Rhapsody Review
2008 Editor's Choice Winner
| Rhapsody Site | |
| Website address | |
| Rhapsody Download Plans | |
| Subscription (PC) | $12.99 |
| To Go Subscription | $14.99 |
| Song Download | $.89 |
| Free trial | |
Overview - Rhapsody offers unlimited access to over 4.5 million legal music downloads and Internet radio. With a subscription you gain streaming on demand access to the entire catalog. Their "To Go" service allows you to transfer the songs to your mp3 player. Rhapsody offers a 14 day free trial to get you started.
History - RealNetworks Rhapsody online music service opened its doors in December 2001. Rhapsody was the first service to offer on demand access to its entire catalog of music for a monthly fee. By 2002 they offered titles from all five major labels.
Song titles - Rhapsody has one of the largest song catalogs with over 4.5 million songs. Subscribers have unlimited streaming access to the entire online music collection. Search and download music based on song title, artist, album, composer, lyrics, or genre.
Music - Rhapsody offers a collection of over 4.5 million songs formatted as Windows Media Audio (WMA) or RealAudio (RA) files. Those who want to transfer songs to an MP3 player will want to choose WMA format. Rhapsody music downloads consist of 192 kbps bit rate while the streaming rate is 128 kbps.
Search - Rhapsody allows you to search for music by keyword, song title, artist, album, track, composer, or video.
Pricing Plans - Rhapsody offers two unlimited access plans . It all comes down to whether you want to listen to music on your PC or load it on your MP3 player. Rhapsody To Go allows unlimited access to stream any of the 4.5 million songs along with the ability to transfer music to MP3 player and other portable devices. This service costs $14.99 a month. Rhapsody Unlimited gives you access to the same online music collection without the ability to transfer files from your PC for $12.99 a month. . Rhapsody also offers a Pay Per Song service that allows you to download and burn music for $0.99 a track.
Supported devices - Rhapsody To Go supports over 100 MP3 players and other portable devices. See the full list of compatible devices at Rhapsody.com > How It Works > Devices. Due to restrictions Rhapsody does not support either iPod or Zune devices. Take a look at eMusic for cheap iPod / Zune compatible downloads.
Digital Rights Management - Rhapsody uses Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Helix for DRM protection. This allows you to download and listen to unlimited tracks as long as you subscribe to the service. Afterwards all downloads become unusable. As an alternative you can buy any song for $0.99 and own it without the restrictions. Note: if you want to transfer songs to MP3 player or other portable device choose WAM protection. If you are new to the topic take a look at our DRM article.
Supported Operating Systems - Rhapsody is compatible with Windows Vista and XP, MAC OS X, and several Linux distributions.
Customer Service - Rhapsody offers toll free phone support along with an online self-help and customer support area. They also offer a knowledge base and forum to share questions and comments with other customers.
Bottom line - Rhapsody offers unlimited access to over 4.5 million songs from all five major labels and support for over 100 portable devices. This coupled with Internet radio and music videos make Rhapsody oan excellent choice. Get started with their 14 day free trial.