Napster Takes On iPod With New, Portable Service

MTV ^ | 2.3.05

[SpyGuy]

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.

[big'ol_freeper]

Agreed. People collect music..not rent it.

[sourcery]

Nothing prevents Apple from implementing equivalent technology--and giving users the choice to either buy or rent.

[TheOtherOne]

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.

There are so many things wrong with this statement.

[Izzy Dunne]

Nothing prevents Apple from implementing equivalent technology

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.

[ambrose]

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.

[Izzy Dunne]

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

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.

[Izzy Dunne]

A service like this might be fun to try for a couple of months

It might just take off and sell like hotcakes - the week after the DRM has been hacked and before the RIAA catches on.

[TheOtherOne]

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.

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

[Izzy Dunne]

Janus works by adding a hacker-resistant "clock" to music files

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.

[lmr]

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.

[sourcery]

Nothing except common sense. BuyMusic tried it. Didn't work.

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.

[HAL9000]

Like Janus, Bill Gates is two-faced as well.

[TheOtherOne]

Skype

How does it work? Well?

[everydayislikesunday]

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).

[cyborg]

LOL

[ambrose]

Karma baby, karma...

[Hank Rearden]

This will succeed only if users are also given the option to buy tracks, instead of just rent them.

Napster has had that option since Day 1; you can always purchase tracks/albums if you wish.

[Hank Rearden]

Nothing prevents Apple from implementing equivalent technology--and giving users the choice to either buy or rent.

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.