In a bid to boost its online music presence, RealNetworks Inc said on Wednesday it would begin distributing its newly-acquired Rhapsody service and phase out the struggling MusicNet service in which it owns a minority stake.
Real’s roll-out of Rhapsody, which also cut its CD burning fee to 79 cents from 99 cents per track, comes as the music industry struggles to find a compelling alternative to unauthorized file-swapping services made popular by Napster, which was shuttered by copyright litigation in 2001.
The stakes have been raised by Apple Computer Inc’s new music service, which has dealt a blow to the established model of subscription services by using a simpler pay-as-you-download model that sold more than 2 million songs at 99 cents each in just two weeks.
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