Music streaming service Rhapsody is boasting 2 million users after 13 years of doing business.
While the company is still far behind industry leader Spotify, which has 10 million subscribers, it seems to be keeping other competitors such as Beats Music, which has a mere 250,000 subscribers, at bay.
Rhapsody is hailed as an industry leader, having essentially invented the all-inclusive Internet radio model back in 2001. Despite being a trailblazer in the industry, it took the company a decade to reach 1 million users.
"All the major players are jumping into this space. Jumping in is the easy part," said Paul Springer, chief product officer of Rhapsody. "Learning how to swim in the deep and growth is the hard part."
The news comes shortly after the announcement of the company's new unRadio service in partnership with T-Mobile. This service offers users "infinite skips with no ads," and users can try it out for two weeks before they will need to front the $5 per month fee. The service is also free to users of T-Mobile's unlimited data plan, and offers a whopping 30 million-plus songs to listen to. It also offers offline playability, similar to Spotify's popular Premium service.
Rhapsody has plans to move this model to Europe through its international branch, Napster. In Europe, Rhapsody will be partnering with France's second-largest mobile carrier SFR, calling the new service Napster Découverte, or Napster Discovery. Users will be able to subscribe for 3.95 euros per month, equivalent to $5.29.
Napster has unveiled a similar plan with Telefonica in Latin America, which will be called Napster Premiere.
"We are very satisfied with the development of Napster in France and with Napster Découverte's successful cooperation with SFR. France is one of the fastest-growing markets in Europe. The success of our service proves that customers are eager for a blend of on-demand and radio music," said Napster's SVP for Europe, Thorsten Schliesche.
The partnership between Rhapsody and T-Mobile follows a recent trend of partnerships between music streaming services and phone carriers. AT&T's partnership with Beats Music and Sprint's with Spotify both offer users extensive free trials, however neither of them offer services for free for an indefinite period of time.
In addition to announcing its success, Napster also gave a glimpse into the most popular songs, albums and artists over the past three months. Pharrell Williams' "Happy" was the most popular song globally, with his album, G I R L receiving the top spot in the album category. Michael Jackson won the most popular artist category.
