X

Rhapsody comes to Android

Want to stream a catalog of more than 8 million tracks to your Droid or Nexus One phone? Go to Rhapsody's Web page to sign up for the free application beta test.

Matt Rosoff
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff.
See full bio
Matt Rosoff

For heavy music listeners and explorers of new tunes, subscription-based music services make a lot sense on a mobile device. Instead of being bound to your phone's limited storage, you have access to millions of songs for a single monthly fee.

That's why I picked RealNetworks' Rhapsody (and its competitor Spotify, which isn't yet available in the United States) on the Apple iPhone as one of my five most welcome products of 2009.

Now owners of a Motorola Droid, an HTC Nexus One, or any other phone running Google's mobile operating system will be able to get the same experience, as Rhapsody is coming to Android.

Announced on Rhapsody's blog Tuesday, Rhapsody for Android is in beta testing right now, and it will work the same way as the iPhone version--$14.99 a month for unlimited streams from the company's library of 8 million songs.

Nonsubscribers can try the service free of charge for seven days. To sign up to participate in the beta test, visit Rhapsody's Facebook page and shoot it a message.