To pay or not to pay....Napster's Fall or Rise
Written: Nov 06 '00 (Updated Dec 18 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy to use, all in one player/search/download
Cons: will it last??
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| t13monkeys's Full Review: Napster |
There's still some time to get in the craze. Napster at the moment is still free, still filled with wholesome goodness. An easy simple to use interface that allows you to search for mp3s and a 38 million customer base that is all too willing to share. Of course every now and then several of them havta log off and cut off your mp3s but that is very rare for these dedicated Napster junkies. Hey you might find yourself one after a day or two of use.
But there are big changes shaking up. A business model that'll allow Napster to actually earn cash. Lemme give you an idea of how it'll work.
Take this hypothetical situation. Napster currently has 38 million customers. If it charges $5 a month for its service (a possible price) and people pay for a year, it will earn $2.28 billion dollars, plenty of cash that it then will redistribute to the record companies to make them happy.
That's the current plan for the Napster business model. It's certainly fair, we can share as much songs as we deem fit and the record companies will earn enough.
However the variable of how successful this will be is dependent on the customers. Some customers may choose to get high speed connections and only sign up for a month, in which they will download as many songs as possible and then stop. (assume 20% discrepancy) Also assume that a possible 50% won't even bother to sign up, Napster loyalists who don't wish to pay for anything or think Napster is selling out. I personally find $5 a very reasonable price. The model might shrink to 1.2 billion or so, still a very reasonable business model.
Note: These are estimates of possible earnings, and the percentages given for discrepancy are honest guesses based upon my time spent ranting on the Napster message boards.
So the bottom line. Will Napster stay the same after it's charging money? Will you be able to get mp3s, any song, easily, and quickly? Only time will tell. I won't push you to either side of the line, you'll either wanna pay or you'll head off to another service, such as Napigator and Gnutella. Right now, I suggest you all head off and get as many mp3s as you can.
Napster is on the verge of something big. It's either doom or big fat success.
Recommended:
Yes
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t13monkeys
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Location: New York City, NY
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Reviewing god-awful movies. One at a time.
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