Rhapsody’s new app allows offline storage

Apple and Rhapsody have released an updated version of the Rhapsody iPhone app. That is to say, Rhapsody put in the hours and Apple has approved the distribution of the app. The best new feature about the app is that it allows users to store songs on the iPhone, not requiring a constant data link with Rhapsody’s servers. The service will become available to Android users too, later this year. Spotify already has such a feature in Europe.

With the iPhone’s 3G, WiFi or Edge connection, users can download playlists associated with their Rhapsody account.

This feature was already available for the more expensive Rhapsody packages, but thanks to new licensing deals offered by the labels, Rhapsody offers iPhone users storage of their favourite tunes on one device for 10 dollars/month, the same price as the subscription rate that previously only allowed streaming access. The company revealed to Wired that it will soon allow downloading complete albums.

Rhapsody was one of the pioneers to make music available through a streaming connection and now holds over nine million songs in it’s database. The market for streaming music is still in its infancy, however. Rhapsody currently has some 700.000 users.

With the relative price cut and the extra functionality, streaming music has become that much more attractive. However, we still await the geographical boundaries to be overcome. Rhapsody is not available in The Netherlands.

27 April 2010