Choice is good... No wait, choice is GREAT! Last week I blogged about how when I set up my broadband connection in the home I got a better deal because there was competition (read choice) in the market.
Today RealNetworks (whom I work for... but all postings represent my thoughts and not the companies) has created a choice for consumers. With our new RealPlayer 10.5 with Harmony consumers can buy songs from the Real Music Store and put that song on roughly 90% of all secured digital playback devices. Why does this matter you may be asking... here is why. Imagine you have an iPod today and you have bought 500 songs from iTunes. In a couple years if you want to switch over to a different "MP3 Player" you won't be able to simply load your songs onto the device and go. Yes you paid for the songs, but since Apple has decided that they want to make money through their iPod product, they want to lock you into their products. To get your songs onto your new devices you will have to spend hours burning CDs and then re-ripping the songs. So while you "own" your songs from iTunes, Apple owns you... how is that right?
Rather than worry about lock in you can buy songs from the Real Store and not worry about lock-in, because with RealPlayer 10.5 you can take those songs and load them on an iPod today, a Rio device tomorrow, a Samsung Yepp the next day and so on...
While I am obviously biased because of my affiliation with Real, anyone who reads this blog knows I favor free markets and competition. This is a big step in the right direction for consumers.
Now for the objective news... even if you think I am full of it and just pumping my company, you can check out the service for CHEAP!!! Only $0.49 for a track and $4.99 for most albums... that is around a 67% cheaper than most CDs at the store... how is that for consumers winning!
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