While free filesharing networks are growing rapidly, the paid subscription services are still lacking a large costumer base. RealNetwork has launched MusicNet, but also this seems not to be a competitor of the file sharing networks such as KaZaA. One of the issues that limits the service are the copyright issues with the major record companies.
"It's not doing as well as we would like," said RealNetworks President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Jacobson, after a press conference here Tuesday at which RealNetworks unveiled a host of updates to its media player software and content additions to its expanding subscription services. |
Rights issues are the major obstacle inhibiting the growth of the nine-month-old MusicPass service, he said. The backing of Bertelsmann, AOL Time Warner, and EMI Group give MusicNet access to a formidable catalog of 75,000 songs, but the service's range still can't match that of guerilla peer-to-peer networks such as Napster in its heyday.
Still, Realnetworks says it has 750.000 subscribers for their service, which is pretty much in my opinion, if you imagine they have a relatively small amount of songs, and ask 9.95$ per month. Read the entire story here.
Source: VNUnet.com
