noteworthy wrote:
Lately, they are moving beyond PC-based services; see their recently announced partnership with TiVo, for example.

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Fortune magazine recently commented on the future of music. Here's their senior editor:

Rhapsody, not iTunes, in my opinion, is the future of music.

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RealNetworks is way ahead of Apple in navigating the complexities of licensing and software for a streaming music service. Maybe the two companies will somehow get together. Until they do, or Apple otherwise gets the music subscription religion, the iPhone won't be what it should be.

I tend to agree. The Rhapsody experience is so remarkably different from that of the iTunes Stores, it's hard to communicate effectively. I might draw comparisons to the way that the new/upcoming Netflix streaming service will change the way you watch movies.

[ You can't communicate the difference between the iTunes experience and the Rhapsody experience? That sounds to me like hyperbole or else admission that the experience is too complicated.

Look, I'll admit from the start, I'm wary of subscription-based services because they work, essentially, on the backs of people that don't use the service to it's potential, meaning that I'm always concerned that if I'm not using it enough, i'm subsidizing the company, or the other users. I don't like that because my consumption rate is necessarily variable. Some months I listen to a lot of music... some months I'm busy and listen to a lot less. That means I'm wasting money sometimes.

Further, I don't like the notion that to continue enjoying my music, I will have to continue paying for access to it. Forever. I still prefer CD's, so I'm not a full iTunes Store Kool-Aid drinker by any means. I've picked up some singles that were hard to locate and I buy a couple of shows from them that I can't get on my basic cable because it's vastly more cost effective than upgrading my cable service.

Forgive me if I don't see TiVo support as moving away from the PC model... the TiVo's just a PC in a different part of the house. Now they claim iPod and other portable integration, so I'll leave off commenting on that until I can assess how well it works and what limitations there are... if they support portability that's good.

Finally, i want to call into question your comparison between Rhapsody "plays" and iTunes "sales". That's not apples-to-apples, if you'll forgive the pun. Those iTunes sales represent 1 or more listens. In general, they probably represent dozens to hundreds of listens each. The numbers aren't even close to comparable.

-k ]

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