MTV + Rhapsody + Verizon = Awesomeness
Holla at ya girl. My company Real Networks and my product Rhapsody is going big time... Real Networks just announced a HUGE gigantic partnership with MTV, VH1 and CMT as well as Verizon to be a sole music provider for both businesses. The announcement which was made public today has been in the works for some time and I have been anticipating the release of this for a while now. I love the product i work on and I think everyone should have Rhapsody installed and subscribed to it at all times. Why wouldn't you want to listen to every song out there at any moment? read on for more of the official announcement:
MTV, Real and Verizon team up to battle iTunes Tuesday August 21, 12:39 pm ET
By Kenneth Li NEW YORK (Reuters) Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIA-B - News) MTV Networks said on Tuesday it struck a digital music partnership with online music service RealNetworks Inc. (NasdaqGS:RNWK - News) and Verizon to compete against Apple Inc.'s (NasdaqGS:AAPL - News) iTunes.
MTV Networks will contribute cash, a five-year note for $230 million and other assets to the joint venture, according to a RealNetworks filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
RealNetworks said it will hold an investors call to discuss further details at 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.
MTV will merge its digital music store Urge with RealNetworks' Rhapsody music subscription service in a joint venture called Rhapsody America, executives said on a conference call.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - News) and Vodafone Group Plc (LSE:VOD.L - News; NYSE:VOD - News), will become the exclusive wireless distributor for the joint venture's digital content.
"The collaboration of these three companies is like a perfect storm," Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music said on the call.
The partnership represents another attempt by tech and media companies to snatch market share from Apple, whose combination of iTunes service and iPod digital entertainment devices has been hard to beat.
"It will be highly visible and it has a chance of eking out some market share," Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff said. "But it will be awfully hard to push out iTunes."
MTV launched Urge last year with Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) Toffler said they were currently in discussions with Microsoft over their partnership.
Shortly after Urge was launched, Microsoft launched its digital music player and service Zune.
The pact with Verizon Wireless could bolster the new venture's battle against iTunes. Apple drew criticism from mobile operators and consumers when it made AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - News) the sole U.S. provider of its iPhone. The iPhone does not currently allow the wireless purchasing of songs from iTunes.
RealNetworks shares rose 40 cents, or nearly 7 percent, to $6.25 on Nasdaq. Verizon shares rose 63 cents, or 1.53 percent, to $41.74; Viacom's class B shares fell 6 cents to $37.50 in mid-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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