Rhapsody launched its DRM Free MP3 store today. DRM Free or (Digital Rights Management Free) means that there are no restrictions on how the music can be transferred between devices such as computers such as Macs, PCs, or Linux. No restrictions on what type of media player to use either. Yes, it will work on your iPod. I decided to try it out. The store is fairly easy to navigate. Easier than Amazon MP3 store, but not as smooth as iTunes. It seems that the prices are comparable with Apples iTunes. $.99 per track and $9.99 per album. The MP3 files are encoded at 256kbps. A key feature which I thought was fantastic, was that unlike iTunes or Amazon MP3 store which only let you preview short 30 second clips of a song. Rhapsody allows the user to preview the entire track. That just Rocks! I took the plunge and purchased a couple of tracks. The experience wasn't without its issues. I added a couple of songs to my cart and attempted to check out. Even though I was already signed in, another screen requested I do so again, not a big deal. I attempted to check out three times all with messages stating that Rhapsody was experiencing difficulties and to try back later. After passing the first checkout screen, I'm on my personal and billing information screen. I haven't signed into my Rhapsody account for a couple of years. All my info on this screen was outdated. It showed my account had a expired credit card on file. I updated with the new info and selected continue. Twice it returned me to the same screen still displaying the old expired credit card info. I kept trying and eventually the information stuck. I imagine that these issues where due to high traffic volume which often happens during first day launches of this sort. I completed the check out and downloaded my music tracks. On my desktop sat a zip folder in which contained the two mp3s and a album art image. I have iTunes set as my default for mp3 files, so simply double clicking on them automatically imported them into iTunes. Music sounded great as it should at that bitrate. This wasn't the smoothest and most enjoyable music purchased I have had. I'm a mac user so I'm excited that there is one more alternate route for music purchases for me to choose. Although Amazon reigns supreme for my DRM free alternative because of its seamless integration with iTunes, being able to listen to an entire track before I make a purchase will keep me coming back to Rhapsody. Have you tried the Rhapsody store yet? |
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