RealNetworks: One week, 1 million songs

RealNetworks said Tuesday that it sold more than 1 million songs in the first week of its half-price online music promotion. The company cut its price to 49 cents per song last week, down from the 99 cents charged by most stores including Apple Computer's iTunes, in part to advertise its new Harmony technology that allows songs to be played on Apple's iPod. Apple has said that RealNetworks used "hacker" tactics to create support for the iPod, and that it would likely break that compatibility in the future.

The 49 cent deal is expected to be available through Labor Day, RealNetworks said.

If they took a loss, it matters not

What sense does having a fire sale make when you're already losing buckets of money? Recognition? What will be interesting to watch is if Real gets into hot water with the record labels for advertising such a low price when the labels would like to *hike* prices.