Today we took the wraps off of Rhapsody DNA and the first MP3 player that uses Rhapsody DNA. Although Rhapsody is often chosen by
consumers and critics as the best digital music service for the PC, we know we
won’t succeed in making it a mass market product until we also let consumers access
Rhapsody off their PC.
To make Rhapsody DNA possible we have expended tremendous
effort across multiple groups within Real over the past 18 months. Rhapsody DNA
is both a technology platform and a set of marketing initiatives.
At this point it seems obvious that everyone sees the
problems with the almost purely horizontal approach that the PlaysForSure
device makers and music services have been using. We believe that a successful music platform
must specify more of the consumer experience than PFS ever did, as well as the technical
components that are used to build that experience. However, we do not believe it’s necessary to
build the hardware ourselves or only have one hardware partner. With Rhapsody DNA we have developed a highly specified consumer experience across multiple environments
and use cases while simultaneously enabling multiple hardware makers to build
differentiated products for on-line and off-line music access. Consider it a balance that is more vertical
than PlaysForSure but overtly horizontal compared to Apple.
To create Rhapsody DNA we developed and synchronized four technology
areas: 1) Device firmware expertise, which we developed over the past five
years by putting our media technology into mobile devices, mostly handsets (Helix
is now on over a hundred models); 2) Desktop
PC software expertise so that Rhapsody on the PC could interface more directly with
the innards of the devices than it has in the past; 3) the Rhapsody Web
Services architecture we rolled out last December, and 4) our Helix DRM.
Helix DRM has been a
great base for Rhapsody DNA because a) it supports any codec, format and
OS – enabling Rhapsody to be put onto any devices; b) it uses a licensing model
that allows certain functionality not possible with WM-DRM, and c) it is Real
technology so we can access and modify it at any level we need.The first result of Rhapsody DNA is a new software version that Sonos released last week that makes the entire
Rhapsody catalog available to your home audio system via the handheld Sonos
controller, without any PC required. (It
got a fairly nice review last week by Walt Mossberg.) This was accomplished by
creating a standards-compliant web API for the entire Rhapsody service that lets any internet connected appliance
securely and reliably browse, search and stream the entire Rhapsody catalog of
more than two-and-a-half million tracks.
Now that we've built this API,
Rhapsody can be easily extended to other embedded audio systems and solutions
without involving a PC at all. The web
service API is a cornerstone of DNA.
Today’s news is
about how we have used Rhapsody DNA to create a very different MP3 player experience inside of a SanDisk player. Their E200 is loaded with features
such as replaceable batteries, a large screen, video and they now have an 8 GB version
(Apple's Nano has this now, but SanDisk was first). We've reworked the E200 firmware
significantly to provide tighter PC integration and some very useful new capabilities, e.g., it will be the first MP3
player to come preloaded with hundreds of tracks from all of the leading record
labels; it will be the first MP3 player to automatically find and download new
music based on your musical preferences and listening behavior.
For the first-time, Rhapsody can be accessed from your, PC,
from the web, around your home and in your pocket. Over the coming weeks we
will begin releasing additional information about Rhapsody DNA, including a
whitepaper, documentation, new APIs, code examples, reference applications,
SDKs, logo requirements, certification and test environments. Stay tuned for
more details.
-- Rob Williams, VP Music Software
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