[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 like the Zune Marketplace and Rhapsody siphoning off iTunes would-bes, it’s the next logical step for Apple. But it’s not for all users. Many want to buy their songs and actually own them. Mixing the two markets might make things confusing. Which are you, gentle readers, subscription-minded or ownership-minded? Apple mulls unlimited music bundle [Financial Times] → 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 of use. “Good enough” (or better, especially on What.cd and the like) quality.) Does the industry recognize that its role will never be what it was in preceding decades? (Answer: No.) You know who does “get” all of this, though? Rhapsody, the online music service. Probably not who you were thinking. Well, the headline gives it away, but you know what I mean to say. In speaking to a director of product management earlier today, I came away with the impression that Rhapsody, out of all the non-iTunes music services, knows exactly what its role in the music business should be, and needs to be. → 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 hides most of their cancellation systems behind languid representatives in a call center somewhere in Bangalore, ensuring anger all around. Why (And How) I Just Canceled All My Music Subscriptions [Wired] → 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 Sansa e280R Rhapsody player. → 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 ridiculous and cumbersome box for every TV in the house. → 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 where it, presumably, was first going to announce the deal—but don’t expect to be able to share the songs amongst your many TiVos connected over the Internet. And as the Times points out, yeah, TiVo is adding bells and whistles to its platform in order to distinguish it from the DVR your cable company gives you: Amazon Unbox, Rhapsody… Is TiVo’s Comeback the Real Deal? [Bits New York Times Blog] → Read More
Satellite radio is in the toilet, and the government and the recording industry are trying to squeeze Internet radio for more dough — unsuccessfully for now, according to today’s news. Meanwhile, social networking sites like Imeem and Last.fm (and MySpace, of course) are continuing to blow everyone away in the digital music scene, thanks in no small part to their focus on community as well as music discovery. It’s crystal clear that the Internet holds the future of radio. But there’s no reason social networking sites, Web radio, and music subscription services shouldn’t all be part of the killer app for music discovery, but mobility is still a major limiting factor. Now that we’re in the iPhone era, the hardware exists for removing mobility as an obstacle. → Read More
The second-generation iriver Clix is an impressive little device, but iriver followed in SanDisk’s footsteps and used its partnership with Rhapsody to create a pretty slick little end-to-end solution called the Clix Rhapsody. That means the Clix now comes with Rhapsody DNA firmware and works with the Windows-only Rhapsody software, which lets you transfer Rhapsody Channels and subscription tracks to the Clix. Best of all, if you’ve already got a second-gen Clix, you can convert it to a Clix Rhapsody just by downloading new firmware for nothin’. My initial impression is that this will be a good thing for fans of the Clix and an easy way to discover lots of new music. Although I ran into a few snags early on in my testing, that was just a pre-launch glitch that was taken care of last week. → Read More
Yahoo, as well as Pandora, MTV, Real/Rhapsody and many others are honoring the “day of silence” today in protest of the ridiculous new royalty rates for Internet radio stations. The big music labels have lobbied to get the U.S. government to really stick it to Internet radio stations, when terrestrial radio stations pay nothing to play songs and Satellite providers pay a greatly reduced rate. There is little Internet radio stations can do to fight back except protest, and just about everyone is on board for a day-long shut down today, June 26, 2007. But not Last.fm, as we previously reported. Is this a result of their recent acquisition by a huge U.S. media conglomerate, or was it simply a decision made “long ago” not to participate? See Last.fm’s defense here, and you make the call. → Read More
People have loved the SanDisk Sansa line of players lately for its good storage size, small body and decent features, but how well does their new e200R player work with the Rhapsody music service? Pretty darn well. Their closed-loop infrastructure that matches iPod + iTunes or Zune + Zune Marketplace works pretty straightforwardly. So what’s the difference between this model and the non-Rhapsody model? Well, there’s sharper text and menu options, and a new Rhapsody Channels option in the menu. The Rhapsody Channels are a set of playlists/tracks that give you some pre-set songs, which may or may not be your thing – but it’s nice that it’s there. Some other differences: star ratings, embedded artist info, a dot that shows you whether your subscription tracks are licensed and refreshed, have 10 days left, or your subscription has expired. Every time you sync with your computer the subscription gets refreshed by 30 days. Everything else seems to be about the same – and that’s good news. SanDisk Sansa e250R Rhapsody (2GB) [CNET] → Read More
. And they’re doing it with their new best friends, SanDisk and Real Networks. Real and SanDisk already have a partnership aimed at Apple in the form of the Sansa e200 DAP and Real’s Rhapsody service. Best Buy’s input will likely be a subscription-based service at around $10 a month for unlimited downloads. Quit paying, and the downloads cease to work. We’re not sure how else Best Buy aims to make this impressive, as it’s nothing new. What’s interesting, though, is that they’re pointing their musical gun between the eyes of the makers of the iPod, which should bring them some real money this holiday season. Best Buy to launch music store with SanDisk, Real [Reuters] → Read More
SanDisk, makers of the Sansa players, and RealNetworks, makers of the Rhapsody music store, are teaming up together to ensure their hardware and content work seamlessly together. Before now, the only player to work bundled with a single music store was the Apple iPod. It was this synergy, among various other things, that allows the iPod to become the de-facto champ of portable music players and online music stores. By combining Sansa and Rhapsody, SanDisk and Real are trying to make sure their customers get a complete “experience” to rival the iPod/iTunes “experience”. This is a similar tactic that Microsoft is taking with its Zune players, making it not play protected music. At first we thought the Zune’s non-support for PlaysForSure was a typo, but they are most likely going to bundle their Zunes only with their Zune Marketplace music content, ensuring the 1-to-1 relationship that iPod and iTunes has. In addition, Rhapsody has also partnered with Sonos, allowing them to provide an integrated music solution for the living room as well. We’ll see if RealNetwork’s reversal of their old tactic of universal playability will have any effect on the iPod + iTunes tsunami. IPod, TheyPod: Rivals Imitate Apple’s Success [WSJ] → Read More
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