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The biggest difference I have found in brands is usually in how they are created.
My top pick is Sound Choice. Yes they are pricey, but they usually use real instruments and backup singers which makes the biggest difference between them and the low end which are often MIDI or synthesizer based. A great starter from them is the foundation sets. You have nearly everything to run a starter show from Foundation 1 and 2 with bricks 1 through 5. There are 100 disks to this set in total for about 1500 songs (disc numbers are SC 7501 through 7600 if you are looking). If you look around you can find good deals on these. My only fault with Sound Choice in general is it takes a while to get new songs out because I refuse to buy their disks with accompaniment tracks. I don't feel that 7 or 8 songs is worth the price.
Pop/Country/R&B Hits monthly is a little lower on quality in some cases (not all) but gets the new stuff out sooner and is a decent shoice for backfilling and keeping updated.
I don't have any Chartbuster so I cannot speak for them.
I do have a lot of StarDisc. I feel the quality is similar to the _________ Hits Monthly. My main problem with StarDisc is that the volume and EQ levels are all over the place and they start almost immediately (often forget to lower the filler music levels early enough). I use them mostly for country songs.
I have one or two of many of the other brands on the market that I bought just to try them out. Some were horrible and others were hit and miss (more miss than hit).
These are my professional opinions from many years in the business. Others may disagree and please feel free to. But to start off I would spend the cash to buy the Sound Choice Foundation sets with all of the bricks. These have never done me wrong and I still carry them with a small cheap player as a computer failure backup.
Best of luck getting started,
Jon
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