Help Rhapsody

About Tracks

Rhapsody can play tracks that are streamed from the Rhapsody servers, and tracks stored as local files on your computer. (For a list of the types of files Rhapsody can play, see Audio Formats and Quality.) To make it easier to organize your music, Rhapsody retains all the file location details and lists them in My Library simply as tracks.

A track is similar to a shortcut or bookmark. When you store or move tracks in My Library, you aren't moving the file associated with the track, only the bookmark. When you delete a track from My Library, you can choose to delete only the track, and not the file associated with it.

Each track in My Library has associated Track Info, such as the artist name, genre, and album. You can edit Track Info to suit your needs, and the custom information will be saved on your computer.

There are several different kinds of tracks in Rhapsody. For details, see Track Types.


 

Click a header to learn more about tracks.

Where can I find tracks to play and save?

Every day more audio media is available online. You can use the following Rhapsody services to help you find, play, and save tracks.

Service

 

What kind of tracks are here?

Music Guide

Search the Music Guide, a huge library of music, by keyword, artist, track, album, or composer. You can purchase tracks and albums from the Music Guide, or, with the appropriate membership level, download them to My Library without having to purchase them.

Channel Guide

The Channel Guide offers a large selection of commercial-free,  streamed music Channels organized by genre, as well as live internet radio stations.

 

The tracks in a Rhapsody Channel or live station are streamed, and cannot be purchased or added to My Library. However, with a Rhapsody MP3 Player and the appropriate membership, you can transfer Rhapsody Channels to your device. Transferring a Rhapsody Channel will add over three hours of music to your player.
 

Live radio stations cannot be transferred.

Playlist Central

Use Playlist Central, an online Rhapsody community, to find and listen to playlists published by other Rhapsody users, Rhapsody editors, and celebrities.

With the appropriate membership, you can save these playlists to your collection in the Playlists area.

Dynamic Playlists page

The Dynamic Playlists page is accessed from the main Playlist Central page. Listen to Dynamic Playlists put together by our fine editors, and add them to your collection in the Playlists area. Each time you sign in to your Rhapsody account, the tracks in your saved Dynamic Playlists will be updated.

My Rhapsody

Visit My Rhapsody to get personalized music suggestions. Play and add tracks and albums you like.

You can also find My Dynamic Playlist on the main My Rhapsody page. This is a Dynamic Playlist created just for you, based on your listening history and genres you select in My Rhapsody.

Add from your hard drive

You can easily add music files from yourlocal drives into My Library from the Rhapsody File menu.

Import CD tracks

You can import CD tracks and albums from prerecorded CDs to My Library.

Internet search

Use any internet search engine to find supported media to download, then add your finds to My Library.

What can I do with tracks?

There are many things you can do with tracks using Rhapsody:

Track Use

 

How does it work?

Play

You can play a wide variety of tracks using Rhapsody. With the appropriate membership, you can play any of the millions of tracks in Rhapsody's Music Guide.

Share

All Rhapsody tracks and playlists made from Rhapsody tracks can be shared. You can email links to tracks to your friends, blog track links, paste a link on your web site or in an instant messaging program, or publish playlists on Playlist Central, an online Rhapsody community.

Burn

Purchased Rhapsody tracks, tracks you have imported from a CD, or added from your local drive(s) can be burned to a custom CD.
 

Note: You don't need to purchase tracks prior to burning. Just add them to your burn queue from the Music Guide or My Library, and when you start the CD burning process, the "Purchase" dialog will open.

Transfer

Purchased Rhapsody tracks, tracks you have imported from a CD, tracks added from your local drive(s), and, with the appropriate membership, downloaded Rhapsody tracks can be transferred to a compatible portable device.

Note: You don't need to purchase tracks prior to transfer. Just drag them to your player ( ) from the Music Guide or My Library, and when you start the Transfer process, the "Purchase" dialog will open.

Import from CD

You can import tracks from a CD to My Library.

Portable Library

With the appropriate membership, Rhapsody tracks and playlists made from Rhapsody tracks will be available in My Library when you sign in to your account from any computer.

Purchase

You can purchase Rhapsody tracks and download them to your hard drive. You can burn a purchased track to CD, transfer it to a portable player or device, listen to it when you are not signed in, or share it.

Download

If you have the appropriate membership, you can also download Rhapsody tracks without purchasing them. You can play downloaded Rhapsody tracks whether you are online or not.
 

Downloaded Rhapsody tracks can (with the appropriate membership) be transferred to a compatible portable player or device.
 

Note: Not all downloaded Rhapsody tracks can be transferred to a portable device. Some artists and labels have not granted subscription transfer rights to their tracks. If you attempt to transfer a downloaded Rhapsody track that does not have transfer rights, the "Purchase" dialog will open.

Add from hard drive

You can add music files from your hard drive(s) to My Library.

How do I rate tracks?

Just click a star anywhere you see a rating selector , or click the ban icon if you hate the track. Five stars means you love a track. One star means it puts you to sleep. If you ban a track, it will never appear in My Dynamic Playlist, or in music suggestions in My Rhapsody.

You can rate tracks all over Rhapsody -- in My Library, the Mixer, the Music Guide, and the Rhapsody Controls. The more tracks, albums, and artists you rate, the better your custom music suggestions in My Rhapsody will become.

Your track ratings appear in My Library, under the "Rating" column. You can sort your tracks by rating if you wish. They also appear in Track Info, and can be used as one of your rules when creating an AutoPlaylist.

You can also rate playlists in Playlist Central, but the rating selector is a little different ( ). Rating playlists does not affect your ratings in the rest of Rhapsody, and your playlist ratings will not be reflected in My Rhapsody.

See Rating for more information about rating in Rhapsody.

Are all Rhapsody tracks available for purchase?

Not all tracks in the Rhapsody Music Guide are available for purchase. Some are available only for on-demand (streamed) playback. If you attempt to burn or transfer a track that is not available for purchase, you will be notified in the "Purchase" dialog.

Some tracks are only available as part of an album purchase. These tracks will show Album Only next to them in the Music Guide. To purchase them, you must purchase the entire album.

Are all Rhapsody tracks available for free download?

Not all tracks in the Music Guide are available to download without purchase. These tracks will show Stream Only next to them in the Music Guide. If you attempt to manually or automatically download a track (as set in the Rhapsody Preferences) that is not available, you will be notified.

What happens to my Rhapsody tracks if I end my membership?

The Rhapsody tracks that you purchase are yours to keep, even if you choose to end your paid Rhapsody membership.

Streamed and downloaded (but not purchased) Rhapsody tracks are "membership" tracks. When you end your paid Rhapsody membership, any streamed or downloaded tracks you have in My Library will no longer play.

What are "membership tracks?"

Streamed Rhapsody tracks and downloaded (but not purchased) Rhapsody tracks are "membership" tracks. You can play them as long as you have a paid Rhapsody membership. If you choose to end your paid Rhapsody membership, any streamed and downloaded Rhapsody tracks in your Library will no longer be playable.

Any Rhapsody tracks that you purchased, however, are yours to keep.