Rhapsody issued a statement today in regard to Apple's new in-app purchase guidelines, which state that Apple will no longer allow developers to link to an external website for payment of content within an app, including the new subscription option. Instead, you would have to either implement your own payment system within the app or use Apple's in-app purchase API and sacrifice 30% of your profit to Apple.

Well Rhapsody is going to be one of the first of many companies and developers to raise hell about this new system. In a statement, Rhapsody has even threatened to possibly take legal action opposing Apple's latest restrictions. If a settlement can't be made, it's likely that Rhapsody will pull out of the app store and focus on other platforms. Rhapsody president Jon Irwin states:

Our philosophy is simple too – an Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable. The bottom line is we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple's 30 percent monthly fee vs. a typical 2.5 percent credit card fee. We will continue to allow consumers to sign up at www.rhapsody.com from a smartphone or any other Internet access point, including the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad. In the meantime, we will be collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development.