RealNetworks Music Service Cuts Fee For Students

RealNetworks jumps into the university discount fray: it has struck deals with the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Minnesota system to offer its standard Rhapsody service to students for between $2 and $3 a month.

The service, which normally costs $9.95 a month, allows users to play more than 700,000 songs on demand.

The company worked with record labels to make the cheaper service feasible, and it will still be profitable.

Separately, RealNetworks also said yesterday that customers had downloaded more than 1 million songs during the first seven days of a special promotion in which the company slashed the price of its songs to 49 cents apiece.

RealNetworks press releases here and here.

TwinCities.com: The [U of M] university said it will test Rhapsody for a year while inviting other digital-music firms to bid for student business.

Nashville City Paper: Belmont University in Nashville has had discussions with Napster and other paid downloading services, but has not been able to find a service that’s cost-effective to the college..with Napster, Belmont would have to commit to buying licenses at about $4 a month per student, which would amount to over $131,000 a year.

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