Rhapsody Web Services

The Rhapsody Web Services Blog Has Moved!

Please go see the news feed (here is the RSS) at webservices.rhapsody.com!  The news feed is regularly updated with reviews, tips, news, and announcements about Rhapsody web services and its api set.  Or subscribe to the community forum RSS feed.  Thanks all.

Matthew Lapora
Program Manager, Rhapsody Web Services

Interested in Joinging the Rhapsody DNA Team?

You've all probably seen the Rhapsody Sansa announcement. If you're interested in working on Real's DNA initiative to get Rhapsody off the PC and on to various devices, send your resume along to cmiller@real.com. We're looking for great engineers who love working on cool gadgets and preferably have some firmware experience.

-- Rob Williams, VP Music Software

Rhapsody DNA White Paper Now Available

Over the last few weeks there's been a lot of Rhapsody news. Sonos and SanDisk announced several completely new products that will set new industry standards. We've just released a ground-breaking new version of the Rhapsody jukebox. Rhapsody Online has now gone live with an entirely new set of features and capabilities. All of these products and services were constructed using Rhapsody DNA: We've cranked on the lights in the Rhapsody network.

This white paper provides an overview of Rhapsody DNA, the music software platform that enables integration of the award-winning Rhapsody experience directly into hardware, software and the Web.

Rhapsody DNA is an extension to Rhapsody that provides the entire technology stack needed for a Rhapsody-branded consumer facing experience. Rhapsody DNA provides the consumer with secure, personalized end-to-end hardware, software and browser access to music and music assets.

Rhapsody DNA delivers unlimited and dynamic music content from connected and off-line home entertainment systems, portable music devices, mobile phones, Web and software applications. It redefines the consumer digital music experience by creating ubiquitous, personalized and interoperable music access from any device.

Rhapsody DNA provides developers, OEMs and device partners a world-class standards-based platform that can be used to directly compete or coexist with other end-to-end music platforms.

This white paper serves as an introduction to the Rhapsody DNA SDKs. Look for updates to this white paper as we introduce individual SDKs and as we add additional APIs, features and capabilities.

We welcome your feedback and invite you to join our forums, participate in our blogs and develop with Rhapsody DNA.

Make Music Happen

Ben Rotholtz
General Manager, Web Services & Syndication

Check out http://webservices.rhapsody.com

Hey everyone, just a friendly reminder that we are focusing more on our website these days instead of our blog (as it has blog functionality, and more).  We are posting news articles there, as well as keeping on top of a dynamic Rhapsody Web Services forum.  Please take a look and feel free to commune...

http://webservices.rhapsody.com

-- UPDATE --
Here are the main RSS feeds for the webservices.rhapsody.com site:
News articles: http://webservices.rhapsody.com/backend.php
Forum (general topics): http://webservices.rhapsody.com/backforum.php?forum_id=1

Thanks,
The RWS team

Sonos and Rhapsody Web Services

The word is finally out! Sonos has released version 2.0 of their system software (http://www.sonos.com). This mind-bending new firmware update enables access to the entire Rhapsody catalog without the use of a PC. Sonos has set a new standard for ease of use. This new release is already garnering incredibly positive reviews- in the words of Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal: this system "pairs up Rhapsody with the elegant Sonos whole-house music system, and it works very well. It is simple, fast and rewarding"

With this release we're also now at liberty to begin publicly speaking about an entirely new set of APIs that are powering Rhapsody experiences for home entertainment as well as web connected experiences. Rhapsody Direct includes a robust set of WSDL-compliant SOAP APIs. As the name implies, these new APIs give you direct access to the Rhapsody servers without requiring the use of the Rhapsody client. What can you expect from these new APIs? Well, the Sonos Version 2.0 is demonstrably fast! Performance is a key benefit. There's also the power of time-to-market. Because these new APIs are WSDL compliant you can simply drop them into your environment and they rapidly adapt to whatever programming language you're using. Do they run on the PC as well? Absolutely, Sonos has also implemented a PC version of their client interface using Rhapsody Direct. Paired with the smart URLs, Rhaplinks and RSS feeds of Rhapsody Web Services, Rhapsody Direct has now provided an entirely new level of developer access points into the Rhapsody music platform and created the foundation for an unparalleled set of new hardware and software music applications.

Over the next few weeks we will be providing detailed documentation around these new powerful APIs. In the interim, we welcome your feedback and congratulations to Sonos for a job very well done!

-- Ben Rotholtz, GM Web Services & Syndication

Contest Winners Announced

We are proud to announce the two winners in the first round of the Rhapsody Web Services Contest. We thank all of you who entered the contest and look forward to seeing how your sites and applications continue to grow and change. Both winners will receive a SanDisk Sansa e260 mp3 player with a six-month Rhapsody subscription. 

Without further adieu, here are the winners:

Ron Gatewood submitted an Internet Explorer plugin that links text on any web page to Rhapsody.com. Simply highlight any artist or album text on any webpage, right-click and select ‘Search Rhapsody.com’ from the context-menu. The application uses the Rhapsody Search API to find the right match and takes the user to the appropriate page. We’ve been playing around with this and found it a great way to quickly get from a blog posting or album review to playing the content. The more you use it the more useful it seems to be. Congrats Ron.

Brian Greenbaum showed us his Pitchforkmedia+Rhapsody Mashup, which matches the excellent reviews on Pitchfork with Rhapsody Playback and Discovery. You can hear content from the latest reviews, or go back and peruse over 2,000 past reviews. Brian's site scrubs Pitchfork for new reviews, uses Data.xml to determine if the album and artist are available in Rhapsody, then posts the artist, album, and play links on his site. This is a great way to discover new music. Congrats Brian.

A number of you have shown me your works in progress, and there are some truly great web services integrations and mashups going on. So look for more prize announcements next month. Congratulations to these two winners. Enjoy your swag.

--The Rhapsody Web Services Team

The importance of being open

I'm struck this morning by the simultaneous moves to open up and close off data and services to developers.  The last few weeks we have seen MySpace's security concerns lead them to shut down outbound links from flash widgets, seriously curtailing the business of third party developers and decreasing the functionality of their ecosystem.  One must assume that MySpace has learned the ills of erecting walls around one's garden from the likes of AOL, so hopefully these restrictions will be short lived.  I'm guessing them will rectify the situation shortly.

Kudos this week go to Facebook, which in my opinion was the most closed of all of the social network sites until most recently.  In fact, being insular was their initial point of differentiation--providing access to profiles only to classmates and their friends.  Last week Facebook announced a developers program, which should provide an interesting platform for college projects and even for-profit businesses.  I can picture that one lurpy guy with the too-high pants developing the newest fashionable way to hook up using Facebook.  We'll see. 

The APIs allow access to a fair amount of data, but the social network site is obviously doing its best to protect its data from being siphoned off and used outside of its system.  This challenge is faced by all holders of proprietary information.  We see the benefit of distributing the information widely in order to reinforce our networks and to create greater value to our customers as they utilize the information in ways they choose.  But there is fear that the data will simply slip away into nefarious hands, or that the value of the data to the service will dissipate as it becomes broadly available on the web. 

So it is up to the content rights holder to make the decision whether or not to be open, or how to structure their openness as they walk this line.  We have had several debates on the Rhapsody team about this subject, weighing the power of the incredible editorial content cultivated over years of work and the desire to support of developers.  So far we have decided to err on the side of being open, and I believe that will continue.  While there will be some small bits that we will have to hold back due to licensing issues or copyright concerns, but we're working on getting in your hands all the tools that will make your applications better. 

So in that spirit, tell us what you want, and we'll try to oblige.

--Dave Hanley

Make something cool, win great prizes

Today we announced the Rhapsody Web Services contest, where we'll give away lots of prizes, including a trip to see any artist anywhere in the world, a Sonos system with Rhapsody subscription, and lots of Sansa e260 mp3 players with Rhapsody subscriptions. 

The big winners will be announced at Web 2.0, and we'll be giving monthly prizes as well.  So dust off those good ideas and build something unique.  We'll promote it on the new Rhapsody Web Services site, and you could get some nice swag.

It looks like Richard MacManus is the first to review the contest.  Check out his postings at Read/Write Web and ZDNet.

Update: John Musser just posted his thoughts on Programmable Web.

Programmable Web Features Rhapsody Web Services

Today Programmable Web has Rhapsody Web Services listed as their featured API.  And we got five stars to boot!  Thanks to PW for helping get the word out.

So who's going to post the next music mashup?

New Webservices Site

Hey everybody!  Check out our new site:

           http://webservices.rhapsody.com/

Sign up as a registered Rhapsody Web Services Developer.  You'll get access to a brand new version of the SDK and discussion forums and all sorts of great stuff.  Once we clean up the design, we'll be switching the main links over to it.  In the meantime, look for more posts about the cool new web services we've been adding.

-LPD