Many years ago wireless music meant listening to music on a radio. Now it means something totally different, mainly referring to Digital Media Receivers like the Logitech Squeezebox Wireless Media Receiver which plays audio from your PC via a wireless connection and is also able to play content from internet radio stations and well as Rhapsody’s online music service.

A much more portable option is the SanDisk Sansa Connect, which is a relatively small MP3 Player with 4GB storage capacity and with built-in Wi-Fi. Wait a minute you might be saying, the iPod Touch has that plus more storage capacity. Granted, but unlike the Touch, the Sansa Connect can “tune into” one of the many Internet Radio Stations available from Yahoo! Music’s LAUNCHcast Radio.

Additionally, you can subscribe to the Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go plan for $14.99 per month. As with most Music “To Go” subscription plans, you can then download any of the music service’s catalog of songs to the portable player. The convenience of this is that with the Sansa Connect it is done wirelessly, no connection to a PC is required. The downloaded songs can then be played as long as your subscription is current. You can update your collection of songs as often as you like. If you really like a song and want to burn it to CD you can purchase it for a discounted price - usually 79 cents. In my experience music subscription services are a great way to discover new artists.

As a side-note, there have been reports that the Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go plan is now only available to owners of the SanDisk Sansa Connect. An alternative MP3 Player would be the Haier Ibiza Rhapsody which works with the Rhapsody Music service and also features wireless music.

Posted on January 6th, 2008 by mervyn