RealNetworks Has Had Enough Increase In Market Share

from the ok.--we're-done dept

It's been less than a month since Real Networks cut their downloadable music prices to $0.49 and they've already killed the program after declaring it a success. They claim that they doubled their share of the downloadable music market from 10% to 20% -- but it's unclear how they could possibly know what the overall market is, or what their percentage is at this point (for what it's worth, Apple denies any noticeable decline). Real will continue to offer some tracks at the $0.49 price as an ongoing promotion. Still, as has been noted before, Apple is mostly selling music at a loss to sell more iPods. Microsoft is selling music to get people hooked on Windows Media Player. What's Real's excuse? If it takes them cutting their price to well below cost (estimates are that they pay anywhere between $0.60 and $0.70 to the recording industry per song), that can't be a good sign for the business prospects of just selling songs.

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