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ch-scene - Re: Rhapsody for Macs

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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: ron thigpen <ron AT fuzzsonic.com>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Rhapsody for Macs
  • Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:14:08 -0500

Nathaniel Florin wrote:
--- stablenet AT nc.rr.com wrote:

Apple doesn't care if you use a Rio or an iPod -
they will sell you an MP3 regardless.

Unfortunately this isn't exactly true. The iTunes
Music Store sells you MPEG-4 AAC (Advanced Audio
Coding) files which have a Digital Rights Management
code built in that, among other things, only allows
you to play them on an iPod (though you can burn them
to a generic audio CD as well).

That's right, Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) doesn't sell MP3s.

MP3s don't have DRM, iTMS tracks most definitely do. They are encoded to a different format MPEG4-audio (M4A) and then wrapped up with an Apple-owned Digtial Rights Management (DRM) protection layer. Adding this wrapper converts them from the relatively open M4A format into the very much closed format M4P.

Why? It's the only way Apple was able to convince the major label content providers to agree to let them sell their music online. The major labels just aren't (yet? hopefully) willing to sell music on the net in non-DRM forms.

If Apple were willing to license their M4P technology, then Rhapsody could offer pay-to-download tracks in that format. Apple currently has the lead in the DRM platform dominance race and has decided on a strategy of not licensing its technology.

Which effectively means that if a service like Rhapsody wants to sell downloadable major label tracks, it only has one choice of format: protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. These files don't play on iPods, and I'm not sure, but I doubt if there is any support in iTunes and maybe even the MacOS platform in general.

So what Rhapsody has done, and what Glenn is talking about, is to focus on their streaming audio service instead of download service. Using the stream service, you don't buy and own the songs, you buy a monthly service that allows you to play the songs from the net. And until recently, this required a piece of downloadable client software from Rhapsody that wouldn't run on a Mac. But they've just released a variant of the service that can be run directly from a web browser, which does work on a Mac.

I've been tempted by this service myself, but have been waiting for someone to integrate the new Rhapsody stream service with the SqueezeBox software so that I could control these streams through my little digital music devices and conveniently listen to them through the big stereo rather than the computer speakers. But that's another story.

--rt




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