‘Mobile’ Napster challenges Apple
p2pnet.net News:- When Roxio acquired the Napster name, it was assured of one thing – whether or not the reconstituted corpse did anything significant, it would be guaranteed to generate endless empty headlines.
And that it does.
iTunes is the only corporate download music game in town, such as it is, and the only reason it’s selling anything is because of all those iPods out there. And that’s exactly what it’s meant to do. It was born as a loss leader, and it still is.
Now Napster II wants a piece of the virtually fruitless Apple pie. So it’s throwing $30 million of its investor’s money away on a marketing campaign to get a slice. And this, in turn, has pulled headlines such as Napster taking on Apple’s hot iTunes, and iPod gets a serious challenger and Napster launches bands on the run and Why Napster will be a fully-integrated flop and …
… but back up. A fully-integrated flop?
That’s The Register’s take. And we concur. Fully.
The launch of a $15-a-month mobile subscription ’service’ will be about as successful as other futile Napster II efforts to become a player in the virtually non-existent world of online corporate music. Because as we pointed out yesterday, Napster II isn’t selling anything.
It’s merely renting it.
“Napster today graced the world with a ‘revolutionary new way to enjoy music’ by starting something called the Napster To Go service,” says The Register’s Ashlee Vance. “As we all know, revolutions often deliver unintended consequences. So let’s have a look at where Napster’s service may lead.
“On the surface, the To Go model looks like a great replacement for Napster’s previous subscription service. In the past, customers had to pay a monthly subscription fee that allowed them to rent as much music as they liked. Users then had to pay extra to download permanent versions of songs that could be transferred to a device or CD. Now, $14.95 per month lets you download as much music as you like to your computer and/or device.”
But there’s a huge But. You don’t own the music. You just borrow it, and you have to pay for the privilege.
Stop paying, and all your music disappears, as Vance points out.
“This forces you to make a choice between quantity and permanence. Pay Napster every month and gain access to an almost limitless supply of music or buy select CDs, as you have in the past, and own them for years.”
Actually, the supply is far from limitless principally based, as it is, on the very limited number of formulaic mp3s the Big Music cartel deigns to release. But the point is still valid.
In the Napster II subscription world, “After six years, you’ve tossed away $1,076 for something that barely exists,” The Register goes on, “Not to mention, you’re betting on the fact that Napster will even exist two years from now.”
Buying tethered music is, “pointless gluttony and nothing more,” says Vance, quoting Napster II’s press release which says, “A fully-integrated marketing program will support the release of Napster To Go, led by a currently-under-wraps February 6, 2005 Super Bowl television advertisement. This will be complemented by the new ‘Works with Napster To Go’ logo program that enables consumers to easily identify Napster To Go compatible MP3 players at retail.”
But, “What is this marketing program integrated into?” – Vance asks. “Is it possible to have a partially-integrated marketing program? Are we to be excited by logos now?
“When the bullshit generator goes this far into overdrive, you know there are problems.
“Napster plans to spend $30m to promote this new service. That’s a cute total if you consider that Apple made close to $14m a day last quarter in iPod sales, shipping 4.6m devices. “The only money to be had in this market is in the hardware, and Apple has it all locked up.”
That says it all, and as a p2pnet reader puts it in a comment below, “Nobody wants to listen to music on their cellphones. Period.”
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See:-
we concur – Napster wants some Apple pie, p2pnet, February 3, 2005
Napster To Go – Why Napster will be a fully-integrated flop, The Register, February 4, 2005
February 4th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
I’ve been a subscriber to Napster for almost a year now. As a music fan, this is a perfect way to learn about new music. 30s clips on Amazon just don’t cut it. I like to hear the full albums. For me it replaces going to a store and listening to a bunch of CDs there (and I think it’s worth 10$ because I can do it on the side and don’t need to spend time at a store). If a like a CD, I still buy it (the physical CD, I want the cover).
This also means, that Napster-On-The-Go is not for me, I still want to own my music!
February 4th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
hands up anyone who thinks this comment is a plant?
hehe
February 4th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself! It drives me crazy that the mainstream media is buying into Napster’s hooplah. We’re really comparing apples and oranges (no pun intended) here. It’s like purchasing a DVD through Amazon or borrowing it from NetFlix. Wake up Napster! When you’re bankrupt all your cusomers are going to be scrambling to iTunes to replace their empty collection. Give us some credit!
February 4th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Right on! Makes ya want to toss your cookies, don’t it?
February 4th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
I wouldn’t write Napster off too soon. They are supporting Microsoft technology that may indeed be a way to beef up hardware sales for all non-iPod devices. Microsoft needs a program that would level the playing field. This may do it.
And BTW, what about Siruis radio? They have a monthly fee and you neither have total control over your programming nor any flexibility in hardware choices. And when your subscription runs out, you are SOL too. The jury is still out on sattelite radio. The jury hasn’t even begun their deliberations on “Napster To Go”.
Hopefully Napster gets a cut on the hardware end of things in this promotion. Indeed that’s where the money is.
February 4th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
nobody wants to listen to music on their cellphones. period.