More Napster Business Model Discussions
from the keep-it-up dept
So, if you missed Techdirt last week you missed two very interesting discussions about Napster (discussion 1, discussion 2). At least part of those discussions helped inspire one of the participants to write up a suggestion for a business model for Napster which he passed on to me in hopes that we could review it. The basic concept is that people would pay for the music they downloaded if it's easy enough to do so. My initial thoughts are that it's a bit more creative than most business models I've seen before in that it tries to make do with what's available currently - though music players would need to be changed. I have no idea on the technical feasability (and wouldn't mind if someone wants to comment on that). However, it still relies on the idea that people will want to pay for the music they download - which is a risky assumption in my mind. Plus, no matter what, it's adding a layer of complexity to the process - and it requires that all music playing software work with the system. If anyone has any other thoughts... post 'em here.
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Napster Business Model
As a musician, it would be extremely valuable to me if Napster could give me a report that said something like "you've had 100,000 downloads in Dallas, 10,000 in New York", etc. That would tell me the most lucrative areas in which to tour. That is be valuable information - as valuable as getting paid for radio airplay...
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Re: Napster Business Model
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Perhaps PC media players could be left untouched?
Phillip.
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Businss in the wild
Here is what the new model will need to provide:
· The ability for anyone to submit music
· An unbreakable rating system so the cream can rise to the top
· A two tier catalog (with the same songs in both tiers)
· Tier 1 - Low bandwidth low fidelity free music, so you can decide what you like
· Tier 2 - High bandwidth high fidelity low cost music, so you can buy what you like
The price of the music will have to be low enough that piracy becomes unprofitable. If you could download music from your favorite artist for .25$ a song and know that the artist was getting .20$ of that, would you go to the trouble of running a Napster type server so that someone else could get that music for free? If they want free music they can listen to the free samples.
The trick to defeating the RIAA is to use music they don't own. I have nothing against Brittney Spears, but good singers are a dime a dozen. The world is full of great musicians that don't have recording contracts because that would destroy the artificial scarcity that keeps the music industry in business.
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