Subscription-based music service Rhapsody’s latest financial results have been published by RealNetworks, which still owns 45% of the company. According to its latest financials, Rhapsody’s revenues fell 8.3% year-on-year to $34.7m in the second quarter of this year, although its net loss narrowed from $4.5m to $4.4m in the same period. GeekWire followed up overnight with Rhapsody, and was told that the revenue dip was caused by dropping third-party ads from Rhapsody’s website, as well as moving away from MP3 downloads and focusing on subscriptions – including its new $5 monthly deal for customers of the MetroPCS mobile operator in the US. Even so, the figures indicate that Rhapsody has work to do in its US heartland: revenues were up 13% to $143.7m for 2012 as a whole, but for the first six months of 2013 they were down 5.9% to $68.6m. Competition from Spotify in particular is likely to be a factor, although Rhapsody is hoping for more growth to come from its Napster subsidiary in Europe: earlier this year, president Jon Irwin told Music Ally of plans to introduce ‘laddered’ pricing to explore whether there is “room for a $2.99, a $3.99 and a $4.99 product… that gives them what they need but is short of the full on-demand”.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…