Mobile Phones
Mobile Phones-Verizon Wireless Gets Rhapsody Music Subscriptions
Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com, all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it difficult to legally move music between devices.
Rhapsody also provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several websites, through "music discovery service" iLike. Clips will be expanded to full tracks, and users can listen to up to 25 of them per month without a subscription.
Previously, customers who bought and downloaded an individual song on a Verizon VCAST handset received another copy of the song for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3. The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format.
"Rhapsody fulfills Verizon's promise to deliver the best mobile experience to our customers, said John Harrobin, Verizon Wireless' senior vice president of digital media. "Now, music fans can not only get the benefit of immediate access to music over-the-air, but also they can connect their mobile music and devices."