Sprint Streaming Rhapsody to Cell Phones

Sprint customers can now subscribe to Real's Rhapsody service, streaming music, podcasts, videos, and "Beats N Breaks" to their cell phones.

Sprint Nextel and RealNetworks announced today that Sprint customers can subscribe to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody Radio as part of the Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Service. The service will be available throughout the U.S. for an additional $6.95 per month on top of the normal PCS Vision Service fees and enable customers to access high-quality streaming audio from the Rhapsody service, as well as selected podcasts, music news & videos, and a new "Beats N Breaks" of instrumental tracks.

Unlike the new Motorola ROKR phone available from Cingular which can be loaded with tracks from a computer running Apple’s iTunes software, Rhapsody content is streamed in real time to the user’s mobile phone: no audio content is stored on the phone itself. Sprint’s Rhapsody Radio offering includes streams "Urban Hitz Radio," "Country," "Alternative Radio," "70s Station," and "Pop Hits," as well as streaming podcasts from Santa Monica’s KCRW and music news, videos, and reviews from IMNTV, an aggregator of independent R&B, Hip Hop, International, Rock and Pop videos.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Sprint’s Rhapsody offering is "Beats N Breaks" stream, which offers instrumental beat tracks to many popular songs. The idea is that subscribers will be able to "freestyle" their own raps and lyrics along to the instrumental tracks. Remember back when cell phone users seemed crazy for walking down the street talking into thin air? Apparently now their cell phones will enable them to rapping into thin air. Oh, the joy.