Verizon Wireless and Rhapsody have teamed up to bring the subscription music model to cell phones. This partnership expands the Rhapsody DNA platform and once again proves that Rhapsody is more dynamic, far reaching and solid than any other subscription music model like Napster, eMusic, Yahoo! Music (oh, wait - Rhapsody acquired the Yahoo! Music business earlier this year). You can get Rhapsody on TiVO, Sansa MP3 devices, Sonos, Squeezebox, Verizon Phones, Denon Receivers, Panasonic MP3 devices, MAC browsers, Linux browsers and of course PCs - software and browsers.

So, how does it work with Verizon?
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We had a soccer coach from Whales stay with us last week while our kids were in the British Challenger Soccer camp. Adam, great guy. Anyhow, we asked him to pick out a bunch of music to play so we created the Adam playlist. He picked lots of music that we now love. Some of the highlights include:
- The Kooks: a great band that is getting bigger in the UK. Reminds me of early The Jam.
- Razorlight: another up and coming band that has hit the charts in the UK but not in the US.
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My wife and I hosted a bunch of parents from our elementary school last weekend after a sail boat trip (long story). Mostly 40 somethings with a wide range of musical tastes. I hadn’t planned on how to spin the tunes, but with my Rhapsody set-up (PC in the kitchen attached to an amp and speakers inside/outside - click here for full description) I figured I’d just pick an artist station or decade channel and run that. Fortunately, a newer dad who didn’t know many people but is also a member of Rhapsody sat down at the computer and found his “happy place” at the party. Here’s a great way to give the music lover at the party a critical task that really worked out.

1) Get the person in charge of the music a beverage and sit him/her in front of Rhapsody
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Dear Steve Jobs (ZDNet, 4/27/07) - By Alan Graham

Over the past 18 years I’ve spent close to $200k on Apple products, and I think with a track record like that, I can honestly say that I’m a pretty good customer. I’m someone who not only loves Apple products, but has a tendency to believe in the general strategies of the company. In fact, even in those difficult years, the years you spent in the wilderness, I stuck with the platform while many people left in droves. And while I did have a small time away to the Windows side in the late 90’s, I came back once you returned and started releasing great products again. The iMac…man that was a stroke of genius. You just seem to know what I want, even before I do. But Steve…here’s the thing. While I know you think you know what’s best for me (and I appreciate that), I have to say that when you recently told me that I am not interested in a subscription-based iTunes, because I would prefer to own my music, you totally missed the mark. So I just wanted to write you this quick note and clarify my stance on this right away and make sure you knew how I really felt about this topic.
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While I love my iPod and prefer the look and feel, I really love music and would much rather have access to the Rhapsody catalog, fresh music updates and fun custom channel mixes. At the end of the day – it’s more about the music than the style. Click here to see my full comparison of the ipod nano 2 vs the Sansa Rhapsody MP3 Player

I’ve been beta testing the new Rhapsody MP3 player coming out from RealNetworks and Sandisk. The MP3 player is nice, but the thing that makes me excited is how seamlessly Rhapsody works with the device. I’ve been listening to the new Tom Petty, G. Love & Special Sauce and John Mayer albums all on my Sansa Rhapsody player using just my Rhapsody subscription and the new player.

What I like best about the Rhapsody MP3 Player:
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So, just going through a major kitchen re-model and I’ve settled on a system for music for the main floor of the house which includes Rhapsody, iTunes, a New Dell PC, a Niles 12 channel Amp, 5 niles volume controllers (3 with auto-mute for the outside), 2 sets of in-ceiling speakers and 3 sets of outdoor speakers. Here’s the situation and my solution:

Situation:
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One of the things I like about the Grammys is that I get an opportunity to listen to new music. I’m kind of an old school rock, folk, jazz type of guy, but love neo-soul like india arie. I have never purchased John Legend music, but saw that he was on the grammy nominee list and read the editorial about him on Rhapsody while listening. I love his music and have added another musician (a new artist no less!) to my listening repertoire. I think I’ll burn his new CD and play it for the missus on Valentine’s Day.

Here is what Rhapsody says about him.
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Fired up Rhapsody this morning and one of the featured albums was the soundtrack to Blow-Up (1966) featuring Herbie Hancock and the Yardbirds. I’ve heard the “greatest hits” of yardbird and knew it was a pivotal band in the British Invasion. I also knew it as the cross over point of the Holy Trinitity: Clapton, Page and Beck. The Blow-up soundtrack has one of only three songs recorded with both Beck and Page together (Stroll On). I listened to Stroll On (sounds like Train Kept a Runnin’) loved it and dove into the Yardbirds section of Rhapsody. Found “Roger the Engineer ” with Clapton and loved it! That’s the power of Rhapsody.

Another good music resource is Wilson and Alroy’s Record Reviews (www.warr.org) who has a great write-up on the Yardbirds.

So I went to see Death Cab For Cutie on Saturday night. As I stood at the show guzzling gin and tonics it dawned on me how valuable Rhapsody has become in my music listening, buying, concert going life.

I’m a total music junkie. That being said the subscription model was never very attractive to me and I didn’t even have a reason for why it wasn’t attractive. I’ve used the Real Player for years but only started seriously using and subscribing to Rhapsody back in the spring of this year.
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