A Copyfighter’s Musings

Following up on last week’s pre-announcement announcement: news (via Postplay)
of a Rhapsody portable subscription service was leaked today. 
Apparently, it will employ Janus DRM, just like Napster To Go – as I
did last week, Joe Gratz notes the interesting implications for Real’s DRM strategy.  I wonder if they’ll also upgrade their client and allow tethered downloads like Napster Premium – more to follow tomorrow after the announcement.

Update: More details
in the press release (via PostPlay).  I just installed the client
and in many respects it seems like a significant improvement. 
Rhapsody now appears to be Real’s all-in-one music jukebox tool.
Without any payment, you apparently can get 25 downloads per month –
not sure exactly how this works, see the press release.  As I
suspected, Rhapsody’s subscription service (renamed Rhapsody Unlimited)
now will allow downloads.  Finally, Real has also integrated the
Real Music Store with Rhapsody.  I don’t know if the 79 cent/song
burn rate is gone, but now Rhapsody Unlimited subscribers get a ten
percent discount from the Real Music Store.  The Playlist Central
feature is a lot like Apple’s iMix.  The new Rhapsody To Go is
debuting with an offer for a 100 dollar rebate on an iRiver if you
subscribe for a full year.  Joe points out that simply matching
Napster’s pricing isn’t that bold, but I’m pretty sure Real is tightly
constrained by the the labels on the portable subscription price point
– I think the royalty rates are higher, and the labels have put
pressure to pursue tiered pricing based on functionality.

Filed by Derek Slater at 1:15 am under General news
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