RealPlayer
RealPlayer is a media player created by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats, including multiple generations of RealAudio and RealVideo codecs as well as MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, etc.

RealAudio
RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. It is specially designed to conform to low bandwidths, and it can be used as a streaming audio format — that is, played at the same time as it's downloaded. Many internet radio stations use RealAudio to stream their programming over the internet in real time. The first version of RealAudio was released in 1995. As of 2005, the current version is RealAudio 10.

RealAudio files normally have a file extension of .ra, .rm, or .ram.

The main player for RealAudio content is RealNetworks' RealPlayer. With RealPlayer, it is not possible to save an audio stream to a file. The free programs MPlayer and StreamBox VCR can be used for this purpose, as can HiDownload. Other free programs to play RealAudio files are Real Alternative and JetAudio, which unfortunately requires a download of an additional, free plug-in to play the files.

GoLive's RealMedia Object