Update: Rhapsody.com has updated the web based player. The SIGamp for Rhapsody.com plug-in does not work with the new version.


I discovered Softpedia.com has our SIGamp for Rhapsody plug-in available for download. So if you got here by way of Softpedia and are not really sure how to use the plug-in or what it is really all about then hopefully this post will clear things up for you a little. The SIGamp for Rhapsody plug-in is intended to be used in conjunction with this website. For it to be useful a user will first want to sign up and get a SIGamp username and password here at SIGamp.com. You next step will be to install the plug-in and sign in with your SIGamp username and password which is submitted to a SIGamp server for verification. The response from the SIGamp server is first checked for completeness, then if the user is found in the database the user type (basic or Pro), the server id the user is assigned to, and a version match string (in case a newer version is expected by the system) is received. Armed with the response info the SIGamp plug-in then populates the user info box and if everything is satisfactory the dialog box closes. If problems such as connection, bad username or bad password occur the user info box will prompt the user with the error condition. Once the program is running a small SIGamp icon will be displayed in the lower right hand corner of the windows taskbar. The SIGamp dialog may be opened anytime by double clicking or right clicking on the icon and selecting the option from the icon menu. The program may be closed by right clicking the icon and selecting Exit from the icon menu. Only one instance of the program is allowed to run on the user's machine. The backend processing uses technology similar to the "Now Listening" feature of the MSN Live messenger service that also works with the RWS client. All data comes from the native RWS client plug-in and does not require use of additional RWS web services.

The artist name, album name, track name, track id number and the album art URL are submitted to the SIGamp server for processing each time a song change occurs. This information is then consumed to produce the users SIGamp image that contains the "Now Playing" text. The user admin area of the SIGamp site provides the ablility to customize the appearance of the SIGamp image. The user is also provided the html code and bb code needed to display the customized image as a forum signature or an image on a Blog. The Free (Basic) SIGamp has a limited amount of customization options. It has enough to give the user a feel for the experience the SIGamp service provides and the assurance the system will work for them. The Pro version is available for a minimal fee to offset the server costs. Pro users have at their disposal the ability to choose a custom image or to provide their own image along with the ability to change the font, size and location of the text strings and album art on the image. The Pro25 subscription has a 25 kb image size limit for 1.50 per month. The Pro50 subscription has a 50 kb image limit for 2.50 per month. Six Month and Yearly subscriptions are available and the fees are discounted accordingly. Pro users also receive support for any problems they may encounter using the support area of the site. Basic user support is limited to the Free user support topic on the SIGamp forums. The Free Basic accounts have been limited to a 20 day trial in the past. It was necessary after the SIGamp for winamp plug-in became one of the featured winamp plug-ins on the winamp site. The high demand for the free accounts required us to limit the availability, which caused some negative feedback about our service. Currently the free accounts have unlimited time. Please be aware SIGamp reserves the right to change this should it become necessary.

Thanks,

Ron