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Quote of the day:
"Only the suppressed word is dangerous." -- Ludwig Börne
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 Napster: Grasping At Straws
By Acheron on February 21, 2001 10:23 AM
(E!) The end is nearing for Napster, at least in its current form. In what some would call a last ditch effort to achieving legitimacy, Napster offered $1 billion to record labels to drop their crippling lawsuits.
Per the proposal unveiled Tuesday, Napster would shell out $150 million annually over five years to the Big Five music companies--BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner--plus $50 million yearly to indie labels.
The RIAA has not accepted the offer yet.
"We all ought to sit down and settle this case as fast as we can," Napster CEO Hank Barry said Tuesday. "We're saying this is something consumers really want. Let's do something to keep it going."
- Lets hope they get something worked out. I've been saying all along that there's going to have to be some sort of out of court settlement. Otherwise, Napster doesn't have a bats chance in hell of winning the court case.
If you think about it, 10 bucks a month isn't a bad deal to get legitimate music. You just need to make sure that you download 10 dollars worth of music a month. My problem is that I won't necessarily have a reason to download 10 dollars worth of music. It creates a problem for the people that don't abuse the system.
Though a reasonable deal, I don't see Napster carrying the fan base that it once had. They're going to have to come up with an out of court settlement, otherwise they're almost guaranteed to lose out. My question is: where are they getting the $1 billion? How are they making money now? How are they staffing their company, when there is no visible source of income(no banner ads, service payments, stock, etc)? Sure they've got CDNow sponsorship now, but they didn't when Napster became more than a one man operation. Anyone know?
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Posted by Acheron (denny@dtheatre.com) on February 21, 2001 12:35 PM
UPDATE: Looks like some if not all of the recording companies aren't biting the deal. I guess when you've got a $400 billion a year industry(with CD & tape sales), and someone wants to give you only $150 million a year for unlimited access to music, it doesn't sound like a great deal. Things don't look great for Napster...
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Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 21, 2001 3:22 PM
Even if Napster does go under, there are plenty of other options. WinMX and the various Gnutella based programs are my favorites. Unfortunatley for the record companies, Gnutella has open source code, so anyone can edit it to their likings and create their own music sharing program. On top of that, it works like a peer to peer network, unlike Napster, so it's virtually impossible to shut it down.
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Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 21, 2001 4:15 PM
WinMX is nice because it connects to 6 different servers. There are TONS of files on there. The only problem is that there is no ping feature, so its hard to tell if you will download very fast.
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Posted by Loath (sam@aigraphics.com) on February 21, 2001 3:43 PM
I use Bearshare. It's like a good version of Gnutella. I know it has a gay name, but the program works.
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RE: Napster: Grasping At Straws
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Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 22, 2001 6:28 AM
HERE'S A DOSE OF REALITY GUYS:
1. 90 percent of the reason people use Napster is because it is FREE.
2. There are other programs out there such as Gnutella, Freenet, Hotline which ARE free.
3. Once Napster starts charging users, the other systems will quickly develop better interfaces and the Napster users will jump the boat and log on to the other FREE systems.
Napster is truly an UNIMPORTANT case, despite what the media thinks. Napster signed it's death certificate when it decided to charge it's users. You CANNOT create a viable business model with a digital commodity, such as MP3's anymore. The music industry should wake up and realize this, so that they can find OTHER ways of making money.
Oh, and by the way guys, take the billion dollars and RUN.
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Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 22, 2001 9:27 AM
I am so sick of everyone making a big deal about it. What the record companys don't understand, is that before napster, You would take your friends cd's and record them! It's the same thing.
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RE: Napster: Grasping At Straws
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Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 22, 2001 7:07 PM
They're getting the funding from BMG, one of the companies they already settled with. Weird eh? It's true. BMG is owned by a German parent company who's name I can't recall, but they in fact are the brains behind the new Napster business model.
Check the link below:
Napster to charge a fee for MP3's - CNN.com
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