Rhapsody hopes to move in to the black in the final two quarters of this year, after turning around subscriber decline following its spinout from RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) largely thanks to uptake of its mobile service, the company’s chief product office Brendan Benzing tells paidContent.

Spotify has doubled the apparent success of its freemium model by changing the way it reports one number.

What’s the perfect harmony between free and paid in the subscription music world? For March and April, Rhapsody has upped its usual 14-day free trial to 60 days.

It’s been three years since I started working at mocoNews. In that time—I turned my living room into an office, which I sentimentally call mocoNews World Headquarters—I’ve written nearly 3,000 posts, and I’ve met so many people—some of whom had million-dollar ideas and others who were destined to fail. I’ve…

Music streaming service Spotify is still yet to launch in the U.S., but it already has big ambitions for revolutionising the market there. Buried in its annual report, in an interview with CEO Daniel Ek, the IFPI industry umbrella says: “In the U.S., Spotify’s goal is to increase the number…

A shocker but a move five years too late: Rob Glaser, the founder and CEO of RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK), is stepping down as the leader of the company after 16 years. The pioneering online video company has appointed Robert Kimball, who till now was the corp EVP, as president and…

—SpinVox-Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Latin American deal: British speech-to-text firm, SpinVox, has signed a deal with European telecoms group Telefonica, which will allow its Latin American customers to receive their voicemails as text. In October, Telefonica rolled out the service to its customers of its Movistar carrier in Chile. SpinVox will…

Six months after the launch of RealMusic in the UK, RealNetworks has added five more European countries: France, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain.  The browser-based subscription service, priced at Euro11.99, includes localized radio stations but is described overall as European. Ringtone service TonePass is an additional Euro4.99. Current European…

RealNetworks has started putting the money it got from MSFT settlement to use: it has bought out Dutch game firm Zylom Media Group for $21 million. moving further into the casual gaming sector. This is Real’s third major acquisition in this sector: Gameshouse (in Jan 2004, for $35.6 million); Mr…

RealNetworks is making its first salvo in the mobile gaming business, after a succesful online gaming effort with RealArcade: it is buyign out Finnish game company Mr. Goodliving for $15 million…more details on our sister site MocoNews...

At the EU hearing, RealNetworks accused Microsoft of overstating the potential harmful effects of the European Union Commission’s punishment orders against it for antitrust breaches. A RealNetworks’ lawyer used a version of Windows stripped of its preinstalled Media Player to start Microsoft computer game “Age Of Empires,” play a James…

RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser has endorsed the European Commission’s decision as more solid than the U.S. settlement, and predicting that it would aid his company’s private suit against the software giant. “Our lawyers tell me that (the Commission’s ruling) will strengthen our private suit,” Glaser said. Glaser labelled the U.S.…

Former Vizzavi COO Frank Keeling has been appointed to the new position of Vice President, International at RealNetworks. Keeling will take up the position in the company’s international headquarters in London and will be responsible for all RealNetworks consumer services and systems business in the regions of Europe, Latin America,…

RealNetworks has signed up five telecom companies for its mobile media software, in Europe..these include Spain’s Telefonica Moviles, Italy’s Wind and TIM, Britain’s 02 and Sweden’s TeliaSonera. Real earlier signed agreements with U.S.-based carriers AT&T Wireless and Sprint. The deals follow last year’s breakthrough agreement with Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc,…

RealNetworks will bring its Rhapsody music download service to Europe in the second quarter of next year. The music service is now available only to U.S. customers who pay a $9.95 monthly subscription fee and an additional 79 cents per download. A similar pricing scheme is being developed for Europe.

RealNetworks has inked a deal with UEFA to launch a new premium broadband service providing coverage of the UEFA Champions League. The Uefa.com Action Pass provides full match re-runs, video highlights, a video archive including 3000 clips, news, features and interviews. It will also feature live audio commentaries for the…

After about a week of speculation on who RealNetworks’ mobile carrier partner in Europe will be, it is Vodafone, as expected. Vodafone will use RealNetworks’ server software and will specify its RealOne Player for handsets made for its companies. This will form part of the Vodafone Live service, which has…

Yes, when the going gets tough, the tough go mobile: RealNetworks expects to announce a deal with a large European mobile operator next week that will see its software used to provide audio and video services in 28 European countries over wireless networks that support data delivery. Analysts expect it…

Channel 4 has launched a new premium broadband service called 4Broadband to coincide with the start of Big Brother 4 today. The content will be streamed through RealNetwork’s RealOne Player, and will cost subscribers £4.95 a month for access. In addition, the service will also be available to subscribers of…