Rhapsody is offering 100,000 free album downloads through July 4th to promote its DRM-free digital music service:

If you’re one of the first 100,000 to create an account by Independence Day, we’ll automatically apply a $10 credit to your first album purchase. The credit must be used by midnight Pacific time, July 4, 2008. Limit one per household.

The new Rhapsody MP3 Store lets you listen to entire songs before you buy them*, provides recommendations, and delivers DRM-free MP3s that can be played on any MP3 player.

*Full-length song plays are limited to 25 per month for non-Rhapsody members.

Sessions from last fall’s Podcast and New Media Expo (PNME) continue to be released via Gigavox Media’s Podcast Academy site. The latest session is of interest to any podcaster who wants or needs to include music in their episodes. “Music Licensing for Podcasts and New Media” covers a lot of ground in under an hour. (And I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is to at least listen and consider some of the issues brought up in this podcast.)

Panelists include Personal Life Media‘s Tim Bratton (formerly of the Rhapsody music service), podcaster and attorney Colette Vogele (co author of the Creative Commons’ Podcasting Legal Guide), Kevin Arnold (also formerly of Rhapsody, presently IODA/Promonet), and (Peermusic) Jonathan Kehl.

The discussion begins with a basic explanation of the four different types of music licensing rights (performance, mechanical, master use, synchronization rights) and defines copyright and legal terms podcasters should know and understand. Colette Vogele gives a sobering view of what can happen if you don’t “play” by the copyright rules. Podsafe and indie music alternatives are discussed, as well.

The audio of the session is available here.

RealNetwork, MTV and Verizon Wireless today announced they are teaming to create a “digital music experience” that consumers can access via their PC, portable music device or mobile phone. According to the three companies, the service promises to unite the best of RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service and MTV’s URGE music service. Verizon Wireless’ V CAST Music will become the mobile platform for the integrated Rhapsody service.

MTV Networks and Real are forming a new company, Rhapsody America, whose offering will be the exclusive digital music service for Real and for MTV Networks’ brands in the United States. Real and MTV Networks, through their Rhapsody America venture, have formed a long-term, groundbreaking and exclusive relationship with Verizon Wireless, in which the companies will be partners in bringing consumers digital music to their PCs and over the air to their mobile phones. Through the relationship with Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody will be fully integrated with VCAST Music, delivering a superior music service across multiple consumer devices.

While the triumvirate brings together major players, it’s not clear that by combining they will be able to offer something that can compete with iTunes. People haven’t shown much interest in MTV’s URGE “digital music experience”, and the mobile music supergroup faces a stiff challenge trying to provide the tight integration that Apple provides with its iTunes/iPod/iPhone system.¬†

Company Statements

“With RealNetworks and Verizon Wireless, we’re creating a unique and engaging experience that also reflects our own strategy of allowing fans to go narrow and deep into the musical genres they love,” said Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks. “Any time we can partner with industry leaders like this to create a new music proposition, everyone wins, especially the audience.”

“Today’s announcements represent a sea-change in the digital music market,” said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO, RealNetworks. “By partnering with MTV Networks, home of the most storied brands in music history, and the market’s leading wireless company, Verizon Wireless, we’ll make Rhapsody the premier digital music service that delivers great music to millions of consumers whenever and wherever they want.”

“By bringing together the cultural and musical heritage of the MTV Networks family with the functionality of Rhapsody and the reach of V CAST Music, it’s like we’ve put the best lead singer, drummer and guitarist all on the same giant stage, allowing music fans to experience the purest music play in any way they want,” said Van Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. “The new Rhapsody will build on the musical curation of URGE and have the marketing power of MTV, VH1 and CMT behind it, ensuring this new platform is front and center in the hearts and minds of music lovers.”

John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon, said, “Our commitment to innovation and making V CAST Music the #1 mobile music service in the country has led to today’s momentous announcement. Verizon’s alignment with these two great companies ‚Äî MTV Networks’ music and youth marketing expertise with RealNetworks’ acclaimed service and technology ‚Äî promises to propel digital music into an exciting new future. Together, our three companies will provide a new, unbeatable digital music experience that will give every consumer a way to get music quickly and easily ‚Äî whether sitting in front of a computer screen or on-the-go with a mobile device.”

Real, MTV Networks and Verizon Wireless will leverage their complementary strengths to bring the new service to market and back it up with an aggressive advertising and promotional campaign. Verizon Wireless will market Rhapsody through its extensive network of Verizon Wireless Communications Stores nationwide when the service launches on mobile phones. Rhapsody will become the music service of choice across MTV Networks’ MTV, VH1, and CMT brands and their myriad of online youth-culture touch points. On-air integration for the new service will begin next week and Rhapsody will also be integrated into the fabric of MTV’s marquee event, the Video Music Awards airing live from Las Vegas on September 9th.

Viacom’s MTV Networks is expected to announce today plans to merge its online digital music offerings into a joint venture with RealNetworks. MTV and RealNetworks, which runs subscription digital-music service Rhapsody, plan to join forces in a bid to compete with Apple Inc’s iTunes online music store.

Verizon Wireless is expected to supply mobile distribution for the joint venture’s digital content. The agreement with Verizon could help the new venture’s battle against iTunes, since Apple’s iPhone is limited to AT&T.

The announcment is also expected to end MTV’s Urge digital music service.

Best Buy has joined forces with Rhapsody and SanDisk, unveiling the Best Buy Digital Music Storec. The new service is powered by the RealNetwork’s Rhapsody 4.0 music service, and features both a permanent download store and a subscription download service.

As part of this launch, Best Buy also will carry and promote the SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody MP3 players, which have been optimized to work seamlessly with the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The Best Buy Digital Music Store and the Sansa e200R Rhapsody players will both be available at participating Best Buy stores as of Sunday, October 15th.

“Our goal is to deliver entertainment to our customers how, when and where they want it, and to help them have the best possible experience,” said Jennifer Schaidler, vice president of music for Best Buy. “The Best Buy Digital Music Store and Sansa e200R Rhapsody are part of that goal allowing us to provide an end-to-end digital music solution that will deliver unique content and a premium customer experience. Whether they want to purchase downloads or a subscription and have access to all the music, we’re giving consumers the ability to enjoy entertainment on their terms.”

The Best Buy Digital Music Store will launch with an exclusive track from Diddy, coinciding with his new CD, Press Play, which goes on sale October 17.

“Best Buy has always been a strong supporter of artists and a leader in the music industry, so I’m proud to help them launch the Best Buy Digital Music Store with an exclusive track,” said Sean “Diddy” Combs. “This site will give artists a great way to reach out to fans and will help fans discover new music.”

By aligning with RealNetworks and SanDisk, Best Buy leverages its position as an entertainment leader, its understanding of consumers, and the strengths of RealNetworks and SanDisk to bring an end-to-end music solution to its customers. Best Buy is the #1 retailer of MP3 players in the U.S. SanDisk is the #2 manufacturer of MP3 players in the United States, and has been growing market share rapidly over the past year. RealNetworks is the #1 digital music subscription services provider, with more than 1.6 million subscribers.

RealNetworks and SanDisk have announced plans to release a portable music player system that will compete with Apple’s iTunes/iPod combination and Microsoft’s Zune.

The companies plan to release the Sansa Rhapsody, a portable music player based on SanDisk’s e200. The e200 series is priced starting at about $110 for a 2GB player with a color screen.

The Sansa Rhapsody will come pre-loaded with music and with software to connect to Real’s Rhapsody to Go subscription service.

Notably, the Sansa Rhapsody will use RealNetworks’ digital rights management technology, instead of Microsoft’s. This positions the Sandisk/Real solution as a direct competitor to both Microsoft and Apple.

The team faces an uphill battle, considering that Apple is firmly established, and Microsoft has admitted that it is willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on the Zune in order to get it into people’s pockets.

The RealNetworks/SanDisk collaboration is likely to compete on price. SanDisk can make MP3 players very cost-effectively because it is the world’s largest supplier of flash memory.