I’ve been playing with the new search box on Rhapsody.com which was launched in December and I must say it is vastly improved over the previous search experience. Two big changes:
1) two new drop down categories have been added - By Lyrics and By Video.
2) the search results display as you type out the letters. For example if you type inn Dan it shows all the artists that start with dan - as you type in more letters it gets closer to what you need.
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We’ll chalk this one up to glass half-full. Led Zeppelin in now on Rhapsody but only as a catalog to buy, not stream. It’s nice to see the entire catalog and there are some live interview clips, but unfortunately, we can’t stream them. I don’t see Led Zeppelin at all on Napster (other than some lame tribute bands) so score another one for the Rhapsody label relationships.

Not to fear! You can stream Led Zeppelin on Rhapsody via the Classic Rock music channels (located on the channel guide tab) AND the Led Zeppelin artist channel (located in the upper right side of the Led Zeppelin artist page). If you have Zep albums on your harddrive, make sure you have imported them into your Rhapsody library (file > add media to my library) and rock on!

I’ve just added a new page in the How To’s section that describes how to create and burn a custom CD with Rhapsody. When RealNetworks acquired Rhapsody 4 years ago, one of the things they were able to add to the Rhapsody client was a really nice CD burning technology that is available in the premium version of RealPlayer. The CD Burner in Rhapsody creates a really good sounding, well balanced CD that burns in a .CDA format which is the widely distributed version in standard CDs. Click here to read how to burn a custom CD with Rhapsody.

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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I just updated my Rhapsody client to version V4.0 build 1.193 (In Rhapsody go to help > check for updates to get the latest version). This is a great thing to do because it brings back the Mixer. If you used Rhapsody V2.0 or V3.0, the mixer was the main way to build play qeueus based on songs you’ve selected and you can also drag songs into it to play next. The Rhapsody Mixer let’s you line up a bunch of music to play and gives you a list of what you’ve been listening to. It’s like a quickie playlist that you don’t have to save. It rocks!

I’ve only recently been watching/digging the music videos on Rhapsody.com and the Rhapsody Music Service. Some of my favorites are the live performances from the Rolling Stone Exclusives. I’m learning guitar and it’s a great way to pick up some pointers on the songs that I’m learning. Check out this great video from KT Tunstall - Black Horse and Cherry Tree. I love how she records some tracks and uses them to back her up while singing the track. Very cool.

I spent the New Year’s holiday with my family and friends on the East side of the mountains in glorious shoulder high snow. The person we were staying with had gotten DSL to his house late last year and I gave him the full scoop on rhapsody which he wanted to try. When we went to Rhapsody.com to listen to some tunes, it became clear very quickly that Rhapsody.com and IE 7 don’t get along. I became even more outraged when I was unable to download FireFox onto my friends computer because it was blocked by IE7! Apparently, the default security setting in IE 7 is medium high which limits downloading a lot of items including software from www.micrsoft.com. Nice work Microsoft! After changing the security settings in IE7, I was able to download firefox and get everything working, but boy - what a pain! Here’s the lesson: Don’t download and use IE7 yet - let everyone catch up to it first (including Microsoft :-))

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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Playlists are lists of songs you create to take care of a certain mood (rockin’, lovin’, etc.), artist (The Tragically Hip) or situation (party, dinner, random). They are easy to create, live with your Rhapsody account regardless of which computer you are on and can be shared to the public or emailed to a friend. Here is the simplest way to create a playlist:

1) You need to have the songs you want on the playlist either in Your Library or in The Mixer. You can add songs to Your Library just by clicking on the “+” button next to the album, song or artist. The Mixer automatically adds the songs played recently.
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Your library in Rhapsody is a central spot for finding, organizing and managing your music whether it is music you have streamed from the online Rhapsody Music library or music that you have burned to your harddrive from a CD or music that you have downloaded from Rhapsody or music you have purchased from rhapsody. The My Library function gives you a nice iTunes like interface for quickly finding an artist, album, genre or track that you have previously listened to through Rhapsody.

Everytime you find a new song and play it through Rhapsody, it is added to your library automatically. Anytime you burn, download or rip a song - it is added to your library. It’s the fastest way to find music that you have already listened to.
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