Yahoo Music Unlimited (perhaps semi-OT)

[jasonHoldEm]

(Not affiliated, blah, blah, blah...just looking to pass along what I consider a good deal)

http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/

Holy crap this is cool. I signed up last night and have been going on musical overload ever since. Basically the deal is for $60 a year you get unlimited access to their entire catalog (you can stream the music, download the tracks to your computer for offline playback, transfer to a compatible portable device, etc).

The program is advertised as still being in beta, but from what I've seen that's more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. The software is a little strange at first (sort of like what would happen if iTunes mated with a web browser), but once you get the hang of it things fall together nicely.

The musical catalog is pretty diverse. I've found pretty much everything I've been looking for so far (and I have some semi-obscure tastes), although occasionally there are limited offerings for a particular artist. One of the cool things I've started using is the "Create a playlist of similar artists" button (listed on each artist's page). It's a great way for me to generate a quick playlist to listen to while I'm playing poker and it's helping me to discover some new artists already.

Anyways, check it out.

J