RealNetworks Concludes Promotional 49-Cent Song Pricing

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=6&u=/nm/20040909/tc_nm/tech_realnetworks_music_dc' target='_blank'>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=6&u=/nm/20040909/tc_nm/tech_realnetworks_music_dc</a><br /><br /></div>RealNetworks is ending the promotional pricing of $.49 per track from its online music store, but says it will keep the low price in place for songs which appear in the Top 10 list. The company also claims to have sold more than 3 million downloaded songs since the service first launched. That number still trails Apple's iTunes sales which total 4 million downloads per week, or 16 million per month. <br /><br />It will be interesting to see what impact Microsoft's presence will have on Real and Apple, if any at all. I wonder how many downloads MSN has transacted so far?

[raweaver]

I bought one clip ("1985" by Bowling for Soup) from Microsoft's service. It didn't download. I spent 3 hours on the line with technical support and they couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the song (on two machines). I'm not impressed, so far.