Napster at 5 Milion Songs

[MacRumors]

CNet reports that Napster has passed the 5 million song sales mark since its relaunch in late October.

Napster is considered the #2 music service according to Mercury News and was previously noted to have only 1/4 of the sales as iTunes.

While comparisons are likely to be made between Napster's numbers and iTunes' numbers, it may be difficult to compare due to differences in launch times and platforms at time of launch.

Apple announced sales of 13 million songs at the launch of the Windows iTunes Store, and then 25 million iTunes songs as of December, 2003.

[nuckinfutz]

Geez they suck

[jholzner]

Apple also announced sales of 30 million songs on Januarys 6th. It's in a press release. I posted it as a comment to the Macbytes post of this news yesterday.

[MattG]

OOOH 5 million songs
Puuhhleeze

[AirUncleP]

Does the general public even know Napster is an option? For that matter, do they know iTunes.com is an option?

[wdlove]

Apple just pulverizes the competition in ease of use and quality. Now onward to 50 million.

[virividox]

5 million, wel lets hope they dont ever catch up

[varmit]

is universities buying in for their students to listen too, not download the music. And people who were stupid enought to get the Napster MP3 player.

I have personally used Napster here at PSU, and I find the service alright when it comes to streaming, but getting around the site just sucks ass. You hit the back button and it goes all the way back to the home page, when there is already a home page button right next to it. When I hit the back button, I expect to go back to the page that I was at before the one that I'm at presently. Nope, all the way back to the beginning. Other odd things is when it adds 30 second songs, aka buy only songs, to my play list, it adds it right in the god damn middle of my playlist. When I try to delete it, it always prompts me to stop the song first before deleting, just delete it man, do I have to click 500 things just to get it to do something simple as take it out of my playlist. OH, and once you make a playlist, you can't delete it, yeah right, horrible I say, horrible.

[impierced]

5 million songs sold at a loss of 15 million dollars. Now that is impressive.

[Grimace]

[yawn]

oh well. Eventually, Napster may catch up. Still, I walk around town and see nothing but white headphones....

[montecristo]

I wonder how many of those songs came from that university (Rochester?) that had that deal where students could get free songs?

If iTMS goes from 25 mil in December to 30 mi on January 6, that is at least 1 million songs a week (a conservative estimate, assuming 25 mil December 1).

So, its 8 weeks later, and iTMS should be at least 40 million! (if the Pepsi thing is even remotely successful, we could be way more than that!).

So 40 million at a clip of 1 mil per week for iTMS.

And Napster, launch in October, thats 1,2,3,4 -- 5 months. 5 million in 5 months. Congratulations. At this rate they won't reach 40 million until 2007. By that time iTMS will be at 200 million (assuming the rate stays the same of course. Which is like saying an iPod dropped from the empire state building will travel at the same speed all the way down. Nope, no way, it will gather steam and just crush the little napster dude into the sidewalk).

[Belly-laughs]

Originally posted by carletonmusic
[yawn]

oh well. Eventually, Napster may catch up. Still, I walk around town and see nothing but white headphones....

... you can buy those separate you know...

[swissmann]

I hope apple pays attention to it's own personal history lesson. The Mac was at the top and look at market share now. Fast forward about 20 years the iPod and the iTunes music store are at the top. Hopefully Apple will be smart enough this time to stay there for the next 20 years. DOS sucked and Windows still sucks yet a lot of people used/use them.

[tacojohn]

Originally posted by impierced
5 million songs sold at a loss of 15 million dollars. Now that is impressive.

Same here- I go to school at MSU and see about 10 people (at least) a day with iPods.

In my 3D class one kid was like "iPods suck! My roommate just got one this week and the battery was already dead by the weekend." Mean while- another PC user (the TA) said "I'm just glad they ported iTunes to the PC- I don't care what anyone says its the best jukebox software ever." That shut him up.

How stupid can you get? YES! You have to charge the battery. I don't care what anyone says- the iPod is the BEST digital music player- nothing beats it.

On a side note- I was asking about 3D options on the Mac and people were mentioning Maya and stuff- and then he just comes in a says- "I personally hate macs". I just replyed "Well, I love them and personally hate windows". I didn't reallly feel like getting into a debate.

Now I just wish apple would rid itself of the G4 and get the G5 into its consumer machines!!!!! So the speed/value argument goes away!

[neilw]

I just bought my first batch of songs on iTMS the other day. It was unbelievably slick and effortless, and the tunes are now happily playing on my iPod.

If iTMS actually had half the songs I wanted, I'd be in serious financial danger, but alas there are still loads of gaps in their selection (and I seem to have special skill at finding them). Not obscure stuff either, mainstream stuff that is absent for no reason I can fathom.

It's hard to beat the whole iPod/iTunes/iTMS triumvirate for seamless ease of use. And in the meantime, while Napster and others try to get traction in the market, Apple is locking people into their platform (well, sort of, but you know what I mean.)

[mrsebastian]

i don't see how napster plans rivaling, much less beating itms? what do they offer the consumer that's so much better in value or ease of use? nothing, they purchased a name that everyone knows, so after the hype that napster is back (which it really isn't), they are really just another download service that's not as good as apple.

bub-bye napster, thanks for playing.

[swissmann]

In my 3D class one kid was like "iPods suck! My roommate just got one this week and the battery was already dead by the weekend." Mean while- another PC user (the TA) said "I'm just glad they ported iTunes to the PC- I don't care what anyone says its the best jukebox software ever." That shut him up.

How stupid can you get?

I just posted but had to reply to this. OK so there are a lot of stupid people out there. I like to think of Mac users as the ones who actually pull their heads out and figure out what is the best option and then of course use a Mac (although there are some stupid Mac users too). I got in a big debate over a friend group email about the latest G5 vs. AMD 64 chip. In the end my friend said that he could custom build a machine that would be cheaper and faster than a G5. At the end of this debate my other friend piped up and said yeah like the machine you built for me that I threw away because it never worked and replaced it with an HP? On a positive note my Sister's Boyfriend hated Macs with a passion (for no real reason) and about 30 seconds on my G5 later he now is a Mac advocate and getting a 15 GB iPod on Saturday. From his opinion iTunes and the iPod rule so some stupid PC users can increase in intelligence I guess but only because Apple's products are good enough to educate.

[jholzner]

Originally posted by Belly-laughs
... you can buy those separate you know...

Of course you can but no one who owns an iPod is going to shop at a store that only supports WMA.

[skunk]

[i]Which is like saying an iPod dropped from the empire state building will travel at the same speed all the way down. Nope, no way, it will gather steam and just crush the little napster dude into the sidewalk).

Ummm, I don't think so: once it reaches terminal velocity, it won't go any faster. Unless the Empire State Building is in a vacuum...

[dongmin]

Originally posted by skunk
Ummm, I don't think so: once it reaches terminal velocity, it won't go any faster. Unless the Empire State Building is in a vacuum...

Apple has SO many advantages over Napster. Napster really has no future. How did they think they would ever compete?

Apple advantages:
1. Existing infrastructure, i.e. they didn't have to plunk down bucketloads of money to get the service started
2. iTunes: quickly becoming the favorite of Windows users as a jukebox software
3. iPod and the iPod mini
4. "Mindshare"
5. Deals with HP and Pepsi (and maybe MacDonalds)

Apple's only real competition is Microsoft, if and when they enter the market. Hopefully, by then, Apple will have become the Amazon of online music.

[SiliconAddict]

Originally posted by tacojohn

Now I just wish apple would rid itself of the G4 and get the G5 into its consumer machines!!!!! So the speed/value argument goes away!

Amen

[Savage Henry]

When I was a lad, I used to be able to sport a dashing pair of Speedos, and Napster used to be cool.

But the more Old Mother Wisdom nurses the pair of us to our inevitable grave it doesn't take me too long to realise that:

a) I now have to wear a comfortable pair of knee length rope tie swim shorts above some leather strap sandals

b) Napster is now very very tired.

I for one would have thought that, with the sophistacated re-launch, and the rather high brow yet street cred logo of a little kitten with ear muffs, they would give Apple a run for its money.

But perhaps they will. Suppose they, unlike those dullards at Apple, have managed to sort it out with the RIAA to make a bottom line 10c profit on every 99c song, then they would only have to sell 150 million songs to recoup that $15m loss they reported. And that would only take another 10 years!!

[Mav451]

swissman: Your friend is right. A "faster" AMD64 based computer can be built for much cheaper. But if you are a Mac user, than that probably doesn't mean much to you b/c of your dependence on OSX. Even if PCs were one dollar, you would still stick to the Mac. The thing with self built machines is that the build quality is highly in question (as your "other friend" demonstrated) b/c every user will vary in their technical ability, experience and stress testing.

I have only built one so far, and it is one for my brother. It has been working since this August. I actually stress test it with loop of Prime/3dmark, Mem test the memory, and ran Black Viper's registry tweak on his computer. The machine has withstood his use of Kazaa/IE (vs. using Firefox), which i daresay is a feat on its own. Of course i had to sneak on to it to run SpyBot:S&D now and then lol.

*But how many people know how to do this? Not many. My brother is pretty lucky to have a good brother like me to build him one

The computer I built for him is based on the 2500+ chip (multiplier unlocked, became a 3200+ with 2 simple changes in BIOS).

By the way, I was one of the first (and maybe only) in my dorm hall to install and use iTunes. I told everyone to switch, but alas, no one listens to me. iTunes is a bit bloated on the PC side (forced QT install), but overall is awesome.

[Le Big Mac]

Originally posted by Belly-laughs
... you can buy those separate you know...

And doesn't the fact that people might do so tell you something more?

[wPod]

Originally posted by montecristo
(assuming the rate stays the same of course. Which is like saying an iPod dropped from the empire state building will travel at the same speed all the way down. Nope, no way, it will gather steam and just crush the little napster dude into the sidewalk).

um, last time i checked, on earth (that is where the empire state building is located) theres a cool thing called an atomosphere which, when soemthing is dropped through it, produces drag. this drag induces a thing called 'terminal velocity' (i think they made a movie called that sometime) so at some point the rate is constant. sorry :-)

as for the little napster guy, lets not completly smush him, some competition is nice, we wouldnt want apple to turn into the M$ of music would we? pretty soon our beloved iPods would have a grey screen of death (or blue screen if they ever come out in color) and we dont want that now do we?

so, its good to see napster put in a valliant effort, but even better to see apple doing so well!!!!