Rhapsody’s iPhone App: Close but no Cigar

For long suffering unlimited subscription music subscribers, such as myself, the release of Rhapsody’s iPhone app was welcome news.  Most music fans underestimate the benefits of unlimited, on-demand music since they figure they currently buy fewer than 1 1/2 albums/mo., which the monthly subscription fee would equate to.  What they don’t realize is that, with Rhapsody, you’ll end up downloading MUCH more music since you’re no longer constrained by price.  One of my stock phrases is that, “music is the only mass medium in which we significantly constrain our consumption due to cost.” Although cable TV is expensive, the vast majority of us pay for it; going to a movie is still seen as a relatively cost-effective way to spend an evening out and none of us read fewer books or magazines due to their cost.

Despite the benefits of unlimited music, the subscription services have been disasters for several reasons:

1. DRM, DRM, DRM!: DRM has infuriated subscribers for years by consistently denying users access to their music on their MP3 players when licenses expire – this is unacceptable for a free service, let alone one that costs $15/mo.
2. Hardware/Software/Integration Issues:  The Rhapsody client software has typically been prone to freezing up or crashing and getting it to reliably recognize MP3 players has sometimes been difficult  (this is, further, complicated by the myriad of new Rhapsody client and MP3 player firmware updates users typically go through).
3. Competing, Free Personalized and Social Music Services for Music Discovery:  Rhapsody doesn’t have best-in-breed features of the free streaming services, such as Pandora and LastFM. Since there’s no integration of those services with Rhapsody, I find myself wondering why I use those services but still pay $15/mo. for Rhapsody.
4. Incompatibility with iPod/iPhone:  This has always been an obstacle and continues to be one even after Rhapsody launched its iPhone app (see why, below).

So, Rhapsody subscribers figured the Rhapsody iPhone app would take care of most of these issues by allowing you to access your library and the Rhapsody store via the iPhone.  The app is a real step forward but still suffers from some shortcomings:

1. You can’t download tracks over-the-air from the Rhapsody Store.  iTunes has required track purchasing to go through the iTunes Store but that’s irrelevant for Rhapsody subscribers who’ve already paid for the right to download/rent the song.
2. QOS: out of the gate, the Rhapsody app seems slow and freezes a lot. In addition, the quality and reliability of the stream seems inferior to some of the competing services.
3. No offline playback.  As pointed out in this Wired article, the lack of offline playback often makes the stream pale compared to MP3 track playback (supposedly Spotify will have some form of offline playback in their upcoming US iPhone App – they already have an iPhone App in the UK).

So, what’s the recipe for success in subscription services?..I think it will be unlimited, on-demand, streamed tracks for <$10/mo. with unlimited downloading WITHOUT DRM – all with full integration of best-in-breed social and personalized services for Discovery. When this finally happens, you may only need one music service. Apple is in the best position to do this but my sense is that it will take an aggressive, ambitious start-up, like Spotify, to make this happen.  Until then, I applaud Rhapsody for a game effort (with one hand tied behind its back by Apple) but I’m still waiting…

Related Article: iPhone App Won’t Save Rhapsody

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