Rhapsody and MTV's URGE will merge on Verizon Wireless

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	Rhapsody and MTV's URGE will merge on Verizon Wireless	By Philip Berne, Tuesday 21 August 2007

RealNetworks' Rhapsody service and MTV's URGE network will become one, and will offer content on Verizon Wireless' V Cast phones.

Verizon Wireless, MTV and RealNetworks today announced a partnership that will merge the two subscription-centric music services into one brand under the Rhapsody umbrella. Effective immediately, Rhapsody users will start to get more URGE and MTV-styled content on their service, and URGE members will begin to migrate to the Rhapsody service.

Today's announcement was disappointingly shy on details, and reps from Verizon Wireless stressed that the intention was to declare the partnership working and a product will be available in months, and not years. Still, The Network had no additional information about pricing for the service, or even what the new service will be called, though we think something like "Verizon Wireless V Cast Mobile Music from Rhapsody" is what we'll be wrapping our tongues around soon. Currently, the V Cast store offers a wide catalogue, in our opinion, though the $1.99 pricing is a bit steep, especially compared to $0.99 songs on iTunes and even Sprint's music store. Whether the anouncement will mean cheaper pricing for over the air downloads, a subscription model for V Cast to match the desktop model of the new partners, or even simply a new interface remains to be seen, as Verizon Wireless reps were mum on any additional information.

The merger shouldn't affect desktop users too much, as both services were similar in style and delivery. Both offered subscription plans, or optional a la carte plans for certain songs, and pricing structures were generally in line already. If anything, the announcement seems more about focusing a brand to combat the siege that is the iPod / iTunes combo. MTV has been hopping from music service to music service, trying to get things right, but hasn't yet come up with a winning strategy. RealNetworks famously tried to engineer a solution for playing their own DRM music on an iPod, but has so far been rebuffed by Apple.

The announcement stressed the importance of spreading the new service to a wide variety of devices, but no specific device announcements were made. Presumably, the best way to spread music around to the widest variety of devices would be to unlock any restrictive digital rights management, as both Apple and RealNetworks are guilty of tethering their music to a specific range of devices that can unlock the DRM. Still, even with the combined might of MTV's parent Viacom and Verizon Wireless, we doubt the new service will tackle a new DRM paradigm. Probably just a slick new interface and some exclusive content deals.