REAL-COMPAQ DEAL:
PLAYER’S CHOICE

Before you grumble incoherently, roll over and resume your slumber, check this out: Real hopes to use this new positioning to hawk its new online subscription services, RealOne Membership and RealOne Music (the first rollout of the label-backed MusicNet platform; see story, 12/4)—and Compaq will get a piece of the action.

RealPlayer’s default position on Gateway and Dell desktops helped Real retain a large user base among PC owners, but the nonexclusive Compaq deal is the first such pact to give the tech company access to potential subscribers.

A streaming video and link to Real’s site, among other possible features, will point buyers of Compaq’s Presario computers to the media services beginning in March, Real’s Larry Jacobson told AP, adding, "It’s about letting people know there’s content out there. In addition to hot, sweaty porn, I mean."

While this displacement of the WMA player marks another installment in a ferocious battle for dominance, a Compaq exec insisted Microsoft (which will host MusicNet rival Pressplay on its MSN service) supports the PC-maker's decision "to offer choice for our customers."

Sure they do. They probably sent Godiva chocolate and a nice note when they heard about this one.

Though it seems unlikely that Compaq will earn big ducats from its share of RealOne subscriptions, the pact would appear to represent a new phase in the media-player wars and a further attempt to expand the revenue base of companies whose meat-and-potatoes offerings (like PCs) face the end of a growth cycle.

Music, as usual, will play a substantial role in baiting the hook.