Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wi-Fi Becomes HiFi With Rhapsody
RealNetworks is offering its Rhapsody music service through a Wi-Fi handheld computer, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. While this won't compete with an iPod for convenience, it show that delivering streams over Wi-Fi may be a viable alternative to streaming through the cell phone networks.RealNetworks is trying to expand its presence in the mobile world. Currently the Rhapsody to Go service lets users swap out music to an MP3 player as long as they are current subscribers, which gives more flexibility than having to purchase the music outright.
However, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board's decision to double royalty payments will put a hurting on subscription-based services as well as making ad-supported Internet Radio cost prohibitive for most companies. Rhapsody, Napster, AOL and other services stream radio channels for free, but that may be coming to an end soon. It may make music publishers and RIAA happy, but won't please fans or advertisers. It will drive more sales of subscription web and satellite services.
Posted By John Gartner at 05:30 PM
Permanent Link: Wi-Fi Becomes HiFi With Rhapsody
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