RealNetworks to launch Rhapsody To Go music subscription service
posted Apr 26th 2005 8:03AM
Remember the back when it was just Apple with iTunes running FairPlay DRMed AAC, getting the whole royalty-levied downloadable music pie to themselves? Then all of a sudden it was everybody else and their mother with the subscription-enabling PlaysForSure DRMed WMA; well, get ready to welcome RealNetworks to the table. Their Rhapsody To Go service (where'd they get that name?), which they claim is going to "revolutionize" music, makes them the latest to take advantage of the music subscription service angle where $15 a month will buy you access to unlimited downloads (as well as make you a member of their regular Rhapsody service). We're not saying this is a bad idea for Real or anything, but we just hope they have a plan to make up for some serious lost ground—say, two Superbowl commercial's worth? Perhaps another sale might be an order?
is it going to come with all the nag screens, buried opt-out and auto-updaters?
that really made Real Player suck over the years!
RA!
Just what we need, another company which sells a crippled product.
I only spend my money on DRM free music thank you very much, take it or leave it!
Seriously, even complete newbs can tell Real sucks ass. Who's going to subscribe to this thing???
Just a brief note: Rhapsody has, as far as I am aware, always used a WMA type of codec. As someone who has been a big fan of Rhapsody but also wanted downloads from time to time, this is a very cool development.
This would truly be "revolutionary" if it was iPod-compatible.
real player are still around?
if any company needed to re-evaluate their attitudes to their users this one is it. even the BBC with their hords of online video and audio are finally switching over to windows media.
Many don't seem to understand. Anyone can download Rhapsody now without a credit card. (and Real did away with their underhanded nag screens, etc a long, long time ago)
Once you have it you can browse over a million tracks (like 90,000 albums) and listen to two albums in full quality each month for free. And listen to ad free radio for free as well.
This is how you can decide which album to buy. listen to it first.
Subs are the way to go, but even if you don;t think so this is surely something that can benefit ANYONE who loves music.
Well, I subscribed and I can tell you: Rhapsody to go is not worth it. Many, many of their tracks are not actually available to go. Of course you don't find this out until you try to transfer them to your new R to go compatible device. I guess I should have paid attention to comment #3 above. I'm not even going to get into the technical problems, which have also been severe.
I'm not sure about this but all the files seem to be in wma format. like the above comment stated Many tracks aren't available to go. And there isn't a good way (unless you have some time on your hands) to make them "to go" . The only way you're going to get these files is to somehow hack into the way they are coded so you can actually use them in something other than their specified player.
I hope real goes belly up. just get soulseek.