Rhapsody + Apple: A perfect partnership that will never happen
Rhapsody provides a subscription music service so you can listen to anything whenever you want and wherever you are, automatic playlists based on music you like, and “channels” that provide a continuous supply of new music either based on your own preferences or by genre. Your library is synchronized across all computers that you use.
It’s also a music player and a music store, but here lie its main weaknesses and it really doesn’t offer any advantages over iTunes (with the exception of $0.99 DRM-free tracks). In fact, as a music player it’s quite bad. All the problems I have with Rhapsody come from its music player functionality.
iTunes, on the other hand, is a pretty good (though bloated) music player, has a good music store, and is integrated with iPods and iPhones. Rhapsody doesn’t work with Apple mp3 players because of Apple’s restrictions, so you have to buy something other than what is arguably the best mp3 player on the market.
The only place Rhapsody and iTunes overlap is in the music player and music store functionality. Since Apple does a better job with these two components, it would be ideal to somehow merge Rhapsody into iTunes. Imagine having your current library of purchased music combined with the unlimited library of Rhapsody. Imagine your “Genius” playlist being populated with songs you can listen to right away instead of having to buy them first. Imagine loading up your iPod with a Rhapsody channel of music you’ll probably like but haven’t heard yet. Imagine being able to listen to your playlists from any computer where you log in. It would really be a perfect music experience.
Too bad that Apple and Real Networks will never go for it.
