rhapsody

Haier releases flash-based Ibiza Rhapsody

Home appliance and electronics manufacturer Haier America leaped into the portable media player market last year with the 30GB Ibiza Rhapsody, a jack-of-all-trades device that came loaded with features, including Wi-Fi music downloading. Even at the time, hard-drive-based MP3 players were a dying breed, so it's no surprise that the Ibiza was followed up by a flash-based sibling of the same name. The flash Ibiza Rhapsody offers most of the same extras as its slightly larger family member, but comes in a different array of colors and with either 4GB ($199) or 8GB ($229) of memory. It's large … Read more

Summertime is JamBase time

Although you wouldn't know it from the weather in Seattle (colder than Siberia!), summer's almost here, and that means lots of touring bands are passing through town.

As always seems to happen when summer approaches, I've been on a live music roll: a couple friends' bands last Friday, Return to Forever on Sunday (Stanley Clarke is the best bass player I've ever seen, but the four of them together--that's a lot of notes!), and guitarist Bill Frisell with violinist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston last night (great players doing a remarkable blend of avant-jazz … Read more

iPhone 3G not instilling fear in Apple's music foes

LOS ANGELES--Apple's upgraded iPhone didn't inspire fear in at least two of the biggest subscription music sites--even before they learned that the device wouldn't let people download music via the new 3G network.

"I'm not trembling," Anu Kirk, Rhapsody's director of product management, said Monday at the iHollywood conference. "I'm sure they are going to sell a lot of second-generation iPhones. It's a fantastic product but they can't take over the United States with just one carrier."

Kirk was speaking on a panel discussing the mobile music category … Read more

Lala.com's pay-per-stream program faces tough competition

Lala.com has a history of coming up with innovative ideas that don't quite conquer the world. The company is best known for its online used-CD trading service, which is an interesting idea but works well only if you have a large list of CDs available to trade.

It also offers a music "locker" service that allows you to upload your music then listen to it from any computer with an Internet connection...but it only works with MP3 files, so you're out of luck if you've been using (for example) iTunes to rip your … Read more

MP3 Insider 94: Top 5 online music services

Jasmine invites Peter Gavin from Download.com music to discuss their favorite online music stores. Plus, two listeners call in about iPod trading and MP3 players that use swappable batteries. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 94

Topic: Our top 5 online music stores (in no particular order)Amazon MP3: http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b/ref=sa_menu_dmusic2?ie=UTF8&node=163856011&pf_rd_p=328655101&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=042ED91AXJKXBZP8TDB3 eMusic: http://www.emusic.com/ Music.download: http://music.download.com/ Daytrotter: http://www.daytrotter.com/ Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/home.html… Read more

More song information, please

Last night, I had an interesting experience that pointed out a drawback of digital music services compared with the tried-and-true CD (or LP, or cassette). For the last few years, I've played with a very occasional pickup band--maybe one party a year, preceded by a half dozen rehearsals, then everybody back to their jobs/families/"real" bands. This year, we're playing a St. Patrick's Day party, and in the past, we've done a version of the Phish instrumental "First Tube." We wanted a quick refresher, so one of the guitarists fired up … Read more

Subscription music's future, Part 2

Yesterday, I spoke about the history of the subscription music model, its roadblocks, and the major players committed to its success. In part 2 of this feature, I'm going to outline some areas of growth for subscription music, share some comments from Rob Williams of Rhapsody, and take a closer look at Microsoft's approach with their Zune Marketplace.

So far, we're seeing three music device trends that will shape digital music in coming months and years: digital audio on more device types (cell phones, MP3 players, UMPCs, in-car GPS, car stereos, home stereos, laptops, Squeezeboxes, boomboxes, Chumbys, … Read more

Subscription music's future, Part 1

Rhapsody launched the first high-profile subscription music service in December 2001, in the middle of a revolution. The first iPod had just hit the shelves, streaming Web radio sites like Live365.com were in full bloom, and the masses were just warming to the idea that they could preview and discover music online. A service like Rhapsody, which promised subscribers unlimited access to its growing music catalog, made music junkies salivate. It also pointed the way to a brave new world where people no longer needed physical or virtual media.

The future didn't go quite as planned, however. Because … Read more

Logitech Squeezebox Duet: First hands-on impressions

UPDATE: The full review is now up at CNET.com.

The Logitech Squeezebox Duet, our pick for the best home audio product of CES 2008, has just shown up at the office. We spent a few minutes with the system before at CES, but this has been our first chance to sit down and live with the product in our own environment. A full review will follow, but in the meantime, here are some off-the-bat first impressions: … Read more