Real Networks Might Make Apple Faster Than It Wants To & It's A Good Thing Too

BusinessWeek and other media sources are reporting about Real going to the web to distribute its Rhapsody music service versus requiring users to download a separate application.

 

This is a good development but an even better development within the article is that Real is going to make its music downloads available to Apple iPod owners.

 

A few months ago and I do not remember exactly why, I subscribed to Real's SuperPass offering and they offer a $10 monthly purchase credit (to buy music) with a monthly service cost of $12.99.

 

The cost has not been a problem whatsoever since I am basically considering the $2.99 difference a convenience fee to instantly digitize the music versus paying a shipping and handling cost plus the time to rip the CDs myself.

 

But up til now, the music could not be played on the iPod.

 

Real added support for the iPod on its own without Apple's consent.  As a result, I am testing and transferring music paid for and downloaded from Real to our iPod Mini right now.  About one hour after several attempts (one failed due to a power brown-out), I was able to successfully transfer songs from one purchased online CD.

 

The rest of the songs did not transfer successfully due to running out of space on the iPod Mini.  I will free up more space and try again.

 

Immediately, I am leading towards the opinion to go completely digital versus buying any more hardcopy CDs.

 

We have several external CD burners but this desktop computer is still facing its ongoing hard drive limitation while still working fine for other projects (primarily offline ones at that).  I have yet to really burn CDs.  The computer seems as if it could handle burning only one song currently:(
 

 

But with the ability to transfer music to the iPod, the music can be played virtually anywhere we go.  We have a Belkin FM transmitter device that works better within suburban areas than within metro Atlanta.

 

The article also mentioned that Apple could change its software for the iPod to not allow it to play music other than purchased through its iTunes store.

But I also hope that Apple would allow Real's development to remain permanent as well as make iTunes available on the web without requiring QuickTime to be on the computer.

We shall see! 

 

Peace!