A few words with Real's Rob Glaser about Rhapsody America

We got a few minutes to chat (once again) with Real's Rob Glaser today, who was kind enough to answer a few lingering questions about Real's freshly announced music alliance with MTV and Verizon called Rhapsody America.

• On Urge and integrating with Rhapsody, "The Urge brand will be retired... but we wanted to be welcoming and loving to existing Urge subscribers" who are now making the migration to Rhapsody.
• On Rhapsody and MTV's strange bedfellows partnership: "Philosophically we have very similar views...", Real intends to leverage "MTV's expertise in genres and content curation", but technologically Real's Rhapsody platform will continue to be what the venture builds off.
  
• For example, one unannounced iteration of that integration would be with "MTV's Top 20 video countdown -- you'll be able to see the countdown and get music directly in Rhapsody."
• On PlaysForSure: "PFS is a legacy system that Microsoft abandoned when they went to Zune." With the Clix2 Rhapsody, Real and iRiver "picked up the mantle of innovation that MS chose to abandon."
• Will real continue to support PFS? "Yes, as long as there is a high volume of devices and we can extend them, we see no reason to stop supporting the legacy architecture."
• On DRM-free music sales: "We think in the long term DRM-free music delivers the best consumer experience, solves the interoperability problem, and better connects with consumers psychologically." Damn skippy.

[Lee @ Aug 21st 2007 5:42PM]

These people really do not know what they are doing.

[Maff @ Aug 21st 2007 5:55PM]

did you ask hom why real player is so terrible?

[Jeff Foster @ Aug 21st 2007 6:09PM]

It's sooo easy to be anti-DRM nowadays, but where was this sentiment earlier in the game, when it was really needed?

jackasses.

talk about sheep.

[Johan S @ Aug 21st 2007 10:29PM]

Should have asked if they are going to deals to be able to easily buy music off radio, or satellite radio. Ideally when I hear a song on the radio, I like .. I want to be able to purchase it. And yea the radio station should deserve a cut. I guess the radio would need some tech to understand code sequences in the song etc.

[Peter @ Aug 21st 2007 6:24PM]

I'm happy to see (in the plug for the iRiver Clix2) that they're not using "Plays For Sure" anymore. I say that not just to be anti-Microsoft, but because I think it gives Real and customers more options.

I have my fingers crossed that Real will choose to add support for synching channels with Clix2 for users of Linux and OS X. The Rhapsody web browser plugin is okay (and in ways better than the windows stand-alone client), but I still want more.

[chezzo @ Aug 21st 2007 6:49PM]

I remember when Urge was going to be the next big thing...

[safaria @ Aug 21st 2007 8:25PM]

it was pretty good, believe it or not. but drm sucked ass

[Jason @ Aug 21st 2007 8:55PM]

I started listening to Rhapsody on my Sennheiser 590s and thought "HMMMM THIS SOUNDS WORSE." So, I downloaded a Rhapsody's song and guess what? The bit rate is 160kbps vs Urge's 192Kbps. Unbelievable.

Crap user interface AND worse quality music. THANKS RHAPSODY!!! I'll wait to see what the new iPod will be like before I renew my subscription.

[Kriptical @ Aug 21st 2007 9:21PM]

Urge was actually pretty cool...I use xp X64 so Urge was the only way to go until now...which is to say..the x64 user is hosed at least until Real gets their act together>< Really not looking forward to junking up my rig with RealPlayer it was lame in the 90's, gotten used to the WMP...meh

[John Papola @ Aug 21st 2007 11:57PM]

This service will most certainly not succeed against iTunes, but that's not the interesting thing about it. What's interesting is how it illustrates the complete idiocy of the Zune as a strategic move for Microsoft. They went from being the software platform for everyone else in digital music that's not Apple to now a single device provider canabalizing their partners while not even slowing the iPod's growth.

Now, we're seeing these jilted partners fracturing the DRM landscape even further. So what happens to Sandisk and Creative? Will they need to license both Playsforsure AND the Rhapsody DRM system? Isn't that a FURTHER competitive disadvantage to Apple given that they have NO drm licensing fees?

So what happens next? Playsforsure fully dies along with DRM...along with Microsoft's hopes of building a profitable licensing business for media platform tech. Good work Redmond. Now, back to my podcasts on my iPhone, which the Zune STILL doesn't support nearly a year later.

[skrati @ Aug 22nd 2007 12:28AM]

Real has always sucked, misled users, and messed up computers. Rhapsody is no different. They've gotten better in some areas only because the entire industry has, but they obviously haven't really changed. And throw in some bitterness and arrogance, and you have a company that no true human could ever like. How they manage to be more annoying than Microsoft while also being a victim of Microsoft's every move surprises even me.

[Macinjosh @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:15AM]

Here we go again with yet another re-branded music subscription service from these companies. Way to confuse the hell outta the consumer, guys. I wonder what they will call themselves next year??

Seriously, im all for competition. But if you cant do it better than iTunes, why even bother??

[Ken @ Aug 22nd 2007 9:55AM]

Real is a cancer. For years they were nothing more than a malware manufacturer. Now they're supposed to be a respected software company worthy of an interview from a tech blog? Fuck that. I'd rather not read about them except to read that they've gone bankrupt.

[Cheeba @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:45PM]

There are a few things that are very interesting here. First is that no one who has commented on this article realizes that the Rhapsody player and Realplayer are completely separate products. The Rhapsody player is built by the old Listen.com team. Second, I think it's funny that no one here realizes that iTunes and Rhapsody are completely different approaches to music. With iTunes you pay for every download, with Rhapsody you subscribe on a monthly basis to access a catalog of music. Both models have their pluses and minuses, but to compare them side by side is comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended). What I think is very exciting is that the influx of cash and marketing muscle from MTV will help educate consumers as to what subscription services such as Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo really are, and also will help Rhapsody iron out some of the kinks in it's software and device connectivity to make the service top-notch. This move really makes the download vs. subscription battle a high-stakes game now, and it comes right at a moment when UMG pretty much gave the middle finger to iTunes for DRM-free content.

[Macinjosh @ Aug 24th 2007 2:20AM]

"This move really makes the download vs. subscription battle a high-stakes game now"

Um, no it doesn't. The sooner these companies realize that subscription based music services don't work, the sooner we can get some real competition to iTunes.

I dont care what kind of offers, packages, advertising or what name they wanna call themselves this year, not many people want to rent their music, dude. Its just a dumb idea & a waste of money.

[Will Thomas @ Aug 31st 2007 4:00PM]

Macinjosh said: "...Um, no it doesn't. The sooner these companies realize that subscription based music services don't work, the sooner we can get some real competition to iTunes.....I dont care what kind of offers, packages, advertising or what name they wanna call themselves this year, not many people want to rent their music, dude. Its just a dumb idea & a waste of money."

Speak for yourself. I have been a happy subscription based music user for the last 3 years.

I don't own the TV shows I watch, I Rent Videos more often than buy them, and I listen to LOTS of music in my car.

With my Rhapsody Sansa, I get tremendous value for my money. I get to listen to the newest albums in full or discover new artists that I'd never take roll the dice with a CD or ITunes purchase.

Example given.

I watch the commercial for Geico Insurance, and that "Remind Me" song from the caveman walking in the airport peeks my curiosity....Nice Beat....kinda cool vibe...

Look up "Remind Me". Hmm. Band's called Royksopp. Ok. Look them up in Rhapsody. It has three albums of theirs available. I've been listening to them for a week now.

Now, will Royksopp ever become one of my "favorite bands"? I Don't know, they are growing on me. Will I buy all their albums? Definitely no. But for my monthly fee of 15 bucks, I've been able to fill my MP3 player with all three albums (a 30 to 45 buck purchase through Itunes). I listen to them until I get tired of them, and ditch them for something else.

With subscription content, I can fully sample and enjoy a years worth of album purchase in less than a week. Not only do I get to "try before I buy" but I also get to "try instead of buy".

If renting entertainment content is such a bad idea, I guess Netflix, Blockbuster, and all the mom and pop video stores out there are simply an aberration.