are also good ways to discover new music. They are centered on genres like jazz, rock, reggae, etc. or artists like Sinatra, etc. Again, all are part of the subscription service, so there are no extra fees.
Right now AOL Music Now is offering a 30-day free trial. Try it and you can have a month of free music to reenergize your life and to bring the music back. If you listen everyday for a month, you are sure to find some new music and new artists that you like. Then you can keep up the subscription or you can buy some of the songs you liked or you can even go out and purchase a few CDs. All in all, you’ve nothing to lose and you might just start singing in the shower again!
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