In a press release today, Napster, calling themselves, “the biggest brand in digital music…”
(ROTFL)
… announced today the consumer release of its “Napster To Go” technology and the unveiling of the new Napster 3.0. Napster To Go, billed as “the world’s first portable subscription service,” lets consumers move an unlimited amount of songs from Napster’s million plus catalog to compatible MP3 players for a monthly fee of $14.95.
According to Napster’s press release, “Napster To Go marks the most significant milestone to date in the rapidly-growing digital music industry and makes costly download-only stores seem antiquated by comparison.” The release will be accompanied by a major $30 million marketing campaign supported by strategic alliances with “leading” consumer electronics manufacturers Creative, Dell and iriver.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s iPod, which actually is the leading portable music player, with 92.1 percent of hard drive-based music player market, does not support Napster.
“Napster To Go provides infinitely greater value and is much more exciting than the iTunes pay-per-download model,” said Chris Gorog, Napster’s chairman and CEO in the press release. “This is what consumers want and Napster is once again proud to lead the industry by being the first in the world to offer this revolutionary new way to enjoy music.”
MacDailyNews Take: If Gorog really knows what consumers want, why do over 70% of them choose Apple’s iTunes Music Store? Doesn’t Napster actually have to lead the industry before they can claim to do so in their press releases?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster tries to push music subscription service over pay-for-download iTunes-like model – February 03, 2005
Apple Computer could sell 21 million iPod shuffle units in 2005 – January 19, 2005
Cornell University’s Mac users ‘uniformly unhappy’ with Napster – January 19, 2005
Analyst: Apple’s iTunes Music Store ‘downloads could reach 474 million in calendar 2005’ – December 17, 2004
Study: Apple iTunes Music Store dominates with 70 percent market share, second place Napster holds 11 percent – October 19, 2004
Cornell University wrestles with Napster’s exclusion of Mac and iPod-using students – September 08, 2004
Why are Cornell’s Mac students being forced to pay for useless Napster? – September 07, 2004
Napster schools to Mac-using students: bend over and take it – September 04, 2004
Napster CEO: ‘it would be great’ if Apple iPod supported WMA – March 09, 2004
Napster CEO: Apple iTunes, iPod ‘consumer-unfriendly experiences’ – March 09, 2004
Microsoft tries to push WMA by propping up beleaguered Napster – February 25, 2004
Self Delusional Idiot.
Yeah, when you were the REAL napster. Freebie’s.
MDN Magic word “earlier” as in, Earlier Napster had a hold of peer to peer, but now they are just another Real Player, Hoping to do wha everyone else is doing…
Ya right!
Ya know, if you have to talk about how much better you are than your competion, then the competion is usually the victor.
Ah. They name their rival. Free publicity. Thanks Napster.
I’m a fan of ITMS. It’s a great thing. I hate DRM though, so I’ve only ever bought one song from it.
Fairplay may be the best, but it’s still DRM, and DRM sucks.
Can’t sell your old Fairplay songs on eBay, so you’re paying for something that immediately loses all it’s value.
these companies with their ipod/itms killers just sound petty and stupid when they attack apple. it’s even worse when apple stomps ’em. if they just released something and were proud of it and didn’t trash their competition, maybe they’d get somewhere, and if they fail, at least they wouldn’t look like fscking morons.
Oh yeah I remember Apple just recently ousted Google as the biggest “brand” on a list and I don’t think Napster was even on that list.
Bill: We are proud to introduce M$ BOB! This is what the consumer want in an OS !!!!!
If you really are the industry leader, you never mention your competitor by name?
Gorog spelled backwards is Gorog!
What’s up with that?
Hee hee hee, I’ll have whatever Chris Dorog is drinking!!!!
Napster was once … my favorit !
M$ and now Napster start crying it out, just because Apple is on its second coming !
Chris Gorog is right, he just forgot a few words:
“the biggest brand (of crap) in digital music…”
Napster obviously hasn’t seen the reports on how Apple is the brand of the year, even over prized Google.
Hi Webmaster’s Apprentice, I believe the term is called Palindrome, on in French “ par-le-drunk”.
Napster to Apple:
We’re the leaders, we’re the leaders!! Do you hear me up there? WE are the leaders!! Slow down, Apple, and let us lead. PLEASE?
kind of a weak take, mdn. with the material gorog provided, i expected more.
Talk about a “reality distortion field”…sheesh
Napsters latest and greatest…$179.40 (per year) and when at the end you can no longer afford to pay them, you get the “Neal and Bob” cause you have nothing to show for your Money. Now that is DRM…
*creek* *creek* *creek* *creek*
Napster CEO, “Damn it, who let the crickets in here!?!”
Who’s Napster? Wasn’t that some music file sharing application that got squashed by those RIAA monsters or something?!
Yeh, go on fooling yourself, but it isn’t going to help.
The magic word is “hear” — hear for whom the bell tolls.
“The release will be accompanied by a major $30 million marketing campaign…”
$30 million? That’s it? Steve Jobs crapped $30 million after breakfast this morning. You’re gonna have to do better than that! I tell ya what Chris, give the $30 million to me instead. I won’t spend a dime of it on your business, so, you see, the outcome will be just the same as it will with you spending it on marketing.
I don’t quite get this subscription idea. Do you have to give the music back after a certain date? How is this enforceable?
I suspect people would use this if there was no way to prevent you from using it after a certain date. If not why would you rent music? Music doesn’t lose it’s appeal on first playing.
DRM is to iTunes
as
one button mouse is to Macs
let it rest, for the love of God.