In an initiative being described by Rhapsody executives as "Music Without Limits", Rhapsody will now sell songs online through partners including Yahoo! and Verizon Wireless. The songs will be in MP3 format so they can be played on Apple iPods.

Up until now, Rhapsody was offering music on subscription basis only wherein users could stream unlimited songs for about $13 to $15 per month. Apparently this put a limitation on Rhapsody's reach as the subscription service wasn't compatible with Apple's top-selling iPod digital player. But with Rhapsody having started song downloads, it will indeed be the latest player to challenge iTunes' supremacy in digital music sales (iTunes commands over 70 percent of the US digital music sales market).

Put in a different way, Neil Smith, vice president of Rhapsody, said, "We're no longer competing with the iPod. We're embracing it." All said, the shift in strategy will see a marketing blitzkrieg (by Rhapsody) of up to $50 million in media space over the next one year.

So Rhapsody will now be available on mobile phones via Verizon Wireless's Vcast music service. Users can also buy (and download) a song over the air directly from their mobile phones. Meanwhile, Rhapsody will continue to be the music store back-end for MTV music sites and also - iLike, which is one of the most widely used music applications on Facebook.

You'd expect that with Napster, Wal-Mart Stores, Amazon.com, and now - Rhapsody, each having launched online digital stores, Apple would be seeing red. But it isn't. In fact, iTunes becamse the biggest music retailer in the US early this year. It has sold over 5 billion songs since launch in 2003.