Let Napster Revitalize The PC Business
from the of-subways-and-downloadable-music dept
A good article by Bob Cringely about why Napster should remain free. The basic argument is that it's the killer app, and its stimulating all sorts of other, related business. Hundreds of thousands of people use Napster at any point in the day, and sales of CD-Rs and drives was very strong this last quarter partly because of all the downloading of music going on. If the music industry could just get a cut of those sales, and leave Napster as free - then consumers would be happy, businesses would be making money, and the PC manufacturers might be selling more products too. An interesting theory, but one that the music industry would almost definitely never agree to.
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