RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser has been interviewed by Kate Bulkley for The Guardian.
The Guardian: One could look at Real and say you are becoming the Sun Microsystems of players, i.e. you don’t have the critical mass to make sure you get the right content and the right number of users.
Rob Glaser: I think that is mathematically not true. I don’t think it is going to be a winner-takes-all game. I think we’ll have good share and Microsoft will have good share, and there may be one or two others.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, one “other” springs immediately to mind.
The Guardian: There are lots of other places for people to go to get downloadable music, so how will Real Music stand out given it is coming out relatively late in the game?
Rob Glaser: We know that in any of these consumer service businesses we don’t have a birthright to be the leader, but in the US we are number one in terms of music subscriptions with competitors Napster and Yahoo! And then there is Apple, which is slightly different.
MacDailyNews Take: “Slightly different,” as measured in billions of dollars.
The Guardian: Apple’s model is to make money on the sale of devices, using music to drive that – and it is working.
Rob Glaser: Apple has gotten away with this approach to a greater degree than we thought they would. The music industry has made a mistake, not by agreeing to Apple’s fixed-price level (79p per track), which is what gets all the attention, but by allowing Apple to create devices that are not interoperable. If you want interoperable music today, there is a very easy solution: it’s called stealing. The average number of songs sold for the iPod is 25, and there are many more songs on iPods than 25. About half the music on iPods is music obtained illegitimately either from an illegal peer-to-peer networks or from ripping friends’ CDs, which is illegal. But it’s the only way to get non-copy protected, portable, interoperable music.
Full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: We congratulate The Guardian’s Kate Bulkley for conducting a nice interview with a subject who most likely only replied in between bites of Krispy Kremes. Best Interview Line of 2006 (so far): “The Sun Microsystems of players…” By the way, the reason Glaser concentrates on subscriptions is because he couldn’t compete with Apple’s iTunes in à la carte song sales. If Steve Jobs had a forklift, he could have literally handed Glaser’s ass to him, instead of just doing it figuratively. So, Glaser calls iPod owners thieves and proves that he can’t even be original with his foolish, unproven, and just-plain-wrong statements: Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘Apple iPod users are music thieves’ – October 04, 2004. Oh, here’s an interesting one, too, for those who prefer facts over the fantasies of a loser: Study shows iPod owners significantly less likely to steal music than the average person – January 13, 2006.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “jim” for the heads up.]
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Related articles:
Real’s Rob Glaser calls Apple’s Steve Jobs ‘pigheaded’ – December 06, 2005
Real makes Rhapsody web-based, opens limited service to Mac users – December 05, 2005
Real’s Glaser: Apple iPod+iTunes ‘will lose out because of the share of market forces against them’ – October 29, 2005
Apple’s ‘pure genius’ will soon make iTunes’ portal the ‘number one destination on the Internet’ – July 26, 2005
Study shows Apple iTunes Music Store pay-per-download model preferred over subscription service – April 11, 2005
Real CEO Glaser calls Apple ‘deceptive’ with iTunes Music Store – March 07, 2005
Real CEO pitches to half empty room at tech symposium; Apple draws standing-room-only crowd – February 25, 2005
RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser grabs 3 of top 10 spots on ‘Dumbest Moments in Business 2005’ list – January 31, 2005
The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
RealNetworks ‘Harmony’ stops working on iPods but nobody notices for a month and a half – December 15, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: ‘Harmony’ hack legal, Mac lovers are very sensitive to Apple criticism, and more – September 14, 2004
Analyst: Rob Glaser’s ill-advised war against Apple ‘is going to bite RealNetworks on the ass’ – August 30, 2004
RealNetwork’s CEO Glaser crashes Apple’s music party – July 30, 2004
Real CEO Glaser: Steve Jobs’ comments on Real ‘not succeeding’ are ‘ridiculously humorous’ – April 29, 2004
NY Times: Real CEO Glaser was close to having ‘iPod’ before Apple, but let it ‘slip through his fingers – April 24, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: Apple’s iPod/iTunes combo ‘threatens to turn off consumers’ – April 20, 2004
Jobs to Glaser: go pound sand – April 16, 2004
Real CEO Glaser begs Apple to make iPod play nice with other music services – March 24, 2004
Real CEO Glaser: ‘iTunes is only going to be used for playing songs you bought using the iTunes store – January 16, 2004
The line I likes was that “..many iPod owners use Rhapsody”.
Can’t say I’ve met one.
The only “truth” to Glasier’s statements is that some people are still downloading music they didn’t pay for. But I don’t see how the iPod is unique in perpetuating illegal music downloads. All other music players that play MP3’s can play stolen music. Apple has put in a good faith effort to minimize file duplication with their DRM. However, both Mac and Windows user can P2P all the files they want and play them on any device. It’s hardly all Apple’s fault for having the most popular player.
Clearly, Glasier has “jumped the shark”. Figuratively. I doubt he’s jumped over anything at all in the past 20 years.
/yes, I made a fat joke.
//wouldn’t be so easy if Glasier wasn’t a fat joke himself.
///damn! I did it again!
////i like slashes.
/////and pie.
Here’s my take on this:
Since MS and now Real are saying iPod owners steal their music it’s obvious to me that this is going to be the new ATTACk on Apple/iPod – Their message: “Apple condones stealing BUT we (Real/MS) are protecting the Music Labels and they are your savior.”
This will be the FUD attack on iPods; we know how MS is FUD’ing the Mac via the FUD on virus/mal-ware.
Too bad they can’t compete on product and have to make up stories.
BTW: Not ALL iPod owners rip music from illegal sources.
And, what about the other MP3 players, I have a feeling that they probably represent a greater portion of illegally ripped music.
(IMHO)
What is his point? Apple has offered multiple ways to load your iPod with legal music. You can rip the music from your CDs, you can buy music from iTMS, or you can create your own in Garage Band. There are also illegal means, which Apple does not endorse. All of these illegal means are also available for any other MP3 player on the market.
So, do you paint “all” iPod owners with the same brush, stating that because illegal means are available, we must all be pirates? I’ve got about 2500 songs on my iPod. All are on there by legal means. His comment is tantamount to saying that all automobile drivers are criminals because you can speed and run red lights in the car!
I was hoping my magic word would be ‘pies’!
25 legit songs sold on iPods? from the iTunes Store? He is so full of CACA! That came out to 50 million songs. Uh…..excuse me…..over ONE BILLION songs were sold on iTunes, fekken idiot! Do you math. He is “mathematically not true” as he put it.
As Steve Jobs has always said….most people have already had many many many store bought music CD’s accumulated over the years they are going to rip those in iTunes. And so WHAT if they borrow a friends CD…its un-enforceable and between two parties and none of ones business.
And I guess the (Apple iPod/iTunes success) stress is getting to him….he looks like he gained.
“Vose dampf (gulp) iFod…(swallow) Uvervs are feeves”.
Would someone get Rob a glass of milk next time?
Sorry….that figure is 2 million iPods sold as Apple put it this is back in 2004 mind you!
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/06ipodmomentum.html
“About half the music on iPods is music obtained illegitimately either from an illegal peer-to-peer networks or from ripping friends’ CDs, which is illegal.”
He forgot about songs ripped from rental CDs. Lots of CD rental shops here in Japan.
There are no illegal songs on any Real player because the company employs staff who follow their customers around and watch them closely. Both of them.
Cannot find the exact figure to date of iPods sold. 14 million +?
When iTunes first appeared…I ripped all my legally purchased CDs I had…over 600 of them…then I started to fill in gaps in my collection. Songs I wanted…but would never buy on CD because it was one song among crap…buying a CD is to expensive just to get one song.
Now I’m an iTunes Junkie…on average I buy 1-2 songs a day…and have now since it launched. It wasn’t until last July I got an iPod and it was a gift. I buy the songs to listen on my computer while I work…I don’t travel much so I didn’t need an iPod and even now that I have one I don’t use it much.
But you correlation between legal music purchases and iPod sales is spurious at best. You don’t have to own an iPod to buy music online.
Now if you excuse me…it’s time for me to drink some coffee and buy some music…or maybe some tv shows…but I guess I have to buy a video iPod before I buy those right?
Magic Word: ten – as in the amount of Big Macs Rob can shove in his mouth at one time – 10.
I’ve often wondered what percentage of Real’s revenue is passed on to the content creators and rights holders. Apple are very open about that and say that about two thirds gets passed on. I’ve often looked, but yet to find any figure specifying the proportion of their revenue that Real pass on to the labels and artists.
Why are Real so reluctant to quote a figure ? Could it be that Real are the people who are stealing music on a colossal scale and then renting it to their customers while leaving the artists with virtually nothing ? Glaser’s groundless accusations would be consistent with the actions of a desperate man with something to hide.
Glaser has brought up allegations of stolen music, now he should produce figures to prove how trustworthy his company is.
Bitter? Table for one. Bitter?
MDN “small” as in …
“Would someone get Rob a glass of milk next time?”
Rob doesn’t drink regular milk — heavy cream only, please.
Someone should slap his thighs with a large banana !!! What a moron !
If I were Apple, I would buy Real and then shut it down. Convert their users to iTunes and Quicktime and be done with it. Put fatty out of a job and have him go crawling to Microsoft begging for a management job.
Yeah, I “stole” every single one of the 2,000 songs on my iPod. I “stole” them from the iTMS and I “stole” them over en enture weekend of ripping every damned one of the 700 CDs I had collected since 1988 and filled up a FW HD. Now, if this fat bastard wants to tell me I “stole” them, go right ahead.
Maybe Glaser should sit there for 20 hours and rip CDs all freaking weekend. It’s probably the most exercise he has gotten in the past 20 years.
Ampar: from the looks of him I think he ATE Scott Mcneally. What an idiot.
Gee, could the other songs on my ipod possibly be from CDs that I actually OWN??!!
Rob Glaser should start an online petition in an effort to get Apple to make iPods interoperable with RealPlayer software. I bet Real’s faithful fans would fill the petition with gushing adoration for Ron and the wonderful RealPlayer.
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“Cannot find the exact figure to date of iPods sold. 14 million +?” – closer to 43 million
(sorry for the doubleposting)
The really funny thing is that Glaser’s logic can be extended just as easily to players using WMA.
In terms of songs I’m a lightwieght with just 1,500 (+/-). But every one of them came from a CD I purchassed, or from iTMS.
BTW, I rarely buy a new CD anymore. They are just too expensive, and hardly ever have more than two tracks you really want. Mostly I pick them up at yard sales, which is a legal purchase.
Fron the article: “our view is to make Real Music a great product with differential features such as user-generated content”
User-generated content… like podcasts? Wouldn’t that be revolutionary!
… with the blues, I hear you moan.
mw: “meet” rhymes with jabba’s litany of little feats
deedubya: “Show me one MP3 player that doesn’t have some if not hundreds of songs copied from friends and family CD’s. If anyone in this room says no they’re a liar.”
Grow up, we’re not all pimply faced school aged children like yourself. Like Rob you think there is has to be a one size fits all model for iPod users. I’m 46, haven’t bought a CD in over 10 years. Not because I’m stealing but because I’ve bought every CD I care to own long before iTunes was even a dream. I have about 150 CD’s, yet only chose to put 5 on my iPod because the iPod to me is just a podcast playback device. Mostly news, technology, and science. Don’t think there’s ever been a time I listened to more than 20 minutes of music on it in a single day. Still think I’m a a liar?