Napster's New Business Model

Who cares that Napster's coming back. They run off of peer to peer sharing. By commercializing the network they're elminating the need to share p2p and it'll just turn into a massive suscriber service. That won't work cause they'll be illegal alternatives floating about.

What I find disturbing is that they think that they can hook up their service at the ISP level. To have that kind of integration would imply some kind DRM scheme integrated at the hardware level (ideally). It seems like they're betting on things going a certain way. I would be interested to see just who the backers of Napster are...

Again let me point out that this is a multi million dollar venture and they wouldn't go forth unless they had a good reason to think things will go according to their business plan. Hardware "digital rights managment" (DRM) could be coming very soon.

"The idea is to phase in a billing mechanism for peer to peer networks, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, that allow users to copy music directly from each other's hard drives.

Initially payments would be by credit card, but in the future downloads would be automatically detected and a charge added to the monthly internet service provider bill. "

www.theage.com.au...

Napster's been bought over by a new company, all that remains of it is the name. It's an outrage that they are using the Napter name to get a head start in the market when the way they are operating has nothing to do with what Napster stood for, freedom and sharing.

Now branded as Napster 2.0, the original website once boasted 60million users worldwide. It was forced to close when the big hitters of the US record industry began to circle. Led by Metallica, labels and bands started legal action for copyright infringements. A judge ordered the site to close until it could remove all illegal files. It immediately began making plans to re-launch as a fee-paying site, but it went into freefall and the name was bought by digital media company Roxio last year for $5m (�2.9m).

Roxio also brought in Napster founder Shawn Fanning as a consultant. They hope the Napster name will give them a leg-up an over-crowded market. They have also tied up a deal with Microsoft to be included on its next media package

www.nme.com...

Every song will cost $0.99, not much of an improvement on buying a single when it's not necessarily going to be CD quality sound, or even, musically, any good. People use P2P because they don't know if they're going to like the music they're downloading, and don't want to pay for it.

Teaming up with Microsoft can't be good either.

[Edited on 12-10-2003 by CiderGood_HeadacheBad]

Very soon apple will introduce iTunes for Windows with Music Store built-in.
It works beautifully on Mac, it's gonna be nice on PC too.

The Cat is Almost Back...

Napster

Originally posted by Megaquad
Very soon apple will introduce iTunes for Windows with Music Store built-in.
It works beautifully on Mac, it's gonna be nice on PC too.

iTunes looks good, it's innovative in the way it achieves high quality sound in a file the size of a 128kb/s MP3. It looks like the new Napster will just be an effort to make money out of a service that other companies are giving us for free, and with more songs/media files.

Seems to me that Micro$oft have jumped on the Napster deal because they don't want Apple's superior product dominating the market.

This thread is not about alternative services. This thread is not about the history of Napster. You can talk that in Chit Chat.

Please use your head and understand my insight: It's about the business model that Napster is utlizing. A model that, should in part, involve a lot of betting. A lot of betting is unusual for multi million dollar ventures. They're betting that we'll all have DRM at the ISP and/or hardware level. Whether it's done on a packet by packet basis or new hardware, the fact that they think it's going to happen is the interesting part of this whole thing...

My point is that I think iTunes is a better programme, as it has been proven to work and is innocative technologically.

I don't think the new Napster will succeed, people won't buy it. If we are meant to be discussing the business model, why is this thread in S&T?

The whole "new napster" wont work because people can get the same for free Whatever this is going to be a complete disaster in the making

The fact that uneducated people believe they can get copyrighted material for free with no consequences during the wild west days of the internet, has no doubt already been considered in an ISP-linked napster-driven subscription service business model.

That is a temporary phenomenon.

Subscriber pays will replace free P2P systems after they are dead, and the prime mover advantage goes to the offeror who hooks up the best and most usable package early in the piece to get critical mass.

CiderGood_HeadacheBad- read the ending of my last post. It explains what science and technology has to to do. here, I'll point it out for you:

"They're betting that we'll all have DRM at the ISP and/or hardware level. Whether it's done on a packet by packet basis or new hardware, the fact that they think it's going to happen is the interesting part of this whole thing..."

DRM, packet level analysis at the ISP level and new hardware have to do with science and technology. Their business model assumes a pervasive right restriction technology.

In finding conspiracies and researching we often have th think about results and tidbits that we're given at two or three levels beyond what a normal person would think. The connections made, if sound, are often very revealing.

[Edited on 13-10-2003 by ktprktpr]

Napster was the beginning. There will be more programs that spring up after Napster collapses again, and after Kazaa shuts down, as well as all of the others that try to stifle free distribution. I've never read in the Constitution that the right to business comes before the right to freedom. By that alone, I will stand by the idea that file sharing is not the evil that will destroy the planet.

That's just my 2 cents.

Point taken ktpr, it's a gamble they are taking, and it's one which I don't think will pay off for a number of reasons...

it makes me laugh that they think they can stopfile sharing, especially since they haven't been able to stop any other pirating on the computer, like warez has been going fer over a decade now and there hasn't been much done to slow that scene down, i don't know how they think they will make everyone pay fer the files, how will they stop people from hacking their servers and making software clones to get the files fer free, it's a pointless venture because there are better and more programmers on the side of free sharing, than the recording industry could hope to field. Every provision they make will only last a few days before it's cracked, just like the cd protection(s) used on software that warez ppl cracked.

While I agree that the free P2P services are a great phenomenon I don't think they will last as long as people think. Mainstream bands like Metallica and others have brought lawsuits against users sharing there music. I think eventually the list of bands promoting Anti-sharing legislation will increase substanially within a few years/decades.

HOWEVER!

The new "underground" methods of sharing files (DC++, darknet, etc...) will most likely take over where KaZaA and Napster fail. By using password access they will exclude anyone from finding out their IP address's and ISP's. This will probably cause a huge headache for the RIAA and their "cause"

Keep the music free!!!!!

Well along with my new Ipod ive been lokin at Itunes and i really wouldnt mind payin the price they charge for music i mean i like it free but theres is a reasonable solution. Also the article said this could be the end of file sharing ha. Look what happen wiht napster!! when it died a billion different kind of p2p networks sprung up and now kazza is the leader. They kjnow sometine will come next there just action like they did after napster like they won. Until they have a way to stop IRC where tons of music is traded then theyve only begun the war