How To Listen to Subscription Music on the Xbox 360
For almost a year now I have had access to thousands of songs and albums through the Rhapsody subscription service. I have also been able to transfer these subscription DRM’d tracks to my Sansa 280R mp3 player. One thing which has always bothered me was the lack of a way to listen to these files on my Xbox 360. The Sansa e280R uses the .rax extension by default which is incompatible with the xbox 360 for playing over a USB connection. This left streaming from my desktop as the only option, which for some reason stumped me for the longest time.
I recently figured out how to play DRM restricted rhapsody tracks by using the WMP 11 streaming to my Xbox 360. The solution is less than ideal because you need to download each track before it can be played on the Xbox 360. Check out the brief how to below.
- First you need to be set up with a way to stream content to your Xbox 360(Microsoft).
- Next you should have Rhapsody downloaded and installed.
- Sign in to your Rhapsody account.
- Click on the Tools Menu and Choose Preferences.
- Click on “My Library”
- Choose “Download Tracks to my Hard Drive”
- Choose the file format, “WMA (Windows Media Audio)
- Go ahead and save your settings, just a warning this will eat up Hard drive space on your streaming PC.
- Find a song/album/playlist you want to be able to stream to the 360.
- Right click the song(s) you want to download and stream, choose Download Track(s)
- Now that the songs are downloaded to your computer in .WMA format open up Windows Media Player 11.
- The default location for your downloaded files is My Documents\My Music\Rhapsody\youremail@domain.com
- In Windows Media Player, Choose Add to Library and add the folder from step 12.
- If you have already turned on File sharing you can now power up your xbox 360, hit the media tab and choose your computer. From there you have access to all the tracks you have downloaded.
- You have to download the songs to the local hard drive for this to work!
A similar setup should work for Napster and Yahoo subscription services so long as you can download the DRM’d files to your streaming computer in .WMA format.
It is great to have access to all these tracks on the Xbox 360 without paying any more per month. It has always surprised me none of the subscription services has teamed up with Microsoft to offer this, though I am guessing it has something to do with bandwidth limitations.
Im Not There, A Dylan Movie
I just found this trailer for a new movie about Bob Dylan, in which numerous actors appear to play Dylan in a variety of stories. The trailer depicts stories which range from true through exaggeration and into falsehood. I am looking forward to checking this out, it make take some convincing to get Amber to see this one with me though unless I wait for the DVD release.
I’m Not There trailers and video clips on Yahoo Movies
Soundpedia Rocks Your Office!
Earlier today I found out about Soundpedia via the PopCandy Blog, and wow this is a slick site!
Soundpedia has a huge selection of full CDs which you can stream. There is also the ability to create playlists and more. Soundpedia excels in having a large selection of new material as well as an extensive back catalog of music from big name bands. One warning is that it can be quite addictive to relisten to those one hit wonders from the 80′s and early 90′s. The song quality isn’t spectactular but for a free office listening solution it rocks.
I take no responsibility for you blaring Ice Ice Baby or U Can’t Touch This at work and having your boss walk in on a co worker trying to imitate MC Hammer.
Bob Dylan, responsible for all the hits…
Check out this interview with “Bob Dylan” in which he reveals he is responsible for every hit of the last 35 years. Ranging from Nookie to Bad Day.
Ifilm won’t embed so … Dylan is Responsible for the hits.
Bare Naked Ladies New Video Features Youtube Stars
Found this clip through BoingBoing, The newest BNL song – Sound of Your Voice, features a cast of vertiable Youtube all stars. Including a Bluffton University Alumni, Judson Laipply, Now if only we could get a clip of him doing the Beaver Song. I highly reccomend checking out thier new album. Anyway for your enjoyment, BNL – Sound of your Voice on Youtube.
Barney’s Get Psyched Mix
Back in December, the new year’s eve How I Met Your Mother Featured Barney’s Get Psyched Mix. We just recently saw the episode and found the track listing on TV Squad. Well I decided to put together a playlist on Rhapsody of the Get Psyched Mix.
Tracks
1) I Wanna Rock — Twisted Sister
2) You Give Love A Bad Name — BJ (Bon Jovi)
3) Lick It Up — KISS
4) Paradise City — GNR (Guns & Roses)
5) Dancing With Myself — Billy Idol
6) Rock You Like A Hurricane — Scorpy (Scorpions)
7) Panama – Van Halen
Talk Dirty To Me — Poison
9) Thunderstruck — AC/DC
10) Dr. Feelgood — Crue (Motley Crue)
11) Round and Round – Ratt
Barney’s Get Psyched Mix – TV Squad
P.S. Watch this show.
Invest in your Muzak System or Else
Over the years consumers have been spending more time on hold when calling in to the companies they are already paying for a service or product. Often this hold time is spent listening to some form of easy listening muzak. The biggest complaint I have when calling a company and being on hold isn’t the constant reminder to use their website which coincidentally can’t solve my problem, is HORRIBLE quality hold muzak. Now I don’t mean the selection of artists or genre selection but the Muzak that sounds as if it is being tuned in to the phone system over a modified AM radio tryign to pick up the 101.5 The River based in Ohio from Bangladesh India.
For crying out loud this is one of the foremost contact points customers have with your company, do you really want it to sound like a dieing whale playing a trumpet through the Taco Bell Speaker? Last time I checked it is 2007 and you need to either, play a file over the internet, Burn a CD, or plug in someone’s MP3 player.
The same thing goes for in store advertising which Walmart has had issues with in the past weeks. The audio on their units sounds like it was tuned to 88.7 in the middle of nowhere. Time Warner’s local ads are also at fault here with more static than a tesla coil present in the audio and the picture.
If you can’t get your hold music, in store network or god forbid local advertising down right why would I choose you for a service?
*I go to Walmart on the occasion that Meijer doesn’t have something. Meijer’s in store network has good audio and video quality.
**I am a Time Warner Cable customer because I have no other options, but I would never advertise through them. The quality is horrendous.
How to Find New Music
This is an extremely busy week so this may be the last you hear from me until after Christmas, or quickly on Friday afternoon.
I am getting a new Mp3 player for Christmas, it is a Sansa e280R which works with Rhapsody to do some pretty cool things as far as discovering music. The two biggest drawbacks I saw to my 3G iPod were the lack of a subscription service and the lack of new music discovery.
The Sansa combines an FM radio for old Fashioned discovery but also utilizes Channels form Rhapsody. These channels can be pre made ones like the House Music Channel I am listening to right now which pulls in some great background music which I have never been able to pull together. This channel basically raided the hard drives of my Friends, Jake and Jason and made a Killer playlist. You can also hop over to the best of a decade or a Genre. If you want to get real advanced you can create your own channel. I have a channel titled Comedy- Explicit in Rhapsody which is based on Lewis Black, Dane Cook, Denis Leary, Mitch Headberg, Jim Gaffigan, and a few others which delivers a solid stream of laughs which must be enjoyed with headphones at work.
I need to add one more artist to the channel but I cannot remember his name. The comedian did some stand up on Comedy Central Presents with a guitar and sang a Hilarious bedtime song to the audience about divorce. I know someone out there can fill in the blank on this one.
The subscription service is great as well because I am currently devouring music and I am paying for it which was getting expensive and the CD purchases were leading to a pile of strange plastic discs of which I had almost forgotten. They are my new friend for music purchases since I can then have a digital track with no DRM. I am fine with DRMed subscription tracks but I am more and more against DRM on digital downloads, just like Bill Gates is.
Best Buy is offering a 2 Month Free trial of Rhapsody (with Purchase of a Sansa but that is not verified anywhere.)
I will have a longer review of the Rhapsody service, the Sansa e280R, and my accessories sometime after Christmas but so far Rhapsody alone is worth it! My plan is to make a car dock which will charge the Sansa e200 series MP3 players as well as utilize a line out function.
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
