Digital Home Thoughts: Realnetworks Rhapsody DNA Platform

"RealNetworks®, Inc. announced the launch of Rhapsody DNA, a new technology platform that enables device makers to deliver a seamless Rhapsody experience to consumers via a broad range of portable, mobile, and in-home devices. In conjunction, Real announced that it is teaming with SanDisk® Corporation to integrate Rhapsody DNA into Sansa MP3 players this fall in the United States. The RealNetworks/SanDisk partnership will feature groundbreaking new features embedded in a line of SanDisk's Sansa e200 series of portable players. The collaboration will allow consumers to personalize their device and take full advantage of both Rhapsody's unlimited access model and SanDisk's flash-based MP3 player capabilities and capacity. The e200s with the special Rhapsody DNA platform will come equipped with nearly 32 hours of pre-loaded music from hundreds of the world's most popular artists on EMI Recorded Music, SONYBMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, as well as leading independent labels. The players also include unique capabilities, such as automatically updating with new music based on a consumer's personal tastes and historical music preferences."

Using the all-you-can-eat music plans to automatically introduces users to new music based on their likes and dislikes is a cool concept. I've never found music recommendations (like what Amazon does) to be very effective in predicting what I would like beyond recommending another song by the same artist. I'd also be interested to see how much of the recommended content was actually based on good recommendations as opposed to whatever the labels were pushing. For example it would not surprise me to see everyone get pushed the same "next big pop hit" regardless of what their preferences are.