The Nine Lives of Napster

lisa langsdorf writes "There's an interesting article on BusinessWeek.com today about Napster's race to gain greater market share in the music download business. According to a recent study, Apple has 75% of the pay for music download market, but Napster could soon gain more market share due to a new upcoming market push. BusinessWeek says: 'Napster could start to increase market share in the more profitable business of selling monthly subscriptions, where customers can listen to -- but not own -- as many songs as they want each month for $9.95. While Napster is far behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, AOL's MusicNet, and others, it's taking the lead again in the old Napster's stomping ground: college campuses.'"

Re:Cool...

[MikeXpop]

Yes. And then you have a hug WAV the quality of a 128 Kbps WMA, or you have an mp3 whose quality can be compared to a robot fscking your ear.

Behind RealNetworks?

[Anonymous Coward]

While Napster is far behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, AOL's MusicNet, and others

It's gotta hurt pretty bad when Real is considered better than you!

Re:Does anyone know

[skink1100]

> How a monthly subscribtion eventually filters down to the artists?

The artists get a monthly "attaboy" form letter from the RIAA.

S

So many choices...none are appealing

[gpinzone]

While Napster is far behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, AOL's MusicNet, and others, it's taking the lead again in the old Napster's stomping ground: college campuses.

Wow! I never knew there were so many ways to use your hard earned money to buy poorly encoded music. BTW, are the college campuses they speak of from the days of the free and illegal Napster or the new and legit one?

Re:Behind RealNetworks?

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially if your business plan consists of

1> Be better than real
2> ...?
3> profit!

Re:Sorry...

[grub]

Coke in a Pepsi cup? Philistine.

Re:Does anyone know

[sharkey]

The artists get a monthly "attaboy" form letter from the RIAA.

Which, knowing how the RIAA works, probably says, "Your $350 monthly membership dues must be paid in full by tomorrow, or we will not forward your $9.37 royalty check this month."

Re:I must be missing something

[Anonymous Coward]

Napster 2.0: "Subscription services - people will love it! And then no more of that pesky downloading of music, since all music lovers are just thieves anyway, right?"

RIAA Members: "Makes sense. Obviously the iTunes store will fail once people see the wonder of subscription services."

I suspect it was more along the lines of:
Napster 2.0: "We have a cool name and microsoft is backing their own format, which we will use."
RIAA Members: "Microsoft! Sh*t, those bast*rds make us look nice. They'll probably make MP3s and AACs impossible to play under Windows, heck maybe even get them banned in the U.S., we're in.

"not own?" - the horror

[Shadestalker]

"...where customers can listen to -- but not own -- as many songs as they want..."

Isn't this the model RIAA already has in place for CD-based distribution?

Re:I will not buy DRM

[TedCheshireAcad]

I will not buy songs online,
I will not buy them any time.

I will not buy them from iTunes,
I will not buy them from tycoons.

I will not buy them on a Mac,
I will not buy them, even in FLAC.

I will not buy them from Napster,
I will not buy them any faster.

I will not buy songs online,
I will not buy them any time.