Petteri Pyyny
30 Mar 2001 9:45
Three major record labels are said to be negotiating with RealNetworks to license their music for Real's MusicNet subscription service.
This seems to be a slap in the face for Napster who is desperately seeking to gain licensing deals with major record labels in order to be able to offer wide scale of music when they open their legal service in summer.
What makes the situation weird is that one of the labels said to be in negotiations with Real is BMG who also owns part of Napster. Other two labels reported are AOL TimeWarner and EMI. And to add to the confusion, AOL is planning to open their subscription service as well.
How ever weird these issues sound, the future seems to be in subscription services -- no one just knows how well they will actually work, because large scale subscription services are currently just big plans -- there's not a single serious service available at the moment.
It is also said that Real is offering a possibility for record labels to own a share of its MusicNet service.