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Best Music Streaming App for TouchPad? Rhapsody!

Well, not exactly an "app", but I believe Rhapsody.com is certainly the best music streaming service available for the TouchPad.

I love my music. Usually on slow, quiet Sunday mornings like today, I'm putting David Crowder, Matt Maher, and other great worship bands in the mix as I work up breakfast for the kiddos. And, as a webOS fan, I've been trying all of the streaming services over the last couple years. Of course, nothing beats having the music actually ON the device, but there are lots of app options out there for streaming --  Slacker, Grooveshark, Pandora, Spotify and a myriad of Shoutcast apps.

I am a paying customer of Slacker, Grooveshark, Spotify and Rhapsody. But after this weekend, I will be scaling back to just one service.

For the TouchPad, the streaming app selection is pretty limited. Pandora is there but only in compatibility mode (small screen). GrooveShark recently released a TouchPad app, but it is far from a user-friendly application. Slacker, although a strong player for the Pre and Veer,  is not available on TouchPad.

I've been a paying customer of Rhapsody for years. For $10 / month, they have arguably the best selection, ease of use, and (legally) affordable service. Rhapsody was great back in the day when sporting my Treo 650 with Pocket Tunes.  It would allow the transfer of DRM music straight from the PC to my Treo for easy listening to as much music as I could find.

Unfortunately, we can't transfer DRM music anymore with webOS devices, so Rhapsody has been kinda on the back burner for me, although I use it on my laptop.

This morning, I decided to check out the Rhapsody website using the TouchPad. They've recently made some great improvements to their online streaming interface.

And, surprisingly it is a great experience on the Touchpad! Much better than any of the streaming "apps" on the marketplace. And while the Slacker.com and Grooveshark.com websites have some glitches when run on the TouchPad, Rhapsody.com runs seamlessly. Compared to all the other apps and websites, Rhapsody streams quickly, allows the user to browse around easily without distrupting play, and, of course, synchronizes everything throughout all devices that access the Rhapsody service.

Tip -- run Rhapsody using the Advance Browser app. The standard TouchPad app will not continue to stream Rhapsody when the screen turns off. Using Advanced Browser, I was able to stream for six continuous hours today without any interruptions.

Bottom line -- I no longer care about streaming music "apps" when I can simply tap into Rhapsody's intuitive web interface. Rhapsody doesn't get the media attention anymore, however, it has a huge music catalog, a mature user interface, and, with Advance Browser, provides the best streaming experience on the TouchPad.

What about you? What is the best music experience for you and your TouchPad?