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
About 45 million iPods have been sold.
Overa billion songs have been sold from iTMS.
So that’s about 25 songs per iPod.
There’s also http://eMusic.com
Well –
What he said is partially true in relation to me. I had downloaded a fair number of songs illegally before iTunes came around. I simply couldn’t stand the music industry model of forcing me to buy whole CDs for one song. Once iTunes came around, though, I have bought the songs I wanted and continue to do so. Now, the ratio on my iPod is roughly 40% iTunes bought, 40% my own CDs which I had wanted to buy and 20% still from the downloads I had done before iTunes. No, I’m not an angel or a saint, but I think I’ve seen the light – and it doesn’t shine from Glasier’s fat a__!
He really needs to get a life.
While agree that the content of the material is laughable, it is beneath contempt to turn this into a personal attack on the speaker. His words speak for themself, there is no need to denigrate his physical attributes. Grow up people! This is not the sort of commentary I’ve come to enjoy on this site (MDN comments included!)
50 million iPods, 1 billion iTMS songs = 20 per iPod.
Now, how many people had already purchased significant CD libraries over the years that they spent weeks ripping to iTunes like I did? Legal in the U.S., I might add.
My iPod is full of my old legal CD collection and new stuff I buy from iTunes Music Store.
MDN MW: “truth” (you can’t make these MDN MWs up)
I woulda thought the subscription stores woulda encouraged more piracy cos they don’t let you keep the songs without paying extra.
Most fat people want to think – or want you to think – that they have a “condition.”
Yes, they do have a condition: 99.99% of them lack willpower.
I run 4-5 days per week, 2-4 miles per day and play soccer indoor and outdoor year-round. Guess what? I can eat whatever I want, as much as I want and I’m not fat.
Get off your lard asses and get moving and stop inflating my health insurance rates, you lazy fat slugs. You’ll feel reborn, too.
To No Kool Aid here: LOL! Maybe that’s why Scott stepped down. He was being eaten alive. That’s a Real Meal Deal.
None of these guys who call the general public “thieves” ever talks about the reverse side of the coin…
Back when CDs came out, I spent a lot of money buying “clean” copies of music that I had bought on vinyl. I helped make all of those Sixties acts rich the first go around.
I read where much of the early CD sales were driven by people re-buying old music. The same with 4 track, 8 track, mono to stereo & tapes for mixing. I paid for years of double & triple dipping by the music companies.
I bought three copies each of “Satanic Majesty,” “Abraxas, Bold as Love” & “Are You Experienced?” because I wore them out or scratched them at a party.
So yes, when Napster first showed up I did download music without paying for it (again) & I got copies of my Animals tunes, my Hendrix & my Beatles. I not only already paid for this music, but often multiple times.
So, I contend that my Dwnlds were legal shifting of format & since I’m not selling or redistributing them, I feel no qualms. If the tune is good, I want the graphics, liner notes & label to go along with a good quality recording. That means after I download & decide I like it, i’ll buy it.
I buy new music I like, if I really want it & I’ll do what I want with it after I’ve bought it.
I could end this rant by saying something like “Hey Rob, eat me.” but that’s kinda scary because he looks like he might. I see an avaricious personality that has a hard time telling himself to stop.
And my love/hate relationship with MacDailyNews continues:
I love the fact that it puts together a great summary of Mac news.
I hate the fact that most of its “editorial” takes consist of the kind of venom and adolescent bs that seems more like Fox News commentary than informative discussion.
And with a guy like Glaser, who is fighting a losing business battle and just won’t admit it, you can’t focus on the business/Mac aspects, you need to cut in with the Krispy Kreme comments (funny, but I notice you don’t publish any photos of yourself. Guess you don’t want to scare us with your washboard abs and bulging biceps?).
I think I’m finally gonna delete MDN from my bookmarks and focus on the post-adolescent sites like Ars and TUAW.
(and please don’t bother flaming me, ’cause I won’t be hanging around to read it)
12,000 songs. Paid for 95% of them.
compare to my tape collection (which hasn’t been used in 6 years):
10,000 songs. Paid for roughly 50% of them. Legal under fair use.
In the first case, the 5% may be illegal, but only because the laws were not made to address digital music. The laws need to be changed to allow the same fair use standard for digital music as for their analog counterparts.
So if you’re a sniveling toadie that believes that having a track ripped from a CD I didn’t buy is oh so horrible, get a fucking clue. The music industry has lived with that part of the business since the 70’s. It is sharing the ripped CDs with millions and high volume P2P stuff that is the problem. If you can’t see that difference, you’re useless.
Who ate all the pies?
Glaser! Glaser
Who ate all the pies?
Glaser! Glaser!
I love illegal music. It’s like free candy.
Giofoto, it is over 38,000,000. THat brings legal songs sold to 950,000,000, so Mr. Real is just about correct. Still, he’s off of his rocker.
I have thousands of songs on my iPod, but have only bought about 100 off iTunes.
THE REST WERE RIPPED FROM CDs I ALREADY OWNED!
Does fat Boy forget that people bought music before iPods existed? That people already had music collections?
Idiot.
His “average 25” figure, taken from a gross estimate of ipod hardware against itunes songs sold, completely ignores the content due to ripping your own CDs, and stuf such as audio-books or free Podcasts or purchases via other music sites.
Although, MDN can hardly take the higher ground here with schoolyard style references to the mans weight. C’mon, you cant be taken seriously with such childish commentary.
How could this moron become CEO is beyond me but I know for sure all the songs on my iPod Nano, beside the ones I purchased from iTune, are legal because I ripped them from my own CD collection. It is insulting to call all iPod owners who have more than 25 songs on their iPod thieves, such idiot!!!
IS REAL’S SERVICE COMPATIBLE WITH MACINTOSH??????????
IF NOT WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT???????????
“it is beneath contempt to turn this into a personal attack on the speaker.”
Normally I would agree with you, but Rob just keeps putting that giant target on his back when he opens his mouth to spew forth his FUD-laced and jealousy ridden drivel between bites.
I say screw him. It’s open season as far as I’m concerned.
Good business model. Insult millions of potential customers, then sit back and wonder why they’re not your customers.
Interesting definition of a ‘thief’ dickhead.
So I buy all my music from the iTunes music store and I am a thief.
Last time I heard a thief is someone who steals things. So, Mr Dickhead YOU are a thief because YOU are trying to steal Apple’s dominant position in this music market.
Good luck trying – you aint gonna have any success at it by accusing paying customers of thievery – infact say goodbye to ALL your current customers with that iresponsible and pathetic attitude.
I will now actively promote thievery by telling everyone I know to buy and iPod!
R.I.P. Real (November 2006)
Three iPods in this household…containing over 9000 songs. About 200 from iTMS. The rest ripped from our CD collection. ZERO stolen!!! Fricken Jerk!!
Hey fatty, theres a burger and a couple fries in the garbage bin beside you.
Stick to the issues, which are legitimate, and lose the personal attacks, which hurt your credibility.
in my honest opinion the real question is how many krispy cremes can glaser cram into his fat-ass mouth?