A representative from AOL confirmed my earlier suspicion that the company is dropping Real Audio format for its free Netscape Radio service, and switching instead to Ultravox servers, developed by its Nullsoft subsidiary. Spokeswoman Ann Burkart said from the 30th floor at AOL's NY office: "We are in fact using Ultravox on the back end and using Dolby streaming audio for the latest release of the Radio@Netscape player which just launched last month. This does require the player to enable Active-X."
Leaving aside the problem of losing linux and MacOS compatibility that I talked about in my original article: another question immediately became clear: "if Radio@Aol for AOL subscribers and the free Netscape Radio uses the same technology, what reason one has to pay for an AOL account to get streaming music?". In other words, if the free Netscape streaming service runs the same technology and streams music at the same quality, Radio@AOL loses its main selling point.
News source: The Inquirer
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