Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Music
  3. News

After 13 long years, Rhapsody adds its 2 millionth paid subscriber

By

rhapsody adds its 2 millionth paid subscriber iphone t mobile hq
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It took music-streaming subscription service Rhapsody a decade to gather a total of one million paying subscribers. It’s been two and a half years since the service surpassed that milestone in December of 2011, and now Rhapsody International has announced that it has doubled the number, with more than two million paying subscribers globally for its premium music services, including Napster, Rhapsody itself, and its recently launched Internet radio service Rhapsody unRadio.

Prime competitor Spotify asserted its dominance in the music-streaming realm when it reached the towering marker of 10 million paying subscribers back in May. But Rhapsody, the company which first introduced the world to the now-common music-streaming subscription model, still holds sway over others jockeying for prime position, including Beats Music’s tepid 250,000 subscribers.

Recommended Videos

Rhapsody’s official press release also included information about a planned expansion into Latin America and Europe via partnerships with large global mobile telecommunications companies SFR and Telefonica.

Rhapsody also announced a free two-week trial of its latest subscription service, unRadio, which offers “infinite skips and no ads.” Users can give it a whirl for 14 days before forking over the $5-per-month charge. The service boasts an “endless” catalog of 30 million-plus songs, “thousands of live radio stations from across the world,” and offline playlist functionality similar to Spotify’s Premium service, allowing subscribers to mark any track that pops up as a favorite to automatically save it for offline listening. The new service was recently unveiled as a partnership with T-Mobile. The service is also free to T-Mobile customers on its unlimited data plan.

Rhapsody unMusic is the company’s new $5-per-month premium ad-free music-streaming service that boasts unlimited skips and offline playlists. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Rhapsody’s Napster division, in collaboration with France’s second-largest mobile operator – SFR – also brought the unRadio format to Europe underneath the Napster umbrella, which is reportedly also available starting today. The service will be branded as Napster Decouverte, or “Napster Discovery.” Additionally, Napster and Telefonica have introduced the similar Napster Premiere service to Latin America.

The company also gave a few glimpses into the “songs, albums and artists most popular with Rhapsody and Napster members…over the past three months.” Here are the results:

Most popular songs:

  • Global – “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
  • United States – “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, feat. Charli XCX
  • Latin America – “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
  • Europe – “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit, feat. Jess Glyne

Most popular albums:

  • Global – G I R L by Pharrell Williams
  • United States – Nothing was the Same by Drake
  • Latin America – Live in London – At the Royal Albert Hall by Julio Iglesias
  • Europe – Frozen by Various Artists

Most popular artists:

  • Global – Michael Jackson
  • United States – Eminem
  • Latin America  – Jorge & Mateus
  • Europe – Coldplay

While the music-streaming game is a cutthroat affair with a razor thin profit margin, for now at least, Rhapsody appears to be standing up with the giants in the field. Meanwhile, Apple’s soon-to-be-acquired Beats Music has its work cut out for it.

Topics
Alex Tretbar
Alex Tretbar
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Alex Tretbar, audio/video intern, is a writer, editor, musician, gamer and sci-fi nerd raised on EverQuest and Magic: The…
What is spatial audio? The 3D sound experience fully explained
Person listening to spatial audio using Apple AirPods Max headphones.

Since Apple added “spatial audio” to the Apple Music streaming service and the AirPods family of wireless earbuds and headphones in 2021, it feels like you can’t read about new audio products or services without running into that term. And just a few short years later, it’s seemingly everywhere.

This has led to a lot of misconceptions about what spatial audio is, how it works, and why you need to hear it for yourself. People often ask, “If Apple created spatial audio, why are other companies claiming they do it, too?” The answer is that Apple didn’t create it, and you certainly don’t need to own its products to experience spatial audio.

Read more
How to download music from SoundCloud on desktop and mobile
Soundcloud Interface on a Macbook.

If you’re a huge music fan, you’ve probably combed through the many playlists, artists, and albums of your Spotify or Apple Music subscription. But what about all the indie artists of the world? Some music-streaming platforms are better than others at celebrating the
‘unsung gem’ acts, but one of the most reliable forums for new, off-the-grid tunes is SoundCloud.

Founded in 2007, SoundCloud has always prioritized music that’s a bit under the radar. With over 320 million tracks in its library, the platform will even let you download a majority of its songs and albums.

Read more
The best kids headphones of 2024: for fun, safety, and sound
Two kids using the Puro Sound PuroQuiet Plus to watch something on a tablet.

Kid-friendly consumer tech is all the rage these days, so it’s no surprise that there’s an entire market of headphones designed exclusively for young ones. But when we think “kid-friendly,” sometimes we imagine products that are built to be a bit more throwaway than their adult counterparts. That’s not the case with the products on our list of the best headphones for kids, though.

We want our child-tailored headphones to include parental-controlled volume limiters, to ensure our children aren’t harming their eardrums. Pretty much every entry on our list checks this vital box, but we also wanted to point you and yours toward products that offer exceptional noise-canceling, built-in mics for phone and video calls, and long-lasting batteries for schooldays or a long flight.

Read more