Excerpted from a note from Rob Glazer (you probably got one too):
Over the past 10 years we’ve delivered 10 major versions of the RealPlayer, plus compelling new products such as RealJukebox® – the Internet’s first integrated music jukebox, and Rhapsodyâ„¢ – the internet’s first music service with music from all of the major labels.
While we’re proud of our past, I’m also writing to tell you that the best truly is yet to come. We’re as committed to innovation over the next 10 years as we have been for our first 10 years. I know this sounds like an ambitious statement, but we’ve got some stuff coming very soon that I think you will agree is truly a breakthrough.
On April 26, we are changing the rules of the Internet again, and digital music will never be the same. I can’t say more now, but I do encourage you to visit www.real.com on the 26th to learn more.
I remember testing RealAudio 1, constant meetings and contacts from their sales people (they wanted CNN.com as a flagship customer pretty badly). And this was back in the days when they were known as Progressive Networks, with Glazer’s goal of a constellation of independent webcast programmers still very much in his sights. You can find fragments of that dream at realnetworks.com (I guess the term “progressive” had to go but who else would set up as a non-corporate media entity but a person of progressive ideals?).
I haven’t trolled the web for handicapping and predictions, so perhaps this is an open secret, anyway.
Now playing: Funny Little Feeling by Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldiers from the album “iTunes New Music Sampler (Atlantic/Lava Edition)”