RealNetworks Inc.and BackWeb TechnologiesThursday announced the launch of a service that offers artists, music publishers and music retailers a new means to introduce and distribute their music to registered users of RealJukebox.
By integrating BackWeb’s Polite push technology into RealJukebox, Real.com Music Delivery provides a way for consumers to grow their music collections based on their personal music preferences. New users can download RealJukebox or Real Entertainment Center for free.
Real.com Music Delivery enables consumers to select from seven different music categories from different music genres (e.g., classical, alternative). Each week, up to eight new CD quality songs matching consumers’ music preferences will be automatically delivered and added to their RealJukebox music collection.
Using integrated BackWeb Polite push technology, these downloads occur in the background while consumers are online and not using the full capacity of their Internet connections. The service does not impact the performance of other Internet applications such as email, file downloading, streaming media or browsing.
Initial featured music downloads will include content from artists and music publishers including Riffage.com, Dreamworks Records, Sub Pop Records, RykoDisc, NewTechMusic, Vagrant Records, Telarc and NovaMusica.
Real.com Music Delivery provides artists, music publishers and music retailers opportunities including paid-for music subscriptions and promotional music distribution. For artists and their music publishers, Real.com Music Delivery provides a way to reach out to their fan base and gain exposure.
For music retailers, the service will enable ecommerce opportunities including purchasing CDs, paid-for download songs, concert tickets, artist-related web links and other relevant offerings. Real.com Music Delivery will support multiple digital music formats and digital rights management (DRM) options to support a wide variety of business models, including the ability for certain music to expire after a pre-determined amount of time.
“Real.com Music Delivery provides yet another powerful vehicle for our many content partners to promote, merchandise and deliver great music programming,” said Mark Hall, vice president, media publishing division, RealNetworks, Inc. “And, it enables them to connect with the more than 35 million RealJukebox users who are interested in having fresh, high quality music automatically delivered directly every day.”
“RealNetworks has provided an outstanding vehicle for the profitable and sustainable development of digital music distribution over the Internet,” said Ken Wirt, chief executive officer of Riffage. “The flexibility and power of Real.com Music Delivery means we can effectively deliver the convenience of digital music to consumers while still respecting the property rights of artists.”
“The launch of Real.com Music Delivery marks the widespread return of consumer-friendly push technology, and is an important milestone in our alliance with RealNetworks,” said Eli Barkat, chairman and chief executive officer of BackWeb Technologies. “We are pleased to provide the Polite push infrastructure for this revolutionary new music delivery service, and look forward to expanding the role of BackWeb as we bring rich media to millions of consumers worldwide.”
More information on the Real.com Music Delivery service can be found by clicking here.