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What a dweeb. I hate renting anything, of course that doesn't make it universal, but anyway...

Me Gorog. Gorog hate Apple and iPod. Gorog want to crush Apple.

Napster, Swirling the Bowl.

How long is it taking for this outfit to die and disappear...?

Nap who?

If Apple were to offer a subscription service, does anyone think it would be a complete failure? Perhaps, but at this point, no one can say for certain. And until it's tried, you can't definitively say that "people don't want to rent music." People rejecting a service that doesn't work with the vast majority of portable music players sold is not really a true indication of what consumers may or may not want.

Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black! How is Napster in any way "pro-consumer"; the freakin service is Windows-only! It can't get anymore anti-consumer than that (other than that Zune thing):-P

I didn't know Napster was still in business. It looks like they're still losing money

This is so funny, One of the biggest "Once synonymous with piracy in online music" is now telling to the biggest legal music seller (number 3) in the world that his approach is 'anti-consumer’. That is really funny. May be Those napster guys are trained by Microsoft, they see everything backwards.

Me Gorog. Me be bankrupt soon. iPod bad. iTunes worse.

Looking at teh Napster regulations these two choice morsels are probably the primary reasons why Napster is beleaguered (or should that read buggered?).

1) If you wish to burn Downloads to CDs or transfer them to compatible portable devices you will need to pay for them as Purchased Tracks.

2) .... in order to play any Download after the end of a Subscription Month, you must log on to the Service so that Napster can renew your rights for those Tracks.

If I want to play them in my car CD player or put them ion my iPod, I have top pay for each track even though I bought a subscription? I also have to check in each month likle someone out on parole?

Stupid stupid stupid....and they wonder why it is not taking off.....

Sticks and stones Mr. Gorog, sticks and stones...

Actually, I think it would be pretty cool to have a music sampler option where I could periodically purchase a key which would allow me very limited rights to a certain number of songs. Let's say that for $10 I could download 50 songs which could only be played three times before expiring. If I like a song, then I could mark it for purchase.

If Apple introduced this option, I think they would destroy the main selling point to subscription plans.

" Napster now offers music via a subscription service but it is hindered by the dominance of Apple Computer's iPod which, due to a rights management issue, cannot play Napster music."

No, it's hindered by the fact that the vast majority of people do not want to pay in perpetuity for their music, and would rather pay once.

And furthermore what is stopping Napster from developing a software program for the iPod that would essentially replace iTunes? Nothing.

Sour grapes. Bitching and whining.

DIAF Gorog.

Buying the name 'Napster' and trying to use it to make money makes just about as much sense as buying the name 'Enron'


ATTN PEOPLE WITH TOO MUCH MONEY: YOU CANT TURN BACK TIME.

Stop trying to collect lost revenues on a illegal company that you didnt have anything to do with.

talk about anti consumer.. trying to trick us by using that name...

Apple is anti consumer just about as much as walmart is pro consumer.

these fuks just dont get it.

Compete dude. That's the lesson Apple learned after years of wallowing in their own superiority.

Make a better product then maybe others will buy into it. If the players are bad work with the manufacturers to improve them. Same goes for the software.

Fact is Apple invested a lot of time and money making the whole widget. And it worked. Not anti-competitive business here, just good product design.

There were a ton of MP3 players before Apple joined in. Apple just made better products and provided a better service.

This guy's right. iPod and the iTunes store sucks ass. Hey iPod lemmings: YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF!

I love the Napster integration with my Dell Ditty. It's a close second to Zune Marketplace and my Zune. What I really like is the subscription model. The IT guys at work said paying for individual tracks or albums is for suckers. You can get a lot more if you go with the subscription. More is always better.

Welcome to the Social.

^^^

Thats either you TRYING to be funny, or you got paid for the post..

Using windows is for idiots.

Using a Zune or a Dell device for music playback only makes sense if you got the device for free. and if it was me it would have been long gone to some schmuck like you on ebay.

Napster is anti-sucess

is "anti-consumer" is the awful the hardware, software, and integration of the Plays For Shit partners.

DogGone,

Nicely put, sir.

Somebody please kill Zune Tang. He's making my eye bleed!

If iTunes is so anti-consumer then why is that iTunes owns 80% of the consumer marketshare? Why is it that iTunes is the only PC/Mac friendly online store on the net to date. This guys got a whole in his head apparently.

Like the rest of the consumers, I don't want to rent my music. I want to know that when I wake up tomorrow my music is in my control not Napsters or anyone else for that matter.

Napster is a failure and Gorog should just shut it down as his insults won't help anything.

What the hell makes Gorog think the Telcos will be any more open than Apple?

Gorog, you wanta rent tunes for cell phones?

Make the Gorogphone and talk to and talk to the cell phone companies just like Apple did.

Good luck with that.

Gorog, I have a one-click account. I click once to select the song, then I click buy and the song downloads in about fifteen seconds.
When you get out of denial and make Napster that easy, then you might make some money. Putting down the company that sets your
standards for you is not going to get your company anywhere. Instead, you should be criticizing M$ for not having a decent product and
for coming out 5 years too late. The key is the quality of the hardware product and the simplicity of buying songs...don't you get it?

Gorog not too sharp. Gorog not think of that. Gorog waste more money to get Telco business. Telco not want to share with Gorog. Gorog screwed by PlaysForSure first, Telco later.

Gorog needs to get in touch with reality.

People don't want to rent music. They want to own it.

People want to rent *movies*. Maybe we should be talking about movie rental/subscription services in iTunes.

Heck, I pay for Netflix... you better believe I'd ditch that gig, buy an TV (AppleTV in case that doesn't display), and sign up on an iTunes movie rental service any day of the week.

Napster's just pissed because they got screwed upside the head by MicroShaft. And Apple's (supposedly) the one that can't work with other companies...

The thing is, Mr. Gorog, those "anti-consumers" sure are buying truckloads of music and video from the ITMS. They don't look too deprived to me!

I can't think of any other industry in which the losers whine like
spoiled little children and throw rocks at the winners.

If I could give a few words of advice to Apple's competitors
everywhere, I would say: "GROW UP!"

Dear Mr. Gorog,

Here's all the things you haven't worked out yet…

1) The iTunes platform is successful because it is easy for the consumer to understand: a family of players, a single unified jukebox to import, manage and burn content as well as manage the players, a single well-designed store with a simple pricing mechanism and rights-management conditions that penalise neither the customer or the rights holder.

2) Apple realises that - for most people - the bulk of their music will already be held on CD. You're only interested in selling content, which means you miss the bigger picture.

3) Apple understands how to design and build an attractive range of digital media devices, whilst there is no beginning to the hardware design skills of many of their "competitors".

4) If Apple's approach is anti-competitive, then you need to have a chat with J Allard at Microsoft: apparently, they've decided that Apple's vertical approach is more attractive than PlayedForSure's horizontal model which must be nice for their former "partners", e.g. you.

5) If Apple's approach were anti-consumer, then consumers are now more than smart enough to work this out and deal with it. Please explain why Apple sold over 21 million iPods last quarter. Whilst you're at it, please explain why it took Apple 1032 days to sell the first billion tracks, but it took only 320 days to report the second billion. Presumably, Apple is putting something in the water. Or maybe those dancing silhouette adverts have some subliminal advertising.

In all honesty, Chris, the whining is getting a little tired now and you really need start focussing on what you're doing rather than how Apple is executing on its own gameplan. Grow up, be a mensch, and admit that your business plan and the underlying model isn't working. Maybe then you'll be able to pick yourself up from the floor and move on.

WHY I DON'T WANT TO RENT MUSIC.

It's DRM issues on steroids. Suddenly Universal wants more money and 40% of my music goes away. That's the real issue with subscription--gives tremendous power to the labels.

But then I'm one of those old farts who already owns much more music (legally!) than he has time to listen to.

There's music one "owns"... we call it a "collection". It's mine even if I go broke or bankrupt because it's already paid for (and if I'm broke or bankrupt, I'll f*ing NEED it!).

Then there's music one just listens to without owning. It's call radio.

I suppose if I were 12 and had no collection, I MIGHT feel differently. Then again, when I was 12, the bits of music that I owned were my most prized possession. And iTS has brought back the single. =)

I'll say it again. Mr. Gorog is yelling at the wind when he tries to take on iTunes.

First, give up trying to compete with the iTunes Store. You're losing and you'll lose more. No "anti-consumer" comments will change peoples' minds. They love their iPods and, while they might not care that much about the iTunes Store, it's not a big enough deal for most people that they're going to give up their beloved iPods.

Instead, target the people who are already paying for subscription music: Satellite Radio.

Part of the "problem" with subscription services is the Paradox of Choice. I can download whatever I want, but most people don't want a lot. Heck, I just looked at my "Purchased" list in iTunes. I've downloaded 243 songs from the iTunes Store over the last three years--not a heck of a lot. They're all songs that I like, though, that have entered my head or that I've heard of from other people or were suggested in the iTunes Store.

I'm certainly not going to pay $14.99 a month just to listen to those songs.

I don't know what I'd do with the ability to download any song I wanted. One of Napster's ads said I could "fill up my iPod." Well, I don't know enough music to fill up an iPod. Heck, just from my iTunes Store purchases, I could barely fill up an iPod Shuffle! It's just not worth it.

So, how do you make it worth it? Make the choices for me.

Set up your subscription service like satellite radio. Break the music down into genres and let people download the genres. Do lists from Billboard, Radio & Records, and the other music industry trades and let people download, say, Billboard's Top 40 every week. You manage it for them.

Get some news, sports, weather, and other podcast type material based on the region that people can subscribe to as part of their $14.99. Manage it for them so they get the latest info.

Tie it in with the devices somehow--I don't know if those devices support playlists or not, but that's basically what this is. So I hook up my MP3 player and Napster automatically dumps the latest additions from the Billboard Top 40 onto my player where the genre is not rap. It would remove stuff from the player that has fallen off the Top 40 (perhaps it will ask me). It will update my news, sports, weather, etc.

In other words, it'll be alot like satellite radio. Commercial-free music, etc. But--to use a line from TiVO--you're the programming director. You decide what types of music get downloaded. You decide what sort of news you want. You're in charge!

Then market it like satellite radio. The latest and greatest music--all random access. Don't sit through a song you don't like anymore--just hit the next song button. News, sports, weather--customized for your area! Not just national news like satellite radio. And it's all commercial-free! Take all this with you with a compatible portable player. Fine, you might like your iPod to listen to your favorite music, but this is more like downloadable radio.

Like I said, going up against Apple and the iTunes Store is a waste of time. Create compelling content and people will be interested.

I almost forgot...

Gorog... Welcome to The Social (darwinism).

MW: brown (I guess in silent tribute to the missing ZuneTang)

Gorog? Bah ah ah ah ... don't waste my time, next!!

Napster from a Mac

"We're Sorry
You must be on a PC running Windows XP/2k to download and purchase music or subscribe to Napster."

F***ing Hypocrite!

@John R

That is HILARIOUS!