Rhapsody still believes online subscription music has a real shot.

The music service, which offers access to by 5 million songs for a monthly fee, is still plugging away, despite challenges during the last few years.

Unlike online download purchasers, subscribers to online music services don’t own the songs they listen to. For about $15 a month, they can play as many as they want — but they no longer have access whether they cancel their subscription.

That’s a

big stumbling block. Despite years of rosy projections from analysts and music executives, many consumers have shunned subscriptions — sometimes called “music rental” — in favor of a la carte downloads.

Yahoo Music gave up the good fight, and will shutter its subscription music service in September. (Yahoo sold its assets to Rhapsody.) Napster, which lost about 75,000 subscribers in the last year, recently introduced an MP3 download store, in addition to its […]

Orginal post by Top Tech News