Posted on 02/05/2005 11:46:55 AM PST by ambrose
Napster Takes On iPod With New, Portable Service
02.03.2005 1:48 PM EST
New technology allows subscription service to work with portable players.
Photo: Napster
The music-subscription service Napster unveiled a portable version on Wednesday that will allow it to tackle Apple's popular iPod head-on.
Called Napster to Go, the service includes a new technology that allows it to work with portable
players. A $30 million ad campaign for the service will launch during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
"Introducing the world's first portable music service," reads an ad on Napster's official site. "Now you can fill and refill your compatible MP3 player without paying 99 cents per track. Get all the music you want in a whole new way."
The "99 cent" jab refers to the typical per-track cost of Apple's iTunes download service, which currently holds approximately 70 percent of the download market. The campaign urges people to compare the cost of spending $10,000 to buy and transfer 10,000 songs from iTunes to an iPod, versus Napster's $14.95 per-month fee to do the same with an unlimited number of the service's million-plus tracks, according to a Reuters report.
The campaign is an aggressive one for the former renegade download service (see "Hello, Kitty: Napster Is Back"). Experts estimate that it represents up to 70 percent of the amount the company is expected to spend on marketing for 2005.
Napster's service works with a number of PC-compatible players from companies such as Creative, Gateway, iRiver, Rio and Samsung, and essentially operates on the premise that the songs are rented rather than purchased. The manufacturers are also working on new Napster-compatible devices that are expected to cost between $250-$500. MusicNow and RealNetworks' Rhapsody are expected to offer competing download-to-go products this year.
The iPod has become such a sensation that Monday's USA Today ran a front-page story referring to the "iPod Nation," dissecting the allure of the portable device, which sold more than 8 million units in 2004 alone.
While iTunes allows users to purchase songs and store them on their iPods, until recently other music-subscription services had limited ability to store songs on portable players. The breakthrough came from a new type of Microsoft digital-rights management software called Janus — referred to in the digital press as a potential "iPod killer" — which opened the door for subscription services to offer a more portable product. Janus works by adding a hacker-resistant "clock" to music files encoded in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format, through which the files expire when users end their subscriptions.
For complete digital music coverage, check out the Digital Music Reports.
— Gil Kaufman
This will succeed only if users are also given the option to buy tracks, instead of just rent them. I'd hate to cancel my subscription only to have all my favorite songs become unplayable at the end of the month.
Agreed. People collect music..not rent it.
Nothing prevents Apple from implementing equivalent technology--and giving users the choice to either buy or rent.
There are so many things wrong with this statement.
Nothing except common sense. BuyMusic tried it. Didn't work.
Their service isn't compatible with my computer.
Their songs won't play on my player.
Even if I baught a Windoze box and a WMA player, I have to keep paying and paying and paying, or my songs go dead.
Yeah, that's gonna work.
A service like this might be fun to try for a couple of months... saturate yourself with all kinds of different tunes... but ultimately, people have their favorites that they want to collect/own.
1... Nobody is going to spend 10 grand filling their player with downloads. Most people already own things called "CD"s, which contain music. They want to carry it around.
2... After a year of paying your $14.95, you've paid $180. You quit paying. Your downloads are dead. Expired. Vanished. Into the old bit-bucket. You've got nothing.
It might just take off and sell like hotcakes - the week after the DRM has been hacked and before the RIAA catches on.
I told myself, and my wife, I wouldn't buy an ipod until all my cds are already loaded into my computer. I am only a fraction of the way though and about 10 gigs loaded in. All that free music I already own, plus a couple of songs from itunes. This new Napster is destined to fail. It sounds more like subscription radio than ipod/itunes
Apropos, that name.
From this site:
Janus is the Roman god known as the custodian of the universe. He is the god of beginnings and the guardian of gates and doors.
Bill Gates, custodian of the universe.
I have a sound recorder that can record anything perfectly that goes through my computer's speakers. This will not stop piracy and file sharing.
I'm not arguing it's a good idea. I'm simply saying that if someone does discover a way to make this idea popular, that it does not operate as a strategic advantage that Apple would find hard to counter.
Like Janus, Bill Gates is two-faced as well.
How does it work? Well?
I'll just continue to steal music, it's an overpriced commodity anyway. Bit Torrent is ideal.
(I do buy the CD's of the music I keep).
LOL
Karma baby, karma...
Napster has had that option since Day 1; you can always purchase tracks/albums if you wish.
Two things prevent it:
- Standard-issue Apple arrogance: Steve Knows Best.
- No iPod supports this technology (it's hardware/software, not just a firmware upgrade) and Steve Knows Best says they never will.
Plus, using an iPod grows a scraggly goatee on your face (male or female) and turns you gay.
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