RealNetworks To Acquire Listen.com
from the consolidation-in-the-legit-music-biz dept
This was just announced, so there are only press releases to go on (no news stories yet), but it turns out that Real Networks has bought Listen.com for just $36 million as they look to increase the content they offer and move further and further away from being a technology provider who needs to compete with Microsoft. Listen.com, creators of the Rhapsody music listening service, was one of the few companies that seemed to create a music service that at least a few customers actually liked. It certainly wasn't a huge success, but it seemed to have more fans than any of the music lable owned operations like Pressplay. It'll be interesting to see what Real does with Listen, as they'll likely bundle it into their RealOne content service. As the "legitimate" music services continue to struggle, it wouldn't be surprising to see more consolidation - not that it's likely to convince many more users to drop their Kazaa usage.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
