Transfer Tracks to a Portable Device

With a Rhapsody To Go membership and a compatible portable device, you can transfer most of Rhapsody's millions of tracks without having to purchase them.

How Do I Download Streaming Tracks?

If you have a Rhapsody To Go subscription, you can drag and drop streaming (large audio or video file that is broken into smaller pieces and transferred from a server piece by piece, so it can be viewed immediately rather than waiting for the whole file to be downloaded) tracks to the portable device name in the Sources area ( ) and they will automatically be downloaded. But if you wish to transfer all of the available tracks in My Library at once (Library Transfer), you must first download streaming tracks. There are several ways to do this:

• You can download tracks yourself from My Library or Now Playing. Right-click the track(s) you wish to download, and select Download Track(s) from the right-click menu (menu of alternate commands; available when you click the right mouse button while using an application).

• You can choose to automatically download tracks whenever you add them to My Library from your Library Preferences. From the Rhapsody menus, select Tools > Preferences: My Library and select Download tracks to my hard drive whenever possible.

Select your transfer mode from your Device Options. Device Options can be accessed either from the portable device view of the Display area, or from your Devices preferences.

Manual Transfer:

With Manual Transfer, you drag tracks to a portable device ( ) in the Sources area yourself. Any available streaming (process of breaking a large audio or video file into smaller pieces and transferring it, piece by piece, so it can be viewed immediately rather than waiting for the whole file to be downloaded) tracks you add will start the "Purchase" dialog, or, with the appropriate portable device and membership, automatically download.

You can also drag and drop playlists to a portable device. If your portable device supports playlist transfer, the playlist will be transferred as a whole. If your portable device does not support playlist transfer, the individual tracks will be transferred.

The progress of your transfer appears at the bottom of the portable device view of the Display area.

In Manual Transfer mode, you can select playlists to automatically transfer to your device each time you sign in. Any changes you've made to playlists will be updated on your device.

Library Transfer:

With Library Transfer, you start the transfer process from the portable device view of the Display area. In your Transfer Preferences, you can choose to transfer the entire local contents of My Library, including playlists, to your portable device. The streaming contents of My Library will not be downloaded or transferred.

Note: The existing contents on your device will not be deleted during Library Transfer, with the exception of Rhapsody Channels and Dynamic playlists, which will be updated with fresh tracks.

• If a track or album displays an active Buy button next to it, it can be purchased and transferred.

• If a track displays a grayed-out Buy button next to it, it may still be available for download and transfer without cost.

• If a track or album does not display a red asterisk ( ), it is available for download and transfer without cost.

You must have the appropriate membership and a compatible portable device to transfer downloaded Rhapsody tracks.

Look at the Transfer column next to any track in My Library:

• OK: You can transfer the track without purchase.

• With Purchase: You can transfer the track, but it must be purchased first.

• Unavailable: The track cannot be transferred to a portable device.

Transferring downloaded Rhapsody tracks to your portable device is like renting the tracks. Once these tracks are on your device, they become subscription tracks, and the subscription must be renewed once every 30 days.

To renew the licenses for the subscription tracks on your portable device, connect your device to Rhapsody while you are signed in to your Rhapsody account. The licenses will be renewed for another 30-day period.

Even if your subscription tracks expire, but you still have a current Rhapsody account, you can still connect your portable device to Rhapsody while you are signed in to renew the licenses.

You can transfer a mix of formats (encoding and compression formats for files; for example, MP3, RA, M4P), file types (for example, MP3 (MPEG Layer 3 Audio; a popular open-standard compression and file format for digital audio), RA (RealNetworks' audio format), RAX (Secure RealAudio format), AAC (Advanced Audio Coding MPEG Layer 4 Audio: the newest generation of open-standard audio compression)), and qualities (such as 96 kilobytes per second [Kbps], or 196 Kbps) to your portable player or device. Rhapsody will automatically try to convert incompatible files into a format that your portable device can use. File conversion preferences are selected from Tools>Preferences: Devices.

Which Track Types Can Be Transferred?

A number of different track types can be transferred to your portable player.

Track Type	How can it be transferred?
Streamed Rhapsody tracks	Streamed (process of breaking a large audio or video file into smaller pieces and transferring it, piece by piece, so it can be viewed immediately rather than waiting for the whole file to be downloaded) Rhapsody tracks cannot be transferred to a portable player or device unless they are downloaded, and they cannot be burned to a CD unless they are purchased. If you drag streamed Rhapsody tracks to  your portable device name in the Sources area ( ) for manual transfer, the "Purchase" dialog will open; or, with a Rhapsody To Go membership and a compatible portable device, the tracks will automatically be downloaded without purchase and transferred. Streamed Rhapsody tracks will never be downloaded or purchased during Library Transfer. Only the local contents of My Library will be transferred during this process.
Downloaded Rhapsody tracks	When you download Rhapsody tracks (on Windows XP or later), you are granted the rights to use the tracks with Rhapsody, whether you are signed in to your Rhapsody account or not.   With the appropriate membership, you can transfer downloaded Rhapsody tracks  to a supported portable device and play them. (Supported devices must be PlaysForSure compatible.)   Note: Not all downloaded Rhapsody tracks can be transferred to a portable player or 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.
Purchased  tracks	Purchased tracks (from Rhapsody or Real Player) can be transferred to any device that supports RA, AAC, MP3, or WMA formats or burned to a CD.
Local tracks	Local (computer resources such as drives or files that are part of a computer, or available on a Local Area Network; music files located on your computer's hard drive(s) are referred to as "local.") files that have been imported from a CD or downloaded from the internet and saved to your hard drive(s) can be transferred to any device that supports RA (RealNetworks' audio format), AAC (Advanced Audio Coding MPEG Layer 4 Audio: the newest generation of open-standard audio compression), MP3 (MPEG Layer 3 Audio; a popular open-standard compression and file format for digital audio), or WMA (Windows Media audio file: Microsoft Windows proprietary audio format)formats.     Note: Imported CD tracks are automatically added to My Library as local tracks. Non-Rhapsody downloads must be added to My Library using the Rhapsody File menu.
Rhapsody Channels	With a Rhapsody MP3 Player and a Rhapsody to Go subscription, you can transfer Rhapsody Channels to your portable device.

 

• If you select Download tracks to my hard drive whenever possible... in My Library Preferences, Rhapsody tracks you add to My Library will be ready to transfer.

• You can transfer playlists when you transfer the local contents of My Library to your portable device duringLibrary Transfer.

• You can manually drag and drop a playlist into a portable device ( ) in the Sources area to add the playlist to your device. (If it is a streaming (process of breaking a large audio or video file into smaller pieces and transferring it, piece by piece, so it can be viewed immediately rather than waiting for the whole file to be downloaded) playlist, either the tracks will be added to your portable device as downloaded Rhapsody tracks, or you will be prompted to purchase the tracks.

• The Transfer Rights column in My Library will indicate whether or not a track can be transferred without additional cost.

• Not all tracks in the Music Guide can be downloaded.  Some are available for streaming only.