RealNetworks shares rise

RealNetworks Inc. shares rose Monday as Verizon Wireless rolled out the company's Rhapsody subscription music service on several handsets and Rhapsody said it is selling music free of copy protection through its Web music store.

Shares of RealNetworks, which also provides the RealPlayer media player, rose 3 cents to $6.60. Earlier, shares rose as much as 29 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $6.86.

Verizon introduced Rhapsody's subscription service on Monday, which lets customers download as many tracks as they want to their cell phones for $15 per month. The service will work with seven current handsets and three that will be launched soon.

AT&T Inc.'s wireless unit and Napster Inc. have a similar subscription arrangement.

Also Monday, Rhapsody's online store began selling songs in the MP3 format that is free of digital rights management, or DRM, software. DRM prevents copying and piracy but also makes it hard to legally move music from one device to another.

The move puts Rhapsody in the company of Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., both of whom offer DRM-free MP3 downloads from their online music stores.

Rhapsody, which is a joint venture of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary, is also starting a "Music Without Limits" ad campaign, through which it expects to use media worth over $50 million in the next year.

In an investor note, Pacific Growth Equities analyst Derrick Wood said Rhapsody's moves should lead to growth in new music subscriptions and "give RealNetworks a more level playing field against iTunes."