Two part question answer to consist of short list of recommended
services (web sites) and players (models & where to purchase).

Which music down loading service would best meet my following criteria:
Must be able to easily sample the song to determine if it is the one I what.
Largest selection of top forty Rock from the 90's to present.
Approximately $1 per song no monthly fee.
Simple downloading process to a basic Dell computer with windows XP.

Which player will meet the most of my following criteria:
Needs to hold at least 8 hours of music.
Use standard AA or AAA batteries
Have a FM radio
Connect to the computer using USB cord.
Has software that allows you to pick and choose from your library of
songs and down load all at once.
Price is under $200
Bonus requirement If it had the USB storage memory modual that I could
have multiple ones of for 2 or 3 times the music or memory slot for
additional cards.

washingtox-ga,

As far as the music dowloading service, the recently reborn Napster
offers 99 cent downloads of well known songs, past and present, for a
9.95 monthly fee:

http://www.napster.com/

mp3.com offers unlimited free song downloads in all genres, but most
of them are from unsigned artists (songs you haven't heard of).

Concerning the music player, I've had good results with Apple's I-pod,
which is PC compatible:

http://www.apple.com/ipod/

Hope this helps,

omniscientbeing-ga

washingtox-ga:

If you happen to be Canadian, then the puretracks.com service is
exactly what you are looking for: rich collection of music that
includes the 90's through to the present; $0.99 (Cdn) downloads (and
deals on downloading a whole album). Only problem is that the service
verifies your IP address to see if you are indeed Canadian, as part of
their requirement under their agreements with the recording industry.

As for holding 8 hours of music, depending on your encoding bit rate,
you can accommodate that with anywhere from 512 MB to 1 GB of storage
without too much loss in quality. So, a player that uses a Compact
Flash or MicroDrive storage would easily fit the bill here, or you can
move up to a hard-drive based unit like the new Apple Mini iPod.

Please note that the iPods do not support the WMA audio format, and
that Apple's iTunes music store sells files in the AAC format that is
really only compatible with the iPod these days.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher