Napster’s ‘European tour’
p2pnet.net News Opinion:- “Digital music download service Napster will announce next week the date for its British launch, the first stop in its European expansion tour,” says a Reuters story here, going on:
“The Association of Independent Music, or AIM, said it will allow Napster to sell 50,000 digitized tracks from artists such as British rocker Billy Bragg and dance act The Orb.”
50,000, huh? wow
Roxio’s Napster II, the resurrected version of the p2p application that started it all, is doing badly in North America. And that’s despite the fact the RIAA (Recording Industry Assocation of America) turned Penn State University and the University of Rochester into unpaid record-industry cops and sales-people, using Napster II as the means,
The way it works is: If Penn or Rochester students download Big Five songs from Napster II instead of from file-sharing networks – and Napster II is of course supported and supplied by the Big Five record labels – those students can avoid being dragged into court by, Yes, the Big Five labels.
However, even with such a huge boost Napster II is still going nowhere in the US. So now Roxio is looking over the border to Canada and across the ocean to try to get something - anything – happening.
Canadians can legally share music online. Why would they want to spend money on Napster II, which is offering nothing more than the usual, almost-empty Big Music catalogues when they can share millions of music fies from around the world for free?
Maybe Roxio is praying the CRIA’s (Canadian Recording Industry Association) attempt to have file sharing banned in Canada will succeed, and that Canadians will then turn to Napster II.
Fat chance.
Anyway, Roxio is also planning to invade Britain, backed to the hilt by Dixons which will promote Napster by shipping Dixon PCs with Napster II software preinstalled and a ‘unique offer’ for the premium service thrown in.”
Napster II would sink like a stone without Dixon’s help, and probably will with it,
In the meanwhile, what’s next for Napster II in its merciless quest for sales? The shores of France and Spain, perhaps?
Stay tuned.
May 12th, 2004 at 6:14 pm
Apologies in advance from all of us here in the USA. Please feel free to wring the little kitty’s neck.