Rick Broida of PC Magazine recently reviewed both Rhapsody and Napster and gave Rhapsody the nod for Editor’s Choice over Napster. While Rick has some user interface issues with both Rhapsody and Napster, he gives the nod to Rhapsody because of the availability of the Rhapsody catalog on Rhapsody.com music portal. He also likes the way Rhapsody has integrated music videos into the services. “Rhapsody trumps Napster also in the video department: The Music Videos page includes new releases, multiple spotlight artists, browsing by genre and artist, and keyword searches.”

Other things Rick liked about Rhapsody:
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On Nov 1, RollingStone launched it’s first full digital edition. This is pretty cool because they have never put ALL of their articles, reviews, etc. from a single edition online. It is a very interesting combination of words and the ability to hear the songs immediately through Rhapsody Online. If you go to the Charts page (pg. 212), you can listen to most all of the tracks and albums that are on this page. Click here to go to the digital version of 40 years of RollingStone.com

Overall, I like the integration of content and music. However I have some issues with the viewer they are using and how difficult it is to read. Literally, they have re-created all the pages of the magazine in a viewer format. Same pages, same size, same delivery. While kind of cool, it doesn’t work as well as using dynamic web pages and formating the content for the web. There is not an easy way to skip large chunks of pages, the resolution is not great when the entire page is in the viewer and even when expanded to be readeable – it’s not very condusive to browsing and linking. I think they need to ditch this viewer format and figure out a way to integrate the content into the web browser with the same links to play the music. They’ve already started down that path, now the need to finish it.

I’m more excited than a princess dog at a pink sweater symposium! One of my all time favorite bands is finally going to release their full catalog to digital music services. No word from Rhapsody if this includes them (I hope it does!) but the mere thought of accessing Dazed and Confused while at work or digging through albums I haven’t listened to in forever or sampling live and/or rare stuff that I’ve never heard just gives me the willies.

The release is set to coincide with a one night only renuion show at the O2 in London in November and the release of a greatest hits album Mothership. Additionally, LZ has signed a deal with Verizon to sell ringtones. Can’t wait to have a meeting broken up by the opening riff of Whole Lotta Love. Sweet!

Today is environmental support day via the Blog Action Network so I thought that I’d post something about some environmentally friendly musical organizations. Aside from the big names like Bono, many artist support causes ranging from children’s health to the environment – here’s a starting list of organizations harnessing musicians to support the environment.

M.U.S.E. – Musicians United to Support the Environment. An umbrella group of musicians who travel the country, sell CDs and do events to support the environment. www.musemusic.org.
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DRM (Digital Rights Management) free MP3s are the same sort of buy it/use it where you want type music files you get when you buy a CD. As long as you are using it for personal purposes, not re-selling or swapping in the peer to peer networks – they are totally legal eagle. Better yet, because they are in DRM free universal MP3 format – they play on ipods, Sandisks or any MP3 playing device without the need for re-coding – FREE AT LAST! This is hot on the heels of releases by both iTunes and Walmart for selling DRM files – however there are some big differences. The table above helps separate the wheat from the chaff on what’s what.

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Rhapsody has the new Ann Wilson album, Hope & Glory, as an exclusive and it’s worth a listen. Ann’s voice is as strong as ever and she has a slew of people helping her out on 10 of the 12 tracks. If you are expecting Heart part II, don’t bother. The songs are much more melodic and richly textured than Ann’s boogie guitar roots. KD Lange helps out on Goodbye Blue Sky and Jackson which are slow burners better for a Sunday morning than a Saturday Night. Wynonna shows up on “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “Get Together”. While I’ve always loved Heart, can’t say that I love this album. I would have liked to hear some more original songs (hers or others) rather a re-interpretation of some classic rock cuts although I do really like the Blue Grassy version of “Bad Moon Rising” with Gretchen Wilson. Ann still has the chops, but doesn’t do these songs justice. I give the album a C-. Listen for yourself at http://www.rhapsody.com/annwilson/hopeglory and see if it’s worth buying.

I met Luciano Pavarotti in Vienna in the fall of 1986. I was a college exchange student in the EIS program when Bob Funk and I went from major hotel to major hotel in the city looking for a bar that had cold beer and was showing American football on TV. We stumbled into the Sheraton which was just off the Karnterstrasse and while investigating how cold the beer was we noticed a large glassed in room on the far side of the lobby. In the glassed in room was a gleaming black Piano, a small pianist and a larger than life Pavarotti, warming up for a performance of La Boheme at the Vienna Opera House later that week. Being a couple of young knuckle heads – we finished our beers and walked over to get a closer look. Fortunately, we had a camera with us and when we caught his eye we showed him the camera and he nodded his head. We waited about 15 minutes for him to finish and was very kind to take a picture with us and chat a bit. He seemed much taller from far away but was only 5′ 9″ or so but big around! He told us that he was performing and that we should see the opera and experience the music in the historic Vienna Opera House. We thanked him and left. But there’s more.

We learned later that day that in the Vienna Opera House, the royal boxes had been turned into standing room only sections. By arriving at the Opera House early in the day and waiting in a line on the side of the building, you could buy a very inexpensive ticket (about $14 dollars back then), enter around 4pm, secure your spot in the standing room only area with a scarf or coat wrapped around the railings in the box area, go get dinner, then return in time to see the show. It was fantastic! We ended up seeing 5 operas while in Vienna during that semester and I’ve been a low budget fan ever since.
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I’ve always liked Ben Harper, but never loved him. I saw him a few years ago at Bumbershoot and thought the whole lap guitar playing thing was fun and it was a boppin’ show, but never felt the urge to get his music. That’s changes with his new album – Lifeline. He’s a talented guitar player for sure, but his voice has gotten more textured and his music has a nicer groove – he sounds a lot more like Otis Redding than ever before. Less is more for Ben. Songs you have to hear are: Needed You Tonight (slow burner), Say You Will (great summer song) and Put it on me (major taste of funk and Ben’s guitar playin’ – hot!). Check him out on Rhapsody

The creation of Rhapsody American joins RealNetworks, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) and Verizon Wireless in creating a broad scale offering of the music subscription service model. Up until now, Rhapsody has remained a relatively niche product compared to the mammoth that is iTunes/iPod. I’ve always felt that the Rhapsody model is superior from the stand point of enjoying lots of music for a low monthly price, but have always found it lacking in marketing muscle (when was the last time you saw a Rhapsody ad on the side of a bus?). Rhapsody, the service, is also harder to describe to someone whereas you can immediately understand iTunes. I like this deal for a number of reasons:
1) It gives Rhapsody access to the MTV Networks and their marketing clout. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of GOOD Rhapsody ads come out. I like Eric Clapton and all, but the last set of ads I saw about Rhapsody and Sansa were lame.
2) Rhapsody goes mobile by getting on Verizon handsets and service. Verizon has it’s own 3G network and a relatively tight operating system/backend system combination making it easier to roll out new products and services across the network of it’s million of subscribers.
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Today is a day of web radio silence as spearheaded by the SaveNetRadio Coalition in order to fight the proposed rate increases on Web Broadcasters who stream songs via radio channels. The Copyright Royalty Board, in their infinite mis-wisdom, increased prices from $.07 per play to increase to $.19 per play by 2010. This will wipe out the very thin margins internet radio stations have to build unique listening and exploring musical experiences. It is also far more than what Satellite radio is paying for the same music ($.075 per play). For smaller sites and stations like Pandora, it will mean either an exit from the business or changing the business model. For larger music services like Rhapsody, Yahoo Music and Napster – it could mean higher prices for subscriptions.

So, if your internet radio goes silent today, take a moment to writer your congressman to support the Internet Radio Equality Act which would roll back the rate increases and establish a more fair method of payment for the use of the music. Go to www.SaveNetRadio.org for more information.