Company expands into music with innovative deal to offer music via Rhapsody

By Jonathan Zipper

NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 10/9/07 – In an effort to bolster sales and stay one-step ahead of cable DVR systems, TiVo announced on Tuesday that it will offer subscribers access to the Rhapsody digital music library.

TiVo and Realnetworks, owner of the Rhapsody service, came to an agreement that will enable TiVo customers to listen to songs on their televisions. Both subscriptions cost around $13 monthly, but TiVo members will receive a free month of Rhapsody. The television recording device already allows people to listen to their own music collections.

The arrangement gives the system an extra feature that DVRs do not have. In addition to Rhapsody, TiVo subscribers can download shows and movies directly from Amazon.com, and set their recording schedules online. Users can also share home videos with one another.

Rhapsody General Manager Michael Bloom hopes the deal will bring more consumers into the digital music world.

“CD sales have been in rapid decline,” he told Reuters. “This is one of the ways that we are going to help in that regard.”

Meanwhile, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers is simply thrilled to deliver a new offering to clients. “We not only facilitate getting Rhapsody on the TV set, but most importantly, the quick easy way to find it, which is how TiVo made its name,” he said. “This puts us on the map as distinguishing ourselves from other generic DVRs.”

TiVo saw its number of subscriptions down approximately 200,000 in the same fiscal quarter a year ago.