Napster Joins The MP3 Game
Another competitor has jumped into the legal, un-DRM-ed, MP3 download market, and this time its a more familiar face. As promised at CES this year, Napster has announced that, in conjunction with its current subscription service, they will begin offering an MP3 downloading service. While this seems to be a more natural evolution for the company than a subscription service, it has left a few to wonder why join the fight and why now (I'm one of those many)?
What we didn't know at the time was the pricing structure, but now we do... sadly. Napster's prices will be the standard $0,99 per song and $9.95 per album (the standard set by iTunes, at least), I'm not completely sure this will make much of a difference. People that own iPods are most likely comfortable with iTunes *cough*monopolistic behavior*cough*. If they have looked outside the walls the Steve Jobs built, they are probably looking at Amazon's MP3 service, mainly because they're cheaper on most purchases. So, why would the iPod nation step out of the iTunes world for something that costs the same amount that it does in iTunes and something that takes just a bit more effort to get onto their iPods?
On the other hand, it's true that there are plenty of people that don't use iPods for their MP3 player. A chunk of those people are currently using subscription services, and I doubt that audience will be too enticed to switch to an ownership-based program. Then there are the rest of the non-Apple owned consumers, and I suppose that is the target for this new service. But again, why would you pay $9.95 for an album if you can get the same product at no more hassle for $7.99 or $8.99?
What do you think Homotrons? Is this a case of too little, too late? Or am I wrong, and Napster does have the name recognition to jump into the MP3 market?
Jesse James
Posted to In the News, On Your Desk on 21 May 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: download, DRM-free, MP3, Napster
Within one hour of its unboxing, The One became the undisputed ruler of Tiny's entire home. Buy this or despair.
I guess it's a matter of free economy, or whatever, but as you point out, it doesn't make much sense.
Another reason for switching from Apple to Napster is if you hate Steve Jobs. I don't know anybody who has a personal vendetta against the Jobster, but that, I guess, could be a motivation.
Just think how much money the music industry could have made if they had just worked with the original Napster....
They potentially wouldn't have to work with iTunes quite as hard. Who knows, maybe piracy on the whole would be down as the mainstream may never have learnt about bit torrent and other file sharing services...
All because a few board members forgot that at the end of the day, they have to give what the customer wants, not what they want to give the customer....
Napster needs to be put down, Old Yeller-style. It's day is long gone. Old folk like me who used it in college aren't going to pay to use it and the kiddies in college now aren't going to switch from whatever they're using now.