Month: July

Full Text:

Rhapsody and Napster are hoping their mobile phone-compatible services will change their fortunes in the music subscription business, but that has yet to be seen. The downloading of music has dwarfed the subscription service recently. Napster's partnership with AT&T since late 2006 has seen little change in the company's subscriber base and the service is only available with other-the-air downloads on one phone model, while the side-loading service is available on just a few others. Napster is also one of several music services available for AT&T phones. This is where Rhapsody and Verizon have the upper hand. Rhapsody is the default music service for Verizon phones and is compatible with ten kinds of phones. Verizon can also add the cost of the subscription to their phone bill, something AT&T has not been able to do. Verizon is far ahead of its rivals and is working to transform Rhapsody's business. The problem is that the music subscription business has always had more potential than success. Rhapsody is great for sophisticated music lovers, but hasn't had mass-marketing appeal yet.