Audio and video are getting an overhaul on the Internet.
RealNetworks unveiled its RealOne Player -- combining its audio and video players, and adding features -- hoping to capitalize on the expanding availability of broadband.
The new player will be divided into three sections that will appear on one screen.
The top left-hand side will have a video player, while the right corner will have space for additional information on the film or song clip that's playing. The third frame takes up the bottom two-thirds of the screen, allowing users to browse the Internet.
For example, if you're watching a movie trailer for Lord of the Rings, the left side of the screen could show release dates, links to purchase tickets and reviews. And if you click the ticket-buying link in the top screen, the website where that transaction would take place appears on the bottom of the screen.
Another feature is that your can enlarge or shrink any of the frames to personalize the player to your liking.
The all-in-one media player has been successfully implemented on a small scale by Yahoo, but the RealOne Player marks a dramatic shift at RealNetworks. Until now, the Seattle, Washington, company has only delivered stand-alone audio and video players.
In fact, RealNetworks had been one of the few companies to promote the notion that consumers wanted to watch video files with one player and listen to audio files with another.
"The world of Internet media has been more separate until now," said Dave Richards, RealNetworks' vice president of consumer systems. "With broadband, that has all changed. With the interactive mode coming with the help of broadband, media content is going to be more compelling."
Other companies have been multi-tasking for a while now --just not to the extent of the RealOne Player.
Microsoft's Windows Media player has long had the capability of playing audio and video together. Yahoo's Finance Vision, a streaming show about money and the stock market, is webcast through a three-frame system. And the video component of the RealOne Player has the look and feel of the Macintosh QuickTime player.
The Musicmatch audio player, which offers personalized music services, has been closing the gap between RealNetworks and Microsoft's Windows Media. In the first quarter of this year, Musicmatch increased its customer base by nearly 30 percent, according to Jupiter Media Metrix.
Even Microsoft's Windows Media is threatening RealNetwork's dominance. Over the last year Windows Media has added 6.9 million home users, according to Jupiter Media Metrix.
While RealNetworks continues to maintain a wide edge in consumer usage, clearly it had to change its philosophy if it was to continue to stay one step ahead of the competition. But the RealOne Player is not merely a cobbled-together version of its competition; the new player has a few new features of its own.
The RealOne Player will be the first to offer access to all of the major audio and video formats -- Microsoft, Real and MP3s -- so consumers no longer have to worry that a file they have downloaded won't play.
It has the ability to bookmark hyperlinks to video and audio streams as well. Most player applications allow users to store audio and video files, but not hyperlinks.
With downloaded music and video files archived alongside hyperlinks from websites that house streamed content, the line between streaming and downloading is beginning to blur. Users no longer have to use space on their hard drives to store files. Instead, they can save links to websites from which audio and video can be streamed.
But RealNetworks isn't hoping its player alone can reverse its fortunes. The company is readying its new and improved pay-for-content service -- which already has 300,000 monthly subscribers who shell out $9.95 per month.
Currently, GoldPass subscribers get access to live feeds from Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, as well as programming from National Public Radio.
Within the next two months, the company will be adding higher-end services. Think of GoldPass as a basic cable subscription. And think of the new services as HBO and Showtime. You can get them, but they are going to cost a little more.
The first new premium service will be RealMusic, a file-sharing service offered by the major music labels through MusicNet. The price hasn't been set yet, but executives said the price would be under $10 a month. There will be a discounted price for purchasing both GoldPass and RealMusic.
Of course, rolling out a music subscription service hardly guarantees success, according to a new research report by Webnoize. Sixty-two percent of college-age consumers said they would continue to download their music using peer-to-peer file trading services such as Kazaa and MusicCity, according to Internet research firm Webnoize.
Still, RealNetworks offers the option to bundle the two subscription services together, offering content to consumers they can't find other places. That, said Webnoize senior analyst Ric Dube, is exactly what successful subscription services will do.
"Free MP3s will never go away," Dube said. "If commercial online services are to compete with that, they must offer a whole lot more than just a limited number of monthly song downloads."
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