It has nothing to do with Rhapsody, and sometimes doesn’t have anything to do with the labels. Frequently it is the artists who request “takedown” of their materials. Other times, the labels think they may have the rights to something, give a service the go-ahead, and then find out they do not have the rights.

On any given week, some percentage of the catalog for every service (Rhapsody, MSN, iTunes, Wal-Mart, etc.) gets “turned off”. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it doesn’t. Yes, it is VERY frustrating, but it is the nature of the business for now.

I’ve noticed the same thing, and blogged about it last summer. I suspected strategic behavior on the part of the licensing record companies. I no longer suspect strategic behavior on anyone’s part, and suspect that it annoys the subscription services even more than it annoys us.

My initial post:

http://www.joegratz.net/archives/2004/07/09/the-danger-of-subscription-music-services/

Rhapsody spokesman Matt Graves’ response:

http://www.joegratz.net/archives/2004/07/09/real-responds/

By the way… are you in SF yet? We should hang out.