Real Networks Planning Rhapsody iPhone App
Posted by
con_carne
Aug 24 '09, 13:52
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by Chloe Albanesius
Real Networks plans to submit a Rhapsody iPhone app to Apple this week, the company announced in a Sunday blog post.
"When will Rhapsody be on the iPhone? Or, when will Rhapsody be on Android? Well, we FINALLY have an answer: hopefully, very soon," wrote Real's Lacy Kemp.
Real will submit its application for an on-demand streaming version of Rhapsody for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.
"Until now, nothing exists like this exists here in the states," Kemp wrote. "There is nothing quite as satisfying as needing to hear a certain song RIGHT NOW and being able to scratch that itch."
Rhapsody subscribers will be able to sign into the app with the same username and password they use on the PC. Non-subscribers will be provided with a limited time free-trial period, Real said.
Real provided a video demo of the application, which lets users search for specific songs in Rhapsody's library of 8 million songs, or browse by genre, what's new, or popularity. Tap your selection and the song will start to play.
All songs will include additional data on the musician or band, including access to their YouTube page, images, biographies, other available albums and songs from the same artist, top tracks, and an artist sampler. You can also find related artists or radio stations.
A "press and hold" menu will let you add content to a queue or personalized library. You can re-arrange, add, or delete songs in a particular queue, and save that queue as a playlist.
It remains to be seen if Apple will approve the application. Kemp admitted that it will allow her and other Rhapsody customers to avoid paying 99 cents for a download in the Apple iTunes Store.
"I can't even count the number of times I've wanted to hear a song on my iPhone and guiltily plopped down $.99 to iTunes to please my impatient self," she wrote.
Real is also working "diligently" an Android app. "Once we're done there, we plan to turn our sights on more mobile platform and carrier app stores," Kemp wrote.
Hopefully this endeavor will be a bit more productive than the company's RealDVD debacle. Earlier this month, a federal judge found that the company's DVD copying program violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the terms of its DVD CSS license.
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