Love Rhapsody. Hate territorial restrictions.

December 5, 2005 3:34 PM

Rhapsody has launched for free on the web, and it's compatible with Macs. Great - except I'm based in the UK, and they're using IP blocking to prevent non-US residents from using the service. So what's the most efficient, most reliable, least painful way for my UK-based Mac to spoof Rhapsody into thinking I'm in the States? I don't mind paying a little.
posted by skylar to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

You could use TOR. Good for privacy too. It's kind of slow though. Usually when I use it, everything thinks I'm at Harvard.
posted by puke & cry at 4:37 PM on December 5, 2005

I suppose I should add that by saying "usually at harvard" means thats the only location I could remember offhand, not that TOR sometimes doesn't work.
posted by puke & cry at 4:39 PM on December 5, 2005

Or just use a proxy.
posted by stovenator at 6:29 PM on December 5, 2005

can you use a proxy to make iTunes think that you're in the UK or does a US credit card still prevent you from buying?
posted by thewiseacre at 6:30 PM on December 5, 2005

Response by poster: Stovenator, I'm finding that the proxies listed on Proxy.org still don't let me play the music. Visiting the site is no problem even from the UK. It's the active functions such as logging into my account or clicking any of the play buttons that don't work.

In resposne to thewiseacre's question, iTunes does not use IP blocking - it only uses credit card recognition. So I have a US iTunes account via a US credit card, and iTunes US works fine for me here in the UK.

What Rhapsody is doing makes no sense, because what about Rhapsody subscribers who go on vacation? You would have thought a big market for them would be US people wanting to listen to their Rhapsody music while on vacation abroad. Stupid licensing issues!
posted by skylar at 12:22 AM on December 6, 2005

I'm in Spain and have no problem. I originally joined when I was in the states though. I dont see how that makes a difference as my broadband connection here is ONO a spanish ISP.
posted by adamvasco at 2:44 AM on December 6, 2005

I just tried and indeed had to use a US proxy too - this one works: 64.9.37.68:80. Found it here.

It is so silly though isn't it? And why do these licensing restrictions only apply to music downloads?
posted by funambulist at 5:18 AM on December 6, 2005

Oops, sorry, spoke too soon, skylar is right, doesn't actually work as far as getting the files... got an error on trying to even install the software. Tried with other proxiest listed on stovenator's link, same crap. Some are just blocked.

Should try with a proper trusted proxy perhaps?
posted by funambulist at 5:26 AM on December 6, 2005

Response by poster: Adamvasco, are you absolutely sure that you can play the tracks themselves? Getting into the website is fine from the UK, it's playing the songs it won't let me do.

Even when I try and log in using Tor, it doesn't let me play the trakcs, saying "we have detected that you are outside of the United States."

Any ideas for proxies I can use to fool Rhapsody into thinking I really am in the States?

Funambulist - I could go on at length about the music industry's history of territorial rather than global licensing, with different ownership of rights for recording and publishing and different companies owning each in different parts of the world. But it's a long story best saved for somewhere else.
posted by skylar at 5:40 AM on December 6, 2005

skylar, I was thinking of opening an AskMe question on that actually. Maybe I'll do it later, and if you feel like it, you'll be welcome to go on at length there.
posted by funambulist at 6:21 AM on December 6, 2005

Response by poster: By all means :)
posted by skylar at 6:32 AM on December 6, 2005

It is so silly though isn't it? And why do these licensing restrictions only apply to music downloads?

National security. Don't you know Al Qaeda is trying to infiltrate the US directly through mp3s. -g
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 10:08 AM on December 6, 2005

skylar, I just posted the question here
posted by funambulist at 2:50 PM on December 6, 2005

I'm in Holland, and wanted to see if I could figure out how to make it work this morning. I got it connected using a proxy from publicproxyservers.com.

I had to try several, and they all slowed down all the web activity on my computer pretty bad. But Rhapsody ran pretty well, I played two albums all the way through (What's that? Audio Hijack? Never heard of it).

When I went to see if I could also sign-up, though, it again knew I was international. HTTPS. I tried routing HTTPS through the same proxy / port combo 69.60.111.5:80 to no avail. I didn't put too much effort into trying because I really can't afford another monthly internet charge. I'm also not willing to suffer the slowness brought on by the proxy on the rest of my web surfing (though I'm sure there's a way to route only traffic to Rhapsody's servers through the proxy....anyone?) But I lived in a house in the US, with a Windows computer and Rhapsody until this past Spring and it was great. I've eagerly awaited a Mac-compatible one (or an iTunes subscription service).

Oh, then I went to craigslist and couldn't get on because the anonymous proxy server IP was banned.
posted by bigmike at 4:10 PM on December 6, 2005

I'm on right now from the UK, not using a proxy. I'm a subscriber who signed up when I was still in the US, though.
posted by Optamystic at 5:10 PM on December 6, 2005

Response by poster: Optamystic, are you playing music? Are you using the web service or the application?

If you are using the web service, how are you logging in? The Rhapsody.com web service does not seem to let non-US users even log in.

Bigmike, thanks for your insights.
posted by skylar at 1:48 AM on December 7, 2005

skylar... sorry only just got back to this thread.
I play music from rhapsody all the time. It is my main source of listening to music.
However I signed up on a US credit card in CA about 18 months ago.
I have been back in Europe since August on a broadband connectionand downloaded the rhapsody update over this connection. So far no problem.
posted by adamvasco at 11:40 PM on December 14, 2005