(1) An earlier online music service that was the first to offer unlimited songs for a flat fee. It all started in 1999 with the development of a quality (for that time) music streaming engine first deployed by TuneTo.com Internet radio. TuneTo was acquired by Listen.com and renamed Rhapsody in late 2001. In 2003, RealNetworks acquired Listen.com, and Rhapsody was spun off as an independent company in 2010. Napster merged with Rhapsody in 2011 (see
Napster).
(2) The code name of the next-generation operating system from Apple that evolved into Mac OS X. Rhapsody was a Unix-based operating system that supported the Mac OS (Blue Box) and OpenStep (Yellow Box) programming interface (API) from NeXT. See
Mac OS X,
Yellow Box and
NeXT.