Interesting news/reviews/deals from the portable audio market
Interview: Rob Glaser, RealNetworks founder and CEO: Rhapsody, music subscriptions services in general, DRM and Apple’s dominance are all discussed here. Good stuff. (Though I have to object to the “borrowing their friends’ CD’s and ripping them and moving them to the device, which is not a legal thing to do” quote.)
Interesting side-fact: Rhapsody subscribers [...]
No more iTunes as the default music-playing software for HP’s consumer desktops and laptops. The deal inked with Apple two years ago has expired and Hewlett-Packard decided to replace iTunes with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody. Beginning spring ‘06, HP customers will also get a free 30-day trial subscription to RealNetworks’ music subscription service. “The deal marks a [...]
Rhapsody announced today that it won’t require its users to use special software to access the service, since they’re launching a Web-based interface. Any PC/Mac/Linux user can point his browser to ‘rhapsody.com’ and, according to Red Herring, stream up to 25 songs per session, for free (song downloads are not available for now).
What’s the business [...]
Finally! Some good financial results (courtesy of RealNetworks): with a net income of $11.2M and their music services growing in revenue and subscribers for 9 consecutive quarters, it seems like they’re on the right path. Side-fact: Rhapsody has got 1.3M subscribers.
Comparing the front page of several online music stores: the iTMS, Rhapsody, MSN Music, and Napster with the latter sucking the most: “the company is so busy selling itself it doesn’t spend much time selling music.” [via]