worthy<-MUSIC

Hopefully Just A Stepping Stone

Ok, I've been doing some monitoring of the problem tracks listed over there to the left.  Just waiting for the day when everything is fixed and back to normal.

Well, let's hope that what I am starting to see now is just an interim step in the resolution process.  It appears that in many cases, the tracks that were affected by this "Helix error c00d0bbe" (or as I call it "koo-dob-bee") now, rather than playing in downloaded form, just come up as "Not Available For D/L."  Rhapsody, I hope you're listening when I say:

This is not in any way an acceptable fix for this issue!

So, hopefully this is just a step in the process.  I'll keep monitoring for sure and will post progress here.

Rhapsody Rhesolution a Rheality???

Hallelujah! Just received word from Matt at Rhapsody that the support team has identified the problem and has stopped it from affecting any new music being added to Rhapsody.  Also, they are now going back and fixing the tracks that were affected (see list on left).  They are saying that everything should be back to normal by Monday.

So, for all of you tracking the progress on this one, please let me know if you find any new ones not on the list to the left.  I will do my best to start testing all of them (up to 90 tracks now) sometime next week and pulling them off the list one by one.

Also, let me know if you find any new tracks added today or later that still have the problem! 

Thanks to those of you who contributed the problem tracks you found.  Matt has said that the list here was helpful to them in problem determination and resolution.

Looky Here! I Found One!

Well, whaddya know?  I found a new album just added to Rhapsody today that doesn't have any broken tracks!!  Whohoo!!

The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir

Of course, now that I'm listening to it, I'm not sure exactly how happy I am that this is the one that made it through the encoding process unscathed...

New Music Tuesday, Or As I Like To Call It, The Day...

where we get to find out what new albums I'll get to add to the sidebar to the left!  Woohoo, how exciting!  :-|

So far, the first new release I've downloaded today from Rhapsody has 4 tracks that cannot be played in downloaded form and cannot be transferred to my device.  Wonder how many more I'll find today?  Can you say, "Every new album I download?"

Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 8)
Bleach - Audio/Visual (Tracks 1, 5, 6, 17)

It's Like Rhapsody Is An Airplane During Cold Season

Well, Rhapsody fixed the initial problem with the new Animal Collective album, Feels, that I mentioned in a previous post.  Yes, that's right, the album actually has tracks now.  But, wouldn't you know it, it now suffers from the same problem that so many of the newly added albums are.  So, I've added to the list to the left.  Whoopee. 

Driving me nuts.

Keeping Track

Look over there... that's right... over there to the left in that grey column.  I'm keeping a running list there of the tracks exhibiting the behavior of the problem I document in this post and this post.  Be sure to add a comment to the site with the tracks you find with the problem and I'll add them to the list.  Trying to make sure focus is maintained on this issue by Real since they like to mark tickets as SOLVED once they agree that there is an issue.  Sounds like a flawed problem management process if you ask me.

We're Like Encoding Music Duuuude... Are Those Chips?

Man, things are getting strange in Rhapsody.  Not only have I been having the problems I document in my two previous posts, but I have come upon two other weird things. 

First up is the new album by Flotation Toy Device Warning, Bluffer's Guide To The Flight Deck, which was recently added to Rhapsody.  It is a fantastic album that I was totally enjoying listening to, but after the 2nd track I started to notice weird breaks in the music.  At first I thought that I was just having a bizarre network traffic problem.  But, it even happened on the downloaded versions.  And I have a brand spankin' new blazin'-fast machine at home now so I knew it wasn't a speed or RAM issue on my end.  So I started paying closer attention and realized that the songs are split in the wrong places!  Upon further investigation it turns out that all the song durations are correct, but they are all offset.  This is caused by a random blurb of music that fills the first 1:50 of the first track and then pushes all the songs off by that much.  I think the blurb must be what was intended as the hidden track as there is a long bit of silence after the last track with nothing following.

I contacted both Rhapsody and Misra Records on this and they are both looking into it.  I figured the record company would have more at stake and would also be able to give quite a bit more weight to the issue than little ol me.  Heard back from both and they are are working on it.  Definitely a good listen anyway, though.  At least all the tracks actually play...

The other weird one I found today is the new Animal Collective album, Feels, which I am dying to hear.  Well, I go look for it again today and woohoo, they've added it!  But wait... there are no tracks... just the album along with the play and add to my library buttons, but no tracks.  Grrrrrrrr.

Apparently the encoding department is having substance abuse issues or something...  Whatever it is it's getting annoying for sure.  I'm locked into Rhapsody To Go until sometime next year, but will surely go look elsewhere if these problems continue week after week after week.

Rhapsody Still Screwed Up

Ok, things are not getting better in Rhapsody.  They still haven't fixed any of the tracks in my last post and now I'm starting this post to track which new albums this week have the same problem.  Here's the surely soon-to-be-running list.  Add your finds this week into the comments section.

Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel (Tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)
Brian Wilson - What I Really Want For Christmas (Tracks 12, 13)
Marah - If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry (Tracks 5, 12)
Thrice - Vheissu (Track 10)
Burnside Project - The Finest Example Is You (Tracks 3, 4, 6, 8, 9)

Rhapsody support moving at its normal snail-stuck-in-molasses pace.  And I never received a response to my complaint that they closed my last ticket as SOLVED before they fixed anything.

Something Terribly Amuck With Rhapsody

NOTE:  The problem has identified and is being resolved.  Read more here.

Ok, so I have a lot of music to post about, but think I need to mention this first as I don't think it is getting the attention it needs from Rhapsody support.  Something is wrong with Rhapsody.  It appears they are having DRM issues with the tracks of many recent additions to the server.  I checked the Rhapsody Support Forums and it appears others are having the same problem.

The problem is with very specific tracks on albums recently added to Rhapsody.  The problem only affects songs that have been downloaded to the PC (i.e. Rhapsody To Go subscription).  When you try to play the downloaded version of these specific tracks, a yellow triangle appears next to them along with an error that reads: Helix error c00d0bbe. 

The Mixer looks like the picture included here (click to enlarge).  I have tried unauthorizing and reauthorizing my computer, uninstalling WMP and reinstalling it, playing the songs in WMP (unable to acquire license), uninstalling and reinstalling Rhapsody, etc.  And all combinations of the above.  But it is always the SAME tracks that are causing the problems.  And so far I have only found recently added albums with the problems.  According to one post on the board, Real support told him that it was a problem with the actual song files on their end, but most others have said that Real support hasn't been too helpful.

So, I am posting my findings here in the hopes that others of you will try to see if you can replicate the issue and add your comments here.  Keep in mind that the streaming versions of these songs play just fine.  Also, the corrupt downloaded tracks will not even load on my portable player.

Here are the albums which I have come upon that have this issue.  I've annotated the track numbers that are affected on each.

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (Tracks 3, 5, 9, 13)
The Constantines - Tournament Of Hearts (Tracks 4, 6, 9, 10)
Jude - Sarah (Tracks 1, 6, 7, 9)
James Blunt - Back To Bedlam (Tracks 1, 2, 9, 10)
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers (Tracks 5, 7)
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (Tracks 4, 5, 7, 10)

Any others out there that you've found?

UPDATE (10/13/2005):  I just received the following email from Rhapsody Tier 2 Support.  Of course, they also marked my ticket SOLVED which is not the case and will probably mean that this problem will get dropped.  So, let's keep posting tracks here and I'll keep sending them into support.

Hello Chris,

My name is Mike. I am a Real Networks Tier 2 technical support representative. Your case has been escalated to our department due to severity. Thank you for your continued patience, and we would like to apologize for any inconvenience you have endured so far.

I have followed this thread since the day you initiated it on 10/11/2005. As I understand it you receive a Helix error c00d0bbe when playing certain subscription tracks with Rhapsody.

We are currently investigating reports of this occuring with certain tracks. At this time we have only been able to confirm this is not a local system issue so are continuing our investigation. In the meantime please use the streamed version. Please let me know if you come across any more tracks that provide this same error message.

Thank you,
RealNetworks Technical Support
Tier 2 Escalation Department

NOTE:  The problem has identified and is being resolved.  Read more here.