Rhapsody approved for iPhone
If you were hoping for Apple to announce a subscription-based music service for the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Wednesday like I was, suppress your disappointment: early this morning, Apple approved Rhapsody for iPhone, and it's available in the iTunes Store.
It's the second such service Apple has approved, but the first, Spotify, is not available in the United States. (The Rhapsody application is not showing up in search results quite yet, but it is showing up within iTunes.)
(Credit:
Rhapsody)
Rhapsody was a pioneer in subscription-based music, and I'm a big fan of the service; in 2005, it was the first one to turn me on to the thrill of chasing your whims and surfing randomly among genres, which you can't do with per-download services like iTunes.
In my most recent trial late last year (in conjunction with the Sonos multiroom audio system), I wasn't able to find any significant gaps--if anything, there was too much music, including more versions of the novelty song "Kung Fu Fighting" than I ever imagined--and there is some excellent curation and editorial work, particularly for indie rock artists.
The iPhone app is pretty straightforward: you can search for songs, surf genres and chart-toppers, and create queues and playlists. If you're a fan of Pandora, you'll also appreciate the Rhapsody Radio feature, which creates tailor-made stations built around particular artists or genres. As long as you have an active Wi-Fi or 3G connection, the music should keep playing without interruption.
It's a free download, but to use it, you'll need a Rhapsody to Go subscription, which costs $14.99 a month. That's not quite as good a deal as Microsoft's Zune Pass, which costs the same and gives you 10 permanent MP3 downloads a month, but of course that service requires a Zune, which means that it applies only to about 1.1 percent of the MP3 player market (according to a statistic that Apple snarkily included in its presentation Wednesday) and exactly zero mobile phones.
Apple appears to have seen the light, as it is now allowing subscription-based music to come to the iPhone. It makes my phone's 8GB storage size seem a lot less limiting.
Follow Matt on Twitter.
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff. 
Anyway, I don't see what is wrong with giving people the option of subscription music. Some people like it and others don't. It you don't like it, don't pay for it and buy songs individually.
The metallic forehead stamp also please
I await such an existence....
After all; why be out in the good weather riding a bike, swimming laps at the pool, walking or hiking with friends, having conversations IN PERSON, or helping others?..when I could be obsessing Ad nauseam about apps and our blind subservience to a fruit named gigantic corporation filled with similar drones and mantra spouting corporate snitches?..
Rhapsody also, in some ways, is an alternative to iTunes, you can use your iphone or ipod.
Way to go Apple!
Subscription-based music over 3G is pretty exciting.
Rhapsody has a fairly extensive collection of Trance and Progressive and being able to tap into subscription based music on demand, wirelessly, anywhere (and not just on a PC) is just huge.
I'd definitely enjoy it. All I need is a Rhapsody app on Android and an Android phone on Verizon. -__-'
"... AT&T have the WORST network in existence ..."
There is absolutely no way you, nor anyone, could ever know such a thing to be true. You have not been around the world testing all mobile networks, with all mobile devices, so you should not make such a claim. Stick to facts. While AT&T may not offer the best coverage in your house, or at your place of employment, or with your particular mobile device, that does not mean the same is true for all people/places/devices.
I've traveled all over the country and several places overseas and I can tell you that AT&T's network sucks. Period.
I finally switched to Verizon.
The iPhone is a great device, just as long as you don't want it to be a great phone. Unfortunately, that's on AT&T, not Apple.
At least my Blackberry Storm always has good coverage, and I've been able to snych it with Rhapsody since day 1.
I have also traveled all over the US and I can tell you that in experience AT&T's network is more reliable and provides better coverage than my Verizon phone ever did.
As filipak said - just because that's your experience that doesn't mean that's the same experience that the rest of us have...
I use Rhapsody and have for years. This is the same concept as your cable "subscription"...both TV and Internet access. If you stop paying your cable bill, no more TV or Internet. Of course, you could listen to the radio for free, but that's not quite the same right?
If you don't want to keep paying $15 / month to carry around however many songs your non iPod mp3 player can handle, stop paying. If you want the music again, turn back on the subscription. I don't miss $15 / month for unlimited music.
Do I still think it's worth it? That's a good question everyone must ask themselves and make their own individual choice. A straight up yes/no answer does not apply to everyone and my choice only applies to me.
I'm glad they are making the subscription service availalble. There are alot of people who use it and love it on other platforms, and it's about time the apple community has the choice. Good for you guys. I suspect a few people will be changing their tune on subscription based services now that they have the opportunity to try it now.
A 64kbps stream sounds like someone sucked the stereo separation out of the music and then shaved most the high frequencies off the top. A trashy FM transmitter connected to an iPod sounds better than this (and that's not saying a whole lot).
1) each of my kids and I can transfer as much music as we want to our mp3 players-between the three of us, we have over 4,000 songs on our players right now;
2) all three of us can search for any songs we've heard of or about, or any bands we're interested in, listen to ALL of every single one, and decide to add some or all of them to our mp3 players without paying a dime extra
3) using their interface, we can spend as much time as we like listening to all of any song we come across, and follow trails of "similar artists" to our hearts content. Over the past two years, we've collectively found hundreds of new bands we had never heard of, listened to their songs (in their entirety, and without ads of any sort) and added countless of them to our devices.
I get that the argument that you want to own your music. But how many discs do you have that you had to buy and don't listen to any more? What percent of your collection will you listen to in 5 years? With Rhapsody, I can add a entire albums to my device, listen to them in their entirety at my leisure, keep and delete what I like, and never pay for something I don't end up listening to. For the cost of-at most- 18 discs a year, I can listen to 10,000 discs, and hold them on my player for as long as I like. If you are a music lover, I don't see how Rhapsody can be beat.
The thing that bugs me (and that has stopped me from becoming an iPod owner), is that you are still NOT able to download tracks for off-line listening, which is not the case with the other "Rhapsody To-Go"-compatible players.... So the Apple's iPod is *not quite there* yet, but a one step closer in the right direction.
By the way I am one of those that use this to constantly review new music and buy what I want. We exist.
Perhaps for someone, somewhere, on some device, under some conditions at some time it MAY be the best network... - hey, maybe T could capture that in a sales pitch!?
http://viral-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/09/top-10-iphone-apps-for-bloggers.html
- by Ray180 September 14, 2009 6:51 AM PDT
- Um, No. This does not quality as having subscription music on the iPhone. Until you can pay a regular monthly fee AND have access to millions of songs AND download them to the iPhone so you can listen to them anytime, anywhere, it is not a subscription service. This app requires you to have a wi-fi connection and you can only stream the music and it's less than cd quality? Is this some kind of joke?
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(41 Comments)