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.
more »

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.
more »

Is this the first step towards the Beatles catalog being online or just Paul’s way of making a little extra $$ to pay off his horrid ex-wife/gold digger? Either way - I love it! Rhapsody has everything including an album entitled Paul Talks which is a series of clips from radio programs, etc. There are 25 McCartney albums plus compilations and performances on other artists albums.

Did you know that Paul released his first album two weeks before Let It Be was released? Here is the album review from Rhapsody on the first McCartney solo album. “This home-recorded charmer is the most humble No. 1 album in pop history. In 1970, Paul McCartney was ostracized from the rest of the Beatles and was holed up in a shack with his family on the Scottish coast. Filled with anger and frozen by the legacy of the Lennon/McCartney partnership, Macca decided just to record for fun, setting the stage for the rest of his solo career. Bypassed at the time, the future hit “Maybe I’m Amazed” is an autobiographical marvel (as is “Every Night”). “Junk” is a real beauty like “Teddy Boy” it was ixnayed by Lennon as a Let it Be-era Beatles song. Paul plays everything on this one.
more »

As if the titans of music industry didn’t have enough bad karma in their ethereal bank account, now they are on another round of “sue people who can’t protect themselves in court because it is expensive” for illegally downloading music. A couple of stories were recently posted on MSN and Seattle PI about the lawsuits and letters delivered to college students and individuals regarding illegally downloaded music. While the main story is old news, the real story buried in the PI article discusses how file sharing software like Limewire, BearShare, etc. leave open a perfectly legitimate access point that allows RIAA researchers the ability to scan harddrives. This is scary for a couple of reasons: 1) if the RIAA can get in to see how many illegal downloads you have, who else can get in to mess with your computer? 2) If RIAA can see illegal music downloads, what can other people see on your system?

While I understand the RIAA’s need to protect it’s artists and labels from piracy, there has got to be a better way to deal with music piracy than sue the people who form the foundation of your customer base. Especially by invading their privacy. Legal services like Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo give you legal access to most of the music you want for a very small monthly fee and is a much safer way to go about having access to large music collections.
more »

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.
more »

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.

Great article on the money section of CNN today discussing the music model of the future (which we’ve know for a while) which is the great Jukebox in the sky. Read the article here.Main points include the fact that the music portion of iPhone (iTunes) is built on a business model of the past - buying and owning music, while Rhapsody is the model of the future - instant access to any music, anywhere, anytime. As Rhapsody extends it’s reach to more than just the PC (now on mp3 players like Sansa Rhapsody and in-home devices like Sonos and Squeezebox), it won’t be long until it’s on cell phones, car radios and boom boxes. The fact that the mp3 player can plug into anything that has an auxilary input is a half-step there already, but as wide area wireless networks roll-out (Clearwire anyone?) the ability to access the Rhapsody Jukebox will become more ubiquitous and require less per song owning and more discovery of new music. Good times lay ahead.

I’ve been playing with the Sansa Rhapsody and trying to see what all it can do. On my last road trip, I built a couple of artist based custom channels in Rhapsody and transfered to my SansaRhapsody to see what Rhapsody kicked out. I’m going to see the Dixie Chicks tonight in Tacoma so put together a country music channel with my favorite hillbillies including: Dixie Chicks, Jerry Jeff Walker, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Clint Black, Dwight Yoakum, Jimmy Buffett (close enough), Willie Nelson and Brad Paisley. You can pick up to 10 artists and allow Rhapsody to pick the songs, pick additional artists and fill out a channel.

The Good:
more »

PC World first looks gave a nice review of Rhapsody 4.0 giving it 8 of 10 stars. Read it here. I think Edward hits on one of the best things about Rhapsody (and music subscription services in general) in that the risk of listening to new music is drastically reduced. In the past, you’d have to hear enough of a new band/artist before buying it or borrowing it from a friend to burn. You would risk time, dollars and effort to see if you liked new music or even the new album from one of your favorite bands. The Modern Times album from Dylan is a perfect example. While I like several songs on it, not sure I’d want to plunk down the $15 for the CD. However, I can listen to it whenever I want on Rhapsody. The risk is only my time as the music is included in my monthly subscription cost - which is less than $15 for all the music I want!