As I’m wont to do, I regularly cycle through all sorts of content subscription services. And earlier this month, I returned to the Rhapsody fold.
Unlike my Slacker and XM subs, Rhapsody provides more control; instead of listening to someone else’s playlists, I can create my own or even playback specific albums on demand. Indeed, that was a motivating factor as I wanted to check out Soundgarden’s latest (eh). Unfortunately, the unfavorable content licensing I referenced just yesterday has yet again bit me in the ass. From Rhapsody’s iPhone client, it appears there are exactly two Red Hot Chili Pepper tracks available… when I was looking for an entire album.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily all on Rhapsody given the various licensing participants and playback scenarios. However, as the consumer interface they’ll pay the price… after two weeks, I’ve canceled in frustration. As soon as the FiOS installer is done in my basement, I’m going to dig up and rip the two RHCP CDs I picked up in a different era. Despite licensing improvement and the easing of DRM, physical media isn’t obsolete after all.