So I have been using the Rhapsody music service from Real Networks for about a week now. I downloaded the
free 14 day trial and figured, "what have I got to lose". I must say I am pretty impressed with the functionality of the service as well as the variety of music available. For those who aren't hip to Rhapsody, it is a subscription music service. You pay a monthly fee for access to Rhapsody's entire library of streaming music. The system uses Windows WMA files and the Microsoft DRM (Digital Rights Management) system to keep everything properly licensed, etc. In addition to listening to the music via the streaming method, you can also choose to download it to your "Music Library". Once downloaded the files are listenable from your local computer. Rights are refreshed every time that you use the Rhapsody player so as long as you open the player at least once every 30 days, you are good to go. The files can also be transferred onto a portable MP3 player with a similar need to refresh rights occasionally. If you want to buy the files outright you can opt to do that as well, this allows you to burn them to CD, move them to other computers, etc.
The player itself is fairly intuitive. In the lower left corner is the now playing list as well as tabs for burning to CD and transferring to a portable player. There is a Music Guide in which you can search for different artists, albums, tracks, etc. Throughout the player there are links in the track names, artist names, etc that will link you back to the music library. Say you are looking through your music library and realize that you only have one Van Morrison album (god forbid). Just click on the artist name in the library and it will link you to the Van Morrison page in the guide. Pretty slick.
One very cool feature is the ability to create playlists and then publish them for other people to listen to. Since the service is subscription based and streaming, everyone has access to the same library, which is what makes playlist sharing possible. I have seen some wierdness in creating a playlist where the playlist will spontaneously copy its list into itself, but it may just be user error. I am still working on my first soon-to-be published playlist called "Gutbucket Soul".
Right now, I am about half way through my trial period and I am definitely leaning towards continuing the subscription. I absolutely love finding new music, but hate paying $18 for a CD and then finding out that only 1 or 2 songs are worth a poop. Rhapsody seems to provide a very economical and easy way to get access to a huge library of music. Of course the downside is that you need to keep up your subscription in order to ensure access to your files, but for only 9.99 a month for the top of the line Rhapsody To Go service, I think its worth it.
