RealNetworks to Offer New Services

RealNetworks Inc., maker of popular software for playing Internet audio and video files, said Wednesday that it will deliver music and other programming directly to users’ computers with two new services.

One service sends up to eight new songs a week to users of the company’s RealJukebox program for playing compact discs and music downloaded from the Web. Users must sign up for the service and can select the genres of music they’d like to receive.

The company will also allow media companies that provide content for its Real.com Web site to deliver updates to computers through a message service. One partner, Walt Disney Co.’s ABCNews.com site, will deliver news updates.

RealNetworks is looking to add services and content as it tries to fend off competition from Microsoft Corp. for the top spot among makers of software to play media files from the Internet.