Comments on: Why Napster Just Could Work

By: John

John — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry. The ads sucked, music lovers do want to own their music, and this campaign is DOA. Apple has been pretty right on so far with iPod and iTunes and I don’t think a subscription service from an old brand is going to knock them off stride. If people want to listen to hit songs for a short time or oldies for a class reunion they can do it for free. It’s called radio!

By: Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, but how about the math advertisement that they forgot to show you.

http://thomashawk.com/2005/02/do-math.html

By: Piers Fawkes

Piers Fawkes — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

John, I disagree with you. The one thing iPod shows us is that people want control.

On a lighter note:
Turning Napster’s 14 day free trial into 252 full 80 minute CDs of free music
http://blog.kordix.com/marv/archives/000400.html

By: Piers Fawkes

Piers Fawkes — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

From Jupiter Research today:

At this point, it looks like competitors could attack from the following positions:

- Price. No one’s got a $100, reasonable-capacity (2GB-4GB) model.
- Video. No real demand.
- Music Phone. Niche product; wouldn’t cut into dedicated MP3 player sales, but might be a handset differentiator. Many, many hurdles here.
- Subscription Service Support. Again, a niche opportunity, at least initially. But probably the best opportunity.

http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/card/archives/006649.html

By: Simon King

Simon King — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

“Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, last year likened the iPod to a vestige of Soviet communism. At the iHollywood Forum Digital Living Room conference taking place in San Mateo, Calif., today, he called the Mac maker deceptive for not explicitly telling customers that iTunes songs can’t be transferred easily to other devices.

“It doesn’t say anywhere that you have to go through 57 different hoops to play a song on a different device,” Glaser said.

He also added that Jobs, one day, will have to think in terms of subscriptions (like Real), rather than selling individual songs.”
http://news.com.com/Glaser-Jobs+battle+continues/2061-1027_3-5603019.html?part=rss&tag=5602629

By: PSFK

PSFK — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Sirius: Jobs Says No Radio iPod

(But PSFK doesn’t believe him!) CNN reports that Mel Karmazin, the new CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio, speaking at a media conference in New York today said that having spoken to Apple, Steve Jobs current thinking is

By: PSFK

PSFK — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

iTunes Subscription Service

Last month we got a little stick for talking up the benefits of the new Napster subscription service. John commented,

By: PSFK

PSFK — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Rhapsody Comes To The Mac

The music subscription service Rhapsody is about to be released for Mac users. The music industry insiders newletter Mishpucha commented: one day subscription will rule, and rhapsody will most likely come out on top if they keep it up, but for now, slo…