Wal-Mart’s not the only company making waves in the online music splash pool today. Three more of Apple’s rivals—Real Networks, MTV, and Verizon—are banding together to try and take on iTunes’s market stranglehold. The question these three white guys in suits will try to answer: can three mediocre music services combine to form one really kickass store? Or do they just make a bigger mediocre store?
The new company, dubbed Rhapsody America (because who doesn’t love America?), will unify the Rhapsody and MTV Urge stores and partner with Verizon to bring over-the-air downloads via that company’s V CAST service. Also in the cards are some plans for DRM-free tunes, via a limited offering from Universal at first, with prices reputedly at the $0.99 point for non-subscribers, with those tethered to the service snagging a slightly lower $0.89.
Competition is certainly welcome in this sphere, and as with Wal-Mart, you have to think that the move towards DRM-free tracks means that companies perceive this decision as profitable or, at least, good business.
Of course, while the lack of DRM means that Rhapsody America will be able to tap into the market of iPod owners, Mac users may still be second-class citizens, since neither Rhapsody or MTV has historically been terribly Mac-friendly: Rhapsody at least allows Mac users to stream music online, but neither service has a full OS X client. To be honest, though, wresting Mac users out of Apple’s bosom probably isn’t worth their time and effort.
I don’t expect Rhapsody America to be a serious threat to iTunes, but I do think that more places to buy DRM-free music is a good thing for consumers, and I’m heartened by the fact that executives apparently commented during the press conference that they thought that 2008 would be the year DRM-free tracks go “mainstream.” Let the games begin.
It does seem like Universal has a viable experiment going. You have DRM tracks from Apple for 99 cents, non-DRM tracks from Wal-Mart for 94 cents (and whatever damage to your soul), and non-DRM tracks for 99 cents (maybe you think your soul is worth the extra 5 cents?) or 89 cents with a subscription. They are in a position to make some sort of conclusion on subscriptions and DRM. Not a properly controlled scientific experiment, but certainly a variety of scenarios.
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