“UK music download portals such as MSN and Tiscali will snatch the lion’s share of the online music market in the lull before Apple and Napster cross the pond, according to a new report,” Krishna Roy reports for netimperative. “‘Portals will take an early lead, Coca-Cola will fizz, but most consumer goods firms’ [music services] will fall flat, and iTunes will bite back, ‘ predicts Rebecca Jennings at Forrester Research, author of the new report on the European music download scene.
“Portals benefit from high audience penetration, significant marketing and cross-promotional capabilities and, in the case of ISPs, an established billing relationship, according to Jennings, who believes these factors will give them an initial lead,” Roy reports. “But Apple’s ease of use, seamless linking with the iPod, and enormous brand traction will see it overtake Napster and many of the smaller services in Europe in the longer term, she argues. ‘Napster may give it [iTunes] a run for its money in the ease-of-use stakes but will suffer from lower brand awareness in Europe.'”
Full article here.
I don’t understand. Why haven’t these other companies encountered the same difficultes as Apple in opening online music stores?
JeffreyW: The answer to your questions is simple… Apple requires the same use agreements for all songs in iTMS. And it requires that all existing iTMS offerings are offered to all users. Other stores are UK-only or Europe-only, so they have distinct licensing agreements for those specific regions. Also, they will allow different rules for different labels. For example, you can burn Britney Spears’ songs once, but you can burn Outkast’s songs 4 times.
Basically, Apple has much higher standards than the other “stores”.
Looking forward to iTMS Europe sometime ’04!
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http://homepage.mac.com/johnhood
umm, can somebody tell me whether Roxio has actually released any figures yet for Napster2 (apart from version numbers
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> )? They’re always being mentioned as competing with iTMS, so I must have missed the impressive numbers, or is it just ‘coz all the analysts don’t want to have predicted wrong?
iTMS Canada?
Please.
Please.
Please.
iTMS Canada?
Please.
Please.
Please.