Lucas Gonze Comments on MusicMobs + Rhapsody

As part of MusicMob's Rhapsody integration, the company made available a resolver, which converts open standard playlist files called XSPFs so the songs can be played back in Rhapsody.  This is very exciting as it allows for an excellent bridge between silent playlists of data and Rhapsody playback.  See Toby Padilla's blog entry on the subject for more background.

Lucas Gonze, Webjay creator and XSPF chieftain, penned a nice explanation of MusicMob's integration.  Lucas writes:

An important part of the XSPF design is the idea that a playlist entry is not so much an exact locator for a song as it is a collection of metadata that a kind of software called a content resolver can use to locate an instance of the song.  For example, you might have a track listing containing nothing but a song title, and the resolver would look up that song title in the MP3s on your hard drive to see if you had it available....

Musicmobs long ago shipped software that allowed you to do this relative to the iTunes store; what they have done here is allow you to use Rhapsody's catalog.

MusicMobs' work is an excellent example of creating a consumer-focused product, but also having an eye on making an impact in the echosystem.  Users of competing services such as Last.fm, which enable sharing playback preferences and playlists, will now be able to use MusicMobs to not only share the data of the songs, but the actual songs--played in full length and full quality with Rhapsody.  It's an example of how developing in an open manner on open standards will strengthen your business, not diminish your differentiation.  The availability of this tool will no doubt serve MusicMobs well in marketing to the technoaudiophiles who may not have been aware of their service. 

--Dave Hanley

Comments

[Jack Mackay]

9/5/2006

Dear Sir:

I don't know if this question is in your area of expertise, but I have a question about my service.

I already subscribe to Rhapsody & pay $9.95 a month automatically.

I have just received a pop-up on my screen telling me that Rhapsody service is now free.

Does that mean I should discontinue the service I already get & pay for?

Or is there a difference between my current service & the free service?

Please pass this question on to someone else if this is not in your bailiwick.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jack Mackay

[Lucas Gonze]

If Rhapsody is a believer in open standards, why not export user playlists to XSPF?

[Josh Wright]

We are working on support for many popular open standards. Our company has historically supported open standards (rtsp, smil, Ogg on Linux), and is continuing to do so (RSS, XML, more coming...).

We have discussed supporting XSPF, and are interested in doing so. However, it is currently prioritized behind several other open standards initiatives we are driving towards.

Pertaining to the "Free Rhapsody" comment above; Rhapsody has a free service which allows for 25 song plays per month plus access to 25 free radio stations. For 9.95 a user gets unlimited song plays and access to all of our radio stations (including custom stations).