I love Rick Rubin. I think he is one of the great music producers of our time and one of the most versatile guys in the business. The fact that he resurrected Johnny Cash’s career in his twilight with some extremely powerful music puts him high on my personal list. I was reading an article in the New York Times about his role at Columbia Music and a section caught my attention as he was describing the future of music. This is Rhapsody’s model and why I continue to believe that as the internet becomes more pervasive, the subscription model will be important.

“Rubin has a bigger idea. To combat the devastating impact of file sharing, he, like others in the music business (Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine at Universal, for instance), says that the future of the industry is a subscription model, much like paid cable on a television set. “You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to … Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”
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We had the great fortune of catching Boz Scaggs at the Woodland Park Zoo last night. Since we’ve been traveling so much this summer, we didn’t have tickets, but my daughter made a sign for me (Need Tickets - Please!) and we got some easily. The weather was PERFECT, sunny/warm/blue sky and the crowd was mostly older so fewer kids (except for ours and friends).

The opening act was a young Jewish accoustic blues guitar player/singer from Portland, OR named David Strain - he was great and has his first album out, but I didn’t see it on Rhapsody.
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I just read an article on CNN Money about Napster (read it here) and it got me thinking about the future of Napster and the impact on the subscription music industry. I’ve been a fan of Rhapsody for a long time (obvious if you read this site) and have always thought that the music subscription model is superior to the iTunes/MP3 store model. With the introduction of DRM free MP3s in Rhapsody, I’m even more convinced of it - especially for someone who is online all of the time like I am. Rhapsody makes listening to whatever I want, whenever I want, as much as I want really easy.

Napster is the same subscription model and with their new player version, looks A LOT like Rhapsody (go figure). However, according to this article, their subscription numbers are flat, they are losing money hand over fist and don’t have a strong marketing partnership like the MTV Networks with Rhapsody. In addition, Rhapsody has taken over the Urge service AND Yahoo Music Service. Rhapsody is growing while Napster is not. So, what happens to Napster? They have cash in the back and a really low stock price - great acquisition candidate by someone - Apple? Amazon? RealNetworks? Are we better off with two major subscription services or is the market not big enough?
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The Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival is one of my favorites of the summer, as much for the crowd and the atmosphere as for the great music. I attended the Saturday Night show with my Mom and some friends from Mazama (near Winthrop) to catch Bobby Rush and Elvin Bishop. Talk about two different performers! Both were fun in their own way, but I wouldn’t say amazing. Below is the line-up for 2008.

Elvin Bishop, Bobby Rush, The Blasters, Rosie Ledet, Too Slim & The Tail Draggers, Terry Evans, Northwest Pianorama, Polly O’Keary & the Rhythm Method, Sammy Eubanks, Red Hot Blues Sisters (Red Hotz), LadyA & the Baby Blues Funk Band, Rojer Arnold & Paul Elliott.
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Seattle, Wa July 16, 2008 Woodland Park Zoo

This was our first zoo concert of the year - normally we attend everyone as we live very close and have two young children who get in free - and it was a wonderful reintroduction. We just returned from a family trip to Italy and were excited to get back in the swing of the Seattle Summer. We’ve seen Marc Cohn and Aimee Mann at the zoo before, but not together. The show was very mellow, lots of people and enjoyable. There have been some changes to the layout of the field including a removal of the speakers that are normally about half-way up the field so the back of the crowd can hear better (that’s where we were so tough to hear words), a closing off of part of the hill where the kids play (bummer!) and ommitting the canopy over the sound board (due to GREAT weather). Both artists have relatively new albums out so we got a good dose of those plus some of the classic tracks.
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It was bound to happen, but Rhapsody finally launched a DRM Free MP3 store and integrating the DRM Free MP3s into the Rhapsody Jukebox. So, what does this mean?
- If you have a Rhapsody membership (subscription) you can listen to full songs as much as you want and buy songs for $.99 that work on any MP3 player including iPods.
- If you don’t have a Rhapsody membership, you can still listen to up to 25 song streams per month and buy DRM free songs for $.99 or $9.99 for the album.
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I just posted a “How To” on creating and sharing a playlist using Rhapsody. You can find it on the left hand navigation of links or click here to learn how to create and share a playlist. Enjoy!

The British Alt band Radiohead has finally released their catalog to Rhapsody for streaming and downloading. This is great news for Radiohead fans and Rhapsody subscribers as now you can explore their entire catalog and listen to any complete song as much as you want if you are a Rhapsody subscriber. I’ve heard a few Radiohead songs on the radio, but never been a true devotee’. I just listened to their greatest hits “The Best Of” and found quite a few that I really enjoy such as “Just”, “High and Dry” and “Lucky”.

Here is a complete list of albums from Radiohead on Rhapsody. Each Radiohead album has a review from a Rhapsody Editor. Try finding THAT on Napster or iTunes.
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Some would say that playing music and being an indie is a non-profit endeavor in and of itself, but trying to create a social consciousness platform on music - sounds dicey. Global Music Project is giving it a go by donating the proceeds of downloaded/purchased music to music preservation programs that will record and archive endangered music traditions from around the world. Global Music Project is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit so donations are tax deductible. So, visit www.globalmusicproject.org, listen to contributed music and save music with a download purchase.

Rhapsody and Virgin are running a promotion that gives you a 30 day free trial of Rhapsody to Go (vs the standard 14 day free trial). You are forced to watch the Virgin Mobile video commercial merchandising the Flare from LG. It’s short and painless

Click here to see the promotion.