Our Service Trap Better Than Apple's Hardware Trap, Says Napster

from the splitting-hairs dept

Napster's president says Steve Jobs and Apple have "tricked people into buying a hardware trap" since songs bought from iTunes can only be played on the iPod. It's a "my DRM is better than your DRM" argument, which is pretty pointless, but apparently Napster's service trap, where users have to keep paying $15 a month to be able to listen to anything from it, is preferable because owning music doesn't "benefit" people. Right -- because owning music without any restrictions and being able to play it on any device is something that no consumer wants. Keep in mind Napster's the company that tried to make out Apple wasn't a competitor, but with just 410,000 users, it looks like people aren't buying into renting music.
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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    eeyore, 23 Aug 2005 @ 11:59am

    No Subject Given

    I buy songs from iTunes, burn them to a CD, then rip the tracks back to my PC and load them on my MP3 players. A tad inconvenient but hardly problematic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      limeybloke, 23 Aug 2005 @ 4:44pm

      RE: Hardware Trap?

      If Napster is so worried about a hardware trap where's their Mac support? The lack couldn't be anything to do with the fact that they're also locking you into Micro$hits format trap ? Yes I know fairplay is also proprietary but AAC itself is an open standard and you just know that if WMA had the same hold on the market they'd be getting all draconian with 'untrustworthy computing'. I don't think Apple would bother with DRM if the lables didn't insist because they simply have the best product from front to back, portal to player.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Steve Hurcombe, 24 Aug 2005 @ 1:44am

    Napster users

    Hi,
    Napster might only have 410,000 subscribed users - but don't forget that those 410,000 are paying $15 a month, every month. Steady reliable income.
    How many iTunes users do that? A Napster subscriber is worth more than an iTunes buyer I would have thought.
    Best regards
    Steve

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Chris, 24 Aug 2005 @ 3:38pm

      Re: Napster users

      Apple sells about 1.5 million songs a day. I'll take 45mil over 6mil per month anytime.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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

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.