Starting today, Verizon Wireless customers can have access to Rhapsody’s subscription music service. For a fee of $15 a month, subscribers can download as much music they want to their mobile phone. Verizon has seven handsets that can utilize Rhapsody’s catalogue of music, and plans three more in the near future, including a third version of the music-oriented LG Chocolate.
Rhapsody will now allow potential customers to listen to entire tracks for free, up to 25 per month, through the “music discovery service” iLike. Previously samples were only 30 seconds long.
In order to protect against piracy, Rhapsody songs downloaded to a Verizon phone will come with DRM (digital rights Management). Copies for personal use can be made on a Widows PC running Rhapsody software. Currently, there is no Macintosh software that lets users make copies.