A Real polite music delivery service

Audio giant RealNetworks has teamed up with Backweb Technologies to create what the duo term an 'automatic digital music delivery service'.

Codenamed Quicksilver, the service will allow the millions of RealJukebox users to automatically receive either samples or full-length tracks via email.

Software manufacturers and content providers are adding increasing numbers of personalisation features to their media players in an attempt to gain customer loyalty and take the lead in the battle to control the multimedia desktop. MP3.com last week announced a service to allow registered users to store digital copies of their CDs online.

Real and Backweb have agreed to incorporate the latter's Polite push technology into the RealJukebox player that will allow digital music to be transmitted to a user at times of low PC activity. Users select the genre of music that they are interested in to automatically receive tracks from artists in that genre. RealJukebox will notify users when music arrives at the PC.

Backweb's Polite push technology means music is only transmitted when a user's Net useage is low. "This unique technology is the most polite way of delivering music to consumers," said Backweb's managing director Francois Guyonar, "It lets users define a music profile as unique as they like and then lets them decide whether they want to buy it or not when it arrives."

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