The Battle Over Overtime
Do You Respond To Emails Fashionably Late?

Napster's Response To Yahoo? Sit And Stare, Dumbfounded

Surprises

from the seems-like-a-difficult-plan dept

Tue, May 17th 2005 10:03am — Mike Masnick
Napster made a big deal earlier this year in advertising how much "cheaper" they were than Apple (though, many questioned the math). Of course, when you pitch yourself as the "low cost" alternative, you have to have a plan in place for the time when (not if) someone else comes in with lower prices. It appears that Napster's plan is not to plan at all. Thanks to Yahoo's super cheap pricing (which again are making some point out that the RIAA's claim on "losses" is complete bunk and anyone accused of file sharing should point out that the maximum amount of "loss" to the industry is clearly the $60/year that it would cost to get music from Yahoo) Napster needs to do something to retain users. However, they're doing nothing at all, and don't really have a response to the Yahoo offering. Of course, this should come as no surprise at all. This was the same company last year that tried to redefine its market so that they could say that iTunes wasn't a competitor. And, of course, all of these companies deny that file sharing apps are competitors. When you can't even admit who your real competitors are, it certainly makes it difficult to respond when they cut your business model out from under you.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

9 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    James Katt, 17 May 2005 @ 12:48pm

    Napster is so DEAD!

    Yahoo is undoubtedly going to kill Napster. It's price undercuts Napster by 50%. How is Napster going to make any money? HOw is Napster going to compete?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike D, 17 May 2005 @ 9:38pm

    Yahoo product is crap!

    I thought I would give Yahoo a try. I downloaded their music engine. During the install I responded that I do not want the Yahoo Toolbar installed and it installed anyway. I also don't want Yahoo Messenger on my computer, but it is required or you can not download music. I know because I removed YM. I did this install 4 times with the same result. We don't need any more crap on our computers than we already have. Sell me the music. Charge me a little more if you have to. Just don't load a bunch of crap on my computer that I didn't ask for, pay or, don't want, or need. And DON'T do it without telling us in advance about it.

    Crapware. Pure crapware.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Paul, 17 May 2005 @ 10:10pm

      Re: Yahoo product is crap!

      Allofmp3.com doesn't put you through any of this nonsense. DRM-free music, pure and simple.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Adaxl, 17 May 2005 @ 10:59pm

        Re: Yahoo product is crap!

        Yeah, right. I drive only stolen cars. They're wonderfully cheap. They guy who sells them says it's legal. Really!

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Peri, 18 May 2005 @ 6:25am

          Re: Yahoo product is crap!

          "Legal" in your opinion must be the strict letter of the text of the U.S. laws that the RIAA wrote for our lawmakers, which they passed nearly verbatim. Take a moment to see that money spent for AllofMP3 downloads makes it back through the channels to the "owners" of the music.

          Keep on goose-stepping to the oldies, Adaxl.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Adaxl, 18 May 2005 @ 10:38pm

            Re: Yahoo product is crap!

            @Peri: Where I live, in Europe, artists get absolutely zip from allofmp3.com. Considering how little they charge, anything else would be a surprise. You can hate the RIAA all you want, but let me tell you one thing: There are copyright pirates and ripoff artists, and allofmp3.com is one of them. If you want non-RIAA music, buy stuff from magnatune.com, but do not fall for the claims of scammers.

            It's the same with software. If you want free, non-monopoly software, get Linux but don't buy "Real genuine WindowZ" from some webshop for $5.

            [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2005 @ 9:25am

          Re: Yahoo product is crap!

          Corporations in America will do absolutely anything to make money for themselves at the expense of their employees and/or customers, however close to the legal line they tread. In fact, they usually justify their actions by saying that if they can do something to save money, they would be remiss to not take advantage. That's the way I see allofmp3.com: it's my responsibility to acquire music at the lowest possible price. If and when the US government gets around to shutting the website down or making it inaccessible from our shores, I'll look for another source.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tara, 1 Dec 2006 @ 6:44pm

      Re: Yahoo product is crap!

      I agree. They are rip off artists as well. I tried the Music Unlimited as a free trial and low and behold, I started trying to cancel my subscription the day before it was supposed to be billed to my credit card and kept getting error messages every time that the service was unavailable at that time. Wow, what a coincidence as soon as my card was billed the service was suddenly available again and I could cancel my subscription. They refuse to give me a refund, stating that they do not give refunds. The service is crappy and I don't even like it at all. Now I'm stuck with a $60 crappy service for a year.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mizzy, 4 Aug 2008 @ 8:19am

    BOTH CRAP

    There are more things to worry about then these two programs that you all waste money on. There are cities out there that are being neglected and being so corrupted. Not by the citizens of the city, but by the police/government. Its sad! Do your research, we are all slowly and surely getting enslaved! NEW PRESIDENT PLEASE! ECONOMY IS SO DESTROYED. WELCOME TO THE 2nd "GREAT DEPRESSION".

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


The Battle Over Overtime
Do You Respond To Emails Fashionably Late?
Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

Friday

19:39 Important Announcement: Techdirt Is Migrating To A New Platform (0)
More arrow

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.