RealNetworks Getting Push-y

(Directory Listing)

Who says push is dead?

RealNetworks (http://www.realnetworks.com) announced today that it was teaming with push company BackWeb Technologies (http://www.backweb.com) to deliver music to consumers.

BackWeb's push delivery will be used in RealJukebox to create a free subscription-based delivery service codenamed "Quicksilver". Users will automatically receive CD-quality samples and full-length songs from their desired genre of music.

RealNetworks also announced it was taking a $15 million minority investment in BackWeb.

"We are excited to join forces with BackWeb Technologies to further accelerate the electronic distribution of music," said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks in a statement. "With today's announcement, more than 20 million RealJukebox users will be able to automatically discover and receive digital music from their favorite genres of artists."

This really pushes forward the idea of push delivery which was thought to be a dead market a few years ago. "With the broad consumer reach of RealJukebox, BackWeb's Polite push technology will soon become an integral part of the digital music market," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies.

The music will be transmitted to the user's PC in the background during times when the user is not using the full capacity of their Internet connection. When the music has finished downloading, RealJukebox notifies the user.

The service will launch later this year, said the companies.