Rhapsody Web Services

A Modest Audioscrobbler Proposal

Posted by Dave

I've noticed some discussion over on the LastFM forum about wanting a Rhapsody playback API so a plugin can be built.  Jim posted a solution that I have yet to try out, which uses SQL to pull data from the Rhapsody desktop client's data cache.  Jim's idea seems like it will work for the client, but what about a solution that leverages the Rhapsody listening history feeds we're offering in private beta?  These feeds contain all listening history from both Rhapsody.com and Rhapsody 3.0+ clients, by track, album, and artist.  An Audioscrobbler plugin could simply hit the feed, and forward the track info on to Audioscrobbler.  In fact, it could be set up as a web service that doesn't even require an install. 

What do you think?

Check out my recent tracks feed and see if the information is sufficient.

Play.rhapsody.com Rhaplinks

Have you noticed the new play.rhapsody.com links scattered throughout the site?  If not, go to a page in the Rhapsody catalog like http://www.rhapsody.com/massiveattack and hover over any of the links on the page that start music playing.  You'll see that they all take the form of http://play.rhapsody.com/(something).  For example, the artist sampler Rhaplink has the very simple form http://play.rhapsody.com/massiveattack. 

You can send these Rhaplink to your friends through e-mail or IM or on your blog and when they click one, music will start playing.  Assuming they have the Rhapsody Player Engine installed, are signed in and have popup-blocking disabled on play.rhapsody.com (which I recommend), then it plays instantly without any more user effort.  It's a big list of IFs but under the right circumstances it works beautifully.  If they're missing any of those pieces, the Rhaplink still works but takes a little more effort on the user's part.

You'll find similar URLs to play individual tracks or whole albums.  In fact just about anywhere on the site where there's a circle-triangle play button, you can right click it and 'Copy Shortcut' or 'Copy Link Location' and share it with other folks.  So next time you find some new music that you want to share with your friends, send them a Rhaplink.  They're easier than ever to use.  In fact URLs like http://play.rhapsody.com/thepostalservice are so easy to remember, they're perfect for telling your friends about a new band at a party or over coffee.  Unlike other sites, Rhapsody 25 lets your friends listen to high-quality full length songs, not just 30 second samples, all for free without any need for a credit card.

We've got some cool additions and enhancements to this feature in the works -- you can probably guess what some of them are.  They'll be live soon, and we'll tell you all about them when they are.  In the meantime, we invite you to enjoy what's already working.

Happy listening!

-Leo Parker Dirac

 

Location Mashup: Rhapsody + GoogleMaps + Concerts

Posted by Dave:

So Leo and I are having a debate with some folks here about the usefulness of location-based services.  In a nutshell, we proposed the following APIs and mashups:

Rhapsody would make the following data available in APIs:

1. Artist hometown in formats useful to Google Maps, GPS, e911, etc.
2. Recent playback by region, state, city (IP lookup), with queries for genre, etc.

Then I can see one of you bright folks doing:

1. So Hot Right Now: Google Maps or Google Earth mashup, featuring top tracks in my area.  Go to the place that loves Radiohead the most,  Google Earth tour east cost towns who prefer west coast rap/hip hop. 
2. Artists beloved in this town: Again, Google Maps tour, GPS trivia game, whatever.  Where is 311 really from?  (Nebraska? Never.)
3. Try before you buy concerts: Pollstar + Google Maps + Rhapsody top tracks by artist.  See concerts around town, listen to their top tracks and decide if it's worth your time. 
4. Me vs You: What is the music zeitgeist in my area?  How does it compare?  Cali vs Georgia popular Pop bands.
5. Trendy: Where did the growth of Panic! at the Disco really start?  Vegas, LA, New York?  Where do trends peak first?  Which towns just can't give up The Smiths.
6. Getting Mobile: I just landed in Austin, what do these people listen to?  Or, what punk bands are from Austin?  What's playing near where I'm at?  Play some of those tracks.  Play me the top track from each of bands playing within 50 miles of me this weekend.  Country only please

Let us know if you want to develop something, and we'll see if we can't get this data available sooner rather than later.

Rhapsody Gadget for Live.com

We just launched our first Live.com gadget!

You can scroll through our radio stations, click the text to see information about those stations, and click the play button to play it in your browser. 

To add this gadget do the following on Live.com:
1.   Under "+add stuff" click "Advanced Options"
2.   Paste this URL where is says "Add a Gadget by URL" and click "Subscribe"
3.   It should then add "Rhapsody Radio" to your "my stuff"
4.   Drag and drop "Rhapsody Radio" onto your live.com page

Look for more widgets and gadgets on other platforms soon!

Mac Widget

We just posted a widget for Mac Dashboard. It takes many of our content feeds and wraps them up in a nice little package that's just one F12 away.

Product Description:
View the top albums on Rhapsody for each of our main music categories. If you find an album that’s interesting you can start streaming the full-length tunes quickly and easily. Just pick, click and play. Rhapsody gives you 25 free track plays each month, and unlimited track plays to subscribers.

Click on the play buttons to launch Rhapsody playback in your browser. Click the Information button (The “i” in the lower right corner) to change genres.

Get the widget
Download the widget

What are the bloggers listening to?

How often do your friends tell you about some cool new music they discovered?  Do you have any really plugged-in friends that you're always bugging to tell you what music they're into right now?  Wouldn't it be great to just know what your friends are listening to without having to keep asking them? 

I've started playing with a new Rhapsody Web Services feature that lets you do exactly that, and I'll say that it really is great.  Look in the upper left corner of our blog and you can see what music I've been listening to most recently.  It's a list of the last several albums that I heard tracks from.  Click any of the links and the whole album will start playing back for you in either Rhapsody.com or the Rhapsody Jukebox Client.

How does it work?  This blog is loading an RSS feed from Rhapsody.com that hooks up to my listening history.  The feature is currently being beta tested, so you're not going to find it by poking around the site.  But if you'd like to share your listening history with your friends, drop us a note and we'll tell you how to get your own feeds.  You can put the feed in your reader, on your blog, on your personalized homepage or lots of other places.  Let us know how you're using them.

-Leo Parker Dirac