inignoct wrote:
] Jeremy wrote:
] ] inignoct wrote:
] ] ] Am I just being a snob? Do people still care about Real?
] ]
] ] RealNetworks Rhapsody subscription service is excellent.
] ] Neither Apple nor Microsoft offer anything like it.
]
] [ Hm... that's true... i tend to discount subscription
] services, perhaps unfairly. Snobbery it is ;) -k]

Perhaps your self-assessment is correct -- only you can know. But to my view, it seems contrary to fact to conclude that subscription services are somehow inferior to those with pay-per-use business models. Cable/satellite television is a large and profitable business all over the world, and it follows a subscription model (along with a much maligned but highly successful pay-per-view service). In a manner of speaking, broadcast television is also a subscription service. Plenty of newspapers and magazines are highly successful with the subscription model. Professional societies such as IEEE and ACM sell subscriptions to technical journals. For many years, firms in the music industry (BMG and Columbia in particular) were quite successful with subscription-based mail order services. Book clubs remain popular, as do wine clubs.

RE: RealNetworks Seeks a Musical Alliance With Apple (or Else!)