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realnetworks posts

Filed under: Audio, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Real Networks submitting Rhapsody music service for iPhone. Duck!

by Mel Martin (RSS feed) on Aug 24th, 2009

Now this will be interesting to watch. RealNetworks, not always best of friends with Apple, is submitting an iPhone app so subscribers can access the Rhapsody music service.

The app is designed to be full-featured, and will let Rhapsody subscribers get easy control of the on-demand music service. Real Networks has described the app's operation on its Rhapsody blog:
You'll see a menu bar across the bottom of the screen, as is found in many apps. You'll have the option to check out the queue, your library, browse the Rhapsody library (ahem, all 8 million + songs of it), search, and settings. The app has all the functionality of the client, or Rhapsody.com, only super portable.
The Rhapsody app is designed to stream music over 3G, EDGE or Wi-Fi networks. If approved, it will require a Rhapsody To Go account, which is US$15.00 per month. Spotify, a similar European music service, also has an app awaiting approval for the iPhone.

Apple already allows the Sirius/XM app, which is a different, but still a paid subscription service, and of course Pandora, Last.fm and other streaming music services.

All these apps are competition to iTunes, so the world will be watching to see if Apple draws the line with RealNetworks, or keeping a careful eye on the FCC, approves it.

Tags: app store, FCC, iPhone, iPod touch, RealNetworks, Rhapsody, streaming music

Universal Music CEO says iPods are "repositories for stolen music"

by Laurie A. Duncan (RSS feed) on Nov 13th, 2006

Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris is the latest tech exec to call iPod users thieves. Ballmer started it. Then came Glaser - who also dared call His Steveness "pigheaded." The comment was made in the context of the UMG boss stumping for Zune and applauding Microsoft's agreement to pay protection money extortion royalties to the bag man Universal with every Zune sold.

About the iPod, Morris said "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,. So it's time to get paid for it."

Gee, Doug, you're not still bitter about Apple rebuffing trying to buy your company, are you? Never mind. That was a rhetorical question.

Tags: apple, ballmer, don't steal music, Don'tStealMusic, doug morris, DougMorris, glaser, ipod, realnetworks, umg, universal music, universal music group, UniversalMusic, UniversalMusicGroup

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, iPod Family, iTS, iTunes

Best Buy Digital Music Store is latest to take on iTunes

by Laurie A. Duncan (RSS feed) on Oct 8th, 2006

Have you heard the big news? Best Buy, RealNetworks and SanDisk have teamed up to launch a new digital music store, powered by Real's Rhapsody 4.0 - doing their part to save digital music everywhere from extinction.

To help kick things off, Puff Daddy Sean Combs Sean Puffy Combs Fuzzy Wuzzy P. Diddy Diddy will be releasing an exclusive track from his new album for the launch, which is slated for October 15, 2006. Since you can't launch a digital music store without your own digital music player to play those freshly downloaded tracks on, the SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody MP3 player (boy, that just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) is optimized to work "seamlessly" with the Best Buy Digital Music Store.

Before you go thinking all this glorious music is free, let me fill you in on the pricing. You get a free 2-month subscription to the music store when you buy a SanDisk Sansa, which will set you back $139 for the 2gig model and $249 for the 8gig model. The subscription is for unlimited tunes. The catch? If you don't sign up for a not-free subscription after 2 months, you won't be able to listen to those songs anymore. The basic subscription service will normally be priced at $14.99/month but you can also just "buy" individual tracks for 99 cents each, just like iTunes.

I don't know about you, but I prefer my digital music services and devices to have names I can pronounce and easy acronyms for when I'm feeling particularly lazy, so BBDMS + Rhapsody 4.0 + SDSe200RRMP3(p) = headache, whereas Apple + iTS + iPod = the true Best Buy.

Tags: BBDMS, best buy, BestBuy, diddy, iTMS, itunes killer, ItunesKiller, realnetworks, rhapsody, sansa

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