FreeAmp is a player ONLY.I know one situation where you can use it instead of Real:if you stream any mp3.com song,playlist,mymp3.In this case,FreeAmp opens,NOT MusicMedia.In this case there is 2 things you do not get with MM:name of artist and song for each song
and you can rip on the fly on your hard drive on mp3 format any stream from mp3.com.I do not stream from others places than mp3.com,so i cannot say about others places
Concerning Emusic and FreeAmp.You can download one song or a full album with one click.In this case it is a RMP[not sure kind of Rich Media Packtage]You can use only two applications for do it:RealPlayer;very slow and very messy,or FreeAmp fast and ok
At the beginning of Emusic-private fonded by the son of Electra fondateur-they gave money to help the free,open ressources FreeAmp.Because of it you can use FreeAmp for one click album download
So,you can use FreeAmp for some task,ON HIS OWN,you will not be able to ask MM to handle this task as a plugin
If you want only the download manager you are better to download the EmusicFreeAmp from Emusic page,100% stable.If you want the non-stop steaming and rip,you need the last one.FreeAmp do not conflict with MM.In an over hand much of the MM users do not need it
Concerning RealPlayer,you can find a way to get Real less-bad[as i say] and MM opening instead of him for many tasks
If you spend quite a lot of time on Internet Explorer,a big time on Netscape you can get MM handing 99% of Real tasks.I do not see the point.You get the real screen NOT the MM screen inside MM.If you want full screen,and so on,you see that you you open Real settings NOT MM.I mean you do not get any |PLS|,because of MM HIGH quality
Do you need Real or not?Up to you.Depend of what you stream.If you are still on a 56 moden,i do believe you better with Real stream.If fast connection ALLWAYS chose the WindowsMedia format.
This opinion his after hours and hours of try s and settings,so i think it is a good one
Stange word guys with Real and Universal on the map ,uncle Bill looks allmost a nice guy!!
I do not have time to check this long post,so mistakes are included in the $25 price you pay to Rivers......
Have a nice day or nigth