TiVo continues to add web services to its line of broadband-connected DVRs, with today’s announcement that the Rhapsody music service can now be accessed through the company’s set-top-box.

From The Associated Press:

The new feature announced Tuesday means TiVo subscribers with broadband-connected set-top boxes will be able to listen to music streamed over the Internet from Rhapsody’s service. The service, now part of Rhapsody America, a new joint venture between RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks, has a catalog of more than 4 million songs.

In an attempt to distinguish TiVo from more generic DVR offerings, the addition of Rhapsody joins other integrated web services including Amazon’s television and movie download service, UnBox; Yahoo! Photos, Weather, and Traffic; movie booking service, Fandango; and the Internet radio network, Live365.

(via Zatz Not Funny)

There’s been a lot of activity lately in the portable music player market. Just yesterday Microsoft unveiled its second generation Zune. And market leader Apple refreshed its entire line of iPods last month. One anticipated player, however, is still missing in action: the Slacker Player.

Slacker, the free Internet radio service, said the boringly-named Slacker Player would be available in the second quarter of 2007. It’s now the start of the 4Q. We know Slacker is busy, but even so we are anxious to see if Slacker, its Player, and Internet-radio-on-the go are, indeed, a compelling alternative to the Zune and iPod.

Instead of purchasing songs from online stores such as the Zune Marketplace or the iTunes Music Store (or ripping your own music into MP3s), users who purchase the Slacker Player will be able to transfer their “personalized stations” and music to the portable player via Wi-Fi. They set up their “personalized stations” using the Slacker Desktop Radio accessed from a browser.

Microsoft unveiled three new second-generation Zune models late Tuesday and announced that its online music store, Marketplace, will offer consumers 1 million DRM-free songs for purchase.

As nice as it is to have second generation Zune players, it looks like Microsoft is matching Apple’s iPod both in features (hard drive-based and flash-based players) and price points.

The hard-drive based Zune 80 sports, naturally, 80 GB of storage. It uses the new Zune Pad, a four-way touch sensitive d-pad for up, down, left, and right functions. Its screen size is marginally larger, 3.2 inches from 3.0, and it’s about 1/3 smaller than the original Zune, which is now known as the Zune 30. The Zune 80 will sell for $250 and will be available sometime in November.

Also of interest are Microsoft’s first flash-based models, the $200 Zune 8 and the $150 Zune 4, which store 8 GB and 4 GB respectively. They, too, use the Zune Pad and will feature a 1.8-inch display (compared with the iPod Nano’s 2-inch screen). They will be available in red, pink, black, and green colors.

Thom Yorke, one of the artists behind the band Radiohead, hinted in 2003 that this day would come. Well, it’s here. Radiohead is releasing its seventh studio album, In Rainbows, completely on its own with no label and a pay-what-you-want price tag.

“I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one,” Yorke told Time after Radiohead’s contract with EMI/Capitol expired after its release of Hail to the Thief in 2003. “And, yes, it probably would give us perverse pleasure to say ‘f*** you’ to this decaying business model.”

The long-established business model is not dead yet, but Radiohead’s bypassing the record labels is another brick out of the music industry’s wall. Radiohead is still one of the biggest bands in the world, selling millions of albums and selling out concerts around the globe. Everybody — from artists to the record labels to the music industry as a whole — will be keenly following the success, or failure, of In Rainbows because it represents a new and potentially powerful way to sell music.

I feel like I am cheating on my wife. I’m listening to music downloaded from the new Amazon MP3 store — in iTunes and on my iPod.

Years ago, before the iTunes Music Store, I dreamed of a time when I could download music from any online store and play it on any digital music player. Online music stores were rare then, but then Apple opened the iTMS in April 2003 and downloading legal music took off.

At the time, I was forced to deal with digital rights management (DRM) that said I could only listen to iTunes music on an iPod. Apple offered the best digital music players and a pleasant online music store experience, so I turned to Apple, the iPod, iTunes, the iTMS, and simply endured DRM.

Even so, I’ve always wanted my music DRM-free, so I could use it on different devices, and share it with my daughter and wife. Apple said no, I can’t do that, so the music in the family remains crippled, tied to different user accounts, and a pain to share.

That all may change now that Amazon has opened its DRM-free music store, Amazon MP3, which offers a stout 1-2-3 combination for music downloads. Now I can purchase music and listen to it on any PC, Mac, or Linux computer using iTunes or almost any media player software. Better yet, I can listen to the songs on any digital audio player — an iPod, one of the Creative Zens, a Zune — and I can share them with the wife and kid.

My dream has come true.

Update: see our full Amazon MP3 review.

The iTunes Music Store has fended off all comers to remain the top digital music store in the world. Now Amazon, with its just-opened MP3 store, aims to knock iTunes off its lofty perch and in doing so may change the future of digital music downloads.

Amazon today opened Amazon MP3, its much anticipated storefront for selling music downloads free of digital rights management (DRM). As expected the service utilizes the ubiquitous mp3 format, meaning that music downloaded can be played on any — yes, any — device that supports mp3s, including Apple’s iPod and iPhone, Microsoft’s Zune, and the Creative Zen series of players, as well as most modern cell phones. Although Amazon MP3’s download manager is Mac and Windows-only, so Linux fans are out of luck (Update: Amazon says a Linux version is in the works).