Rhapsody for the iPhone Approved & Available!
The wait is over! Rhapsody for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been approved and will be available today! Do you want to hear the new Jay-Z album on your iPhone right now? Do you ever crave hearing a certain song and absolutely have to listen to it then and there? Have you ever used Shazam and thought, “Man, I wish I had that song on my phone!” Well, my friends, there’s an app for that. It’s called Rhapsody. And it’s in the app store right now.
Here are my top 10 reasons why you’ll love Rhapsody on the iPhone:
10. If you have kids, there are a ton of options for kid-friendly, parent-approved music to help entertain your little ones while you’re running errands.
9. You’ll always be able to see if the “Top 40″ are really all that awesome.
8. Discovery discovery discovery! There are so many ways to find new music on Rhapsody. Try listening to an artist station. You’ll be amazed at what you find!
7. Save what you’ve listened to as a playlist, forever immortalizing the awesome music from that road trip you just took.
6. With Rhapsody’s exclusive artist premieres (Green Day, Rob Thomas, Jay-Z), hear new music before it hits anywhere else.
5. It’s a safe way to experiment! No more sketchy downloads. You’ll have a safe listening experience every time.
4. When you’re stuck in traffic, you can play name that tune with your new friend on the bus.
3. Carrying around 8 million songs would be heavy! Let Rhapsody do the work for you, via our lovely cloud.
2. Not having to pay for every single song you want to listen to is pretty freakin’ sweet.
1. Instant gratification. Never wait to hear your favorite song again.
So, DJ insert_name_here: Make your workout playlist. Make your road trip playlist. Plug your iPhone into your stereo and have an interactive music listening party. You’ll never have to worry about running out of new music again (8 million songs = over 60 years of consecutive track listening). Take advantage of one of Rhapsody’s best features: music discovery. You’ll be amazed at the amount of new music you’ll hear – and even better – the amount of new music you’ll love. You’d never have an opportunity like that if you had to pay for every song you tried.
If you’re already a Rhapsody To Go subscriber, all you need to do is download the app and sign in. If not, we invite you to try out the all-you-can-eat service for free! The app is yours to test out, and learn to love, for seven days (no credit card required). After that, you’ll need to either subscribe or continue not hearing what you want, when you want.
Rhapsody on iPhone from Rhapsody on Vimeo.
You can read some initial reactions here:
Apple approves Rhapsody app, slated to be released Thursday-TechFlash
Apple Approves Real’s Rhapsody iPhone App; First Look- PaidContent
I’m an iPhone user and a long-time Rhapsody subscriber. I’ve been waiting for this killer app ever since the app store opened. Can’t wait to get my hands on it! Great job Rhapsody!
“So, DJ insert_name_here: Make your workout playlist. Make your road trip playlist. Plug your iPhone into your stereo and have an interactive music listening party. ”
So long as your road trip stays within 3G range
I just installed it and tried it out, first song I listened to was “Under Pressure” Bowie w/ Queen, rock song, not too demanding, it started out good but when the vocals started to get high the quality was crap, every high note just fell apart. They really need to bump up that quality. Even if they upped the quality only on wifi I would be much happier. Oh well, I guess I will still need to lug my netbook to work.
@ Johnny and @John, we are currently looking at offline playback and improving sound quality.
Thanks so much for the feedback.
Thanks for the update Lacy. Great work guys. Only two suggestions I can make:
* Quality could be better. I wasn’t sure what you could do, but the offline playback concept sounds like you guys might have an idea there. Hopefully it will allow download over 3G.
* I would replace the status overlay (signining in, loading, etc.) and leave that task up to the Activity Indicator in the top left corner. It’s redundant to provide the information. The only time something should be seen is if an error condition exists. For reference:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/ApplicationControls/ApplicationControls.html
Other than that, fantastic app! Let the engineering team know they kicked butt.
Great app, I used it most of my work day today over wi-fi. One feature request: Please add shuffle so I can shuffle through the songs in my queue instead of listening to them in order.
I am trying it right now over 3G, can can’t seem to get the search to work or radio stations to play. I do have a full 3G signal. I’m sure you will either fix this, or it’s just something with my connection but I thought I would mention it.
The quality is really horrible. I second the issue on high vocals. I feel I am listening to a really old radio from the 60s.
Also, Rhapsody is not Rhapsody without the ability to download your tracks and play them without being connected.
I will still carry my little Sansa Express to have access to my music. Rhapsody is the smartest way to acess music – I’ve never use iTunes again. I know Real is as limited as Apple wants them to be, so please don’t forget about Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. The first question that pops-up from Customers is …. Can I Play music on it ? Napster Mobile and Napster To Go are supported on some phones, but it is somehow clunky.
I know Rhapsody can shine in any platform ! You can do it guys ! Yes , you can !
I posted this comment on an earlier blog post but I might as well post it on the more recent one as well.
I really like the idea of this app but in version 1.0 it just doesn’t deliver.
Where I live only Edge is available. This application does not work on Edge. On an edge connection browsing radio stations doesn’t work. Browsing top albums doesn’t work. Searching for artists doesn’t work. If you happen to have music in your queue, music playback seems to work pretty well.
The other problem with the application is that even on a wifi network there are frequent application lock-ups and crashes back to the launcher.
These problems and more are being discussed at the Rhapsody forums.
http://real.lithium.com/real/board?board.id=InstallingRhapsody
I am really hoping that the problems can be resolved in a future version.
I have been a Rhapsody To Go subscriber for a few years and love the service. I pay $14.99 a month. Will I need to pay more per month if I download and use the app?
Thanks
@ Rich- You won’t have to pay a penny! RTG subscribers are ready to roll. enjoy!
The iPhone app is progress, but I have two significant complaints:
1) no shuffle mode? I have some long playlists with multiple albums by the same artist that I don’t like to hear in order and it is truly a pain to go in and re-order them each time.
2) streaming really sucks the iPhone battery (especially if you can’t be in wireless mode). Why not just make the iPhone a Rhapsody-to-go compatible device?
Hi Cindy. Thanks or writing. The app actually does have shuffle, though it’s not in an obvious location. If you hit the “now playing” button the shuffle icon will show up in the upper right corner of the screen.
As for the streaming point- we are looking at ways to improve this.
OMG – thank you so much for the shuffle icon suggestion – I’ve been searching for that for a month!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lacy, I’m not seeing a shuffle icon when I hit the “now playing” button. In the upper right there is a small “i” button that goes to the artist info. I know there is a shuffle mode in there somewhere, because somehow my app got into shuffle mode, and I couldn’t find a way to get it out… and ended up re-installing the app.
I do LOVE the Rhapsody app on the iPhone, though, I use it all the time, shuffle or no shuffle!
Hey, I know this is a late posts but I just wanted to let you know where the Shuffle function was in the Rhapsody iPhone app. When you are in the current play song (get to it by clicking “Now Playing”) tap the cover art. A little drop down will popup which you can then press the random icon on the right hand side. Hope it helps!
I don’t understand why the streaming-only app. Is this a requirement from Apple to keep driving business to iTunes???
With the tons of memory available for an iPhone or iTouch or other Apple products, why would you not simply make these devices compatible with Rhapsody to Go? My four children, they will not use Rhapsody because they can’t put the songs on their various Apple products. So Rhapsody is losing their business. My wife and I love Rhapsody, and are unwilling to give it up. So Apple is losing our business. (And we are forced to continue using the EXTREMELY POOR QUALITY Rhapsody recommended devices.)
If you two would work together you would both open up huge markets.
I’m really upset Ive had this app for months now but lately I can’t get it to work without a wifi signal … What’s the point of having music to go if I can only listen to it when I’m at home or my office?
You don’t have to pay more other than $14.99/Month in order to access Rhapsody on Android, iPhone etc.,