Seattle, WA (Top40 Charts/ Rhapsody) Rhapsody, the leading on-demand digital music service, today announced that Rob Harvilla, who was most recently music editor at the Village Voice, is its senior managing editor.
Harvilla joins a constellation of the stars in music journalism that have been guiding music fans through Rhapsody's vast music catalog for the past ten years. From the onset, Rhapsody has delivered a premium music service that goes beyond access to nearly any song imaginable by giving members expert recommendations, editor and celebrity-programmed playlists and original editorial content.
"After 10-plus years largely spent warning people what not to listen to, I'm thrilled at the prospect of doing the opposite at Rhapsody; curating a deep and rewarding catalog of wonderful music that gives subscribers instant and unlimited access to both what they already know they like and what they didn't know they liked until we made the suggestion," said Harvilla. "It's the biggest sandbox on the Internet in terms of turning new people onto new things in new ways, and for a music obsessive like me it's a utopia I never even dared to imagine."
Harvilla spent the past ten years writing about music at the Village Voice and at alt-weeklies in the San Francisco Bay Area (the East Bay Express) and Columbus, Ohio (The Other Paper). He's contributed to Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork and Blender and been anthologized in "Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs" and De Capo's "Best Music Writing" series.
"If music discovery were a sport, then Team Rhapsody just signed A-Rod," said Garrett Kamps, director of programming, Rhapsody. "As a writer, editor and all-around original voice in his field, Rob is an unparalleled talent, and a key addition to an already exceptional team. Stay tuned for great things to come as Rhapsody continues its charge as a leading voice for music fans of all stripes."
Harvilla comes to Rhapsody at a pivotal time in the company's 10-year history. With more than 750,000 subscribers, 100,000 of which were added since the company spun out of Real Networks in April, Rhapsody has gained significant momentum. Not only have music lovers embraced the subscription model, but the Rhapsody iPhone app is consistently among the top 10 music apps in the iTunes store, and its mobile apps on Android and BlackBerry have won awards and accolades from reviewers, including CNET, PC Magazine and Laptop Magazine. In addition, the Rhapsody app is among the marquee apps that just shipped on Verizon Wireless' new LTE devices.
Harvilla will officially assume his new post March 21, and will be based out of Rhapsody's San Francisco office.
