I'm in a rural location and have a very slow Internet connection. RealPlayer produces better sound at a much smaller file size than MP3, so that's what I prefer.
I admit that the free version of RealPlayer (RealOne) is a bit hard to find, because they work hard to get you to buy the paid version. Once you find it, you'll discover that it's a pretty good media player and that it doeesn't do nasty, snoopy, invasive things. Well, maybe it does do nasty, snoopy, invasive things - but not TOO invasively...
-Joe Offer-