MusicNet Finally Sold

Real Networks has finally, officially, bailed out on its Musicnet service. Real and the other owners of MusicNet (EMI, Bertelsmann, Time Warner) sold it to Baker Capital, an investment firm in New York.

Real never really got MusicNet off the ground, despite their claims otherwise, and ended up buying their way into the online music marketplace instead when they purchased Listen.com last year and began promoting the Rhapsody service. If you've never even heard of MusicNet, even though you download a lot of music from iTunes or Rhapsody or some other place, it's because MusicNet didn't offer music downloads directly to customers. Instead it sold the ability to offer that service to other companies, mainly AOL (who we all know is at the forefront of internet technology and is the undisputed arbitor of online cool).

After Real failed to make a buzz with MusicNet and turned its affections to Rhapsody and the music label backers launched their own Pressplay (AKA Nouveau Napster) the group was left neglected and cash poor, losing $10-12 million last year. Seattlest guesses it would have been sold off sooner had a buyer been found. The price Baker Capital paid for MusicNet has not been disclosed nor have their plans for it.