Google's new file syncing service, Google Drive, is finally available and looking pretty great. But how does it stack up against the current king of file syncing, Dropbox? Here's where each app shines (and falls short).

Each service has a lot of features, and each excels in different areas. Here, we'll compare the desktop client, webapp, sharing features, speed, and other characteristics of each service.

Very Similar Desktop Clients, with a Few Important Differences

Google's desktop client is very similar to Dropbox's—in fact, certain parts just seem copied exactly from Dropbox's interface. When you install it, you can choose where to put your Google Drive folder, as well as choose which folders you actually want synced to your desktop. You can choose to sync Google Docs files or not sync them, your choice.

Once it downloads all your files, you'll see them in your Google Drive folder, just like Dropbox. Each has a green checkmark if it's synced, or a blue refresh icon if it's currently syncing. Items created in Google Docs have their own special icons, and can only be opened in Google Docs. If you double-click on them, they'll open up in a new browser tab. This is fine if you want to use Google Docs, and it works well with Google Docs' offline viewing, but it's really annoying if you want to be able to tweak docs in your favorite desktop word processor—you actually have to go to the Drive webapp, export them as an Office-compatible file, then open that copy up instead. I get that Google Docs is integrated, but I wish I had a choice in the matter. Other, non-Google Docs files will show up normally and open with their default programs.

It's also worth noting that Linux users don't have access to Google Drive, but they will have access to Dropbox. It's not a huge point of comparison (since it's pretty much a deal killer for any Linux user), but it's worth noting anyway.

Feature-Filled Webapps, Plus Google's Powerful Search

Google Drive's webapp is where it really shines. You're probably pretty familiar with it already: it looks exactly like Google Docs, except you have two views: a list view (like the one in Docs) and a thumbnail view, that will show you previews of all your documents, images, and other files. The webapp has a search bar at the top and, just like other Google products, it's pretty powerful—you can search by document type, owner, and other advanced filters. Dropbox has an advanced search, but it isn't quite as good—you can only search for "all these words" "any of these words" "this exact phrase", or "none of these words". It'll suffice for most things, but those of us that have gotten used to Gmail's awesome search powers will really love Drive.

Drive's search also hooks into Google's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Google Images database, to find images and uneditable document scans using text search terms. So, if you've scanned a document, it'll scan it and you'll be able to find it by searching for words in the document. Similarly, if Google can tell what your pictures are of, you can search by subject—e.g., searching "Eiffel Tower" will bring up your photos of the Eiffel Tower from your recent vacation. Dropbox can't do any of that.

Lastly, like Dropbox, Drive's webapp also has built-in viewers for tons of different file types, including images, videos, and even Adobe files. You won't be able to edit them all from the web, of course, but it's nice to be able to view them without downloading them or installing any extra software. Dropbox, from what we can tell, has just about the same feature set when it comes to previewing files—though Drive has the added advantage of making Docs files editable in Google Docs, as you would expect.

Powerful File Sharing, But No Desktop Support for Google

Both apps do pretty well at sharing files, they just work in slightly different ways. Dropbox lets you share files by right-clicking on them in Windows Explorer or the Finder and getting a link to share with your friends. Google Drive forces you to go the webapp, and has a slightly confusing method of sharing files—if you check a file and go to More > Share, you can send it as an email attachment with Gmail or Share with other people. When you click Share, you either type in the names of other Google users to add it to their Google Drive, or click "Change" next to "Who Has Access" to share it with "anyone that has the link" or "public on the web". It's a bit more convoluted, and we wish there was better desktop integration, but at least the feature is there. Both services also let you share entire folders with other people, for easy collaboration.

Google Drive, however, has an edge in the collaboration department. Not only can you share folders, but it also has all of Google Docs' built-in collaboration features that we love so much. By sharing a document with another Docs user, they can edit the file, make comments, and so on. That way, you don't just see the edited file, you see what they've done and can chat with them in real time as they do it.

Dropbox Gives You More Power Over Your Syncing Speed

We tested syncing a 50MB file with both programs, with interesting results. By default, Dropbox is significantly slower, because it automatically throttles your upload speeds. However, this is all tweakable in Dropbox's preferences. You can change how fast it uploads and downloads files, which is great if you don't want it to steal bandwidth from other important things (like video chatting, games, or BitTorrent). Google Drive doesn't give you these options, which is kind of annoying. With Dropbox set to "Don't Limit", it uploaded files at the same speed as Google Drive in our tests.

However, Dropbox also has LAN sync, which means transferring files to another computer on your network is going to be a lot faster than Google Drive, which will download it from the servers instead of the other computer. After uploading our 50MB file to Dropbox, it took less than a minute to show up on our other machine, while Google Drive took about 3 more minutes.

Drive is also really annoying in the sense that it doesn't give you any information about how fast it's syncing or when it's done. Dropbox's system tray icon will not only show you when it's uploading or downloading just by looking at the icon, but if you hover over it, it'll also show you how fast it's going and how long it thinks the transfer will take. It'll also notify you when new files are added. Drive doesn't do any of these things. To see if it's syncing, you have to right-click on it, and it'll only tell you that it's syncing—now how fast it's going or how long it'll take. It doesn't have any notifications, so the only way to see when it's done is to right-click on it compulsively, reload your Drive folder in Windows explorer, or visit the web interface. Dropbox wins this section by a mile.

See Old Versions of All Your Files Right From the Webapp

Both services offer revision control, although for normal, non-Google Docs files, Dropbox does it a little better. In Google Drive, you can see revisions by opening a file and going to File > See Revision History. If it's a Google Docs file, you'll be able to see the revisions in detail, but for other files, you just have a choice of downloading old revisions to your desktop, which kind of sucks. Dropbox, on the other hand, will let you restore old versions of a file right from the web interface, which is much more friendly. So, each has their own advantages depending on what kind of file you're looking at, but the bottom line is that you can always revert to an older version of a file if you need to.

That said, Dropbox has the distinct advantage of letting you restore files long after you've deleted them from your Dropbox, something that Google Drive doesn't do. So, if this tends to be something you deal with, Dropbox has a pretty big advantage in this area.

Dropbox Has More Opportunities for Extra Free Space, but the Pro Service Will Cost You

Lastly, each gives you different amounts of space for different prices. Dropbox only gives you 2GB for free, while Drive gives you 5GB—although it's very easy to get more Dropbox space for free, and you can get well beyond 5GB. However, if you need more than, say 50GB of space, you'll need to pony up some cash. Drive is significantly cheaper than Dropbox, offering 25GB for $2.49 a month, 100GB for $4.99/month, and even 1TB for $49.99 a month (with a few other tiers in between, and going all the way up to 16TB). Dropbox, on the other hand, gives you 50GB for $9.99/month (or $99 a year), 100GB for $19.99 a month (or $199 a year), and anything above that requires a pretty expensive Dropbox Teams account, starting at $795. If you're looking to save cash, Drive is the clear winner.

Drive is actually pretty solid for something that just launched, but they're also super late to the game, and it's a little disappointing that they're only most of the way there after all this time. If you're a heavy Google Docs user, you'll probably love Drive, but Dropbox still has the edge in most of our minds—especially because its desktop app is just so much better than Google's. Have you tried out Google Drive? What do you think of its feature set and how it compares to Dropbox (and, the big question: Will you be switching)? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Syncing an iPhone with iTunes is about as seamless as it gets, while Android users are often left with a much clunkier experience—or at least having to figure out what desktop music player best fits their syncing needs. Here's how our favorite music players stack up against one another in Android-syncing prowess.

We know the choice of desktop music player is an extremely personal one, and you have so many great players to choose from. However, if you have an Android phone, you not only have to worry about features on the desktop, but also how well it syncs to your device—and sometimes that's a bit harder to see. Every player works a bit differently, so we've tested them all and put together a handy chart to help you see which players are the most Android friendly, along with a breakdown of how each one performs.

iTunes (via iSyncr)

iTunes obviously doesn't sync with Android out of the box, but if you have to manage your music library in iTunes (say, if you also have an iPod), previously mentioned iSyncr will get the job done. iSyncr is an Android app slash portable Windows/Mac app that you install on your device, and when you want to sync, you just plug it in and run the EXE (or Mac app) on your phone's SD card. From there, you can choose what playlists to sync, including videos, and it'll even sync play counts for you. With the addition of the iSyncr Wi-Fi addon, you can even sync your device without ever plugging it in. If you edit your playlists on your device, it'll edit them on your phone, and delete any tracks you no longer wish to sync. Short of transcoding and support for podcasts, it's one of the best syncers out there. The fact that it's packaged as a portable app is very nice too.

Note: Many of you are mentioning DoubleTwist in the comments, and no, we didn't forget it. DoubleTwist was fine when there was no other syncing solution, but since iSyncr has come out, we've seen no reason to use DoubleTwist. It's a whole extra media player you have to install, while iSyncr is a bloat-free, portable app that sits on your device and does nearly everything you could possibly want—including Wi-Fi sync. If you haven't checked it out and you're still using DoubleTwist, we recommend giving it a try. It's much better. That said, DoubleTwist should do everything iSyncr does—including Wi-Fi sync—so if you don't like iSyncr, it'll also work for syncing all your iTunes tracks and playlists.

Winamp

Winamp is easily the best player on Windows for syncing to your Android phone. There's very little it doesn't do. When you first plug in your device, Winamp will recognize it and show it under the "Devices" tab in the left sidebar. From there you can configure which playlists sync to your device and/or specify an advanced search query to decide which songs get synced (e.g. "genre does not equal Holiday"). You can set it to automatically sync as soon as you plug it in, choose which podcasts are synced to your device, automatically fill empty space with higher rated songs, and transcode higher-bitrate and incompatible tracks on-the-fly, so everything works correctly on your phone (though it sadly won't transcode videos).

You can even tell it what folders to sync your media to, and if you remove a track from your sync list, it will ask you if you want to delete them or leave them—which is awesome to be given the choice. It'll even sync over Wi-Fi, if you have Winamp for Android installed on your device (though you don't need to use it as your player for this to work—you just need it to communicate with your computer). In short, Winamp syncs with Android as well as iTunes syncs with iOS devices—if not better.

MediaMonkey

MediaMonkey syncs with Android almost as well as Winamp, with a few caveats. When you plug in your device, you'll see an iTunes-like pane that pops up and asks you what you want to sync. You can select playlists, music, and podcasts from there, and set your device to sync every time you plug it in. You can also fill any unused space with high rated songs from your library. It'll also delete files you remove from your sync list, and sync files from the device back to your PC. It doesn't sync over Wi-Fi, however, and you have to purchase MedaMonkey Gold to transcode songs on-the-fly.

MusicBee

MusicBee is a lesser-known, but fantastic music player for Windows that syncs surprisingly well with Android. You can tell it where to sync music, choose what playlists are synced, choose how to copy artwork, convert tracks on-the-fly, and set it to sync as soon as you plug in the device. It also has podcast support, though it only lets you sync all episodes or all unplayed episodes—nothing in between. Unlike all the other players, though, MusicBee won't sync videos, because it doesn't support having videos in its library. It also has no option for Wi-Fi sync. Overall, though, it's a great balance between solid media management on the desktop and great Android support, if you aren't a fan of Winamp.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player may not be the worst program in the world, but its Android syncing leaves a lot to be desired. The only advantage it has over just dragging your music folders to your phone in Windows Explorer is that you can selectively sync playlists—but it won't sync the actual playlists themselves, just the songs on it. It also won't delete any tracks you remove from the device, doesn't support podcasts, won't transcode, or sync over Wi-Fi. All it really is is a method to copy songs from your library to your device, it doesn't truly "sync" anything. If you want any kind of real syncing, we recommend staying away from Windows Media Player.

Foobar2000

We didn't want to neglect Foobar2000, but sadly, Foobar2000 neglected us. Being the minimalist player that it is, there's little to no support for syncing devices, short of an Android plugin that we couldn't even get to install. So, we've left it out of the chart above, but if you know of a reliable way to sync Foobar2000 with your device, please let us know.

The Alternative: Streaming Music

There is, of course, another option entirely, and that's using a service like Spotify or Google Music to just stream music to your device. Each of these services has their own advantages and disadvantages (Google Music, for example, can only sync playlists from iTunes or Windows Media Player), but they're so different than desktop syncing that we didn't include them here. However, if syncing your music over USB has given you a headache, be sure to check out our cloud music comparison to see which streaming service might suit you best.

There you have it. These obviously aren't the only music players on Windows, but they are our top five favorites, and between them you should be able to find one that suits you in both desktop and Android-syncing features. Winamp is still our favorite, due to its extremely powerful Android syncing, though MediaMonkey is a close second, with MusicBee and iSyncr being good second choices.

Google opened its new music store to all comers in the US this week, touting its partnerships with music labels and indie musicians, and its broad reach thanks to the Android Market. The new store has millions of songs for sale, but whether it's a game changer, serious competition for iTunes and Amazon MP3, or the best online music store out there is another question entirely. Let's take a look at each service based on its features.

Each music store is a little different. This showdown is all about the music stores that these companies offer—not their respective players, applications, or services. We can't help but mention them in terms of usability and integration with the store and the user experience, but we're going to try and focus on the features of the stores and steer clear of the bugs or quirks of each player.

Google Music: The New Kid on the Block is Perfect for Android Faithful, Indie Music Lovers, and Free Music Fanatics

Google Music has been around for a while, but Wednesday's launch of the music store put Google in direct competition with Apple and Amazon (among others.). The new music store has been added to the Android Market so you can access it on the web or any Android device. The web player is still as sharp as ever, and combined with Google's Magnifier music blog gives you multiple points of entry to download great free music you've never heard, and shop for albums you've been waiting for.

Who Google Music Is For

• Bleeding edge music fans and indie music lovers. People with playlists populated with bands they'll be happy to tell you you've never heard of. Google's velvet-gloved approach to independent artists was on display at Wednesday's event.
• Android faithful. Android fans will get the most benefit from the music store. After all, it will be pre-installed on every Android device, and songs you buy or add for free from the music store won't count against your 20,000 song limit.
• Music fans on a budget. Budget-conscious music fans who already have large libraries will appreciate the ability to upload a ton of songs absolutely free, and the plethora of free music already available to add to your Google Music account.
• Google+ users. Fans of Google's burgeoning social network will adore the ability to share your purchases with your circles. The Google+ integration means that after buying an album, it'll make sense to share it so your friends can listen and let you know what they think. Even better, create a "Music Lovers" circle on Google+ where you all trade music suggestions and post your purchases.

Pros

Google Music's biggest perk is that aside from the songs themselves, it's free. Accounts and storage for 20,000 songs is free, as is additional storage for any free or purchased songs. The music store boasts a 13 million track catalog of songs from three of the four major labels and thousands of indie artists. Tracks come in DRM-free 320kbps mp3 files, and you don't need to download another app to get access to your purchases. They're automatically added to your Google Music account (you can download them there), and are available instantly in the web player and on your Android device.

Indie music lovers and independent musicians will love Google's new music store. After all, $25 for the Artist's Hub gives you access to 200 million Android devices, not to mention the Google Music users who use the web player on their desktops or iOS devices, and 45 million Google+ users. No other music store has embraced indie music the way Google has, and that's huge, not just for indie musicians and fans, but DJs, basement bands, and anyone else who wants to get their name and their music out there. Hear that? It's the last nail being driven into MySpace's coffin.

Google's music store is pretty compelling, especially for Android users (although the web player on iOS is slick too), prefer webapps to desktop players, or own a lot of music already they'd like to take with them.

Cons

One drawback to Google Music is that it's only available in the United States. It's unfortunate, but it's a reality of dealing with the music industry in different parts of the world. The agreement that works for labels in the US may not be the agreement that works for the labels in the UK, or in Australia. These things take time, and Google decided to play on its home turf first.

Speaking of labels, the gaping hole in the music store where Warner Music should be is unfortunate. One Google rep on-stage at the event casually mentioned that "other labels are welcome if they choose to join," clearly a statement designed to both point the finger at Warner for missing the bus and assure viewers that Warner should be along shortly. Here's hoping they are.

The only other minus we could find is pricing. Songs are competitively priced, but in more than a few cases they're not the best price. This makes sense, since Amazon and Apple have history and a bit more bargaining power, but we live in a time where the difference between a $0.99 track and a $1.29 track can mean a lost sale for the more expensive store.

Amazon MP3: The Pioneer of DRM-Free, Cheap Music Soldiers On Despite the Competition

Long before Google got into music, and before Apple was willing to remove DRM from purchased songs, Amazon MP3 came pre-installed on Android phones and allowed you to download DRM-free mp3s and copy them to any of your devices. Today, Amazon boasts a huge catalog, offers free cloud storage for your purchased music, and continuously beats the competition on price.

Who Amazon MP3 Is For

• Music fans who have to have the absolute lowest price. Amazon MP3's pricing is often the lowest across all of the major music stores, especially for popular artists and new releases. Amazon often doesn't bother highlighting popular artists the way other stores do: they assume you'll search for what you want. Instead, the front page of the MP3 store is populated with "Albums under $5," and "$0.69 songs." They want to be the value player, and it works—as long as you're not interested in cloud storage.
• Bargain hunters who live for daily deals and special events. A day without a discounted album on Amazon MP3 or a refreshed list of completely free music is a day without sunshine. Amazon may not go out of the way to highlight its free music the way Google does, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
• Amazon shopaholics and Prime members. Frequent customers are occasionally treated to $5 credits to Amazon MP3 purchases after a purchase, and those credits are pretty hard to pass up, especially considering how far your money goes at Amazon MP3.
• Kindle Fire Owners. The Kindle Fire, even though it's new, is probably one of the few devices that provides a real integrated experience for Amazon's various services. Sure, there's an Amazon MP3 app for Android, and it's an okay player, but the user experience leaves a little to be desired, and the store isn't well integrated.

Pros

Amazon MP3 is overall the most affordable music store available, a feat considering its 16 million track catalog. The store has music from all four major labels, and it is a great place to look if you're searching for specific songs, special releases, and EPs that the other stores don't have. Purchases come as 256kbps variable bitrate MP3s without DRM, and can be automatically added to your Amazon Cloud Drive. When you do add them, the space they take doesn't count against your overall storage limit.

It doesn't hurt that Amazon MP3 is already on many Android devices. Before the Google music store existed, it was the only good way you could browse, buy, and download music directly to your Android phone. It's still a great option, and Amazon hasn't sworn allegiance to any one mobile OS. Amazon's play as the music store with one of the biggest catalogs of popular music at super-low prices makes it an attractive option, or at least a place to stop and check prices before you buy from another store.

Cons

One of the biggest problems with the Amazon music store is the Amazon Downloader. It works in most situations, but when it doesn't, it sucks badly, and the fact that you have to download an app to download the songs that you just purchased at Amazon is a nuisance at best and a troubleshooting nightmare at worst. Of course, you can always just have your music dropped into your Amazon Cloud Drive, but let's be honest, given the pricing and storage limits, is anyone actually paying for Cloud Drive?

We also really have to ding Amazon a bit for the quality of its player. The web player is no real joy to use, and the fact that the app is only available for Android leaves iOS users somewhat out of the action, which sucks. It means that iPhone and iPad owners who want to buy from the Amazon MP3 store have to buy, download, and then add their music to iTunes if they want it on multiple devices: no Cloud Player for iOS users unless they use the special iPad-optimized webapp.

Finally, if you're an indie music fan or love independent artists and labels, your mileage may vary with Amazon MP3. There are indie artists and labels at Amazon, but the focus is clearly on more popular musicians and major labels. Also, Amazon's music store is only available in the US and the UK. If you like to share music with friends, Amazon's social features are limited to Twitter and Facebook buttons to tell your friends about your purchase, and if you like to preview before you buy, you can listen to a 30 second clip of the song - a far cry from iTunes' and Google's 90-second previews.

iTunes: The Biggest Digital Music Store Still Thrives on Its Ecosystem

Regardless of what you think about Apple or the iTunes software, there's no debating that the iTunes Music Store transformed the way we enjoy music. It heralded the end of widespread piracy and proved to the music labels that you don't have to treat music fans like criminals to convince them to buy music. With the launch of iTunes Match and iCloud, the iTunes Music Store just got much more attractive.

Who iTunes Is For

• New release hunters. iTunes is the juggernaut in the digital music space for a reason. It has agreements with all of the major labels, and new launches and special editions often appear on the iTunes first.
• Cloud haters and organization freaks. iCloud and iTunes Match exist, sure, but by default all of your music purchases are downloaded to your computer via iTunes, and are stored locally. If you like taking your music with you or don't care for web players or cloud services, iTunes still delivers that "click to buy and to download" experience that makes you feel like you're getting something tangible. Plus, your music comes from a single source, with tags, album art, and metadata intact, can be organized in a single app (even if it is iTunes) and if it's lost, you can—with strings attached—redownload it.
• iOS device owners. Let's face it, the reason there's no Amazon MP3 app for iOS is because Apple has no desire to allow a competing music store on its devices. If you want your Amazon MP3 purchases on your iOS device, you'll have to downlaod them and add them to iTunes. The same applies for Google Music - the store is built-in to the Android Market, so don't expect that on your iPhone anytime soon. The iTunes Music Store, on the other hand, is right there, full of music that you can buy and download immediately. Once you do, it's synced to iCloud.
• People who need fast, easy, and cheap. iTunes' dominance isn't only due to its closed ecosystem with the iPhone and iPod. It's also the fact that iTunes is dead simple to use and shop from. The iTunes' music store plus jukebox experience is still very popular with a lot of people. Attitudes may be changing however, and fewer people want to install iTunes just to shop for music, but right now it offers a seamless union between the music you already own and new music you can purchase.

Pros

iTunes is clearly the best option for people invested in the Apple ecosystem. The music selection is massive—larger than any of the other stores—with over 20 million tracks in the catalog from all four major labels and scores of independents. Even if you don't have an iOS device, it's a great music store with a broad depth of music at solid prices. The days where everything was $0.99 are over, but the vast majority of songs are still around that mark, with older songs and releases by independent musicians often less than that. iTunes also has a huge selection of comedy, spoken-word, latin music, and other genres with narrower appeal, along with "sub-stores" created by specific companies (like Starbucks) and playlists by celebrities to feature music they enjoy.

Tracks can be previewed for 90 seconds, and purchased songs come as 256kbps DRM-free AACs. From there it's automatically added to your music collection, albums get their own playlists, and the song is added to your "Recently added" or "Downloaded" playlists. Combined with an iOS device or iCloud, iTunes is still a great music store and holistic music experience. Without either of those however, it's a huge music store where you'll have no trouble finding something you like at a decent price.

Cons

For as big as its catalog is and as deep its library is, iTunes hasn't really changed or improved in any meaningful way in years. You don't necessarily want to fix what isn't broken, and we get that iCloud and iTunes Match will give iOS users a new way to back up and access their music on other devices (even though iTunes Match doesn't stream and has no web player) but to get the most from these services you have to be fully wrapped up in Apple's ecosystem. Even freeing your music from iTunes if you prefer to listen to it on your non iOS device or in another music player can be an irritating process. Possible, but an unnecessary pain.

For as great as its shopping experience is, iTunes loses points for its lackluster social experience, which consists entirely of Ping—Apple's half-assed social network that no one really uses (unless they're using it to post to Twitter.) Plus, even though Apple bought and killed LaLa back in 2009, we have yet to see a meaningful web component to iTunes. There's iTunes Preview, but frankly, it's awful. Where other music stores are integrating social networks to help you discover music and giving you more ways to enjoy the music you buy anywhere, iTunes is spinning its wheels. That's fine for now, but it won't be forever.

The Verdict: Which Music Store Deserves Your Money?

If you've followed along with us so far or you've skipped to the end to see which service you should buy your music from, the answer is—as always—that it depends on what kind of music lover you are:

• Google Music is best for people who would say "I need access to the music I already own everywhere I go," or "I'm a huge indie music fan," and people who are onboard and comfortably seated on the Android train.
• Amazon MP3 is best for bargain hunters who don't want to buy elsewhere before checking for a better deal and want the best possible deal. It's also best for people who still aren't sure about this whole Google Music thing and have Android devices. Plus, if you don't trust Google and can't stand Apple, well, here you are.
• iTunes is best for people wrapped up in Apple's cozy blanket of walled-off products and services. Getting in from the outside with another service is a herculean feat, one that's really not worth it if you have all the music you want to buy in iTunes at good prices and you own an iOS device. You may want to check Amazon for better prices now and again, and then import the songs to iTunes.

Everyone Else: Zune Marketplace, eMusic, and the Others

Apple, Amazon, and Google aren't the only players. There are still a lot of smaller, independent music stores out there, even if most of them are struggling to get by. Bandcamp is a great indie music store that lets artists sell directly to their fans, and EMusic is still kicking around with a 13 million song catalog and DRM-free mp3s. Subscription-only services like the Zune Music Store, Napster, and even Rhapsody often sell individual tracks and walk the line between a la carte and subscription-only.

For music lovers who don't mind renting their music instead of owning it, it may make financial sense to sign up for all-you-can-eat plans where you get tons of music for a monthly fee. With the Zune store, each month you used to get to keep some of the songs you've rented, so it's a little of both worlds. They may not have the selection or mobile and cloud features that the big guys do, but these services are worth mentioning because they cater to specific markets or often go out of their way to be platform agnostic.

A Nod to Streaming Music Services

Speaking of renting music, no look at online music stores would be complete without mentioning the explosion of streaming and cloud-based music services, some of which work with music you own, and others that exist purely in the cloud. Contrary to traditional music stores, with these services you're paying for regular access to a service's music library. You don't own anything, and you don't even rent the songs themselves—you just pay to listen to them whenever you like.

Streaming music services are trendy, and many of them even allow you to cache songs offline to simulate the feeling of owning your music. Most of them are platform agnostic, and offer apps, webapps, and tools for every OS. Even so, most people use them in addition to—not a replacement for—a music store that lets them buy or listen to their own music. That may change as they grow in popularity.

Which music store excites you the most? Where will you be spending your money? Perhaps you prefer a different store we haven't mentioned, or you're giving up on buying music entirely and going the streaming route instead. Whatever you think, let us know in the comments below.