If you were hoping for Apple to announce a subscription-based music service for the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Wednesday like I was, suppress your disappointment: early this morning, Apple approved Rhapsody for iPhone, and it's available in the iTunes Store.
It's the second such service Apple has approved, but the first, Spotify, is not available in the United States. (The Rhapsody application is not showing up in search results quite yet, but it is showing up within iTunes.)
(Credit:
Rhapsody)
Rhapsody was a pioneer in subscription-based music, and I'm a big fan of the service; in 2005, it was the first one to turn me on to the thrill of chasing your whims and surfing randomly among genres, which you can't do with per-download services like iTunes.
In my most recent trial late last year (in conjunction with the Sonos multiroom audio system), I wasn't able to find any significant gaps--if anything, there was too much music, including more versions of the novelty song "Kung Fu Fighting" than I ever imagined--and there is some excellent curation and editorial work, particularly for indie rock artists.
The iPhone app is pretty straightforward: you can search for songs, surf genres and chart-toppers, and create queues and playlists. If you're a fan of Pandora, you'll also appreciate the Rhapsody Radio feature, which creates tailor-made stations built around particular artists or genres. As long as you have an active Wi-Fi or 3G connection, the music should keep playing without interruption.
It's a free download, but to use it, you'll need a Rhapsody to Go subscription, which costs $14.99 a month. That's not quite as good a deal as Microsoft's Zune Pass, which costs the same and gives you 10 permanent MP3 downloads a month, but of course that service requires a Zune, which means that it applies only to about 1.1 percent of the MP3 player market (according to a statistic that Apple snarkily included in its presentation Wednesday) and exactly zero mobile phones.
Apple appears to have seen the light, as it is now allowing subscription-based music to come to the iPhone. It makes my phone's 8GB storage size seem a lot less limiting.
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Once again, Donald and Jasmine promise a "short one" and fail to deliver. How is it that just us talking about two devices manage to stretch on for the standard 30 minutes? We'll tell you: one of them inspires a lovefest that's saccharine enough to make your teeth throb, while the other throws Jasmine into a tizzy dripping with disappointment. This discussion on two new players--the Sansa Clip+ and the S-Series Walkman--is not to be missed. Also, the MP3 Insiders touch once again on the possibility of subscription music on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
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Spotify's much-hyped streaming-music service has been given the green light by Apple's iPhone app approval board, according to a report from U.K.'s Paid Content. Though the Spotify app has yet to officially surface in the iTunes App Store, an Apple spokesman made it clear that the app would be available "very soon."
While the news is sure to excite Spotify's current user base in Europe and the U.K., music fans in the U.S. have yet to experience what all the fuss is about, since the service is currently blocked on this side of the pond. Rumors abound that Spotify plans to open its doors to America before the year is though, but until then, the availability of an iPhone app isn't doing us much good.
Beyond fanning the flames of American curiosity over Spotify, news of the app's approval demonstrates an intriguing change of tactics for Apple. ... Read more
This week, Donald and Jasmine can't resist taunting the naysayers with yet more Zune and iPod talk, but we think you'll be interested to know that the Zune HD popped up with an app submenu during weekend demos at Best Buys across the country. And what does Microsoft have to say about that? We'll give you one guess. Also, Rhapsody gets down with the iPhone with a brand-new app that is yet-to-be-approved by Apple. Plus, we take a look at the upcoming E- and S-Series Walkmans from Sony and ponder the slow death of the Bluetooth MP3 player.
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Rhapsody's iPhone app will allow users to stream ad-free music and add selections to their playlist queue.
(Credit: Rhapsody)Subscription music service Rhapsody, a division of Real Networks, has announced plans to port its service to Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. In a blog post Sunday, the company said it will submit the application (demonstrated on the video below) this week to Apple for review.
Historically, Apple has steered clear of subscription music, making it impossible for services such as Napster or Rhapsody to work with the iPod, fearing competition with its own iTunes music service. But the success of iPhone music applications such as Pandora, Last.fm, and Slacker, may have opened the door for subscription services as well. (Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.)
Rhapsody's mobile app will require that users hold a Rhapsody-to-Go account, which currently runs $14.95 per month. (Non-subscribers will apparently be offered a limited time free-trial period.) The Rhapsody app allows subscribers to explore and stream Rhapsody's entire online music catalog over EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi, as well as create and store playlist queues of their favorite content. The app does not, however, allow users to download and store Rhapsody songs directly on the device, or cache content temporarily to hear offline.
If Rhapsody's application is approved by Apple, it won't likely be alone. Competing services such as Spotify have shown off similar applications, and Napster will surely want to get in on the action as well. The real question is whether people will find subscription music capabilities valuable. With free, ad-supported services such as Pandora already dominating the spotlight, it remains to be seen whether Rhapsody can convince new customers to spend close to $15 a month for unlimited on-demand music streaming.
In the blog post, Rhapsody also revealed plans to develop an Android application. It's not known whether that version would offer greater flexibility (local storage, over-the-air downloads) than the version for the iPhone.
Rhapsody on iPhone from Jamie on Vimeo.
(Via PC World)
Napster has come a long way since its inception as a file-sharing service 10 years ago, and there is little doubt that without it, Rhapsody wouldn't exist--at least not in the form we enjoy today. Now, thanks largely to the fact that most competing services gave up on the game and passed their subscribers over to the two remaining companies, these music subscription companies are rulers of the roost when it comes to paid streaming. But who will come out on top when we pit Napster and Rhapsody against each other in five bone-shaking rounds? Read on for the answer.
Are there any sweeter words in the English language than "free music?" (I know, "free pizza" runs a close second, followed immediately by "free beer," "free chocolate," and "free Tibet.")
If you're looking to stock your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Zune with some fresh, new tunes, you can find a mountain of free stuff if you know where to look. I'm talking legal free stuff, not the "free" tunes you pilfer from P2P services. Bad user, bad!
Rhapsody generously offers a free MP3 every day of the week.
As you probably know, iTunes gives away one song every week (gee, wow, thanks). Head to Rhapsody, however, and you can score a free song every day. And not just obscure tunes from little-known artists: Green Day's new "Know Your Enemy" was a recent download of the day (ahead of the new album's release, even), and yesterday's selection was Poison's classic power ballad, "Every Rose Has Its Thorns." (Couldn't...help...myself.)
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Philips GoGear Aria is made for Rhapsody.
(Credit: CBS Interactive/Corinne Schulze)If subscription music was a drug, I'd be one of its biggest pushers. I'm a huge proponent of paying a flat monthly fee in order to enjoy all the music I want at any time (and in any order...without commercials). It's even better if you can take as much of it as possible with you anywhere on an MP3 player. A handful of services and devices offer this option.
You can pair Zune Marketplace with the Zune player, or choose from a seemingly endless array of other non-iPod MP3 players and sync up with Napster To Go or Rhapsody To Go. Of course, the best devices are going to be the ones gussied up with onboard software specifically made to work with a particular service.
If it's Rhapsody you're interested in, you're going to want a player with DNA, and you can choose from six of them by following the link below.
Jasmine and Donald set the stage for a battle between the iPod Touch and the Samsung P3. Then, DJs rejoice, Jasmine goes metal, Memorex makes a comeback, rentals hit the road, and Zune makes some suspicious calculations.
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This week, Jasmine and Donald discuss a variety of music tech that's perfect for helping you motivate into summer swimsuit shape--there are even music gadgets for people who prefer cycling and swimming to jogging and gyming. Also, Donald's got some info that will help any digital audio newcomer understand formats, and Jasmine rants about Rhapsody irritants. Plus, we answer questions about subscription services and explain why they don't play nice with the iPod.
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Donald Bell is an electronic musician, a veteran record store employee, and a fearless hardware hacker. He's also CNET's Senior Editor for MP3 and digital audio.
Jasmine France is CNET's resident digital audio doyenne, writing and editing product reviews, crave blogs, and feature stories on all things MP3. And if you need advice on headphones, she's your girl.
