Having failed to score by the quality of its service alone, RealNetworks is now trying another ploy:
Pretending to care about indies.
The handful of corporate music services all two things in common:
They’re trying to sell exactly the same grossly over-priced ‘product’ from the same Big Four record label cartel wholesalers to exactly the same tiny user bases; and,
They don’t even register in the real world of online music where the p2p networks and independent download and musician sites serve literally billions of people, with thousands of new users logging on every day.

Liked its new backer, Microsoft, RealNetworks has had one critical security problem after another and now it’s launched RealCommunity which, “lets unsigned groups and artists upload their own music, create profile pages and sell their music online,” says Net Imperative.

We could only find a European site but be that as it may, the chances of Real becoming real, attracting significant numbers of punters to the service, are in the order of a snow-ball’s chance in hell, until and unless its suppliers, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, start wholesaling product at reasonable instead of usurious prices.

Meanwhile, Real, not the artist, is setting the price for downloads.

“All tracks are currently sold at a set price of Ј1 ($1.79) for downloaded tracks and Ј2 for ringtone versions,” it says in its FAQ.

How much do artists get?

“The income collected differs a bit, as the mobile operators charge different rates for billing and messaging, but on average you will get Ј1 if we sell both a full track and a ringtone for Ј3,” says the company.

Via p2pnet.net