The Rhapsody-owned Napster streaming music service is expanding into 14 new European countries today, significantly ramping up its presence in the region. The Napster service was already available in Germany and the U.K. but from today it’s also live in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands. → Read More
Last week, we told you about an open source alternative to music services such as Rdio and Spotify, called Napster.fm. The name alone got our attention, and after using it, there were a few features that were reminiscent of its predecessor, which made it even cooler. Today, the service is changing its name to Peer.fm to steer clear of legal issues, since Best Buy acquired the service and brand and… → Read More
Veteran music streaming service Rhapsody has been around for over a decade. It’s managed to survive in a turbulent (and oftentimes) crowded market, even as it has been eclipsed in popularity by services like Rdio and Spotify. In fact, Rhapsody was the first on-demand service to offer unlimited access to a substantial catalog of music for a flat monthly subscription fee, paving the way for startups… → Read More
Microsoft is making a big push to bring more content to Xbox and some of the more recognizable names in entertainment have responded by building apps for the console, bringing their services into your living room. After bringing ESPN to the platform two weeks ago, the company is again beefing up its entertainment catalog, rolling out a handful of new apps worldwide today, including Rhapsody… → Read More
One would guess that the big Yahoo layoff-reorganization includes a culling of some the company’s weaker properties — and yes, we’re hearing today that this includes Music and possibly Movies, popular sites that don’t monetize well.
Word has been leaking out since last week, when Digital Music News wrote a well-sourced article that didn’t make the situation sound good. “Will there be a… → Read More
Monday, we sat down with Rhapsody President Jon Irwin to get a little more insight behind why the company bought fellow online music service Napster. As part of the acquisition, Rhapsody acquired all Napster subscribers and other IP assets from Napster owner BestBuy. Meanwhile, Best Buy received a minority stake in Rhapsody.
Irwin tells us he looks forward to bringing the Napster subscriber… → Read More
I love Yvo Schaap, even though I’ve never met him in person.
Wanna know why? Because the man keeps on digging up interesting stuff by simply perusing code, and then alerting us.
Schaap found the embeddable +1 button and a a link to the Google Games logo before either of them was publicly released, and now he may have identified several companies that will be partnering with Facebook for the… → Read More
I just read that Spotify is coming to the U.S! Oh, wait. That was an article from 2009. I hope they really mean it this time. I love the product. To grease the skids for them a bit, I’ve put together a little travel guide for what they can expect in advertising and media circles when they do arrive.
Lots of love in digital circles.
Being Swedish I’m guessing they’re fantastic dressers and… → Read More
We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps.
—email attributed to Steve Jobs
There’s been so much confusion in the wake of Apple’s new subscription billing policy for apps that Steve Jobs felt the need to issue the proclamation above via his preferred method, a personal email. (It’s his version of the burning bush). While… → Read More
The media world is in a tizzy over Apple’s new subscription billing rules for iPad and iPhone apps. Basically, Apple will now take a 30 percent cut of all in-app subscription revenues and own all the customer data. As written, the rules apply to everything from iPad magazines and newspapers to subscription music services and even subscription movie services like Netflix.
We’ve debated these… → Read More
Who says nobody will consider paying for streaming music? Thumbplay Music, which offers unlimited music streaming apps for a monthly subscription across iPhone (iTunes link), Android, and Blackberry, reports that its smartphone apps have been downloaded 500,000 times since June. Thumbplay won’t say how many of those downloads turn into paying customers (you get a free trial before having to… → Read More
If you’ve created music playlists using iTunes, Spotify, Last.fm, YouTube, We Are Hunted, Winamp, Rhapsody, Soundcloud, or even if you’ve simply scribbled a list of your favorite tracks in a notepad file, you need to check out Playlistify soon. The basic, solid premise of the service is to let you enjoy your custom-made playlists anywhere you like.
I was looking for an excuse to write it up… → Read More
Rhapsody is going solo and cutting prices along the way. The digital music service is spinning off from its parent companies, MTV/Viacom and RealNetworks. The newly independent company is called: Rhapsody International. In honor of its new status, the company is also releasing an Android app and dropping its premier monthly subscription fee by a third to $9.99 a month, from $14.99.
“We are free… → Read More
Knowing you guys, you not only knew Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 leaked several days ago, but you grabbed it instantly, and gained some nice ratio buffer in the process. Oh, and you listened to it many times over (as have I). Good, great. → Read More
This morning, subscription music service Rhapsody is putting public pressure on Apple to approve its new music streaming app by making its case directly to the press. Unlike other streaming music apps already on the iPhone from Pandora, Slacker, AOL Radio, imeem, and Sirius XM, Rhapsody’s would allow users to individually select and listen to any one of the 8 million songs in its catalog… → Read More
Provided Apple and/or AT&T don’t throw a fit, you’ll soon be able to use Rhapsody on your iPhone (and iPod touch). The App works over 3G and EDGE (and Wi-Fi, of course), streaming music from a library of more than 8 million songs. → Read More
Let’s not chastise Apple too harshly for introducing variable pricing for music to the iTunes Store. Why, a quick search on some of the other big online music stores reveals that they, too, charge one price for some songs, and a different price for others. Case in point: Amazon, Rhapsody and Beatport. → Read More
Okay, this has to be the coolest hack of the week. Visual search engine SearchMe has just added a music search tab that brings back results with free, legal, unlimited full-song streams and cover art you can flip through. It’s CoverFlow on the Web. And it actually trumps the experience one Yahoo’s music search, which also offers free full streams through Rhapsody—but those are limited to 25… → Read More
Searching for music is one thing, but have you ever wanted to search for an artist and play their songs without needing to visit other sites? If so, Yahoo and Rhapsody have launched a new service that will let you do just that.
Staring today, users who search for an artist on Yahoo Search will be able to play the artist’s songs in the search results, thanks to a shortcut sitting at the top of… → Read More
AppleInsider has posted details about a patent recently filed by Apple that describes technology for playing iTunes content from a desktop computer remotely on an iPhone or iPod touch. The new software would load only meta data about songs, videos, and other media onto a handheld device. It would then allow users to stream this media from their desktop computers on demand and even let them… → Read More
Oh, Yahoo. Why do you make it so hard to like you? Take this story. Yahoo is shutting down its music download store at the end of September, including the DRM validation servers. Without DRM validation servers, people who purchased tracks outright won’t be able to play them. In other words, people will be left with useless files on their hard drives. Nice. To be fair, it’s not like… → Read More
iLike, the music service with a massive following on Facebook and increasing popularity elsewhere, has introduced full-song playback on its flagship site, iLike.com. Through its partnership with music subscription service Rhapsody, the site will be offering over 5 million songs from all of the major labels and a variety of indie artists, too. In conjunction with the launch of full song playback… → Read More
Can you hear me now? No, I’m listening to music thanks to Rhapsody. That horrendous opening can mean only one thing: Verizon Wireless has joined up with Rhapsody to launch a mobile music subscription service, the first of its kind. The name, V CAST Music with Rhapsody, could use some work, but that’s to be expected. (That’s actually a good idea for an article: on terrible product… → Read More
Streaming music service Rhapsody has joined the likes of Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Napster by launching an MP3 store. Its move to offer unprotected music downloads has been anticipated since last Fall when Real Networks joined forces with MTV and Verizon. The Rhapsody MP3 Store offers music from all four major labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI) at 99 cents per single… → Read More
[photopress:itunes8.png,full,center] It’s odd. Steve Jobs has said “no” to the idea of iTunes music subscriptions time and time again, but the rumors never die. Now the Financial Times is reporting the wheels are again turning to grant all-you-can-download music for a monthly subscription to users. There would be a likely premium on hardware or a start-up cost, but with groups… → Read More
[photopress:sxswrhap.jpg,full,right] It’s amazing. Ever since the music industry declared war on its customers a few years ago those of us who spend entirely too much time online have debated back and forth on message boards, modern day salons. How dumb is an industry that sues its own customers? (Answer: Very.) What compels people to pirate music in the first place? (Answer: Immediacy. Ease… → Read More
Eliot Van Buskirk was sick — sick! — of paying for music download services. Now that Amazon is DRM-free and offers lots of music, he decided to cancel all of his music subscriptions. Yahoo was the easiest at about 1 minute but it took him 30 minutes to cancel Napster and 10 minutes to cancel Rhapsody. This reminds me of trying to cancel my XBox Live and MS SPOT subscriptions. Microsoft… → Read More
The Red Head and Rhapsody have teamed up to give away 100 million songs starting this week till the end of the year. Every time you purchase a medium- or large-sized combo meal you’ll be given a code for a free song from Rhapsody. That’s a pretty sweet deal as is, but it gets better because you can enter the Combo Up to Download contest and win a 50 song download bundle or a SanDisk… → Read More
As a current TiVo and former Rhapsody subscriber, the idea of putting the two together intrigues me. What doesn’t intrigue me is paying $17 a month for TiVo and another $13 a month to use Rhapsody on it. I like the services and all but $30 a month seems a little steep, especially on top of the extortion money that I have to shell out to Comcast every month to rent (against my will) a… → Read More
Fancy listening to music on your TiVo? The company today is expected to announce a deal with Real’s Rhapsody to allow its users to sign up (for $13 per month) and listen to the more than 3.5 million songs right from the DVR. Further details are still sketchy—I bet TiVo’s not too happy that word of this partnership leaked, considering there’s supposed to be an event tonight… → Read More
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