Real Adds New Fee To Monthly Subscriptions

[Filip Norrgard]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/Real_Adds_New_Fee_to_Subscriptions/1107894294' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/Real_Adds_New_Fee_to_Subscriptions/1107894294</a><br /><br /></div><i>"RealNetworks is attempting to encourage its premium users to sign up for a yearly plan by adding a "handling fee" to its SuperPass and Internet radio services when paid on a monthly basis. The new fee will be extended to all Real offerings by the end of the year, according to the company. The fee of 79 cents will be waived if the user selects to pay yearly. The company also says other discounts will be offered to its annual subscribers as well."</i><br /><br />Hmph. RealNetworks can't really seem to get anything right: their software isn't great, their selling practices are questionable, and now they want their own customers to switch to a yearly subscription. That's kind of them. :roll: Does anyone here subscribe to RealNetwork's services? What do you think about this?

[Felix Torres]

Not me.
They can'y pay me to install their software.
However...

A friend of mine got a rhapsody trial as part of his cable broadband service and he just loves it.
He's been looking for a cheap way to access the service elsewhere in the house, without a PC and while I offered him a few alternatives, the one that caught his eye was one of the connected DVD players now coming on the market that supports Internet radio and that explicitly lists Rhapsody as something they support.

Commercial-less radio with CD-quality sound and music tuned to his tastes.

Just one data point in favor of subscriptions.

Oh, and the surcharge thing?
Very bush; poorly executed; if the product is good enough, you shouldn't have to *force* subscribers to pre-pay. They got the whole customer-psychology thing backwards.
Now, if it were a *discount* for pre-payment it would be a different story.
(MS does that with XBOX LIVE; the yearly subscription is significantly cheaper than the monthly rate.)
But having established the monthly rate, they shouldn't be raising it now as a *penalty* for not pre-paying. Not when they'll have to *drop* it anyway in a few months due to competitive pressures...

[flooder]

This company is junk. I was signed up for a while. The only reason was access to the internet feed of NASCAR races and as a by-product, the cool computer app during the races.

It was required that you have a superpass and then the NASCAR add-on. They have changed the product and got it down to only NASCAR content and a price break if you by a yearly bite instead of the monthly payment.

The worse part of this was unsubscribing. YOU HAD TO CALL A PHONE NUMBER AND TALK TO A REP TO UNSUBSCRIBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :evil: :twisted: :2gunfire: :snipersmile: :vamp: Where are their heads!!!