Music streaming is something like a Grail –
a way for musicians and recording firms to earn money from users who expect
everything available straight away at cheap price. For many users,
accessibility is often more important than price.
With this opinion, Rara.com has coordinated
with 3 big recording firms (Sony, Warner, and Universal, in the process of
buying back EMI) and many independent firms to provide a huge music catalogue
for streaming service based on its website. Unlike its competitors such as
Spotify and Last.fm, Rara has no free option. You can try 3-month service with
$1.485 per month, and then up to $7.5 to have access via web browser or $15 if
you want to use Android app to stream music to hand-held device.
If you use PC, Rara is a web-based service
– there is no option to load music to your PC so that you can listen to offline
music, although you can temporarily save music if using mobile version of the
service on Android device. Whether you are using web-based or mobile-based
version, Rara uses Dolby Pulse, a version of HE AAC v2 at byte speed from
42Kbytes/s to 72Kbytes. The sound is very good although the streaming ability
of Spotify Premium’s 320Kbytes/s Ogg Vorbis is more advantageous if you are
listening on PC.
Rara focuses on playlists, called stations,
based on genre, era, mood, or other contents. Though at first we were a bit
doubtful, later we were convinced quickly by playlists’ variety and quality.
The first heavy rock list we tried included a reliable combination among Bad
Religion, Sham 69, and The Misfits. Most other stations created no less
high-glass choices although some got benefit from narrower genre definitions.
Station Electronica is an excellent example, although the songs Castles in
the Sky of Ian Van Dahl and Glory Box of Portishead are both
categorized as Station Electronica, they are not the most natural companions on
a playlist. Station Dance & House are more difficult to explain. It creates
a playlist including Cascada, deadmau5 and The Chemical Brothers prior to
Rickrolling us with the 1980s’ original version of Never Gonna Give You Up,
followed by The Spice Girls.
Playlists do not change much from one day
(or week) to the next day, so you will soon get bored if listening to them
much. Fortunately, buiding your own playlist is quite easy. The plus beside
each track takes you to a screen which allows you to add it to the waiting
line, current playlist or new playlist. It is not as convinient as creating
playlists on Spotify, with familiar clicking and dragging interface, but it
works well.
Rara Radar emphasizes new releases
including albums from different artists such as Hawkwind, Feist and Steps,
providing a new overview on new music genre. There is Just For You area, which
uses your history to recommend other songs you may like. Rara did well in
recognizing our love with Filand metal music, but mainly its recommendation
were not related and appear to base on general genre categories. We like the ability
to improve recommendations by marking songs we do not like. As a tool to
discover new songs, Rara cannot be compared to Last.fm.
Rada’s
screenshot
We faced some errors, some of which were
quite serious. Searching for the new singer Ulver created the fisrt album, with
accurate illustrative images and song list, but we were unable to play any
song, and the next album disappeared from our searching completely. Delirium
firm, Tracy Chapman musician, and poeple like Inkubus Sukkubus were all listed
when we searched by name, but no music was available, which made us more
annoying than searching without finding anything. We also saw tracks – often
from compiled albums – which had suitable singer data but did not appear when
we presented complete works of singers.
Rara’s interface is designed to be friendly
to those who do not understand technology. Everything runs in your browser and
illustrated with a genre or album image. Click on the image to open the song
list, and clicking on the album information beside it will start to play the
first song. Unfortunately, since lying next to one another, you will be more
likely to click on this song while wanting to click on another one.
In general, we were impressed by the number
of songs provided, from the rock band LA 45 Grave to Praga Khan, but it had big
shortcomings, and many singers’ categories were not complete. However, we found
out many singers whose works no longer appeared on Spotify after the argument
of license. We hope to see improvement in Rada’s category next months, but at
this time, Spotify provides a more complete and diversified listening
experience, and helps you build your playlist more easily. Certainly, Rara is
worth trying, especially if you want to select a genre or mood and let songs
selected for you, but it will encounter difficulty if hoping to gain Spotify’s
crown.
Summary
Verdict. Rara has big song category and renewed interface but is more
difficult to use than Spotify and has too little variety for its playlist.
Music streaming service. Requires Flash 9, internet connection
Ratings: 
Price: $15
Website: www.rara.com
