Spotify or Pandora

You can create playlists with Spotify that reside on your hard drive...leastways,
you don't have to be logged into the 'net or Spotify to play them. You do have to
log in to Spotify at least 1x/month to keep them "active", otherwise
they expire after 30 days. Used this to provide music during breaks in a training
seminar I coordinated...did not have access to the 'net due to a corporate firewall
but could play my Spotify playlists just the same. Playlists can be full albums if
you want. On the other hand and as you might expect, it does not appear
possible to burn such playlists to a CD.

Interesting, Ghosthouse. So it seems the spotify "playlist" has some kind of DRM that expires in a month, requiring you to maintain your monthly subscription to access them. Seems like a very interesting "hybrid" between the itunes model and the streaming model. Too bad the UI seems to suck! We can only hope that as bandwidth increases over time, it won't make any sense to use lossy compression algorithms to send digital files over the 'net.

Been reading the posts. It seems like Tidal streams material with a SQ closest to redbook CD. Is that the consensus view.

Swampwalker - I'm hoping the folks that run Spotify, being aware of the competition, will up their game as a result. I'd be willing to bet they didn't miss Tidal asking $20/mo vs their $10. The buzz around Hi Rez downloads and Tidal SQ might give them incentive to improve...and as you say, with the cost of tech coming down....

Your comment (and other's) about the interface surprised me. I'm not the most tech savvy person but found Spotify pretty easy to navigate. The Browse/Discover option has introduced me to a ton of new musicians and music...much of it stuff that is way off the beaten commercial track. I have over 400 "saved" albums and most of these are not duplicated in my CD/vinyl collection (yet). But - to each his own.

Tidal sound quality is equal to CD and far superior to Spotify