RSSReal Cuts Cord on PlaysForSure, WMA
By Ed Oswald | Published September 18, 2006, 1:03 PM
Real said Monday that its Rhapsody service would switch over to its own in-house DRM software called Rhapsody DNA, ending a partnership with Microsoft for its PlaysForSure Windows Media technology. The SanDisk Sansa e200 line will be the first with the DRM embedded.
The announcement puts to an end Real's short-lived use of Microsoft's PlaysForSure digital rights management technology. Real began employing PlaysForSure following its settlement with Microsoft last October. However, Microsoft's DRM proved to be glitchy and prone to error, the company said.
Add to this Microsoft's apparent abandonment of the technology with the release of the Zune and its own DRM layer, and it appeared time for Real to step out on its own. "The fact that one company was making the player, one company was making the software and a third company was making the service meant it was not seamless," Real's senior vice president of music Dan Sheeran lamented to the Associated Press.
However, Real was quick to assure BetaNews that users with PlaysForSure content would still be able to use it with Rhapsody, although in a limited way.
"We'll support either technology," RealNetworks spokesman Matt Greaves said in an interview. "However Rhapsody DNA will allow us to offer new features that PlaysForSure cannot." To use these features, the user would have to upgrade their player and download tracks in the RDNA format.
Both PlaysForSure and RDNA would be able to coexist on a music player, although Real's technology does not depend on Microsoft software in any way. The company's deal with SanDisk also puts the new DRM platform on the second-best selling portable audio players in the country.
In addition, Real said it was working with other manufacturers in the market to add RDNA to those players as well. It could be argued that Real sees an opening in the market created by PlaysForSure's apparent exit, and is preparing to take advantage of it. However, it also means another closed-DRM platform, says JupiterResearch senior analyst Joe Wilcox.
"The larger question is what will other disassociated PlaysForSure vendors will do? Real has its own technology to fallback on, which isn't the case for most other vendors with music stores," he added.
Fellow JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg seemed to agree, but pointed out that the DRM market is beginning to become overcrowded. "At the moment there's Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Nokia and Real," he said. "I'd expect to see at least one more player by year's end and that's just too many folks that aren't well differentiated from each other for the market to bear."
In any case, Real's switch to its own platform is a huge loss for a technology Microsoft once considered as game changing. Rhapsody is the second largest online music store overall, and the largest subscription based service with nearly 1.7 million subscribers. Most other music stores based on PlaysForSure have numbers which are less than half that of Real's service.
Can anyone say P2P For Sure. Licence that and all the smart users will just convert everything so that it does play for sure.
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|Woohoo! More incompatible music hardware! Thanks DRM!
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|From what I have read, Rhapsody will be using the same 192Kbps Protected RealAudio files the RealPlayer Music Store uses. If that is the case, then perhaps one day Rhapsody will be compatiblte with the iPod as these purchased tracks can already be transferred to the iPod without any loss of quality.
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|Now, if all these music places could agree on one DRM scheme, or all the players support all of the DRM schemes, life would be so much nicer. Although neither is likely to ever happen.. One can dream.. and until then, pick their MP3 player, and legal music sources, wisely..
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|I don't think I have ever used anything made by real. That includes software or any other player. If there is any content out there on the web that is only playable by real's player. I have to just not see it. Real player wants to steal all file associations last time I used it. There player was riddled with ads, was bloated and just not user friendly. I mean I like media player better then it by a long shot and I barely use that.
The best player out there in my opinion is itunes 7 and vlc media player which is open source and plays just about everything under the sun without codec add ons.
I think real's days are numbered. Microsoft did the killer blow now they are bleeding to death. They are just an annoying company now with less and less support everyday.
Sure they have 1.7 million users. But what is going to happen when zune comes out? Microsoft will make sure at least a few companies and services will go under I have no doubt real will be at the top of the list. Payback for lawsuits and making sure that hundreds of millions in payouts was worth it.
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|I think the day Real declares bankruptcy and the company is dissolved should be made a national holiday.
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|PlaysForMaybeWeMightPullOutAfterTwoYearsSorry!
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|LMAO
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|Rhapsody can't be beat for home/computer listening. Nice service and a great price. PlaysForSure (about a mis-named as you can get) was unsupported crap from MS - it kept me from buying a newer compatible portable device. Hopefully RDRM will finally allow the 'true' portablility Rhapsody users have been overall lacking.
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|sounds like they are worried about Zune
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|As they should be. The only real competition the Zune will have is the iPod. The rest will be quickly swept to the side.
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|I doubt it. The people who have stayed away from the ipod are (for the same reason they don't own an ipod) also going to stay away from the zune. Lack of desire to hop on another goliath's back and be led around. Also, the ipod owners sooo aren't going to switch over. I predict the zune will wander of into oblivion like so many other 'ipod killers'...
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|"Lack of desire to hop on another goliath's back and be led around."
Is that why they aren't buying an ipod? I thought it was because they didn't want to buy an overpriced piece of crap just because it's a trendy status symbol.
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|thats also a good reason of why not to get an ipod.
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|I may be wrong but I expect we'll see many of the PlayForeSure partners jumping ship on Microsoft after the Zune announcement.
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|Exactly what MS wants, they dont want to maintain playforesure anyway and used it to guide the competitors to exactly where they wanted them to be.
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|You know your in trouble when Real Networks describes your software as buggy and glitchy. That's like Apple critisizing you for using style over substance.
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|hahahaha =)
What I'm wondering is how Real make enough revenue from Rhapsody to continue funding this project... I do not consider Real a player in digital media anymore, especially as many of their partners for streaming real video have switched to flash video in the past few months... who is using their products?
By the way ... real.com - visit the page for their upcoming MP3 player -- it's suprisingly well designed.
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|"I'm wondering is how Real make enough revenue from Rhapsody "
Probably from the 1/2 billions dollar award they won from MS few months ago.
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