I am one of several who may have been too critical of Rhapsody over the Yottamusic shutdown. I once again follow Fred Wilson, who wrote yesterday that: I owe Rhapsody an apology here. It’s not entirely their fault. They are not luddites. They are in bed with luddites.
I should add that it’s impossible to do what Rhapsody (or any remotely similar music service) is doing without being in bed with some rather large luddites. Apparently Rhapsody could not, under the terms of its contracts with the record labels, allow Yottamusic to carry on doing what it was doing.
What exactly do you mean by, “allow Yottamusic to carry on doing what it was doing”? What was it doing that made it a problem for the record labels? Like Rhapsody, Luke’s amazing interface provided a way for users (who paid Rhapsody subscription fees) a sunstantially better interface, especially for Mac. Everything I have read, such as Real’s comments state that they couldn’t support the API Yottamusic was using any longer, but they don’t explain why clearly. These days, being a Mac user I rarely use Rhapsody anymore, it’s too clunky and time-consuming to do what I want to do (quickly add albums to my que and easily manage playlists and shuffle my library and other users library). I’m sure there could be a way, but each time Rhapsody crashes Firefox, I’m just one step closer to dropping my subscription. Real Networks might hire luke to redesign their interface. Or maybe it would cost them more, since more people would stream way more music. Please excuse this long winded novel/rant. Us Yottamusic users were spoiled by seeing a glimpse of the internet jukebox we all wanted.
Tim,
Thanks for your comment. My source is Fred Wilson, to whom I linked in the post. He believes, on the basis of input from a Rhapsody exec, that R’s contracts with the record labels put bounds on what it can offer via API, and that Yottamusic was outside those bounds.
I agree with you that R can be frustrating, and that complementary services like Yottamusic are good for R’s customers – and hence for R itself.