How much does yahoo music cost?

Which is better, owning music or renting it from a subscription service like Yahoo music?

• Several years ago, I discovered Rhapsody subscription music service. I loved it. My CD and album collection went from 100 CDs and 100 albums to hundreds and hundreds of albums overnight for a low monthly fee. Almost all the songs I ever wanted were now accessible any time I wanted. Especially all of the songs on CDs that I had lost or was too lazy to transfer from vinyl. Then portable music players which supported subscriptions came out. I switched to Yahoo Music because it was less expensive. I rebuilt my library of artists in a short period of time. For less than the cost of a CD a month, I could carry all the music I could stuff onto an MP3 player with me (over 1000 songs). I'm trying to figure out why folks still think it's so important to "own" a song when you can rent it for less and still play it as many times as you like, over and over and over again until you wear out the bits (which is like ... never).

• Answer:

  As you said, when you switched services you had to rebuild your library of music. You will have to pay one service or another a monthly fee forever if you want to keep listening to your songs. If you like to be able to always hear new music, then you will subscribe anyway, so this is the best option. But if a person isn't interested in new music, it would be better to buy the music at the beginning, and then be able to play it forever without any additional charge.