Recently, RealNetworks announced that it was going to offer song downloads for a mere 49¢ via their music storefront. Now, to most people that sounds like a great bargain, but to me, it was just another attempt by a progressively more desperate company to somehow deny the reality of their situation: "We're getting our asses whooped by the iTunes store and will do whatever it takes to keep our heads over the water."

I'd love to say that I am trying not to bash the heck out of RealNetworks and their increasingly suspect business tactics, but in the end, they have only themselves to blame for the bad public perception that they have created for themselves over the last few years. In the mid-1990s, their streaming-audio product was certainly the cutting edge, but as the dot-com bubble burst, the need for larger and more diverse revenue streams became a true necessity if the company was going to survive. And thus, the first of many questionable business decisions came to pass.

First came a whole slew of exclusive content deals to provide streaming audio (and later, streaming video) for sites and properties as diverse as CNN and Major League Baseball. Next, the once practical and economical RealPlayer software turned into a bloated audio application of sorts that had to contend with claims that it was riddled with spyware. Finally, while having long sold a "premium" version of their software (which I purchased outright or upgraded to on three occasions), they eventually transitioned their product into a monthly subscription service that restricted some of the best streaming content to only those willing to spend the $13 a month. The net result of all this was a decidedly frustrated consumer base, who was all but driven towards exploring alternative streaming audio and video protocols, such as Nullsoft's SHOUTcast, Apple's Quicktime and Microsoft's WindowsMedia formats.

Decisions like these make it obvious that RealNetworks is increasingly desperate to make a dollar -- or any dollar, for that matter. After an abortive attempt convincing Apple to acquire RealNetworks, the company has become increasingly more hostile towards Apple and its products. This growing acrimony seems to have culminated with the "harmony" software, which (in theory) should allow users of Apple's iPod to listen to files using a digital rights management wrapper other than the one Apple uses for its iTunes Store. In other words, songs downloaded from places such as Napster (which uses a WindowsMedia-based DRM) and Real's own store now can be listened to on the most popular portable Audio appliance -- if you're willing to play fast and loose with such lofty concepts as "intellectual property" and "copyrights." By reverse engineering Apple's product to gain a larger stage for offerings of their own, RealNetworks (in my opinion) has stepped up to a level of irresponsibility usually only associated with Microsoft. It's rather brazen of them to espouse to doing the consumer a favor by essentially hacking through someone else's property. Make no mistake, if a no-name hacker were to do to Real what they are doing to Apple, the FBI would be called and lawyers would begin salivating.

While the promise of an increased amount of file support should tempt some to give "harmony" a whirl, the fact that, so far, success stories are few and far between should hopefully make folks realize that this is a very immature piece of technology from a third-party vendor with a decidedly suspect reputation when it comes to software development.

Lastly, there is the issue of just how good (or bad) Real's files sound. Like Apple, Real relies on an AAC-based encoding scheme, but unlike Apple, Real uses a 192 kbps encoding setting, that should (in theory) provide for a richer, better sound. Now, please understand that any attempt to discern "what sounds better" is bound to be subjective, but be that as it may, I've been consistently shocked at just how poor Real's files sound. Both highs and lows are squashed into nothingness, rendering their files serviceable for playback on cheap headphones, but not much else. Even with the lower bitrate, iTunes offerings tend to sound richer and fuller. Even plain old mp3's encoded at the same bitrate sound significantly better. To me, that half a buck RealNetworks charges per song is just two quarters wasted. A pair of vending machine gumballs will give you more pleasure.

In the end, between their increasingly desperate attempts to generate revenue and their genuinely lackluster products, it just might be the right time to face reality and consign RealNetworks to the dot-com deadpool.