Rhapsody Goes DRM-Free!

Finally, the music gods have heard our prayers. Rhapsody, the popular music download service, has followed in the footsteps of other music download services like Amazon MP3 and Napster and opened a DRM free MP3 section to their music download store. This means music can be played on any MP3 player, including iPod.

Individual tracks are the usual $.99 and most albums are $9.99 and the music is encoded at 256kbps. Unlike other music stores, which cater to individual track sales, it seems the new section of Rhapsody is focusing on selling entire albums (a concept I’m particularly fond of).

It’s true Rhapsody is limited to albums and artists whose studios have allowed their music to be released DRM free, and it seems they are a little behind the competition with regards to artists, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. One of Rhapsody’s best features is the ability to listen to 25 free tracks every month, not just 30 second samples.

Finally, the studios are realizing the easier they make it for people to download music the less likely they are to download it from less reliable places like LimeWire and BitTorrent.

If you need a new MP3 player to take advantage of Rhapsody’s news, check out our review of MP3 players.