p2pnet - rss feed: Napster vs Apple and MS
p2pnet.net News:- How many lives does a cat have?
And does being brought back as a Zombie count as one?
At the beginning of August, Roxio decided to pin all its hopes on the mangled moggie, dumping the Roxio name.
It sold its consumer software division to Sonic, picking up a desperately needed $80 million ($70 million in cash and shares of Sonic common stock valued at $10 million), and announced it would be known as Napster thereafter.
Now, “One of the most important questions for our investors is, ‘Does Napster have the staying power to stay and thrive’?” Roxio (oops, Napster) chairman and ceo Chris Gorog explained to the Associated Press.
Excellent question, but it may well be rhetorical because the chances of the subscription-based Napster II surviving against the likes of Microsoft and Apple in a business which barely exists to begin with aren’t high.
However, according to AP, the $70 mil “will be more than enough to cover Napster until it becomes profitable, Gorog said”.
Napster’s revenues grew 24% to $29.9 million in the April-June quarter compared with a year ago, “though the company had a net loss of $2.6 million, or 8 cents per share, dragged in part by the Napster unit’s $8.1 million loss”.
Eight-point-one million loss? And Napster II is now the heart of Roxio-that-was?
AP has Gorog saying Napster will make it, but “Analysts say Napster has its work cut out”.
It does indeed.
The Big Four record label cartel is offering a scant 750,000 or so tracks in a Never-Never land populated by corporate music sites trying to sell the same grossly over-priced songs to the same small group of punters for about the same price.
As Henry Ford is reputed to have said, “You can have a Model T in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”
Against that, hundreds of millions of people are using the p2p networks to download hundreds of millions of songs by thousands of artists while the entertainment industry struggles to come to terms with the fact it’s now in the 21st century, not the 1970s.
P2p will be the music industry’s salvation and ultimately, the record labels will use p2p and the p2p networks as their primary vehicle with which to publicize, market and distribute ‘product,’ as music was once known. And the same applies to the movie industry.
Napster II won’t fit into that scenario.
Napster must “deliver compelling marketing messages to educate consumers about the value of a subscription rather than a download model,” AP has Gartner analyst Mike McGuire saying, going on:
“The consumer has to see that it’s a better way, not just a different way, to get their music.”
For Napster II, it’ll be ‘No Way!’ - Gorog’s prayer that it’ll eventually be one of “five leading providers when online music reaches mass market adoption” notwithstanding.
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See:-
known as Napster - Roxio is dead, p2pnet, August 11, 2004
staying power - Napster receives new life as public firm, Associated Press, September 17, 2004
