Rhapsody now available to all comers on Android

Following a limited beta, Rhapsody is using the occasion of its newfound independence from RealNetworks to launch the public version of its Android-based client. Technically, this is still a beta that we're dealing with here, so the big difference is that anyone that wants to download and use it is more than welcome to -- it's not the on-the-downlow affair we were dealing with before. Folks new to the all-you-can-eat subscription service are welcome to check out a trial for 7 days, after which point you'll be paying the same $10 a month for access from one device or $15 for access from up to three that everyone else pays -- arguably not bad for a 9 million song library, assuming you've got a taste for anything other than live Fugazi bootlegs.

[Johnny Rockets Posted Apr 6th 2010 11:57PM]

Slacker FTW!!! And even more awesome that it was featured in the recent Verizon Droid commercial!

[ktrain1600 Posted Apr 7th 2010 12:15AM]

I think this is a great idea. Thing seem to be going good for android watch out apple

[samuelmaskell Posted Apr 7th 2010 1:07AM]

but fugazi bootlegs are the best..

[Level 5 Posted Apr 7th 2010 7:07AM]

I might be into this, it's kinda like the Zune Pass for Android (except you can't keep the 10 songs or whatever a month like on Zune Pas), but $10, while not "cheap" isn't too too bad, considering I could listen to anything I want for that month. Might be worth looking into.

[DJ Megatron Posted Apr 7th 2010 11:08AM]

@Level 5
I had a free trial on my iPhone and it's a really good way to preview an entire album before buying it. Plus they have songs that neither amazon or itunes has for downloading. It's honestly like paying for album a month but having access to so much more than that.

[truelove79 Posted Apr 7th 2010 9:38AM]

I've been running the beta for a while. I have a rhapsody subscription. The app and the service as a whole is REALLY good. Unlimited music with ZERO restrictions for $10 / month is pretty incredible. You can listen individual songs, whole albums, artist samplers, radio stations (works like pandora), browse the charts, find new and similar artists, etc. Its really good.

[quick Posted Apr 7th 2010 3:56PM]

@truelove79

What's the audio quality like, are you able to tell what the streaming bitrate is?

[alostpacket Posted Apr 7th 2010 9:07PM]

This might be worth a try, sounds just like the ala-carte subscription I hope becomes the future of media consumption. No need to ever maintain a music collection at all. Still, I bet it will be hard for them to shake the bad PR from Real from back in the day.