Wednesday, March 30, 2005
N2GO A GO!: NAPSTER ROCKS YOUR MUSIC WORLD... AGAIN
"Napster To Go" Latest Advance In Music Downloading Evolution; Allowing Songs On MP3 Players Heats Up Competition With Apple, May Make Pay-Per-Tune Model Obsolete
by Don Rose
(March 30, 2005: West Hollywood, CA) As we all remember, Napster rocked our world back in the Dot Com Boom, by making Peer To Peer music downloading a household phenomenon -- and inspiring millions to huddle around the "comp-fire" to upload/download millions of tunes. Cut to today: a new mini Net Boom of sorts is back, and the Cat has come Back in a big way in its battle with Apple for music downloading supremacy -- first by relaunching (as a fine pay service), then topping itself with its unique new service called NAPSTER TO GO. The key New Thing here: PORTABILITY OF SONGS, allowing N2GO subscribers to download and listen to an UNLIMITED amount of music, and do so on (certain compatible) MP3 players, as long as a low monthly $14.95 fee is paid. So, if you are the type who, say, buys at least 1 new CD each month, on average, that same general price can instead get you all the songs you want (on a PC or an MP3 player, at home or on the road).
To get the word out with a Big Bang here in L.A., Napster took over Mel's Diner on the Sunset Strip tonight, with celebs like Nick Lachey in attendance, to give music lovers a lot of FREE tunes, FREE coffee -- and, yes, even FREE MP3 players! (The latter being the amazingly cool iRiver H10 5GB MP3 Player, which not only holds upwards of a thousand tunes but can display photos, record FM or your voice, and file your taxes -- okay, okay, not the latter, just making sure you're paying attention, but by the way, you have two weeks left to file -- and speaking of files, you can store all the songs you want from Napster, for as long as you want, pretty much wherever you want, thanks to N2go -- from a pool of tunes totalling one MILLION, says the Napster website -- as long as that aforementioned fee is paid each month; if you stop paying the monthly fee, you can no longer listen to the songs you downloaded, so in essence you are renting them).
You may be wondering, is it better to RENT or OWN when it comes to music? Well, do the math. If you currently buy at least 15 songs a month from napster.com or iTunes.com or other similar services -- or, say, buy around 1 CD a month from real-world "dino-stores" or online stores -- you get a MUCH better deal from Napster To Go, which lets you listen to UNLIMITED songs (ok, a million, but to many that's plenty) -- yet it's around the same price per month. For those who download a lot of music, who like to find and try new music out without having to shell out almost a buck each time, the All You Can Eat model of Napster To Go is great. If you download 3 songs a month, $15 seems high; if you download 300, or 3000, $15 is a steal (oops, I mean, bargain).
You can also analyze this using an analogy from the net access world: if you use the internet less than 15 hours a month, you are better off just paying a dollar an hour for service (if that is available on your service). But if, like most people, you are online at least an hour a day and tend to use WAY over 15 hours a month, a flat monthly fee makes more sense -- and that is exactly what AOL and other ISPs are selling to the vast majority of net users today.
Let's face the music: "All You Can Eat" entertainment seems to be winning out everywhere. This model won out in the Cable TV realm (most folks pay a flat fee per month, but can buy a PPV movie on demand or add special channels for a fee). Napster To Go is similar; pay a flat amount per month to consume all you want, but you can buy songs outright for extra fees (a buck a pop). "All You Can Eat" may also soon win out in DVD rentals, thanks to the ingenious NETFLIX folks (they forced BLOCKBUSTER to offer a similar "all you can eat DVD rental" option, and even spawned a sorta-copycat service that offers only special, unusual or niche films called, pun probably intended, NICHEFLIX). With the Napster To Go model sure to shake things up in the music world, and gain legions of new users, I predict Apple and other tunesellers will be forced to respond with their own subscription models that either copy Napster's N2go or are very similar.
(Perhaps Napster should concoct an ad or slogan that somewhere pushes the notion that "the M in Mp3 now stands for MOBILE -- mobile music, mobile audio (books, etc), mobile podcasts, etc. Most users want to enjoy their downloads anywhere they want, all they want, when they want. With N2go, it's a go!)
So, perhaps all things old are new again; the more things change, the more they stay the same. We seem to be headed for a new version of the old days, where millions of music mavens once again download millions of songs, consuming all they want -- the only difference being this time, the RIAA can stay away, there's one low monthly fee to pay. Think of that fee as a modest tip, if you will, for being assured great sound quality and compatibility with your player and better selection. Or, think of it as "pay for 1 CD, get several thousand free, every month". No matter how you make it sound, Napster To Go sounds good to us.
Stay tuned to The Rose Review for future developments in the ongoing Download Wars saga.
by Don Rose
(March 30, 2005: West Hollywood, CA) As we all remember, Napster rocked our world back in the Dot Com Boom, by making Peer To Peer music downloading a household phenomenon -- and inspiring millions to huddle around the "comp-fire" to upload/download millions of tunes. Cut to today: a new mini Net Boom of sorts is back, and the Cat has come Back in a big way in its battle with Apple for music downloading supremacy -- first by relaunching (as a fine pay service), then topping itself with its unique new service called NAPSTER TO GO. The key New Thing here: PORTABILITY OF SONGS, allowing N2GO subscribers to download and listen to an UNLIMITED amount of music, and do so on (certain compatible) MP3 players, as long as a low monthly $14.95 fee is paid. So, if you are the type who, say, buys at least 1 new CD each month, on average, that same general price can instead get you all the songs you want (on a PC or an MP3 player, at home or on the road).
To get the word out with a Big Bang here in L.A., Napster took over Mel's Diner on the Sunset Strip tonight, with celebs like Nick Lachey in attendance, to give music lovers a lot of FREE tunes, FREE coffee -- and, yes, even FREE MP3 players! (The latter being the amazingly cool iRiver H10 5GB MP3 Player, which not only holds upwards of a thousand tunes but can display photos, record FM or your voice, and file your taxes -- okay, okay, not the latter, just making sure you're paying attention, but by the way, you have two weeks left to file -- and speaking of files, you can store all the songs you want from Napster, for as long as you want, pretty much wherever you want, thanks to N2go -- from a pool of tunes totalling one MILLION, says the Napster website -- as long as that aforementioned fee is paid each month; if you stop paying the monthly fee, you can no longer listen to the songs you downloaded, so in essence you are renting them).
You may be wondering, is it better to RENT or OWN when it comes to music? Well, do the math. If you currently buy at least 15 songs a month from napster.com or iTunes.com or other similar services -- or, say, buy around 1 CD a month from real-world "dino-stores" or online stores -- you get a MUCH better deal from Napster To Go, which lets you listen to UNLIMITED songs (ok, a million, but to many that's plenty) -- yet it's around the same price per month. For those who download a lot of music, who like to find and try new music out without having to shell out almost a buck each time, the All You Can Eat model of Napster To Go is great. If you download 3 songs a month, $15 seems high; if you download 300, or 3000, $15 is a steal (oops, I mean, bargain).
You can also analyze this using an analogy from the net access world: if you use the internet less than 15 hours a month, you are better off just paying a dollar an hour for service (if that is available on your service). But if, like most people, you are online at least an hour a day and tend to use WAY over 15 hours a month, a flat monthly fee makes more sense -- and that is exactly what AOL and other ISPs are selling to the vast majority of net users today.
Let's face the music: "All You Can Eat" entertainment seems to be winning out everywhere. This model won out in the Cable TV realm (most folks pay a flat fee per month, but can buy a PPV movie on demand or add special channels for a fee). Napster To Go is similar; pay a flat amount per month to consume all you want, but you can buy songs outright for extra fees (a buck a pop). "All You Can Eat" may also soon win out in DVD rentals, thanks to the ingenious NETFLIX folks (they forced BLOCKBUSTER to offer a similar "all you can eat DVD rental" option, and even spawned a sorta-copycat service that offers only special, unusual or niche films called, pun probably intended, NICHEFLIX). With the Napster To Go model sure to shake things up in the music world, and gain legions of new users, I predict Apple and other tunesellers will be forced to respond with their own subscription models that either copy Napster's N2go or are very similar.
(Perhaps Napster should concoct an ad or slogan that somewhere pushes the notion that "the M in Mp3 now stands for MOBILE -- mobile music, mobile audio (books, etc), mobile podcasts, etc. Most users want to enjoy their downloads anywhere they want, all they want, when they want. With N2go, it's a go!)
So, perhaps all things old are new again; the more things change, the more they stay the same. We seem to be headed for a new version of the old days, where millions of music mavens once again download millions of songs, consuming all they want -- the only difference being this time, the RIAA can stay away, there's one low monthly fee to pay. Think of that fee as a modest tip, if you will, for being assured great sound quality and compatibility with your player and better selection. Or, think of it as "pay for 1 CD, get several thousand free, every month". No matter how you make it sound, Napster To Go sounds good to us.
Stay tuned to The Rose Review for future developments in the ongoing Download Wars saga.
