Rhapsody

[uva25]

I didn't see this asked in my search but is there a Rhapsody app, similar to Pandora and Last.fm?? If not, any plans in the works?

[vtmikevt]

Very cool. They give you a free trial to use.

I was wondering if you can use the iPhone app and the computer app at the same time on the same account?

Does anyone know if the two can run simultaneously?

[sishaw]

I'm on the free trial, and when it works, it's amazing--access to any music you want almost all the time. I've enjoyed music that would have cost about $ 150 over the past few days (I'm a big fan). Over the past few days I've had a lot of glitchy problems with the iPhone app, though , with skips, loss of connections, and shutdowns (it just shut down in the middle of a beautiful guitar passage by Leo Kottke, aargh!). It's more dependable over wi-fi than 3g, but even wi-fi isn't immune. I've deleted and reinstalled it twice, which temporarily fixes whatever the problem is, but while I love the idea of Rhapsody, I'm hesitant to pay until they get this app working well.

I'm curious if others are having similar experiences, or maybe better experiences?

[james4513]

I'm on the free trial, and when it works, it's amazing--access to any music you want almost all the time. I've enjoyed music that would have cost about $ 150 over the past few days (I'm a big fan). Over the past few days I've had a lot of glitchy problems with the iPhone app, though , with skips, loss of connections, and shutdowns (it just shut down in the middle of a beautiful guitar passage by Leo Kottke, aargh!). It's more dependable over wi-fi than 3g, but even wi-fi isn't immune. I've deleted and reinstalled it twice, which temporarily fixes whatever the problem is, but while I love the idea of Rhapsody, I'm hesitant to pay until they get this app working well.

I'm curious if others are having similar experiences, or maybe better experiences?

Rhapsody is great. I've been a subscriber for a long time. I use, my kids use, it's on our Sonos (whole-house music), and I've had on my Samsung player for a while. Limited use on the iPhone so far, but so far-so good. Worth more if not just for the iPhone. Good luck.

[sishaw]

Rhapsody is great. I've been a subscriber for a long time. I use, my kids use, it's on our Sonos (whole-house music), and I've had on my Samsung player for a while. Limited use on the iPhone so far, but so far-so good. Worth more if not just for the iPhone. Good luck.

Thanks! Good to know you've had a good experience. I enjoy it at home (I pipe it through a computer into speakers or my stereo). And yes, the iPhone app requires you to buy the full $14.99 service which works for regular and mobile streaming.

[gloss]

Rhapsody, as a service, is excellent.

The iPhone app, however, has a crucial Achilles' heel: horrible, horrible streaming quality. We're talking 64kbps lossy lossy crap.

[sishaw]

Rhapsody, as a service, is excellent.

The iPhone app, however, has a crucial Achilles' heel: horrible, horrible streaming quality. We're talking 64kbps lossy lossy crap.


Right, this is just for portable listening. If I really like something, I'll either download a high bitrate version or buy the CD, or listen at home where I can focus more. Meanwhile, having an endless supply of music while I'm at work or travelling sells it for me. I'm more concerned with the fact that the app is glitchy even for what it does. Is that just me or do others have the same issue?

Having said that, I'd rather have a higher bps and the ability to keep a certain number of tracks in the iPhone's memory, of course.

[pooryou]

The sound quality is not listenable. Makes everything else irrelevant.

Like a restaurant where the food is not edible...waste of time.

[gloss]

New App update is on the store: 1.1. Boasts improved sound quality. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet (phone is out of batteries), but I'm hoping it's finally listenable.

[Shorties]

Rhapsody updated their application to support downloads, and off air listening a few days ago. I was wondering if anyone has tried it out, and what they think of it? Last time I tried Rhapsody the quality was 64kbs and to the point where it was unlistenable to me, (And I am no audiophile by any means) If it sounds worse than Pandora it isn't acceptable. I would try it out myself except it currently isn't compatible with 4.0 (Crashes during startup in beta 1, if anyone has gotten it to run on 4.0 please tell me how, and which beta). So how is the quality? Is it worth the Hamilton a month?

[Pheelyx]

I just tried it a few days ago, I did the 14 day trial subscription. I used it for a couple hours and then canceled it.

I guess I just like apps that are easier to use. But didn't really like the way the app handled the downloaded music or how you accessed it with offline mode.

There's rumors that Slacker is fixing to add caching, so I think I will wait to see what they come up with.

Just wish someone would come up with a music subscription that was totally awesome, like :apple:

[Shorties]

I just tried it a few days ago, I did the 14 day trial subscription. I used it for a couple hours and then canceled it.

I guess I just like apps that are easier to use. But didn't really like the way the app handled the downloaded music or how you accessed it with offline mode.

There's rumors that Slacker is fixing to add caching, so I think I will wait to see what they come up with.

Just wish someone would come up with a music subscription that was totally awesome, like :apple:

Yeah, I remember being frustrated with the usability with the old one as well. How was the audio quality? Was it noticeably low res?

[fishkorp]

Spotify is supposed to be coming to the US this summer.


Still have not installed the Rhapsody update (using 4.0b2). When I do, I'll be sure to let you know if it keeps crashing.

[fishkorp]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7D11 Safari/531.21.10)

App immediately crashes in b2 as well.

[ozzyman500]

I've been looking into a few online radio services like Sirius, Rhapsody, etc. The Rhapsody app seems to be getting good reviews. Is it worth $10 a month? Any opinions on this, or should I sign up for a free trial? Thanks!

[LePigeonBleu]

I've been looking into a few online radio services like Sirius, Rhapsody, etc. The Rhapsody app seems to be getting good reviews. Is it worth $10 a month? Any opinions on this, or should I sign up for a free trial? Thanks!

+1...

i'm curious too.

[thelatinist]

I like WunderRadio, which is not a subscription service, but which provides a single interface for accessing thousands of radio feeds from all over the world. Not commercial-free, of course, but it should have stations that will please almost anyone.

[bks691]

I did not like my experience with Rhapsody back in 2006 with my dumb phone. When I purchased the first iPhone I cancelled the Rhapsody monthly billing and lost all my music. I guess I should have read the contract about the drm :( maybe they have changed their policy? I'm not sure.

[labman]

Rhapsody lets you crate a personalized player list and that is what you are getting for the $10 but in order to actually own the song and download you have to buy the song also. songs cost $1.29 personally I like wunderradio in ootunes along with Pandora, slacker is another good one. Amazon tends to be cheaper then itunes and Rhapsody.

[Shorties]

Well I downgraded from the 4.0 Beta to the current 3.1.3 (OR whatever it is) so that I could try out the new Rhapsody app. I just got Rhapsody on my TiVo a few days ago, so I liked the idea of being able to access my playlists on either my TiVo, iPhone or computer. The main problem I have with Rhapsody in general is the navigation is just unnecessarily difficult on both the iPhone and TiVo. The other issue that plagues the application is the low quality audio, while its better than I remembered it last time I played with it, its still not up to the standards of 128kbs AAC which I consider my minimum. That said I am going to keep playing with it for at least a month to see if I can get comfortable with using it.

Liked

Only $10 (It really is a bargain)
Downloadable Playlists for Offline Streaming
Unlimited Music
Pre-made playlists available
If you have Windows with access to you music folder (Such as through parallels as I did) you can run the actual Rhapsody application on your computer have it scan your music folder and register all your music as being "In your Library" so that you can access anything they have the legal rights to stream wherever you are, regardless of if you synced your phone with that song.


Disliked

Audio quality is 64kbs AAC (Last time I checked which was when I first tried this application, if that has changed since then I would be curious to know, but it sure still sounds like it)
Application navigation is slow and unintuitive
Does not support the 4.0 beta
Noticeably Low Res Album art

[ajumbaje]

Don't know how rhapsody works, but with the trial or subscription, can you download songs and then put them on an iPod, or does it not work that way?

[Shorties]

Don't know how rhapsody works, but with the trial or subscription, can you download songs and then put them on an iPod, or does it not work that way?

If you have an iPod touch or iPhone then yes, you have to download and listen to them within the Rhapsody app though.