Rhapsody posts

If you're an Android phone owner who loves music you're about to enjoy a second Christmas! Rhapsody, the streaming music service from RealNetworks, will have a beta version of its Android app out next week. The catch is that it's a closed beta, so you'll need to head over to Rhapsody's Facebook page to get your spot. You don't have to be a current Rhapsody subscriber to sign up: the app comes with a 7-day trial.

For $15 a month -- that's unlimited plays on your PC and mobile device -- Rhapsody's library of over 8 million songs should tide Americans and Canadians over until its trendy international competitor, Spotify, hits their side of the Atlantic. Rhapsody's subscriber base was growing fast at the end of 2008, but the service actually lost 50,000 subscribers in the latter half of '09. Maybe new Android business -- and the Nexus One! -- will pick that number back up. Rhapsody has already been on the iPhone for some time, but streaming music is an even more important proposition for Android users, with less storage space and no iTunes Music Store.

[via AppScout]

The Rhapsody streaming music service from RealNetworks may be coming to the iPhone soon, according to a post on the RealNetworks blog. The iPhone app is finished and being sent off to Apple for review this week. There's a video demo of the app, and it looks like a decent front end for the subscription-based service. An Android app is also in the works.

The iPhone app isn't too flashy, but appears well-designed, offering all of Rhapysody's basic features, like searching and playlists. The app's best feature is a song queue that you can fill up and save as a playlist, which looks quite useful. There's also a music guide that shows current charts and what's new this week, and also allows you to browse by genre.

This is all good news for Rhapsody's 750,000+ subscribers, but I have to wonder whether an app that seemingly provides an alternative to Apple's own iTunes Music Store won't just be hit with one of Apple's notorious "duplicate functionality" rejections. Considering that the FCC is currently inquiring into a similar rejection of Google Voice, and that there are other streaming music apps on the store already - albeit free, and not with Rhapsody's extensive song library - it seems likely that Rhapsody will get a pass. Apple's been trying to clean up its review process, but the whole thing is still unpredictable, so this should be interesting to watch.

Companies like SeeqPod and Skreemr have made a business model out of letting you search for a song or musician by name and then streaming the MP3s found on the web. The sites don't actually host any of the music - just the tools to locate and play it. But they do rely on the fact that millions of people have already illegally uploaded copyrighted songs to the internet. Now Yahoo! has entered the game with a 100% legal system.

Here's how it works. You go to Yahoo.com and enter the name of a band, musician, or song. If it's among the 10,000 or so songs supported by Yahoo! at the moment, you'll get a box at the top of your search results with some artist information and a few play links. Hit play and a Flash-based player will pop up and start playing the song by streaming music from Real Networks' Rhapsody music service.

There is a catch. You can only listen to 25 songs a month before the Rhapsody player stops working. You'll need to sign up for a paid account if you want to keep going. In other words, if you're looking to create a free streaming audio playlist, you're still better off using SeeqPod or Skreemr. But if you're already a Rhapsody subscriber or if you're willing to pay for a legal service, Yahoo! is offering an alternative. And more importantly, if you're not looking to create a playlist, but just want to figure out the name of that tune you heard on the radio, Yahoo! now has the tools to help.

RealNetworks has launched a DRM-free MP3 music store. The Rhapsody MP3 store has music from all four major labels, with over 5 million tracks available for download. Most songs are priced at 99 cents, and most albums cost $9.99. That's about the same price that Apple charges for DRM-free AAC audio files, but a bit more than Amazon MP3 charges for many songs and albums.

All songs will be encoded at 256kbps, and will be playable on any device that can handle MP3 audio. RealNetworks isn't killing off its DRM-restricted music service, but rather, plans to have the two services peacefully coexist. You can pay $12.99 a month to stream unlimited music to your computer, or you can pay per download to save songs that you can play forever.

RealNetworks is also rolling out a service that will let Verizon Wireless customers download music for their handsets. For $15 a month, users will be able to download an unlimited number of songs (with DRM) on a Windows PC and sync those songs with their cellphone. Currently seven handsets are supported, with several more coming soon.

The Rhapsody MP3 store is offering a $10 credit to the first 100,000 customers who purchase an album by July 4th. You need to sign up for an account and fork over your credit card information to qualify. But hey, free music, right?

[via CNet]

Yahoo! is preparing to dump its Yahoo! Music Unlimited service and replace it with a partnership with RealNetworks' Rhapsody. A few weeks ago we reported on a rumor that Yahoo! was exploring the idea of launching a DRM-free music store to compete with Apple and Amazon. It looks like the company decided to go another direction.

Both Yahoo! Music Unlimited and Rhapsody allow users to access a large library of on-demand music for a subscription fee. But while Yahoo! has been charging $5.99 to $8.99 per month, Rhapsody charges $12.99 per month. Existing users will have their accounts automatically transferred to Rhapsody, with their music libraries intact. But when you're contract runs out, you'll be charged the higher rate.

Yahoo! and Rhapsody are also exploring collaboration on other projects, including music downloads.

MTV is expected to announce today that it will partner with RealNetworks, merging the two company's online music services.

This probably means the end of MTV's URGE music site, which probably won't affect much of anyone. As far as we can tell, you could count the number of URGE subscribers on one hand. And you might not need all your fingers.

Anyway, URGE had been a partnership between MTV and Microsoft. But Microsoft has been focusing on its Zune Marketplace since launching its iPod competitor. So it makes sense for MTV to partner up with RealNetworks, the company behind the subscription-based Rhapsody music service.

Whether MTV/Rhapsody will make a dent in Apple's market share remains to be seen. But so far Apple has yet to offer a subscription model for iTunes, so it should be interesting to see if Rhapsody's pay a monthly fee for all the music you want model will gain any traction with MTV's brand name and music library.

Verizon Wireless has also signed on to distribute MTV/RealNetworks content to mobile devices.

As we reported previously, today is the day that hundreds, if not thousands, of online radio stations are going silent, broadcasting static, or PSAs and other messages to their listeners to bring attention to the impending royalty rate hike from the Copyright Royalty Board.

Across the net you can see signs of the protest in action. Yahoo! Music's radio station guide is featuring links to SaveNetRadio.org at the top of its list. SomaFM, a popular indie radio station broadcasting from San Francisco is playing intermittent PSAs against the background of the BART. Rhapsody has a large banner across their front page showing a woman with duct tape across her mouth, with a zipper drawn on it. ShoutCast has information posted where its normally lengthy radio station guide sits, issuing a call to action.

If you care about online radio, and want the luxury to be able to turn it on a year, two years or even five years from now, then act today and contact your Senators and State Representatives. Don't sit idly by and let net radio become a victim of senseless royalty rates, while terrestrial FM & AM stations continue to play the same boring material over and over, without having to pay the same exorbitant royalties. Post links to other net radio stations participating in today's protest in the comments.

Update: KCRW Santa Cruz is joining the protest today by interrupting all programming to discuss the upcoming royalty rate hike with Mike Riksen of NPR, Kurt Hanson of AccuRadio, Tim Westergren of Pandora, Caryn Mathes of American University Radio, Ian Rogers of Yahoo! Music, Ted Leibowitz of BAGeL Radio and Johnny Floater of Live365.com. Check their site for more info. (Thanks Brad!)

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