iPhone users will no longer need a constant Internet connection to listen to Rhapsody's catalog of 8 million songs.
The Rhapsody iPhone app, which streams an unlimited amount of music with a $15 per month Rhapsody To Go subscription, will soon allow offline music playback as well, TechFlash reports. Rhapsody announced at the South by Southwest festival that it's getting ready to submit an update to its app for Apple's approval, but didn't say exactly when the update will be available.
Judging from this YouTube video, Rhapsody will let you download songs from any playlist you've created. That way, you can listen to them on a plane, in a dead zone or anywhere there's no Wi-Fi or 3G coverage.
Other music players that Rhapsody supports have been able to play music offline for some time. It's not clear what was causing the hold up for the iPhone -- perhaps some reluctance from Apple -- but Rhapsody says offline iPhone listening was the app's most-requested feature since it debuted in September.
Once the update goes live, Rhapsody will finally be the answer to Zune Pass, Microsoft's unlimited music service. They both cost $15 per month and include massive libraries of music, but Zune Pass, which has always allowed users to download songs, is only made to work with PCs, Zune media players and Windows Mobile phones. (You can make Zune Pass work on the iPhone, but only with a bit of trickery.)
The only thing Rhapsody is missing is the ability to keep songs forever. Zune Pass lets you keep 10 songs per month, so you won't have a completely empty library if you ever stop subscribing. If you love music subscriptions, you may never have a reason to quit either service, but it's still nice to have a handful of tracks that aren't at your service provider's whim.
