Rhapsody Kills YottaMusic

Rhapsody apparently sent cease-and-desist letters to a number of 3rd parties that were using their "non-public" APIs to build value-added services on top of their content and data.

The first company that I've noticed be affected is YottaMusic.

I'm not sure what the difference is between the public and non-public APIs (or how YottaMusic got access to the non-public ones in the first place). But, it's unfortunate, I thought highly of YottaMusic and I think Rhapsody could have learned a thing or two from them. In fact, they should have bought them and leveraged their talent to finally RE-introduce some better community features into the Rhapsody service.

Rhapsody had, in fact, introduced some new community features (music profiles) last year but then rolled them back - rumor is that they way the feature was architected was not able to scale and was straining the whole service. I don't know if this is accurate or not, but I would love to see them make a reappearance. It's been over 6 months since they were yanked. Anyone from Rhapsody want to provide a more detailed update than this one?

Yottamusic - The Best Search Box I've Ever Seen

There are a bunch of Yottamusic fans out there as of late. To over-generalize, Yottamusic is basically an alternative front-end to Rhapsody.com. They are on their way to building out some more interesting community features than Real seems to be interested in pursuing, including a very nice Last.fm integration (everything you listen to from your Rhapsody account is tracked/reported to your Last.fm profile). That alone makes it worth checking out, but the real "wow" (hopefully Microsoft hasn't trademarked that term) comes when you start typing in the search box. Considering they are build on top of Rhapsody's service, they are providing lighting fast as-you-type matching results of over 3 million songs and tens of thousands of artists.



You can also launch their pop-up player and start listening without ever leaving that search box. I think they would greatly benefit from some personalized programming/recommendation - as I often stare blankly at the search box trying to think of what I want to listen to. But, if you know what you are looking for, this is the place to get it.

You can't listen without having a Rhapsody account (in fact Yottamusic's only apparent revenue stream is from affiliate revenue from subscribers they generate) - but anyone can go and type in that search box on their front page and see what I'm talking about.

Where Am I???

I know, I know.... I was doing a really good job at blogging every day, and now it appears I've disappeared (only a couple posts over the last couple weeks). Well, I've got some stuff that I want to talk about. Now I just have to find the time to do so. Look for some fresh thoughts this weekend on the Digital Music Forum East, and probably some notes on Yottamusic as well.

Tech.co.uk | News | Apple to open up Fairplay DRM

Tech.co.uk News Apple to open up Fairplay DRM

The iPod maker is expected to make two announcements, possibly as early as this week - the first will be to allow streaming of protected AAC content via USB; the second will be to licence its Fairplay DRM to the company's Made For iPod licensees.

This is an interesting move that I hadn't been aware of. Apple is now opening up pieces of Fairplay so that others can benefit and the consumers aren't *completely* locked in. Interestingly, as the market is demanding (and even some of the major labels are moving towards) a DRM-less ecosystem, the company with arguably the biggest amount to lose in that scenario is Apple.

MP3s are the great equalizer. While it is certainly not the best audio compression scheme, it is obviously the most widely supported. Virtually every media device on the plant can play an MP3. So, if MP3s become the standard, then iTunes will have to start selling unprotected MP3s to compete. Then a song you bought on iTunes could play anywhere - which granted, will still most commonly be an iPod. But, the rest of the market would also be selling content that would play on an iPod (and an iPhone). At that point, do you care where you buy your content? It may be in the virtual check-out line, could be from a news story, or a review on Pitchfork. The backend provider is almost marginalized, and others will be building compelling applications on top of their catalogs - give they pennies to MusicNet, keep the dollars from the ad revenue. Just look at what companies like Yottamusic are already beginning to do.

It will be interesting to see how hard Apple fights to keep DRM part of the online music market - and to what extent it becomes a liability in consumers' eyes. Apple has done a great job convincing people that when they buy a song from iTunes they "own" it and can do with it whatever they please. Steve Jobs has a gift that way... he tells people what to believe, and when to believe it, and they do. Sign me up for that. That's magic.

A VC: Yottamusic - Rhapsody The Way I've Always Wanted It

A VC: Yottamusic - Rhapsody The Way I've Always Wanted It: "A service called Yottamusic launched. Yottamusic is basically a new front end on top of Rhapsody which has opened its web service."

I'm guessing that this can't be monetized beyond the affiliate dollars? Once/if advertising starts getting added, then the wrath of the labels will be felt as they demand their pound of flesh. I would actually think this would make Rhapsody nervous and potentially curb their openness in the future.