Rhapsody Losses Grow To $5.6M Last Quarter, Product Innovation ‘Coming Soon’
Financial losses continue to mount at music subscription service Rhapsody, despite a major management shakeup and shedding 15% of its workforce in September. The details were disclosed in a regulatory filing last week by RealNetworks, which continues to hold a stake in Rhapsody, after spinning it off 2010.
According to the filing, Rhapsody revenue declined to $35.2 million in the quarter, down from $36.4 million in the same quarter last year. A $5.6 million loss compared with a loss of $3.4 million in the same quarter last year. Rhapsody attributes some of the loss to severance packages.
President John Irwin exited in September along with CFO Adi Dehejia and others. Rhapsody's 15% downsizing and leadership shift came just one day before the launch of Apple's iTunes Radio.
Innovation Ahead
“You’ll also see a lot of innovation coming out of a product road map in the next six months that is not just about the listening experience, but about improving the overall fan experience,” ," a Rhaposdy spokesperson said in a statement.
Rhapsody operates as Napster in Europe and Latin America, and last month announced a major partnershiop with mobile operator Telefonica there.
Hope it survives. But I’m noticing that more and more titles I go to buy are not for sale, or only partially for sale. I’ve been forced to use Amazon to get my hands on digital downloads of complete LPs/EPs by the Bush Tetras, ESG, Marc Almond, and more.
I buy as much as I can from Rhapsody, but in the ESG example, that was only three songs off their latest album.
I’ve been doing this long enough to understand not being able to buy, say, individual songs off soundtrack albums, bonus tracks on “deluxe editions”, etc. but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to what Rhapsody won’t sell. Amazon for MP3-buying really feels like the path of least resistance.