David Kirkpatrick Nails It

David, who has written about technology for Fortune Magazine for as long as I’ve been in the technology business, just penned a great column explaining that Rhapsody, not iTunes, is the future of digital music.  David says:

While the iPhone may be the phone of the future, to the degree that it is a music player, it is based on the ideas of the past.

David has had the same experience I’ve had with Rhapsody and Sonos. Rhapsody has always suffered from being a web service, when most people are used to listening to music from a "home stereo" type device. Sonos fixes that problem and if you haven’t used Sonos and Rhapsody, you are missing out.

David explains:

Using Rhapsody in my living room over the Sonos equipment was a
revelation – it was now possible, on a whim, to listen to anything I
wanted – whether it be an individual song (What was that great
Waterboys hit again?) or an album (Sometimes I just want to go all the
way back to high school and hear "Disraeli Gears"). It just streamed
through the Internet. Rhapsody on Sonos shows what’s possible.

Now
Rhapsody is heading to the wireless ether, as it should. At the CES
show this week, Real and partners announced several new ways to get
Rhapsody, including some that are wireless. Reigncom this spring will
start selling an iRiver portable MP3 player that allows you to listen
to a Rhapsody stream over Wi-Fi networks. Nokia’s (Charts)
pocket-sized N800 tablet computer will also be able to receive wireless
Rhapsody starting in February. They won’t allow you to listen
everywhere, but if you can get a good wireless signal you’ll get
Rhapsody.

Yes, this setup is still expensive. Yes, not everyone wants to "rent music". But I agree with David that "music dialtone" is the future of music, not iTunes, iPod, or iPhone.