01.17.08

Offline Rhapsody Access?

Posted in Services at 4:31 pm by Jonathan Greene

Thoughtfix is running a new poll today to see whether people would be interested in offline access to Rhapsody.

In my initial post on Rhapsody I concluded that local storage would complete the experience and I still feel that way today. Rhapsody works great on the tablet, but for streaming only and even though we are talking about the internet tablet here, there are plenty of times when you don’t have or want to use a connection. Local playback would really be handy with subscription content and in my experience has led me to purchase albums I was able to first “trial” via Rhapsody. For streaming only access though Rhapsody, seems a bit much to pay for when you can get most of the same experience from last.fm or pandora - though perhaps not so easily on your tablet. The main benefit is that you can create your own playlists in rhapsody while with internet radio you are only able to listen to what’s been programmed (thanks RIAA!).

I know quite a few people are not interested in DRM on the tablet (or anywhere), but there are certainly positive ways to spin this in the case of subscription services…. There really would not be any way to offer a subscription service without DRM or watermarking at the minimum.

If you’ve got an opinion here, let me here from you and please vote in Thoughtfix’s poll!

Technorati Tags: rhapsody, music, subscription, drm, poll, RIAA

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