You remember Rhapsody right? It’s the free-for-all streaming service, direct competitor to Pandora and Last.fm. It seems Realplayer Studios is upping the ante with a few updated or entirely new key features.

First off, the ability to download individual albums and tracks to phone storage or memory card is quite nice. For those of in congested signal areas or not living in LTE-rich cities, this is a great option to “offline buffer” your music. The last update, which included better streaming by 30% will only help your chances of an uninterrupted listening experience.

For those of you who prefer the Android version to the web interface, there’s some quirks in amongst the goodies offered in this latest release. For instance, the web version shows artist bios but the Android app doesn’t. We can’t quite determine why, but we figure Rhapsody is a work in progress. Pricing structure and rules are a bit odd as well: It’s a free app from the Google Play Store, but a trial or subscription is required for music playback. What gives?

Speaking of pricing, a summer sale is still underway. The usual $10 for unlimited music streaming is now slashed to a measly $5 for the first 3 months. Sounds like a win to us!