Earth to Napster: Why should we pay you for internet radio?
From the “How stupid do they think we are?” department comes news that Napster wants to sell you unlimited streamed audio content and five DRM-free tracks per month for $5, making them more expensive than the highest cost provider, iTunes, which charges 99¢ for most songs (ie $4.96 for five) and nothing for internet radio. Yes, the labels also sell songs for $1.29 each via iTunes, but there are also 69¢ songs and more than a few albums/compilations will net you pennies per track.
Billboard reports that Napster has introduced respinning of pay forever music—get unlimited streamed music and download five DRM-free tracks a month for $5. Alternately, Napster also offers a “portable” subscription service for $15 a month forever that requires media players built with Microsoft’s Plays for Sure digital rights management (DRM).
From bad to worse
Napster, which had been losing money for years, sold itself to Best Buy last Fall, though many questioned whether the electronics retailer could ever make pay forever music pay. Fast forward eight months or so into the future and ask yourself why anyone would want to pay $5 per month for a custom music streaming service, which both Last.fm and Panadora offer for free, and five track downloads is anyone’s guess.
That is, with iTunes with free internet radio plus Last.fm and Pandora, both of which are free and available on the iPhone + touch (ie portable), you get unlimited streamed music for zero dollars. Moreover, the iTunes catalog has at least 3 million more songs than Napster, and every one of those songs is encoded in Apple’s superior 256K mp4 format. Further, if you want to buy, you have the option of buying via iTunes or Amazon at lower per track rates, and because you’re not tethered to a subscription, you only spend when and how much you want.
Lastly, if you want to lock in low per track pricing, while still enjoying internet radio, Pandora and Last.fm for free, why not try eMusic, which consistently averages in the 30¢ range?
Again, why would anyone want to pay for services that are already free and pay higher per track prices for a lower quality product? Brilliant…
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Filed under: Corporate news, Music
You’re missing a very key point here. The unlimited streaming from Napster is not just radio. You can listen to the entire catalog on-demand as often as you like. Yes, Napster does offer radio stations for when you want to sit back, but you can also listen to any track at any time, as many times as you like. You can listen to an entire album over and over again, and you can make your own playlists and hear them over and over. And on top of that, you get MP3s with each plan.
Jen Wilbur, Rockstar Communications [for Napster]
Pandora and Last.fm do that for free and both are available as mobile applications.
No, admin, you *still* don’t get it.
I love Pandora and also use last.fm. But you cannot say, wow, I want to hear such-and-such new album. You cannot queue up your favorite hand-made playlist and listen to it. You cannot listen to a specific song on demand with those services, period. Joyful serendipity, sure. But practically no control.
On Napster, you want a motivational playlist for work? You can make it with just the songs you want. Hear about a new artist and want to actually hear their latest songs? Can’t do that on Pandora. Can’t do that on iTunes (without paying $9.99).
So with Napster, for $60/year, you get unlimited streaming, and also 60 MP3s to save forever (about 4 albums, right)? Seems like a hell of a good deal to me.
MP3 music credits expire. So, if you forget to buy, your money disappears into Napster. Why is that?
Napster is still is schlepping 128K mp3s. Why is that?
Mp3s are inferior to iTunes AAC, all of which are 256K. Amazon and eMusic only offer 256K mp3s.
The base streaming rate is 128K and its a web-only client—what are you paying for again?
When it comes to convenience and quality, iTunes is unbeatable. For price, Amazon and eMusic are unbeatable. All of these services guaranty better quality. If you are a careful shopper, all of these services deliver track prices in the 10 cent range.
Pandora’s a lot more flexible and configurable than you let on and best of all it’s free.
And, aren’t you the guy who defended Napster when they raised prices without offering anything (better service, terms or encoding rates) in return?
http://www.centernetworks.com/napster-raises-prices-why-subscribe
Pay forever music will never be a good idea.
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