Instead, the whole Rhapsody team thought of ways to revamp the struggling company and in turn dropped RealNetworks as parent of the company. During this period, dropping the subscription service was considered, but he felt it wasn't the right decision at the time. Recent problems with the online music subscription service prompted the CEO to make "crucial decisions and think some things through". In February 2010, Rhapsody's owners announced their intention to restructure the company into a fully independent corporation. In late 2007, Music On the Go (MOG) partnered with Rhapsody to allow Rhapsody subscribers to access all of Rhapsody's content through MOG. The Rhapsody service was briefly known as RealRhapsody shortly after the acquisition, but was since shortened back to "Rhapsody".īy 2004, some blogs providing sharing of playlists with comments, with names such as "Rhapsody Radish". The transaction closed on August 3, 2003. RealNetworks announced plans to acquire on April 21, 2003, one week before the launch of the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003. In July 2002, Rhapsody added Universal Records to their catalog, signing the last of the five major record labels of the time. Records, and Sony to add their music to the service. Over the next several months of 2002, they secured licenses from EMI, BMG, Warner Bros. At launch, Rhapsody's library was formed of content mostly from Naxos Records and several independent labels. Rhapsody was the first streaming on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee, a concept advocated by business theories such as the Open Music Model. Aladdin was transformed into the Rhapsody music service during the summer and fall of 2001 and was launched on December 3, 2001. In April 2001, was acquired by, a startup founded in San Francisco by author and entrepreneur Rob Reid, that had built a large online music directory. This engine was commercially deployed in the customized radio service, and was also used in their "celestial jukebox" prototype, called Aladdin. Lester, Sylvain Rebaud, Alexandre Brouaux, Nick Sincaglia and Dave Lampton were working on a new streaming audio engine.