jxyama said:
Simple FACT: No, legit, music store will EVER get the major lables without DRM. Period. End of story.
PS- And I'm NOT talking places like allofmp3.com
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Napster vs iTunes: Superbowl Ad
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Simple FACT: No, legit, music store will EVER get the major lables without DRM. Period. End of story.
PS- And I'm NOT talking places like allofmp3.com
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
granted
Napster makes a valid point that if one were to fill one's iPod entirely with songs from iTMS, it would cost a medium sized fortune.
But I think Apple should be (ironically) grateful for the fact that a lot of iPod users have a good chunk of their iPod filled with music downloaded from p2p services before iTMS came out or possibly even after. Some people do a combo of legal and illegal music.
For users however without a massive chunk of music who want to live honestly, I can see where starting a collection at a buck a track looks daunting, especially when you want to fill your iPod.
I am a Mac/PC (begrudgingly) user so I have had a chance to download Napster. It's not easy to use or to set up. Had install problems. It doesn't look like a great jukebox. It doesn't work with iPod. So to me it's no big whoop.
BUT...I am glad that this might push Apple to do a one up and offer a subscription service that is elegant to use, side by side with a la carte.
PEACE
Napster makes a valid point that if one were to fill one's iPod entirely with songs from iTMS, it would cost a medium sized fortune.
But I think Apple should be (ironically) grateful for the fact that a lot of iPod users have a good chunk of their iPod filled with music downloaded from p2p services before iTMS came out or possibly even after. Some people do a combo of legal and illegal music.
For users however without a massive chunk of music who want to live honestly, I can see where starting a collection at a buck a track looks daunting, especially when you want to fill your iPod.
I am a Mac/PC (begrudgingly) user so I have had a chance to download Napster. It's not easy to use or to set up. Had install problems. It doesn't look like a great jukebox. It doesn't work with iPod. So to me it's no big whoop.
BUT...I am glad that this might push Apple to do a one up and offer a subscription service that is elegant to use, side by side with a la carte.
PEACE
SiliconAddict said:
Are you sure? Okay. Maybe their selection isn't the greatest, but they're a "legit" music store and they don't use DRM.
PCMacUser said:
But if Napster claims this is about freedom of choice and then only allows Windows XP users to use it, that's hypocritical. (I'm not saying they are, but if they did).
eradlmann said:
Nope. All tracks are just 99¢ each. (Or whatever price for the particular country's store you're buying from.)
Different Business Models...
I don't think it is relevant to declare which business model is best. As wittnessed by Apple's superiority and 5% market share--best doesn't really matter. Personally, I think iTunes has it right. I agree with previous postings referencing the iTune interface as an advantage. Free iTunes Windows software has alot of my Wintel friends and family remarking at how stable and intuitive the iTunes software is.
I don't think it is relevant to declare which business model is best. As wittnessed by Apple's superiority and 5% market share--best doesn't really matter. Personally, I think iTunes has it right. I agree with previous postings referencing the iTune interface as an advantage. Free iTunes Windows software has alot of my Wintel friends and family remarking at how stable and intuitive the iTunes software is.
TheMasin9 said:
Well, last I heard WMP encryption had been broken in a grand total of about thirty minutes of hacking. Granted, today offers WMP 9 and I think that was WMP 8, but Microsoft doesn't have a really good track record of bullet-proof encryption there (especially as they claim WMP8 devices will play WMP9 media...)
ctachme said:
Um, yeah, and that's precisely the point.
If you aren't an oddball with virtually no music who is willing to pay a provider $15 per month for the rest of your life to get up to a very large number of songs in your pocket overnight, then Napster's not for you.
I mean, think about it. Market segments:
- Segment One: Not really interested in music. Napster: No. iTMS: Maybe for a few tracks.
- Segment Two: Transitioning from not really interested in music to really really exhorbitantly interested in music. Napster: Hell yeah! iTMS: Expensive.
- Segment Three: Really interested in music. Already has a large collection because he's been interested in music for a while. Napster: No. iTMS: Great way of filling in the holes in the collection.
- Segment Four: Transitioning from Really interested to Not really interested. Has a large music collection on eBay. Napster: Are you kidding? iTMS: will be there when he comes around and sees the light.
- Segment Five: Really interested in music. Already has a large collection. Justifies paying for that large collection a second time in perpetuity because he needs to hear every song ever produced by every boy band and American Idol dropout ever and knows that his rappacious hunger for new music will never die down. Or he knows he has only three months to live.
If you've got a collection of music, then you would pay Napster for the priviledge of listening to music you already own. If you don't have a large collection, then your need for new music is likely also low, and can not justify the high costs of the Netscape plan. The only market I can see for this is short-sighted neo-music-mavens who just discovered that their three Britney Spears cds on the shelf don't get them in with the cool chicks any more.
Yes, exactly! How many songs do you listen to only once? Does that fit with this model?
Exactly, and makes sense because, as with books, movies generally are only viewed once. Yes, there are those who watch the same movie time and time again, but they either buy the movie once they decide it's one they'll be watching over and over again, or are poor morons who can't do simple multiplication.
Yes, it could be successful, I have no doubt. But it's not mass-market success like iTMS. It is strictly niche market, strictly low-volume. It won't drive iPod sales, and in Napster's case it certainly won't kill iPod sales either.
renting music is stupid. Spend that money on cd's or iTunes and you'll be better off! Rhapsody and Napster are lame.
how much will it cost? If I use napster it will cost me an infinite amount of money! If I ever stop paying for napster, the next time i plug in my device all my music becomes unplayable. I OWN my itunes music...
Buy 5 Songs
You know, I was thinking, on Super Bowl sunday, right after the Napster ad comes on, everyone should go to the iTMS and buy 5 songs. Give Apple a nice little spike in purchases for one day.
Course, it'd be nice if all Mac-centric websites picked up on this idea and promoted it.
You know, I was thinking, on Super Bowl sunday, right after the Napster ad comes on, everyone should go to the iTMS and buy 5 songs. Give Apple a nice little spike in purchases for one day.
Course, it'd be nice if all Mac-centric websites picked up on this idea and promoted it.
This will never fly with music. Music is very personal to people, unlike movies or video games, most people will not rent music. For those individuals that listen to music once in a while or aren't very picky, they probably would just rather listen to the radio (which is free) or pay for XM radio (which is cheaper per month).
Apple should however, watch how this works, since this model could be used for movies (iMovie Store?) very well. Instead of downloading and keeping a large amount of movies on one's hard drive, you could get three downloads at one time or keep them for a certain amount of time, much like Netflix but without the snail mail or scratched DVD's (which is rare but does happen). Just my two cents.
Apmonia
Apple should however, watch how this works, since this model could be used for movies (iMovie Store?) very well. Instead of downloading and keeping a large amount of movies on one's hard drive, you could get three downloads at one time or keep them for a certain amount of time, much like Netflix but without the snail mail or scratched DVD's (which is rare but does happen). Just my two cents.
Apmonia
VeeDubMac said:
A bit off topic, but IMHO the 30-second previews are hardly satisfying. They aren't long enough to give me a good taste of what the song is and what it's saying. But then, really, only the whole song, in full suality, from start to end, will do that. I understand the need for 30-second previews, but I would hardly say they keep me "happy". The only use I've found for them is in identifying a song from a list of possible songs, or to be able to get a quick reminder as to what song someone's talking about (the modern equivalent of "hum a few bars of it for me").
Radio, on the other hand, continues to work in that "listen to new music" need, as well as just taking a chance every once in a while and buying something I really don't know if I'll like or not.
A subscription service as a "preview service" would work well for me, but the prices being charged ($10/month for a preview-only service) are way too high. If they could do that (maybe with a limitted number of downloads per month, even) for $3-5 per month, you might have me.
ha!
napster?
keep on sleeping buddy... ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ
Z__________zZZZz__________zZZ__ZZz__________zZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZZ_ZZZ__________ZZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZZZZZZ__________ZZ
Z_________ ZZZZZ__________ZZ__z_ZZ__________ZZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________ZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________ZZZZ
ZZZZZ_____Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________zZZZ
took me a while to do it yeah...
napster?
keep on sleeping buddy... ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ
Z__________zZZZz__________zZZ__ZZz__________zZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZZ_ZZZ__________ZZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZZZZZZ__________ZZ
Z_________ ZZZZZ__________ZZ__z_ZZ__________ZZZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________ZZ
Z_________ Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________ZZZZ
ZZZZZ_____Z____Z__________ZZ___ZZ__________zZZZ
took me a while to do it yeah...
nagromme said:
Most people don't want to pay for useless software trinkets by having ads pop up all over their screen, but there's nothing wrong with that option for those who do.
In general principle, I agree there's nothing wrong here. Napster will fail and all will be right with the world. However, I do see the likelihood of people getting thoroughly duped by this, which I really don't like seeing. The market where this makes sense financially is significantly smaller than Napster's current install base. People, in general, are easily conned by the "free lunch" appeals of huxters like this.
So, again, it is our duty to make as much noise about this as possible, so that at least somewhere in the background as Joe Public is writing his monthly Napster tax check there might one day be alarm bells going off.
Yvan256 said:
While a lot of the .Mac services are Mac-specific (Safari, iCal, and Address Book sync), others are not (email, iDisk, online bookmarks). I use my .Mac account from a Windows box quite often. Pretty much in proportion to how often I use my Windows boxes.
Would I get a .Mac as a Windows user? No. But if it had a song preview service attached to it? Maybe.
"Do the Math. How much will it cost to fill up your player?"
The real question is: how much will it cost to keep your player filled?
The answer: $15/month for the rest of your life.
You can download every song Napster offers, but the minute that you stop paying (or 1 month later), all your songs are no longer playable.
The real question is: how much will it cost to keep your player filled?
The answer: $15/month for the rest of your life.
You can download every song Napster offers, but the minute that you stop paying (or 1 month later), all your songs are no longer playable.
It'll be hilarious when someone buys a Shuffle at Wal-Mart, then thinks they can get on Napster and download all they want for $15. Oops!