The first thing I must say is a big FUCK YOUI LOVE YOU to MOG. I used to be there so much after Lala, the only music site that was ever worth loving, died at the hands of Apple. Then they took away customization and I drifted to other sites. I was always planning on going back, because I liked the playlists and blogging, but it didn't happen until they started giving away a certain amount of free music per month this year. Well, I was going to make Tom Hiddleston's playlist there last week, because I'd done so at Spotify and was working on a number of others. I tried it and it turned out my account was deleted still there without so much as a warning to upgrade before it happened, and I didn't see any options for a new free account. Anything I'd shared and all my playlists, which took a damn long time, were gone just hidden from me. I only had to email them. Turns out you need to sign in every 30 days or you get suspended.
As for Ping, I never used it before because Apple swallowed Lala whole. I was going to post that Ping was great for making a playlist, because it's fast and easy and has just about every song I've searched for. But then you get to the fact that they say "click publish when you're done" instead of "click publish to save your progress, because if you do anything else it will fuck up." I put a CD in to rip, it backed me out of the playlist, and 40 songs disappeared. Nice. You know, iTunes, I only put up with you because I have an iPad and iPod.
If you just want me to tell you which site you should spend your money on, or no money at all, I would say Spotify. You get a free account and commercials or you can pay.
I kind of lost touch with Pandora after Lala added streaming music to their CD trading site. It became my number one daily music destination and all others just faded away. Then Lala was bought and buried by Apple. If you could be inside my brain for a while, you would hear it screaming "Fuck you, Apple!" every time I thought about music. I had nowhere to go, so I drifted from MOG to Grooveshark to Rdio and everywhere in between. Nothing matched Lala. And I didn't return to Pandora for some reason.
I've been away from music for a couple weeks just because of life thingies, like my computer needing a lobotomy. When everything returned to normal I randomly thought maybe I can do my transcription work with music on in the background, because my computer was running like new again and would be able to multitask. Why have I never thought of this before? Pandora would be perfect for that because it's an auto DJ and I already had my stations set up. Perfect. Yay! And I have a Firefox extension that scrobbles from Pandora to Last.fm, the site that gets the community aspect of Lala right. I have a feeling I'll be using it a lot now. Good. I discovered Joachim Witt there quite a while ago, when it was a regular music destination. I am indebted to them. I'll also be Spotify-ing for their great playlists.
So today I listened to a song - Bleu "Singin in Tongues" - that my uncle recommended on Facebook and saw that it came from ReverbNation. Since I've never heard of it I went there, hoping for a good Lala replacement. Since Lala departed (thanks so much Apple) I've tried Mog, Rdio, Last.fm, the worthless Grooveshark, Apple's horrific Ping, and more; all are missing a different crucial piece of what made Lala great, which is very frustrating. So I go there and search for a few favorite artists, but it seems to mostly be independent bands. Like Pandora, I'll probably go back there when I'm in the mood for something new, but it won't be my main music site.
Anyway...getting a bit off track here...I checked for In Extremo and saw an album cover I didn't recognize. I went to their official site, InExtremo.de, and there was a new album. What? Apparently it came out on February 25. It was around that time that I searched for new music from my favorite German bands and nothing came up. Maybe I searched Amazon.com instead of Amazon.de. Guess I'll have to check again for others. Now it's time to decide: Limited Special edition with DVD concert footage for $25 (€18); the Limited Deluxe edition for $55 (€40); or the Standard edition for $25 and free shipping at Amazon.com? The Limited Deluxe comes with a 3'x4' flag, so I might just get that one.
Update, 3/11/11: I got the Limited Deluxe edition this morning. Took a nice chunk of change, about $68 because of $19 shipping, which is always expensive from Europe even with the cheaper 8-12 week delivery time option. Oh well, I hardly ever get limited edition anything, and I really wanted that flag. And for some reason it was about $6 off when I put it in the cart. Yay, I justified my purchase to myself! I know I won't regret it anyway; I never do with my favorite German bands. But I sure hope my package doesn't come messed up, like the last Unheilig did. Grosse Freiheit's tray was cracked almost in half, but the CD itself was okay (the exact opposite of Rod Stewart's Human, which I bought back in '02 at Media Play), so I didn't complain. Who wants to wait another 8 weeks or more to clear that up?
Getting back to the music sites: Lala was the best because you could upload all your music and listen to it wherever you were. What you and your friends listened to would show up in everyone's feed, and recommendations could be made; so you would always have a steady stream of new music waiting for you. There were ratings and reviews for songs; widgets for other sites; and even music gifting to friends. I have forgotten more of Lala's features than any other music site I've been to. Apparently, no one wants to get this formula right, but if you want to be social - i.e. recommend songs, talk to others, and show the songs you listen to in your feed - and get some good free downloads, then use Last.fm. It is the best choice, primarily because you can send what you're listening to from many different sites and media players.
If you want to just listen to music use Rdio, but there's a monthly fee after the trial - no freebies, just previews - and no community aspect, except for the workaround people have going where they talk by posting under an artist/song or create a playlist for people to comment on. One cool thing is that you can make a community playlist where others can add songs.
If you want to be disappointed go to Mog, which is sad because they were so promising. They do have music, but you have to pay after a short trial. No freebies here either, and no previews. There was a customizable page of your favorite music and you could make it into a simple blog with the posting features, but it wasn't designed to easily build a community. That page is now locked into a plain layout with a terrible design for everyone. It's just depressing because they almost had it right.
So, if you don't mind spending a bit of money and probably a lot of your time, I would say your best option would be the free version of Last.fm for social and the $5/month Rdio for listening if you really need the music browsing functionality that Lala used to have. Of course, you can't ignore Pandora for finding music similar to your current tastes with little effort. And I can't even sign up for Spotify since they're not yet available in the US, but I would love to.
Until the series ends, I'll always be behind adding to this playlist. I had to stop for quite a while, so there's a big gap. Still, there are 170 songs to enjoy.
This is the essence of The Blacklist. Probably my favorite is Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence." The scene it played over was one of the most devastating ever in the series.
edition for $25 and free shipping at Amazon.com? The Limited Deluxe comes with a 3'x4' flag, so I might just get that one. 
's tray was cracked almost in half, but the CD itself was okay (the exact opposite of Rod Stewart's 
, which I bought back in '02 at Media Play), so I didn't complain. Who wants to wait another 8 weeks or more to clear that up?
