I decided to give Real's Rhapsody streaming service a one month trial in order to determine whether or not I would be able to discover new music. While the service was ok, I discovered multiple software issues and a selection that was underwhelming to say the least. I did not really discover much music than what I had already had in my collection. Moreover, it did not offer many of my favorite bands, so when I was at my computer without my music (I keep it stored on my portable hard drive) I was unable to stream them. I was also surprised about the software's instability. From my subscription level, I was supposed to be able to download the music for offline listening, though when attempting to download the DRM update to allow this, it would not download. Further, the software was severely unstable, often crashing every couple of hours.

Since I did not think this service is currently worth $10 a month (though I still firmly believe this will eventually be a great model), I decided to cancel my service. I went to Real's website where conveniently I could not login to the section marked, "Cancel your account." After going through a similar section on their music player, I discovered I had to call their toll free number . There is nothing more annoying than having to call a telephone number for an internet service!!! Of course, getting your call dropped four times does not help lower the blood pressure either. Once I finally connected with an operator, I discovered the call center was clearly not in the US. I did have thoughts about asking the operator where she was from for a joke as one of my friends had done this and the operator told him that he was from Utah. Where in Utah? Utah. She seemed friendly and I wanted to get off quickly so I decided to avoid any harassment on my part. In any case, the cancellation process was not too bad, but the "accent barrier" slowed it down and I had to repeat my account information a couple of times.

Overall, I am hesitant to recommend Real's Rhapsody service right now, but neither do I recommend any service for streaming. I think that I may try e-music, though they run into the same selection issues as Real likely will since they have independent labels only.

-Trevor