Hoping to compete strongly with Apple's iTunes Music Store, RealNetworks says it delivered 12.4 million songs on demand to subscribers in July, a 13 percent jump over June, while it also finished acquiring Listen.com, creators of the Rhapsody digital music service.
At the same time, a former Real vice president has launched his own new company, aiming to do for video distribution on the Internet what Rhapsody and iTunes do for online music.
"We're delighted to be completing the acquisition of Listen.com today," said Real chief executive officer Rob Glaser, two months after Real introduced RealOne Rhapsody as part of the Listen.com acquisition. "We're especially pleased that we're bringing in both Listen.com's best-of breed Rhapsody digital music service and the world-class team that has been building Rhapsody for 4 years."
Glaser said in announcing the finish of the Listen.com acquisition that combining Rhapsody with Real's other digital music products puts Real in position to create what they hope to be "the most compelling digital music experience in the world."
Former Listen.com CEO Sean Ryan joins Real as vice president of music services. "We are poised to take our business to the next level...RealNetworks' broad Internet distribution fits perfectly with our existing distribution partners such as broadband operators...we are absolutely on the right path," Ryan said.
Boasting a broad library of major and independent label music with over 350,000 available on-demand tracks and over 240,000 available-for-burning songs at 79 cents a track, Rhapsody claims the lowest per-burn price for online music available to American consumers. It's available on a 14-day free trial, or a $9.95 a month subscription at Real.
Meanwhile, former RealNetworks vice president of media acquisition and distribution Scott Ehrlich and two partners have started a new company, RedTie Media, according to CBS Marketwatch. Their aim is what Ehrlich called doing for video distribution what Apple's iTunes Music Store has been doing for music distribution since its hit launch earlier this year.
"Ownership over subscription," he told Rafat Ali of PaidContent.org. "Think of it as the DVD vs. TV model. (What's) doing (this) for the music market, we will be doing it for the video market, particularly specialty video."
Erhlich left RealNetworks earlier this year, after having been their media acquisition/distribution vice president for almost three years, Marketwatch said.
