[jleyank]

Judging from the tenor of comments here, the typical user doesn't have to worry about bandwidth limits on their smart device, never drives where the connection's spotty, never flies and stays within one country. Or, I guess, just has a slug of money to pay whatever fees for internet connection arise.

I tend to do a number of these things, so having music "in my hand" is advantageous. I also like to listen to both the hits and non-hits for the artists I like and had a largish legacy CD collection. Most of the CD's I purchase now are mementos of concert trips, especially for the bands that sign what they sell. Ripping the CD's, I get the music that the bands laid down, without the compression artifacts and pitch changes I get from radio. Do the internet services do the same, or are their offerings pristine?

Different strokes and all that, but be careful to add up the cost of continued rental vs. purchase or other forms of acquisition.

Edit: I also prefer to support the artists I listen to rather than middlemen.

[prostoalex]

Both Spotify Premium and Rdio Premium (and I'm sure others, but can only speak for the ones I've tried) offer "offline mode" for whatever your device can hold.

The music will then play even in airplane mode, the only gotcha is that you'll have to come online every 30 days or so for them to re-verify that you're still paying for the service.