Originally published December 29 2005
RealNetworks seeks to increase the visibility of Rhapsody music service
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
RealNetworks hopes to gain more subscribers by overhauling Rhapsody.com and allowing users to listen to songs directly from the Rhapsody site instead of downloading standalone software.
RealNetworks is moving today to increase the visibility of its Rhapsody music service, hoping to gain more paying subscribers with a greater presence on blogs and other Web sites.
Central to the initiative is an overhaul of the Rhapsody.com site so that users can listen to songs directly from the Rhapsody site --- up to 25 a month free.
Previously, users had to download a standalone software program to use Rhapsody.
The moves signify that RealNetworks continues to move from the closed, subscriber-only business models to more flexible, advertising-reliant offerings that give away some content free.
Many people were first exposed to Google by seeing its search box on third-party sites, said Dan Sheeran, RealNetworks' senior vice president for music and video.
In the same way, Sheeran hopes that with enough exposure on third-party Web sites, Rhapsody will become closely associated with playing and discovering music.
The company is debuting the browser-based music player that pops up in a separate window, and RealNetworks is maintaining the limit of 25 free songs a month for people who aren't paying subscribers.
Users won't be able to buy a song, transfer music or save a playlist unless they use Rhapsody's standalone software program.
But on the plus side for the company, the browser format has made Rhapsody available for the first time to Mac and Linux users.
RealNetworks pays the music industry an undisclosed amount every time a song is played, and loses money each time a non-subscriber listens to a song for free.
The company plans to partly offset that loss by running banner advertising on its Rhapsody.com site and on the pop-up player window.
RealNetworks says it leads the market in digital-music subscriptions, and many analysts agree, but the claim can't be verified because many contenders don't give specific subscriber numbers.
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