Real offers 49 cent downloads

kishan

49 cents per song, $4.99 per album. Does anyone really think this is going to dent iTMS sales? I suppose maybe now that the Real Store's songs are iPod compatible, new iPod owners may decide to use Real's service, but would anyone switch from iTMS to Real's system? I have a hard time imagining it.



One of the things that interests me about the CNN article cited above, is the emphasis that Real is placing on marketing. In addition to lost revenue due to the price cut, they are also planning on taking additional losses thanks to an "aggressive marketing campaign". Would anyone besides me like to see a revved up Apple ad campaign?

bancho

Doesn't Real have to have some sort of contract with record companies? Are they selling the songs at a loss? I think 69 cents of the song price in iTMS goes to the labels.



Even at 49 cents it could be useless if a newer version of Fairplay is released in an update and your songs are no longer playable.

kishan

Quote:

Originally posted by Bancho

Doesn't Real have to have some sort of contract with record companies? Are they selling the songs at a loss? I think 69 cents of the song price in iTMS goes to the labels.



Even at 49 cents it could be useless if a newer version of Fairplay is released in an update and your songs are no longer playable.

I would imagine that the contract with the record companies probably stipulates how much money per song is actually given to the record companies. So long as they get their cut, they probably don't care how much Real charges for it. From what I have read in the CNN and BBC articles, it seems that Real has basically admitted that it will be taking a 3rd quarter loss, but is willing to do so in the short run in order to gain market share against the dominance of iTunes. I guess time will tell whether this is a wise move or not.

dogcow

What's sad is that I can see Joe Consumer getting caught up in all of this.



Customer: The songs I bought don't work on my iPod anymore.

Real: Apple made it so you can't play your songs on your iPod anymore. It's their fault.

Apple: Real never had permission to make songs play on the iPod. It's their fault. Besides, look how much prettier iTunes is. Don't you just want to lick it?



Sad really.

macsrgood4u

Real will not make any money on the downloads through Labor Day. This is a frontal assault against Apple's dominance and a seemingly "last chance effort" to make headway against iTMS. As we know none of the other services have had much success. It won't work when PC iPod users find out how cumbersome it will be to add tunes to their iPods via Harmony. (Mac users cannot download from Harmony at this time). iTMS is still the easiest way to purchase songs on the internet. One other thing constantly lost in this is the fact that people just don't buy songs from iTMS. They download tracks from their CD collection (and probably a friends) as well. Apple has never said what the pecentage of songs downloaded via ITMS vs. CDs are, but I'd bet that more music on iPods via iTunes jukebox comes from CD downloads then from iTMS. (Only a guess of course.)

dogcow

Quote:

Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

I'd bet that more music on iPods via iTunes jukebox comes from CD downloads then from iTMS. (Only a guess of course.)

Does Apple really think people are going to play $10,000 to fill their iPods?

airsluf

Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.



Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.



Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.

bancho

Quote:

Originally posted by Dogcow

Does Apple really think people are going to play $10,000 to fill their iPods?

I think he meant CD downloads as ripping their own private collection into iTunes.



I have purchased one album from iTunes and several singles but the bulk of my music (over 300 albums) is my own CD collection.

airsluf

Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.



Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.



Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.

ipodandimac

Quote:

Originally posted by AirSluf

No they expect you will pay even more as the 100's of CD's you already have and rip probably went for $13-18 each.



In the unpack phase of a move I just found my old cassettes, about 500 of them from the 70s/80s, probably went for an average of $8.99 each. Thats in the neighborhood of $4500 20 years ago--and I don't even have a cassette player anymore. Did anyone expect folks to pay like that, they sure did.



OBTW: Does anyone know if there is any way to turn these cassettes into tunes on my iPod--legally and high enough quality to be worth the endeavor. And no I don't want to sit around running them through a ADC myself.

they wont magically digitize themselves,so you'll have to do it all manually or pay someone.

shetline

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know what format Real's songs are that they're selling from their music store? Are they AAC, or are they in Real's own format?



Does Real's Harmony (apart from whatever DRM-related tricks it has to play to get Real-purchased music onto an iPod) have to translate one lossy format (their own format) into another lossy format (MP3 or AAC) to put the music they sell onto an iPod? I suppose it's possible -- but it seems very unlikely to me -- that Harmony somehow installs playback support for Real-formatted music onto your iPod.

airsluf

Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.



Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.



Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.

mmmpie

Its like that old saying:



Come in for the price, stay for the .......



What would you stay with Real for when the price goes back up? You songs work on the ipod, and so likely work in itunes. They dont have vendor lock in.



They have a terrible history and attitude towards their customers.



I cant see them keeping any market share they win when they put the price, and they cant keep the loss leader, because it doesnt lead to anything.



The only possibility I can see is that they are trying to use the number of Real song purchasers as leverage to get people to buy Real server software.

bancho

Quote:

Originally posted by mmmpie

Its like that old saying:



Come in for the price, stay for the .......



What would you stay with Real for when the price goes back up? You songs work on the ipod, and so likely work in itunes. They dont have vendor lock in.



They have a terrible history and attitude towards their customers.



I cant see them keeping any market share they win when they put the price, and they cant keep the loss leader, because it doesnt lead to anything.



The only possibility I can see is that they are trying to use the number of Real song purchasers as leverage to get people to buy Real server software.

I think someone here mentioned that the Real songs *do not* work in iTunes since they will not be authenticated for your machine and can not be authenticated through iTMS.



Real's trickery only lets them work in the iPod. (if I am wrong please feel free to correct me)

kim kap sol

Holy shitballs...



Step 1: Use Apple's DRM without Apple's permission

Step 2: ...

Step 3: Losses!



Maybe they should talk to the underpants gnomes because I don't think this is going to be a pretty ending for Real.

macsrgood4u

Airsluf,



As long as the labels get their required share of profits (which they will) there's no probablility of any lawsuit. Sales, even below cost, are not uncommon. It's only a month long promotion anyway. Apple gave away iTunes downloads for Free, if you remember. Pepsi paid the labels (through Apple) the required fee for each download.

airsluf

Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.



Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.



Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.