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Rhapsody made a few pretty huge announcements today, one of them being that their Android Application is now available on Android Market! You can download it for free and since Rhapsody offers a free 7-day trial, you can get at least one full week of testing out their streaming music service. If you decide to continue on it’ll cost you $10 bucks a month.
A snippet from their press release and blog post:
On Tuesday, Rhapsody is also releasing a Rhapsody mobile app for
the Android platform. It is available for free through the Android
Market.Now, people with Android-powered handsets (like the Motorola
Droid or HTC’s Nexus One and EVO 4G) can explore and stream Rhapsody’s
entire library of over 9.5 million songs from pretty much anywhere.The app, which has been in beta since January, offers the same
features as the Rhapsody iPhone app released last fall — with one
important difference: Android allows Rhapsody (or any app) to play in
the background while you do other things on the phone.Using the app requires a Rhapsody subscription — but anyone can
try it for free for seven days.
Actually Mr. Rhapsody sir, that whole “Now” thing along with the “EVO 4G” is a little bit inaccurate… but how we wish it were true. In due time… in due time. Good thing we can ALL say bravo to the whole “background” thing!
Rhapsody also made official their spin off as they are now a singular entity focused entirely on music – rock on! They also took a few moments to expand on that:
Rhapsody has finished the process of formally separating from
RealNetworks and Viacom/MTV Networks. This process took the better
part of a year.It is now a standalone company, focused solely on music.
Rhapsody will remain headquartered in Seattle, with offices in San
Francisco and New York City.The news brings Rhapsody full circle, from startup (2001-2003),
to division of a public company (2003-2007), to joint venture with
Viacom (2007-2010), and back to startup — albeit a resource-rich one.Rhapsody’s 150-person team is relocating to its own offices.
Last week, the company moved into a new downtown Seattle HQ; the San
Francisco and NYC offices will move in the coming months.
Yet another option for streaming music on your Android device – is Rhapsody your long awaited favorite?
ive never used rhapsody, so i dont really know what advantages it has over other streaming applications…but i like the fact that i only have to pay $0 a month to use pandora.
I use to love using Rhapsody. The ability to steam music from a wide variety of artists is awesome. Being able to dump songs from Rhapsody onto a Zen or Zune is also very awesome. Sure, you have to sync every month, but it’s not too bad. The 15 dollar cost of Rhapsody (10 + 5 for the ability to put music on an mp3 player) pushed me away. Last.fm filled the gap and does a great job. However, it reemerging with a $10 subscription as an app might inspire me to get back into it.
10 bucks a month for a HUGE song collection at your fingertips is pretty sweet.
Will this be usa only? Would be interested in comparing their catalogue to spotify.
couldn’t find it in the market, seems like its u.s only
@Pieter: I’ve used Rhapsody for years. The advantage over Pandora is that you can choose exactly what you listen to (i.e., artist, track, album, etc…), as opposed to choosing a genre based on a music genome. If I feel like listening to the Counting Crows, I can choose from any track on any album they’ve released. It’s a great program. Unfortunately, the app seems to be fc a lot and hasn’t let me sign in since it’s release yesterday. I’ll be patient. Rhapsody is definitely worth the money.
I don’t use it personally.
Since upgrading to 2.1, the Beta version of Rhapsody has not performed well on my Droid.
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Otherwise it is hands-down the most used app on my phone. If you have the money per month, it is an amazing service.
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I like it better than Pandora because I get to choose the songs I listen to. I get to listen to entire albums, and I can access my entire library from anyplace that has web access. So I can listen to the same songs at work, home, and now on my phone, and my wife can do they same.
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The android App works great… usually. Although, listening on my phone is a big reason why I have the service, so if the problems I’ve been having with it persist, I will drop the service and stop recommending it.
Wow. I’m an idiot. The issue I mentioned above was due to the launch. Works great. Still love it.
I’ve used Rhapsody since 2007….this now allows the Droid to be my EVERYTHING device. This bit of info made my day (I had no idea about the beta test)….and it works incredibly well!
I jumped on the beta right from the start and I absolutely love it. I was already using Rhapsody anyways, but being able to have it right on my phone is amazing. I’m using the market version now and it seems to be much faster and “complete” than previous beta versions.
When Rhapsody was something available on our PCs and TiVo Rhapsody was a neat thing to try but not a keeper. When the call went out for Beta Testers for the Android phone it was worth giving a shot. Now that the Android App is out and their price has dropped to $10 a month it is a definite no brainer.
We can use the NPR app to listen to KCRW use the Shazam App to grab the name of an artist or album and we can use Rhapsody to listen to the whole album risk free.
Now they just need to update and get the new MC Frontalot album that dropped this week.
@Nick I can do most of that with Slacker and not have to pay.
I will admit I am not that big into music so I don’t see the point in paying for it.
I really wish there was a LaLa app for android (too bad apple bought them first). it would be amazing to to be able to listen to my own uploaded music without a monthly fee. is there anything like lala for android?
Whats their relationship with vcast now?
I use Rhapsody on my iPhone (and computer) and I love it. Their library is HUGE. You can stream music over the 3G network at lower quality, and if you’re connected to wi-fi, it switches to higher quality. Highly recommended app.
It’s a great complement to Last.fm or Pandora because if you stumble upon an artist you like you can stream one of their albums with Rhapsody.
I am so excited to finally have Rhapsody on my Moto Droid that I couldn’t contain my excitement when I read this article yesterday. I have had Rhapsody for years so once I downloaded the app this morning, I just logged right in and I saw all of my playlists and my library which have been set up for the past six years and I was a truly happy camper.
I even use Slacker (left Pandora 2 months ago) but it’s nothing like being able to listen to the exact album you want. Besides, I work in the music industry and it’s great to listen to all of the new albums that come out every Tuesday. It helps me decide if an album is good enough to buy — 30 seconds just doesn’t do it for me!
I’ve been a Rhapsody customer since the early years. I’m a Rhapsody ToGo/Unlimited subscriber for $15 per month. My kids and wife have been able to download anything from Rhapsody’s music catalog to their MP3 players. That’s right, up to 3 mobile players with unlimited downloads. In addition, I can use Rhapsody from up to 3 PCs. For my family, $15/mo is very cost effective.
My wife and I have Android phones(my G1, her Cliq) so we were excited to hear about the Rhapsody App. The App lets me stream any track, album, or specific playlist I chose. I read that a future version of the App will allow offline playback.
When I’ve been out with friends and we start talking about new songs. My iPhone friends are only able to pull up short track samples. They have to purchase if they want to hear/own the whole song. With Rhapsody, I’m able to play the entire track as many times as I wish.
@Jeff
Wow I didn’t realize you could have up to 3 players, that is cool for a family (or even some close friends). I used to have rhapsody to go and agree it’s a great service; now that they have lowered the price I might just have to sign up again for my droid.