Which music service should you use?

Make sure your service of choice is available on your device(s): Listen to music on yourAndroid smartphone?iPhone? Apple TV? Roku? Sonos?Mac? Many of these services are supported on a wide variety of devices, nevertheless few of them are supported on every device. Previously you pick one, make sure it works on your device of choice.

Don't be afraid to experiment: Many of these services have free-to-try or free-on-PC versions. Giving them a spin is pretty much a no-risk affair. And even the pay services don't come with contracts or early-termination fees, as a cell phone does. If you sign up for, say, Rhapsody and you end up not liking it afterwards a month, cancel it--you won't be out more than $10.

Who should use Spotify: Do you own a lot of music and want to incorporate it with music you don't have? Do you have a lot of playlists already created in iTunes? Spotify lets you import playlists you've already created. As well, if you're a stickler for audio quality, playback on Spotify is a tad better than on Rdio. However for casual listeners, the differences are negligible. And with more than 15 million songs in its database, it shouldn't be hard to find music, even if you have more-offbeat tastes. Think of it as an iTunes replacement. And if you want to listen from something other than a phone or computer, Squeezebox and Sonos offer Spotify support.

RdioI only just tapped into Rdio, which has been around for a during. Actually, just today I learned how to properly pronounce it. Like Spotify, Rdio is a social music service. And like Spotify, it has a desktop app that can incorporate songs from your iTunes or WMP library. And the similarities don't end there. There's a Facebook component, a playlist component, and a paid version component. There is an Rdio app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

MogMog is but another music service, with more than 13 million songs in the catalog. Like Spotify and Rdio, it has a free version, and two paid versions: $4.99 per month for unlimited streaming and no ads, and a $9.99-per-month option that allows for unlimited streaming, no ads, and streaming on your iOS or Android device.

Set number of free tracks they can play every month

Note that Mog limits FreePlay subscribers to a set number of free tracks they can play every month. Users can fill up their listening "gas tank" by using the social features of the site: sharing playlists over social networks, exploring Mog's library, etc. In substance, the more you use Mog, the more free listening time you'll earn.

RhapsodyAs with the others, Rhapsody as well offers a paid subscription service: $9.99 per month for access to one mobile device, and online streaming via the browser, or Windows client software; $14.99 per month for streaming on three mobile devices. There's a free 14-day trial when you sign up for either of these accounts, so you can try earlier you buy.

Spotify: Best all-in-one music player for local and streaming content.Rdio: Best for social networking functionality.Mog: Prettiest user interface, high-quality streaming bit rates, and solid home theater devices support.Rhapsody: Best streaming value if you want to use more than one mobile device.

Amazon Cloud PlayerAmazon beat both Apple and Google to the punch when it released Amazon Cloud Player hand in hand with Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon Cloud Drive allows you to upload 5GB of any type of file, including music files, to Amazon's servers for free. Afterwards that, there's a tiered-pricing plan, and music you purchase from Amazon doesn't count against your storage limits and is automatically added to your Cloud Drive. At that time of this writing, Amazon is offering unlimited space for music, which doesn't count against your total storage space. So for only $20 a year, you get 20GB of storage space, and unlimited music storage space. Not too shabby.

Who shouldn't use Amazon Cloud Player: iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone users should check out a different service, because there's no Amazon Cloud Player apps for these devices. The upload time takes forever; I tried to upload 54 songs and it said it would take nearly 30 minutes. As well, Amazon Cloud Player doesn't alert you if you have duplicates.

iCloud and iTunes MatchWith iCloud, all the music you purchase through iTunes and your Apple ID will be available on all your iOS devices. So if you buy a song on your iPhone, it'll be available on your iPad and on your computer. For $25 a year, iTunes Match allows you to store music that you didn't necessarily purchase from iTunes. Any music that's matched is automatically stored in iCloud; whatever music isn't available through Match, is uploaded. Since most of your music can probably found among iTunes 20 million songs, you won't have to upload from scratch, in this way saving you tons of time.

iTunes Match and iCloud give you access to your entire music collection on your phone--where you might not have enough storage to hold it all.

Who shouldn't use iTunes Match: Those without an iOS device are out of luck with this one. As well, $25 is kind of a steep when you consider that Apple is at heart providing you a copy of something you already own.

Google MusicGoogle Music came out of beta recently with a splash. The Android Market offers hundreds of free songs and millions you can buy. You can as well upload up to 20,000 of your own songs to Google's servers, and play them on any device with a standard Web browser. That's right: Google's offering its music services outside the Google ecosystem. Imagine that?

Who should use Google Music: Android and Google fans will in any case want to give Google Music a try, especially those who want tight integration with Google+. iOS users who want to give it a shot, rest-assured: the non-native Web app works very so then. And if you have a Google TV, you can listen to songs from the comfort of your living room.

Who shouldn't use Google Music: So far it's only available in the U.S. As well, it's worth considering that the native app is only available for Android devices. Uploading songs to the Google servers takes a long time, so if you have a large music library, prepare to wait a during.

Cloud locker services overallAgain, all three of these services are very similar. Depending on which devices you have, and how much time you've got, the easiest way to pick a music locker app is to go with the company where you already buy your digital music. iTunes Match makes a lot of sense if you're already into iTunes. Similarly, it's smart to go with Amazon if you prefer its thrifty digital music store. Google Music is the newest and free, so we expect it to be a solid option for those devoted to the Android ecosystem, though we haven't extensively used the Google digital music store but.

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