Downloading a track from Rhapsody is not the same as buying the track from Rhapsody. Why? Because Rhapsody is a subscription service that has whiz bang technology that let’s you put songs that are “downloaded” from Rhapsody on your harddrive or MP3 player to listen to as much as you want WITHOUT paying for it (other than the monthly subscription). However, if you do want to OWN it and put it on a CD mix or some other media that can’t attach to the internet and look-up whether you have rights to it or not, then you can buy it for only $.89 per song (cheaper than iTunes).

One of the things I like about Rhapsody are the descriptions of artists and albums. The are often funny, interesting and insightful. I like the comparisons to other bands and the sincerity of the copy. The Rhapsody editorial team is responsible for these and more (artist acquisition, pre-programmed stations and playlists, etc.) and have been recognized with awards and accolades. Now they have been selected as the musical advisors to the new CBS series “Tuesday Night Book Club” which debutted last night. NICE!

So, I’ve been using both the Rhapsody.com web music service and the Rhapsody 3.1 music player back and forth and there are some big differences in both features and quality of streams. Rhapsody.com is still a relatively new service so I think it will get better, but I prefer to download the full Rhapsody 3.1 client and use that. I have a Rhapsody Unlimited account (which you can get here for free for 14 days and 5 free song downloads) which you can use for both so there is no difference in monthly costs, but here’s the break-down on the other issues.

Rhapsody.com – uses an active X plug-in for explorer 6+, firefox 1.01+, safari 1.3+(mac) and Netscape 8+. This is nice because MACs and Linux users can get Rhapsody (there is not a player version that supports MAC and Linux yet). The plug-in lets you surf the Rhapsody.com website, find the music you want and play it in a separate music player window. The music player window stays live while your doing stuff on the net in other browsers, etc which is nice. The upside is that you can go from 0 to music faster than using the Rhapsody 3.1 client because it is a couple of clicks away. Since the plug-in is much smaller than the player client everything uploads more quickly. The downside is that the streams tend to be spottier meaning that I experience more stop/pause/load issues while playing. The other downside is that there are features like CD Burning, ripping CDs, creating personalized radio stations, creating playlists and managing music in a central library that aren’t available from the website yet.
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The following instructions for burning a cd with Rhapsody assumes the fact that you have a CD burner on your computer, you have tracks on your harddrive that you have either ripped from CDs, imported from somewhere, purchased through a service or otherwise own and that you have a subscription to Rhapsody (don’t laugh – you’d be suprised at the email I get).

1. Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW into the drive on your computer.
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First of all, why would you want to? It’s a great service, very inexpensive (less than the cost of one CD per month) and works very well with broadband services. However, you really want to cancel, you need to call RealNetworks who is the owner/operator of Rhapsody.

Try fixing the problem using the online FAQ first (if you are having problems) here http://service.real.com/contact/help.html?product=rhapsody
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Just read this morning that Rhapsody is replacing iTunes as the default music service on HP computers. This is a great win for Rhapsody and hopefully will expose more people to the superior music discovery and listening service that Rhapsody is.

I haven’t found a good posting or info from Real on all the different versions of Rhapsody and what they do so I thought I’d dig-in and try to explain. Each version of Rhapsody has a different set of entitlements in terms of what you can listen to. The more you pay in subscription fees, the more you can do with the music. Here are the basics:
1) www.Rhapsody.com – this is the web based version of Rhapsody Music Service and the newest edition to the family. This is really a different way to get music vs new or different entitlements. At Rhapsody.com, you can check out all the editorial content on bands that is included in the Rhapsody database, however you must download and install a very small active X program that lets you play music over the internet. You must also register in order to get music. With a free registration, you have access to 25 radio stations and 25 free song plays per month (this means that you can listen to the same song 25 times or 25 different songs once). If you sign-up for Rhapsody Unlimited, you can listen to all of the songs you want online for only $9.99 per month – this is the version I have an love it.
2) Rhapsody Radio – this is a slimmed down version of Rhapsody that is sold through internet service providers ($4.95 per month). I first discovered this at SpeakEasy.net which is my home and office ISP. It was included with SpeakEasy and go me hooked on Rhapsody. Don’t think you can buy this anywhere online anymore.
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