HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

Rhapsody announced today that it won’t require its users to use special software to access the service, since they’re launching a Web-based interface. Any PC/Mac/Linux user can point his browser to ‘rhapsody.com’ and, according to Red Herring, stream up to 25 songs per session, for free (song downloads are not available for now).

What’s the business model behind this free offering? Advertising. “If it turns out the vast majority decide they want to listen for free, that’s great because the Internet advertising market is doing pretty well too,” according to RealNetworks CEO, Rob Glaser. (Mr. Glaser obviously knows something about money, since his company’s latest financial results were pretty solid.)

*RE: Web-based interfaces*

AOL’s MusicNow (AOL bought it a month ago) is expected to be Web-based, and Napster “is also thought to be nearing a shift toward a Web-based approach” according to BusinessWeek.

And let’s not forget a happy by-product of the “let’s go Web-based” trend: assuming your goal is cross-platform compatibility, you’re basically developping for everyone’s beloved browser, Firefox.

By the way, as of the time of this writing, I’m still not seeing a Web-based interface for Rhapsody, as this friendly pop-up reminds me: (see screenshot after the jump)

*UPDATE*: Turns out I’m wrong. This *is* the Web-based interface I’m watching, but the Rhapsody Music Engine download is required to continue. Uhm, what kind of crap is this? Google allows you to watch videos from within the browser without downloading anything, and Real can’t do audio right?

Also: they don’t allow non-US residents. I can understand why this happens (licensing issues), but that doesn’t chage the fact it’s lame, lame, lame.