What web sites have you paid for?

[SteveDallas]

[inspired by Undertoad's comment about a subscription area for lingerie photos]

So I'm curious. "Everybody knows" porn is the only thing people will pay for on the Internet. Or maybe not? Apparently classmates.com is doing well, and some of the online dating services are too.

So, I'm curious, what web sites have you decided to pony up some cash for? (Let's leave the pr0n out of it... I don't want this to devolve! well, not too much anyway.) I'll start off.

I got a premium membership at salon.com. I've read Salon darn near every day since 1997 or so. They usually have at least one or two articles I find interesting (which is not to say I always agree with it), which is an achievement. When they decided to start the premium program, I decided it was The Right Thing To Do(tm).

I also subscribed to emusic.com. I think the record labels have their heads in a non-sunshine-receiving position on this one (who's going to pay for a service they can only listen to on their computer?), but emusic's lack of restrictions on the downloads won me over. I doubt your average top-40-listening teenybopper would be happy with the selection, and I'd like to see it bigger, but my interests in classical music, show tunes, and comedy are covered enough to make it worth my while.

Finally, smartmusic.com. A very interesting service. I had previous used their software. What you could do was hook up a microphone to your computer and run their software and get a piano accompaniment while you play your instrument or sing. Their software was dirt cheap (maybe $10), but you had to buy an accompaniment disk for each piece at $25-$35. Still, I used it, and it was nice. I never was able to play the last page of Brahms' second clarinet sonata together with the piano when I was in college--we just didn't have enough mutual practice time. Now i can run it through at 1/2 speed as many times as I want. But now Smartmusic has changed to a subscription service, and for $10 per month you can download any accompaniments you want from their catalog. Coolness!! It's not a substitute for a live piano player, but it makes praciticing when you don't have one a whole lot more productive and fun.