{"id":517655,"date":"2010-04-06T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=110775"},"modified":"2010-04-06T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2010-04-06T13:00:24","slug":"rhapsody-now-independent-reboots-with-a-price-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/517655","title":{"rendered":"Rhapsody, Now Independent, Reboots With a Price Cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rhapsody has officially become an independent company, two months after former parent RealNetworks revealed plans<\/a> to cede majority control of the music subscription provider. Now a standalone entity in which RealNetworks and Viacom possess equal minority stakes, Rhapsody also said today that it will offer a $10 monthly subscription service<\/a> in an effort to better compete with several innovative and inexpensive rivals that have sprung up in recent months.<\/p>\n

The new price point reflects an industry-wide drop in the cost of all-you-can-eat<\/a> music services, which deliver access to a large library of songs for a monthly fee, even as their providers add mobile functionality. Rhapsody has taken steps to evolve alongside newer subscription services such as MOG<\/a> and Thumbplay<\/a>, which offer cloud-based streams to both desktop PCs and mobile devices for about $10 per month, as well as free alternatives. Rhapsody traditionally delivered streams to the desktop, along with “tethered download<\/a>” files that can be loaded onto certain mobile music players, for about $15, but added cloud-based access through its iPhone app beginning last September.<\/p>\n

Rhapsody has also recently renegotiated its licensing fees with content owners, representing more realistic expectations from labels. While confidence in free streaming models is fading<\/a>, Warner Music Group chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. said recently<\/a> that the label is increasingly willing to experiment with paid subscription models.<\/p>\n

Along with the ownership change and price cut, Rhapsody introduced an application that runs on Android phones, along with a new logo (pictured). Despite the overall reboot, existing subscribers will have to contact the company’s customer service department to sign up for the new pricing plan; otherwise they’ll continue to be billed at the old subscription rate.<\/p>\n

Although some of its upstart rivals have garnered more attention lately, Rhapsody is still among the largest subscription providers in the market with <\/a> more than 675,000 subscribers as of the end of 2009, according to RealNetworks, down from a peak of 800,000 earlier in the year. Competitor Napster<\/a>, owned by Best Buy since fall 2008, no longer reports the size of its subscriber base, but was last known to have 708,000 subscribers around the time of its acquisition; Spotify recently said it had signed up 325,000 paying customers in Europe, and is still planning a U.S. launch<\/a>, originally slated for late 2009.<\/p>\n

Rhapsody’s spokesman said the company is forecasting profitability by the end of 2010, with revenues near $130 million. RealNetworks invested $18 million in cash as the company was spun out, while Viacom said it will contribute $33 million worth of advertising inventory to promote Rhapsody on its properties, including MTV Networks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rhapsody has officially become an independent company, two months after former parent RealNetworks revealed plans to cede majority control of the music subscription provider. Now a standalone entity in which RealNetworks and Viacom possess equal minority stakes, Rhapsody also said today that it will offer a $10 monthly subscription service in an effort to better […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3797,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3797"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}