Rhapsody International Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. Bring First Hi-Res Audio Streaming Service to Japan

This post comes from Rhapsody’s Blog

Rhapsody International Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., or “SMEJ,” today announced a partnership to launch the first on demand, high resolution streaming music service in Japan. The premier service allows Japanese music fans to have both the convenience of on-demand and the superior quality of high resolution music.

Rhapsody International is providing its complete “Powered By Napster” platform including a unique set of systems, tools and APIs to allow SMEJ to quickly launch and bring its on-demand service to market.

“Our partnership with Sony Music Entertainment Japan offers the ultimate experience for audio enthusiasts in Japan as they no longer have to choose between a streaming service and high-quality audio. With more quality, fans can now have both for the very first time,” said Brian Ringer, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific Region of Rhapsody. “We are committed to accelerating the growth of streaming on a global scale by helping new services like mora quality launch quickly as well as enhancing existing services.”

Rhapsody International’s platform service offers music companies a suite of technologies and solutions, including media streaming and download infrastructure, applications, rights management, customer billing and royalty calculation capabilities.

“There is a lot of momentum happening in streaming and it’s going to keep getting better for consumers and artists with the introduction of more quality, our new global on-demand audio service,” said Shigeki Tanaka, Senior Vice President of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. “Napster’s deep expertise in high-resolution audio streaming and industry experience made them the clear choice to partner with us in launching Japan’s new premier service.”

Music fans in Japan that subscribe to more quality for 1,980 Yen a month can stream lossless FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files at a standard of 24-bit/44.1-96khz (Hi-Resolution)/ 16-bit/44.1khz (CD quality).

Mora qualitas is available for Windows and Macintosh desktop users initially, with many other platforms to follow.