Digital Home Thoughts: Wired: Rhapsody's a Raspberry

"For the last several weeks I've been trying to use RealNetworks' Rhapsody subscription music service with one of SanDisk's Sansa players. I knew there were problems, but I've been truly shocked at how crappy it is. This isn't news to anyone who's tried to use one of the many devices based on Microsoft's PlaysForSure system, which even Microsoft has abandoned with the Zune. But for someone like me, a Mac user who rarely touches a Windows PC, the nightmare has been a revelation. I knew things on Windows could be bad, but jeez. How do people put up with this stuff? As much as I like the iPod and iTunes, I'm keen to discover new music -- and so I've been interested in subscription services for a long time. ITunes is OK for buying mainstream music, but there are huge gaps in the stuff I like -- obscure indies and electronica from Jamaica or the United Kingdom. ITunes doesn't offer an all-you-can-eat subscription service, which I was curious to try out."

Wow, something of a scathing article about Rhapsody. I have weirdly enough only had positive experiences with Rhapsody, although I have never really used the to-go service. However, the author simply lays it into Rhapsody and doesn't provide good alternatives. The author talks about how well the iPod serves him but I don't see how that is comparing it to the music rental service that Rhapsody provides. Hmm, perhaps there don't exist any good alternatives. What is your current solution for music rental?