Rhapsody, the digital love-child of Real Networks and MTV, is best known for its DRM'd subscription music service. As such, the globe's population of sheep-white-earbudded, sidewalk zombies have been completely off limits to its charms. Until today. While its DRM'd subscription deals remain in place, Rhapsody is now offering unprotected MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody MP3 store and via partners including Verizon's VCAST over-the-air service and Yahoo. We're talking 5 million DRM-free tracks (generally priced at $0.99 per song, $9.99 per album) from Indies and the four majors. Uniquely, all tracks can be previewed in full before downloading. Rhapsody VP, Neil Smith said, "We're no longer competing with the iPod, we're embracing it." Perhaps, but Rhapsody's planned $50 million marketing assault on iTunes with the help of MTV's TV networks doesn't exactly make them best of friends. We're not DRM-free across the industry yet (in fact, far from it), but things are certainly moving in that direction.

Update: Signup now with the Rhapsody MP3 store and get a $10 credit which can be applied to your first album.

[Via Reuters]

While Amazon's quest to take its DRM-free, MP3 store global is public knowledge, the where and the when of that maneuver are closely guarded secrets. The UK's Telegraph is reporting that execs from Amazon's MP3 store were in London last week to "thrash out details of the launch with British record company bosses." Of course this says nothing about timing. On one side of the impending launch is DRM, that hot button of nastiness favored by the music industry and not offered by Amazon MP3. On the other, iTunes, and the music industry's desire to usurp Apple's digital dominance while inversely strengthening the bargaining power of its music execs' over Cupertino. In other words, we may be looking at an imminent launch of a global Amazon MP3 store... and we may not, though we're leaning towards the former.

In one fell swoop, Newman shows the industry how to get its ass back into plastic. The Cool Man MP3 player is anything but, man. Unless you're still wearing that acid-washed, Blondie pin collector from your 80's wardrobe. The DAP features an OLED display, MP3/WMA support, built-in mic and bleb poppin' safety pin. And that juicy orange? We have no fracking idea since the player is about as waterproof as a, as a... well, entry-level MP3 player.

They are here. Samsung's satisfyingly bulbous S2 "pebble" MP3 player was just released in S.Korea. DNSe audio processing, five colors, and MP3, WMA, and OGG support now yours in 1GB ₩49,000 (about $54) or 2GB for ₩59,000 (about $65) models. Neato.

Heads up, MP3 lovers, because Naptser launched its DRM-free music store today. As promised to throngs of fans, the historical pirate network has converted its entire music catalog of an impressive six million songs into MP3s to be sold at $.99 each or $9.95 for albums. Subscribers will remain in DRM land, however, so don't go getting any crazy ideas.

About the only thing to deliver more tactile satisfaction than the popping of bubble wrap is the act of casually opening and closing a Zippo lighter at the bar. While you won't find anything about it on Zippo's corporate site, Zarva has announced its new Zippo MP320 MP3 player. You get than tiny screen, built-in mic, minimal MP3 and WMA format support, and just 1GB of capacity for 188 of the Chinese stuff or about 27 of the green. But if this Zippo turns on with a well placed finger snap or rough, to-and-fro swipe against our faded 501s then you can count us in.

[Via PMP Today, thanks BrianB]

Good lord. No, really. Good lord. The TEO MP-301 MP3 player from IceTech USA crams 1GB of media storage into -- as you can see -- a very Jesus-friendly form factor. The $49 player features a built-in microphone with voice recorder, mirrored front panel, and even a little speaker. According to reviews, the player has some serious interface issues and a weak screen, but if crucifixion is your thing, you can't go wrong with this necklace cross-cum-MP3 player. Or is that the other way around? Is this an MP3 player that's also a cross? Anyway, there you have it: the cross-shaped MP3 player, indeed.

[Via Crave]

Sony BMG boss, Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, was just quoted in an interview saying that Sony BMG is "working on an online music subscription service." The service would cost between €6 to €8 per month (about $9 to $12) when launching later in the year and provide full access to its entire music catalog. He goes on to say that customers could own "some songs" even after the subscription was canceled. Interesting on its own, right? Now the kicker: it will work "for all digital players, including Apple's iPod." That means DRM-free unless Apple agrees to license its FairPlay DRM... which it won't. Hell, Sony BMG is already offering DRM-free MP3s to Amazon. If true, then the move could almost turn public sentiment positive in the wake of Sony BMG's "rootkit" fiasco and its handling of the Jammie Thomas affair. Almost.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

As discussed in last week's Switched On, the PopCatcher Ripper scours FM radio stations to separate the music from the mumble and transfer songs to flash drives, memory cards and several brands of MP3 players. Using the product, one can harvest hundreds of megabytes of music without any service or song acquisition fees or touching a PC.

However, there are some limitations. First, while songs are captured as 192 kbps MP3 files, captured song quality will be less than that of purchased or CD-ripped tracks due to the limitations of FM radio. Furthermore, files are named according to the order in which they were captured. There is no automatic song identification, nor does the company provide an Internet-based song identification service for captured tracks. Radio stations are inserted for the album title field. Because of these analog disadvantages, developing a version of the PopCatcher technology based on HD Radio would be a natural future improvement.

The beginnings and ends of songs will also often be a bit clipped although this generally wasn't as much of a disadvantage as anticipated. Also, because there is no programming guide or way to set manual recording times, you cannot use it to record talk-radio programs, one of the key applications of the PoGo Products' RadioYourWay devices.

While Korean manufacturer Tomato has never produced the most eye-catching PMPs, at least the company was pushing out some original looking products for awhile. Not so with the measly 2GB or 4GB 'Video Touch,' which doesn't even try to deviate from Apple's tried-and-true design, although it does a great job in lowering the bar with its 320 x 240 QVGA screen. Supported file types include MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, MPEG-4, and AVI, although you'd really be doing yourself a favor by putting those 59,900 ($63) or 79,900 won ($84) towards a higher capacity, higher resolution device.

[Via PMP Today, image courtesy of mpnavi]

While a bit vague in the whole naming department, this new no-name OEM PMP51 PMP is actually packing a quite a spec sheet. The primary focus of the handheld is supposedly 32 bit gaming, but sadly SNES is nowhere to be found. But lucky for us there's Game Boy Advance play, in addition to Game Boy, Game Boy Color and NES. The 3-inch screen should show off that emulated Advance Wars just nicely, and the addition of a 1.3 megapixel camera and support for plenty of audio and video formats round out the piece nicely. You can also add memory with miniSD and play your ROMs on the big screen with video out. No word on price or availability.

Sony BMG is readying the other half of their reported move away from DRMed music; two days ago, they announced plans to release retail gift cards which can be redeemed for plain 'ol MP3s, but there was no word of a plan that wouldn't require people to actually leave their caves or, heaven forbid, dress themselves. Cue the other shoe: Amazon announced today that they will be hosting DRM-free Sony BMG tracks, completing its collection of DRM-free tracks from each of the four major music labels, which already includes EMI, Vivendi Universal, and Warner. The Sony BMG tracks will be available "later this month" and should be priced commensurate with the service's current offerings.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment just announced Platinum MusicPass, retail gift cards which can be traded in for digital music, delivered to you in "high-quality" – and notably DRM-free – MP3 files. No word on precisely what bitrate constitutes high-quality, but for $12.99 (or $19.99 for a couple special edition albums) you can pick up a card from a local retailer, scratch the back, enter the pin number on MusicPass.com and download the MP3s (and sometimes bonus material). Is it perhaps inadvisable to require consumers to leave the internet, go to a store to purchase a MusicPass card, only to return home to the internet to download the DRM-free track? Hey, we're not business majors here and – judging by the initial album offerings – we're not their target demographic either. Celine Dion and Kenny Chesney, really?

They had already been considering it and now it's official -- Napster will be converting its entire downloads catalogue to 100% DRM-free MP3s (innit funny how things come full circle?) in Q2 of this year. With all track and album sales offered exclusively in MP3 format, the company obviously hopes to attract a certain crowd heretofore locked out of its business model. While the subscription service will remain a core focus, Napster execs are surely hoping to see an uptick in their direct download sales when those teeming iPod and iPhone hordes come knocking second quarter.

In a move that could finally sound the death knoll for the universally-hated digital leech known as DRM, Sony BMG Music will reportedly become the last of the top four major labels to offer unprotected tracks for download. Citing people familiar with the arrangement, BusinessWeek.com reports that full details of the label's plan will be released "in the coming weeks," although at least part of its catalog will supposedly be available without DRM sometime this quarter. If this does indeed pan out, Sony would follow EMI, Vivendi Universal, and Warner in moving towards a much more consumer-friendly music distribution model.

[Thanks, Mack S.]