Rhapsody Brings Downloadable Playlists to iPhone

Version 2.0 will not be found in Update Apps

For whatever reason if you go to the App Store on an iPhone with an older version of Rhapsody (I had version 1.1.2 the latest prior to 2.0), it will NOT find 2.0 when you press the Update button. You must search for 'Rhapsody' manually. It will find version 2.0 and you can load it as if it were a totally new application. At that point you will have BOTH your original version and version 2.0. You can delete your older version.

Although I have had a couple of crashes, once I got through those the application has been working as advertised and adds an ability to download the songs in a playlist. Once downloaded (a bit obscure, you have to locate the down arrow icon to initiate the process), you no longer have to be online to play music.

Note I could see that you could quickly fill up your iPhone memory with songs this way. They do not show up in your list of songs since they are part of the Rhapsody application and its database. I also didn't find any tools that would allow you to discover the size or number of songs in that database.

Bottom line, this is a fantastically important step forward for both the iPhone and Rhapsody. Now users can pay a monthly fee and download 'unlimited' music to their iPhones.

Now if only Apple would get with the program and start streaming and all-you-can-eat downloads for iTunes, we would have one stop shopping and not need another application. Are you listening Apple????

Any word on the quality of the locally downloaded songs?

Unknown

fishkorp said:

Any word on the quality of the locally downloaded songs?

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I can't tell any difference between the 256Kbps MP3 that I had in iTunes and the Rhapsody downloaded verion in my iPhone headphones.

That said, ear-buds are sucktastic in their own right, so who knows what this would sound like on a 'reference amp/speaker' setup.

All I can say is that it meets my requirements.

I use a $400 set of in-ear monitors as earbuds, so I can tell the difference in audio quality usually, haha. Guess I'll just give it a try when I get home later.

This really will be worth it once iPhone 4.0 comes out. Hopefully it doesn't take them long time to incorporate the API.

Seems like a pretty decent upgrade so far. I haven't seen the Rhapsody disconnected screen and have no problems downloading over 3g.

Now if only you could multitask and skip the intermediate playlist rigmarole! But a big step forward nonetheless.

$9.99 a month? Really? Pandora is free. I know Pandora doesn't allow you to download playlists, but this is just not worth it.

room237 said:

$9.99 a month? Really? Pandora is free. I know Pandora doesn't allow you to download playlists, but this is just not worth it.

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They're two totally different animals. Pandora is like a radio station in that you never know what you are going to get while Rhapsody is giving you access to their library of music for you to play with any way you like. Rhapsody is perfect for someone who does not have a big library of music.

fishkorp said:

I use a $400 set of in-ear monitors as earbuds, so I can tell the difference in audio quality usually, haha. Guess I'll just give it a try when I get home later.

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Well your headphones are worth more than your phone then!

As much as I like my iPhone and iTouch and iPod, I would never consider them the strongest link in the audio chain. And since I tend to listen to my portable music while traveling on planes, trains, and automobiles -- all of which are on the extreem end of noisy, source audio quality is not my limiting factor either.

Please let us know what you hear!

This will be cool until Spotify comes to the US. If it ever does come. Any music you could ever want for free with some ads in between. Or pay 10 bucks a month and get a higher bitrate (320 Kbps) with no ads. Premium is required for the iPhone app. But there is a premium day pass for less money if you only want to use it on your iPhone occasionally. It also has the ability to download the songs.

This rhapsody has just made me even more excited for Spotify.

AlphaBob said:

For whatever reason if you go to the App Store on an iPhone with an older version of Rhapsody (I had version 1.1.2 the latest prior to 2.0), it will NOT find 2.0 when you press the Update button. You must search for 'Rhapsody' manually. It will find version 2.0 and you can load it as if it were a totally new application. At that point you will have BOTH your original version and version 2.0. You can delete your older version.

Click to expand...

This happened with one of the NPR apps, too (I think it was Public Radio Tuner). I never fully understood the reasoning, related to why they rolled it out as a new app instead of a revision of the old app, but I think that's what they (and the Rhapsody team) did. When I commented on it on my Twitter account, someone from the PR Tuner team sent me a snarky (and uninformative) comment back.

Anyways, it'll be interesting to see how subscription-based music evolves, and whether it can keep a place in the market. This move certainly seems to make subscription content on the iPhone/iPod system more of a serious contender than it ever was before.

LoganT said:

This will be cool until Spotify comes to the US. If it ever does come. Any music you could ever want for free with some ads in between. Or pay 10 bucks a month and get a higher bitrate (320 Kbps) with no ads. Premium is required for the iPhone app. But there is a premium day pass for less money if you only want to use it on your iPhone occasionally. It also has the ability to download the songs.

This rhapsody has just made me even more excited for Spotify.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it'll be great, until people stop bothering to make records at all because they only get paid 0.00017c for someone to download a song to their iphone.

The model doesn't work, for anyone but Rhapsody or Spotify, and it'll be a matter of time before swathes of the catalogue are removed, as has already happened on the latter.

Manxman said:

The model doesn't work, for anyone but Rhapsody or Spotify, and it'll be a matter of time before swathes of the catalogue are removed, as has already happened on the latter.

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I don't know if I necessarilly agree. It is actually a better model for the back-catalog of older music, because sales of that have died off. It keeps steady royalties flowing into the artists that they wouldn't be getting otherwise.

But I do agree that keeping the current music in that format may not be the best solution.

That said, I've been a Rhapsody customer ever since the turned the service on late 2001 or early 2002. I've seen nothing but improvements over the years -- not reductions in service.

Apple has been rumored to be offering a subscription service that would allow downloads. That is one of the reasons they have so jealously guarded their DRM -- they see it as a future revenue generator for music and video and whatever else they can sell.

AlphaBob said:

I don't know if I necessarilly agree. It is actually a better model for the back-catalog of older music, because sales of that have died off. It keeps steady royalties flowing into the artists that they wouldn't be get

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It's actually even worse for back catalogue, most of which has reverted to the Artists ownership or their own licenses. iTunes etc is quite a sweet deal for them. This kills that model dead and requires millions of plays to generate even a tiny amount of income, do the maths yourself, and compare. With downloadable playlists they're completely taking the piss now.

Terrible for the artists, the worst distribution deal ever, and from a company now owned by a couple of majors. They're profiting through subscription and advertising from the world of music catalogue that they don't even own.

Great for the Major labels who own these services though, the artists, if they're lucky and are ever accounted to, pick up a few dollars a year compared to a few dollars for each album sale on iTunes.

For whatever reason if you go to the App Store on an iPhone with an older version of Rhapsody (I had version 1.1.2 the latest prior to 2.0), it will NOT find 2.0 when you press the Update button. You must search for 'Rhapsody' manually. It will find version 2.0 and you can load it as if it were a totally new application. At that point you will have BOTH your original version and version 2.0. You can delete your older version.

Although I have had a couple of crashes, once I got through those the application has been working as advertised and adds an ability to download the songs in a playlist. Once downloaded (a bit obscure, you have to locate the down arrow icon to initiate the process), you no longer have to be online to play music.

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You have to have itunes installed on your pc. Then plug in the ipod, go to file and click transfer purchases from ipod. Once that is done plug in the iphone and it will sync. all checked songs.

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Seems like a good update so far. It is the first time I've seen seen the Rhapsody disconnected screen and have no problems downloading over 3g.Looks great!!!