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SanDisk, Rhapsody get synced
With an eye on the iPod+iTunes model, the world's No. 2 MP3 player maker and RealNetworks' subscription service to team up.
In a blow to advocates for interoperability between MP3 players and download stores, SanDisk and RealNetworks' Rhapsody said today they were teaming up for an integrated download store and MP3 player model in line with that of
SanDisk and Rhapsody hook up.
Apple's iPod+iTunes and Microsoft's forthcoming Zune.
SanDisk said it is developing a SanDisk Rhapsody player that will be in stores in time for the holiday shopping season and will work exclusively with the Rhapsody music subscription service. The player will be based on the company's e200 series of flash-based players.
The player will use Real's new Rhapsody DNA, a digital rights management technology that will prevent iTunes users from playing music downloaded from iTunes on the SanDisk Rhapsody player. The new player will work with Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, however, so users will still be able to play music from services like Napster and Urge on the players.
The move is in line with the "walled garden" approach used by Apple. Industry analysts often credit Apple's dominance of the digital media market on its use of FairPlay DRM, which prevents music bought from iTunes from playing on anything but an iPod and won't let music from most other download stores play on an iPod.
"We're excited to be working with Real to be the first to offer the Rhapsody DNA on our feature-rich, high-capacity Sansa players with the acclaimed Rhapsody service," SanDisk CEO Eli Harari said in a statement. "This partnership with Real demonstrates SanDisk's commitment to bring consumers an array of options on how they receive and enjoy their music."
The SanDisk Rhapsody player will come preloaded with nearly 32 hours of content from all four major labels. The preloaded content acts as a free trial of sorts for the Rhapsody service, which offers all-you-can-eat rental access for a monthly fee. Users can pay $9.99 per month for PC access to the Rhapsody catalog, and $14.99 per month for the Rhapsody To Go service, which lets users transfer music to a portable player. Once a user's subscription lapses, the music is rendered unplayable.
"Rhapsody DNA is an amazing innovation that puts the celestial jukebox into the consumer's pocket," RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said in a statement. "We can't imagine a better launch partner than SanDisk. Together, Real and SanDisk will soon deliver great new end-to-end experiences that make it easier and more fun than ever before for consumers to discover and enjoy music."
The SanDisk and Rhapsody partnership is part of the fallout from Microsoft's decision to launch its own integrated portable media player and download store, dubbed Zune and the Zune Marketplace, respectively. Zune will be a competitor to the same third party device makers and services that use Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM. Those new competitors include the likes of SanDisk and Rhapsody.
The move is also a push to capitalize on the growing popularity of SanDisk's MP3 players. Although its 10-percent market share pales in comparison to Apple's 76 percent, SanDisk's flash-based players have been giving the iPod Nano a run for its money in recent months.
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