Rhapsody Reviewer's Comments

Our second ranked product and "TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” Rhapsody, offers more than four million titles, excellent search capabilities and quick, convenient downloads.

Rhapsody offers subscription and pay-per song options, with individual titles costing about $.99. The music available from Rhapsody comes in a WMA or RAX PlaysForSure format, compatible with most MP3 players, except iPod. Competing closely with our #1 service iTunes, Rhapsody is the best choice for those that do not own an iPod.

Our largest complaint about this service is that it does not offer additional media like movies, television or audiobooks. We also found that if you are not careful when installing the music player, RealPlayer, it aggressively assigns itself as your primary media player and places shortcuts everywhere on your computer.

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MP3 Music Selection:  

With about four million plus titles and 22 genres of music available, Rhapsody is definitely an over-achiever in the music download industry. We were impressed with this store's selection and confident that you can find almost any artist or song.

Rhapsody has begun to introduce DRM free MP3s into its library; however, the selection is still small.  

Search Capablities:  

Rhapsody offers all the search capabilities we expect to see in a top rated music download service, including Artist, Album and Song Name. If you don't know the song or artist, or if you just want to browse, you can search by genre. This service also offers interesting information about the albums and individual artists found on the site.  

Feature Set*:  

Rhapsody comes with its own integrated music player, which allows you to download and listen to music faster. We found the player to be exceptionally easy to use and importing music that is already on your hard drive is almost automatic. You can also import your own CDs. Unfortunately, they do not offer additional digital media like movies, television or audiobooks.

While Rhapsody tries to be compatible with many devices make sure yours works with Window’s PlayForSure DRM before you start downloading songs; otherwise, they just might be stuck on your computer.

Your free membership allows you to listen to 25 songs, in their entirety, for free; not just 30 second clips.
Download/Setup:  

We didn't experience any problems while downloading Rhapsody. The process is simple, just click a few buttons and you're ready to start searching for songs. But, as mentioned earlier, unless you spend extra time doing a custom install to limit RealPlayer's power (requiring lots of box un-checking) you will end up with Rhapsody’s RealPlayer all over your computer and every other media player on your machine will automatically take a backseat to it.

Rhapsody has many options for the music enthusiast including subscription and per-song options.

If you buy per-song, you can download individual songs and pay per track or album. These songs are yours to burn and transfer to MP3 players, much like iTunes . However, you still have to create an account with Rhapsody by signing up for their free plan.

If you subscribe, you can download as many songs as your heart desires for $12.99 a month, but these songs are tethered to your computer. You cannot burn them or transfer them. For $14.99 a month, Rhapsody’s “To Go” subscription allows you to transfer songs to your MP3 player, but they can only be played for as long as you subscribe. When you cancel your subscription those titles will no longer play. You can receive a 10 percent discount if you would like to purchase songs while your subscription is active. 

 

Help/Support:  

Rhapsody comes with above-average help, offering a searchable knowledge base of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), a Getting Started Wizard and a community message board. 

Summary:  

If you own an iPod you know where to go. For everyone else, Rhapsody is your best bet, just pay attention when you are installing the player and don’t feel forced to sign up for a pay subscription.