I’m becoming more and more addicted to the Rhapsody subscription music service. It has it’s problems (missing tracks in the catalog, no roaming of playlists with local content, bugginess, crappy mac support, no cross-fades, etc.) but the roaming of my playlists, the ability to explore new music for more than 30 seconds at a time, and the breadth of the catalog are making me extremely happy.

I am torn though. It’s not because Steve says I shouldn’t be having these feelings, it’s that I want to run Rhapsody on an iPod Touch. The perfect player to run Rhapsody would be one that syncs over WiFi. The folks at Real (makers of Rhapsody) and iRiver claimed back in January that there would be a wireless MP3 player that worked with Rhapsody by June of this year. We’re past June and I haven’t heard a peep. I did send mail to the lucky pr people who had their e-mails on the press release. No response yet. I’ll keep harassing them politely inquiring. I know the player won’t be an iPod Touch, but the functionality is really what I want. Sorry Steve.

Note: I predict that ultimately Apple will offer a subscription service. And when asked about his previous statements, Steve will say that consumers didn’t want a music subscription service until Apple shipped one.

I realize it’s a weird comparison but I wonder how the numbers would look if you compared how many tracks are purchased each year on iTunes to how many tracks are listened to for more than 30 seconds on Rhapsody (only count once per unique track per unique user). I know it’s not exactly fair, but I wonder where Rhapsody and Napster would rank relative to iTunes in terms of unique tracks delivered to customers. Of course you’re probably more likely to listen to a broader set of tracks on an all-you-can-eat service than you are on a pay-per-track service. But isn’t that the point? I know more people use iTunes than use the subscription services, but I wonder what percentage of iPod owners would opt for all-you-can-eat if it were offered?

Maybe, ultimately, the reason Steve says nobody wants a subscription service, is because they’ve crunched the numbers, and ultimately paying the record companies every time a track is played (instead of once per track sold) will eat what tiny margins they make on selling tracks on iTunes. Maybe Steve thinks that somehow the lock-in is more effective with purchased AAC tracks than with a subscription, though I’m not sure how.

I’m doing tons of speculation and ultimately I don’t really know anything other than I wish I could have Rhapsody on a wireless music player produced by Apple. I won’t hold my breath.