• Yahoo! Music software: Offers a free seven-day trial and the cheapest subscription service at $4.99 a month if you pay for a year upfront (otherwise it's $6.99 billed monthly); you can buy songs for 79 cents each in the Windows-based format.
• Rhapsody software: Monthly subscription provides access to more than 1.3 million songs; you can buy individual songs for 89 to 99 cents each -- Windows-based.
• EMusic software: The most flexible service, eMusic offers all files in MP3 format, playable on any type of MP3 player, including the iPod. It features a tiered subscription format: for $9.99 a month you get 40 downloads; $14.99 a month for 65 downloads and $19.99 a month for 90 downloads. You own all the songs you get through your subscription.
• Music Giants is a high-definition music service designed for consumers with state-of-the-art home music systems. The music files are bigger and contain more sound, leading to a better listening experience. Songs are $1.29 each and can be played on Windows-based players.

MP3 players in brief
The list of available MP3 players is easily grouped into two categories: iPods and everyone else. Apple has an 80 percent share of the MP3 player market and continues to innovate with new players such as the budget-friendly iPod Shuffle, the ultra-slim iPod Nano, which replaced the iPod Mini, and the fifth generation iPod, which plays video in color.

Prices on new iPods range from the 512MB iPod Shuffle, which retails for $99 and holds up to 120 songs, to the 60GB iPod, retailing for $399 and with enough storage capacity to play video content and hold up to 15,000 songs. Refurbished and used iPods are cheaper, especially the older models such as the first- and second-generation iPod and the iPod Mini.

The most popular players hail from a number of different manufacturers and include:

• Creative Technologies offers a number of Windows-compatible MP3 players in its Zen line, currently offering nine varieties of players in a number of colors and a variety of features ranging from the budget-friendly Zen Nano at $109 to the Zen Vision, which plays video, stores up to 15,000 songs and also acts as a personal digital assistant, at $329.
• Sony offers MP3 players in three categories, including a line of players specially designed for use while exercising. The Sony players only play music from the Sony music store, range in capacity from 340 to 700 songs and are priced from $79 to $139.
• Other players in the market are manufactured by SanDisk, Samsung and Mach Speed.

For a quick comparision of the factors you should consider, see "Comparing the best-selling portable music players."

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-- Posted: Feb. 22, 2006