Real’s Rhapsody
Anyone know anything about Real’s Rhapsody online music download service? They’ve apparently just gone entirely web-based, opening up their market to Linux and Mac users. If you buy a track from them, what format do you get it in? There’s some talk about a subscription model, but they’re pushing the idea of mobile devices to listen to your music, including my Archos PMA400 — how does that work with subscription? If I download a file and put it on my Archos, how does it know whether I’ve paid for it or not? The Rhapsody people don’t seem to say much about formats and how it all works; any good pointers or knowledgeable people want to help me out?
I have just had a look at the Real’s Rhapsody site and when i tried to download a track, it popped up a small window which said “US site only”. So us Brits won’t be able to use the service at the moment, whatever the codec they use.
They would probably use RealAudio 10 .ra file format.
6 hours later
Actually, Rhapsody uses the protected WMA (Windows Media) format for downloads. Not sure about streaming, though. The downloads are 160kbps and, IMHO, sound pretty good.
Bummer about all these music subscription services being U.S. only… except, I think, Virgin Digital and Napster, both of which offer services in the U.K. And both, IMHO, are quite fine services and worth checking out!
7 hours later
Adam: Virgin Digital seems to require a Windows-only client to even get at any music or anything?
12 hours later