RealNetworks to Offer Discounted Music
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RealNetworks Inc. will begin offering some university students its digital music subscription service at a steep discount in an effort to stem illegal downloads and attract long-term customers.
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RealNetworks Inc., which sells songs over the Web, said Apple Computer Inc. has altered the software for some of its market-leading iPod digital music players so that songs purchased from RealNetworks won&#39;t play.
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MacCentral - RealNetworks Inc. said on Tuesday that it has sold more than a million songs at its online music store since slashing prices last week as part of a limited-time sale aimed at growing the user base of its new digital media software.
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RealNetworks Inc. on Thursday said the three-week cut-rate promotion on its online music store garnered sales of more than 3 million songs.
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(InfoWorld) - RealNetworks is hoping to make a stronger push into the portable digital music market with the introduction of Sandisk's Sansa music players that come bundled with RealNetworks Rhapsody music service. The new offering, announced on Monday and to be available only in the U.S., means that Real and Sandisk join Apple Computer and Microsoft as providers of music services that are closely tied to specific devices. Just last week Microsoft revealed details of Zune, which will link a new portable player to a Microsoft digital music store. As part of the deal, the Sansa e200 series of portable music players will come preloaded with software supporting the Rhapsody service. Subscribers to the service pay a monthly fee to listen to any song in the Rhapsody database. They can download songs to their PCs and transfer them to the digital music player. If users cancel their subscription, the next time they connect to the Internet they'll synch with Rhapsody, which will delete the songs from the music player and their PCs. Anyone can buy individual tracks from Rhapsody and those songs won't be deleted for customers who cancel their subscriptions. Rhapsody To Go customers can already transfer music onto portable players but this will be the first time that a device will come preloaded with Real software to ease the song transfer. The service on the Sansa device will also include some new capabilities, including automatic downloads of songs based on user preferences. Real is using its own Helix digital rights management rather than Microsoft's PlaysForSure offering, although the devices will support the Microsoft technology. "This shows how the marketplace is slowly adjusting to Microsoft becoming a competitor," said Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Jupiter Research. Many portable music manufacturers and digital music stores have used Microsoft's digital rights management software and the Windows Media platform but their relationships with Microsoft may be tested since the introduction of Zune. "There's going to be significant amounts of shifting of alliances because what Microsoft has done with Zune is become an aggressive competitor with lots of people who were their clients who use Windows Media," he said. The announcement from Real also indicates that although the industry has become increasingly critical of Apple's policy of tying iTunes customers exclusively to its own iPod music players, competitors are emulating the tactic. Still, just because Microsoft and Real have now introduced similar concepts doesn't mean that such close bundles will become the only choice in the future, Mulligan said. That's clear because the Real and Sandisk relationship isn't exclusive, meaning that Sansa users won't be limited to only using Rhapsody while Real said it plans to form similar relationships with other music player makers. Also, if the music stores strike too many relationships with music players makers, the value of the close tie-in drops. "You can only do that so many times before it becomes meaningless," Mulligan said. Real said the Sansa offering will become available later this year. The companies did not reveal pricing for end users.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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RealNetworks Inc. on Tuesday halved prices for songs downloaded from its online music store to win customers for new technology that has rankled rival Apple Computer Inc.
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Napster on Thursday said it&#39;s testing a monthly subscription service that would let customers download an unlimited number of songs and play them on portable music devices
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RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK) is ending a temporary promotion that slashed the price of its downloadable songs to 49 cents, but bargain hunters will still be able to find some deals at its online music store...
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RealNetworks, which kicked off the Internet&#39;s first digital music price war by selling songs at half-price, ends the sale on Thursday but will continue selling top-10 singles as 49-cent loss leaders.
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MTV Networks said it would fold its floundering digital music service into a venture with RealNetworks, owner of the Rhapsody music subscription service.
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Dutch electronics group Philips is to  partner digital media company RealNetworks in online music in a  move to bolster its position in North America and help revive  RealNetworks' music business.
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RealNetworks seems to have had a very popular promotion in celebration of its new Harmony technology, which allows consumers to download songs bought at the RealPlayer Music Store and transfer them to popular portable devices, including iPods.
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RealNetworks is sending a real message to Apple, their largest competitor in the online music market. On Tuesday, RealNetworks announced that it was launching the biggest music sale in history, offering single music downloads for just 49 cents, and most ...
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RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK.O) has sold more than a million song downloads since launching a 49 cent per song campaign a week ago, the Internet media and software company said on Tuesday.
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RealNetworks announced a new version of its RealPlayer media player software -- the player will support rival formats Flash and QuickTime.
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RealNetworks Goes After iPod With Price War  RealNetworks on Tuesday halved the prices for downloaded songs to $0.49  to win customers away from Apple Computer's iPod craze. RealNetworks has recently launched its "Harmony" technology which makes its song downloads compatible with Apple's iPod technology. Apple currently has a firm grasp ...
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RealNetworks this week said the three week cut rate promotion on its online music store garnered sales of more than three million songs.