“The Napster campus representatives held Napster Night yesterday evening in the Carl E. Becker House dining hall. The event was designed to promote Napster to Cornell students as the Student Assembly will need to vote on whether to fund the program again next year as part of the student activities fee,” Alex Lebowitz reports for The Cornell Sun. “Students were inundated with free Napster t-shirts, stickers, ringtones, water bottles and hats while songs by musicians from Smash Mouth to Outkast blasted throughout the eatery. Volunteers also had the opportunity to play disc jockey under the guidance of DJ Absolute, an alias for Dia Beshara ’06, one of the Napster campus representatives.”
Lebowitz reports, “The main problem facing the Napster program at Cornell is not the cost as much as how many students will actually use the program. On the surface, 60 dollars a year for unlimited music downloads is unmatched by any other program. For example, using iTunes, Apple Computer’s music download program, a customer would only be able to download 60 songs in a year to match the price of Napster. But Napster’s music can only be played on certain mp3 players. Apple does not allow Napster’s music to be played on iPods because Napster is a direct competitor of iTunes. This presents a problem for the Napster program because, according to a recent study by the NPD group released on the CNET website, iPods account for 92.1 percent of all mp3 players on the market. Cornell students with iPods would be able to listen to Napster songs on their computers, but could not transfer the Napster songs from the computer to the iPod.”
Full article here.
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You know, Cornell’s a great school. You think they’d have figured out by now that since Mac users are better educated and make more money, they’re very likely to be attending Cornell. Hello, Cornell? Napster doesn’t even work on Macs. And since probably 9 out of 10 Cornell students that own a portable music player, own an Apple iPod, why wouldn’t Cornell use an iPod-compatible service? For how long are you going to exclude Mac users, who must make up a significant percentage of your students, Cornell? And what happens when Napster closes up shop, Cornell? Who’s getting paid what and how much are they getting?
What’s next for Cornell? Signing with a food service outfit that only serves dog? As Napster works for your twelve students with a player from the now-defunct Rio, your new food service will appeal to a select few (although probably to a larger number of students than does Napster).
From Cornell’s music FAQ page: The Student Assembly recognizes that Napster isn’t a solution for students who don’t use Windows 2000 or XP (although it will work with Macintosh if Virtual PC for Mac is installed). So the Student Assembly, with help from the Dean of Students and OIT/CIT, is continuing to evaluate other online music services. Cornell students have said they want to download and stream full-length songs, without having to buy every song. Napster is one service that does that; if you know of others that work with more operating systems, please suggest them via the feedback form: http://cit.cornell.edu/services/music/napster/feedback.php
We sent them this:
You state that Cornell students have said they want to download and stream full-length songs, without having to buy every song. Which and how many Cornell students said that exactly? Certainly not your Mac and iPod-using students whom you’ve excluded completely or told to buy a $250 Microsoft Virtual PC program, so they can listen to “free” music? You want to cover your asses legally and include virtually all of your students this year? Apple iTunes on Campus. Give your students easy access to iTunes–the best digital jukebox for Windows and Mac and iPod users. – http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/ If students want to listen to free streams without buying, they can listen to the Radio stations included in iTunes.
Obviously, Mac users and iPod users are using iTunes at Cornell. The point is that Cornell should not be excluding students and paying for a service that can’t serve a large number of Cornell’s students. To choose a service that is incompatible with Mac and iPod is just plain stupid.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster’s dirty little secret: changing subscription services into downloads is easy – February 18, 2005
Cornell University’s Mac users ‘uniformly unhappy’ with Napster – January 19, 2005
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
iTMS is good .. Napster is baaaddd..
so, what’t the big deal? iTunes is free; it has nothing to do with whatever “other service” one uses on his computer. if the precious little darlings can afford their iPods and Macintoshes, the whole idea of which music download service to use is moot. use iTunes, for crying out loud. fat boy’s wannabe “service” evaporates once the fee stops being paid. no amount of free crap can hide that simple fact. i have 9700 tracks on my iPod; they will never vanish, i have no monthly extortion to pay to keep them. get real, get iTunes. (great pun, no?)
Free streams?
Edit –> Preferences –> Sharing –> Look for shared music, share my music…….
Free streams!
On a college campus network? Wow – that would be a pretty impressive collection of free music. Of course, you could listen to it for free, but you couldn’t transfer it to an ipod or burn it to a cd without buying it………..
use WMA , rent music, etc.
It seems that this problem is not caused by napster but by apple. It’s apple who doesn’t allow you to use napsters mp3 on an ipod. That’s stupid. If i buy an mp3 player, i want to be able to choose where i buy my music. Apple is screwing their customers here.
And what does $60 get from Napster. Songs that will go away the minute they leave college. At least with iTunes you buy once and keep your songs for life and you can play it on your iPod. It is not Apples fault they have the better software and hardware.
Suggesting people llisten to free internet streaming in iTunes as a replacement for being able to stream any Napster song is just rediculous. Absolutly that is the dumbest thing I have ever seen written on an MDN page. If they want to stream the music, and not have to pay, thats fine, if they’re content not owning their music, whatever, it’s up to them. iTunes does not offer such features, and Napster is willing to because it will get them a ton of cash, and maybe some PR. If they’re streaming for free, then they’re not downloading and putting the music on DAP’s anyways. True iPod users get screwed in that environment, but if you use iTunes to buy your music anyways (a good percentage of iPod owners do), whos to say you have to buy it from your school’s deal with iTMS? They can still buy music on they’re own, just it will cost the normal price – no edu discount or free downloads.
Anyways, comparing internet radio to free unlimited streaming of an entire music store worth of music is just rediculous. Most internet radio stations (the free ones in iTunes anyways) can’t play major music anyways, which is why there’s no or very few pop stations in the iTunes radio directory, they don’t have the rights to play the music that’s on FM radio. Besides, the whole point of a music store, music player, and/or music streaming is so that you DON’T have to listen to some lousey radio station, with their ads and crap, you just get the music. Now it’s true most internet radio stations that run music have very little commentary – if any at all, from DJ’s and such, which is good, but the user still is not selecting songs to be played for them.
Personally, I think Cornell should demand Napster to make a Mac compatible version of their software (that DOESN’T work with iPods, remember what happened with Real trying that?) so that Mac users can atleast enjoy the streaming experience. And if Napster uses WMP10 (I’m not sure as I don’t use Napster) for it’s entire store interface, then Cornell should demand something from Microsoft, or no deal for their school, because it excludes a portion of their student body that has every right to a music store/streaming service as everyone else attending the school.
Ako– Napster uses Windows Media Audio (WMA) format for the music it sells. That is why they will not work on the iPod. An mp3 file will play on the iPod. Non-Apple mp3 players cannot play music purchased on iTMS. Are all those manufacturers “screwing their customers” because they are unable to play AAC/Fairplay encoded files? By your logic every manufacturer is screwing their customers. Time to look at the big picture.
Ako: I see your point certainly, it would be great if you could buy any MP3 device you wanted and access ANY music store, burn as many CD’s and copy bought for CD’s from Virgin Records. iTunes being unlike the other stores is cross platform with a Linux version coming soon.
Napster as mentioned in MDN’s article is Windows only, so when the day comes when Napster once again hits the wall, all their current customers will lose their current music libraries and will have to re-buy without having any refunds allocated to them.
The problem is you’re being too idealistic. In an ideal world us consumers could do all of that above and in your posting.
Remember that any company large or small is out ot do one thing and that is to make money, Apple Computer is no exception.
The difference with Apple is that their products do actually work and are the best that there is bar none. To me this is part of “Think Different”.
If you think about the ignorance of the Cornell program for a moment, you’d ask why they don’t give each student a $60 credit to BUY music from whichever service they want to use.
After all, the school year is only 9 MONTHS long and $60 is 60 songs. The last I heard, the average iTMS customer spends less than that in 12 MONTHS.
I doubt seriously that even avid music lovers buy more than 5 songs per month, which tranlates to a net savings of $15 per student. If they are buying more than that, they (the students) aren’t paying attention to their studies.
Ako: There is no such thing as a “napster mp3” file. Napster uses WMA files.
Apple’s “iPod/iTunes/iTunes Music Store” experience is so well integrated that it’s the most popular system. It’s not Apple’s fault that the other systems suck.
Kassandra,
Your an idiot
The problem is that I think it is not fair to ask students to shell out $60 as additional fees. Only students who choose to participate in the program should pay.
(One could argue the same for recreation center fee etc. charged in school, but at least those belong to the school.)
This is just outright ridiculous to offer music service on campus and charge every student $60.
$60 per year for four years on iTunes and you have 240 songs which are yours to keep on your computer, iPod and burn to CD. $60 a year for four years on Napster and you have…
“today” we have learned the difference between renting and owning
…can someone explain to me the user-end appeal/dynamics of the subscription model?
when you are a subscriber with an unlimited library available, do you actually build playlists and download those to your player?
…I have to admit I rarely use that feature even in itunes. I am in continuous “shuffle” mode in my music library. I got my 3,000+ songs loaded and ready to go. It is like a radio station that plays only music I like without ads, etc *and* I don’t have to spend any time picking them out. Plus I own them.
…was just curious. Maybe its me being indecisive…. I just can’t decide what it is I want to listen to at time xx:xx
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> …and certainly don’t want to waste any amount of time trying to.
Interesting that Napster is trying to buy the vote by giving away a lot of “free” stuff.
It’ll be interesting to see how the vote goes. If the kids are smart, they’ll see the $60 as the Napster Tax (which helped to pay for the “freebees”).
If only one in ten students takes advantage of the “service,” then it would be cheaper for the collective student body to just put $6 each into a pool, and let the 10% who actually use the service just buy the service separately. But of course that wouldn’t work because Napster is giving Cornell a “special rate” and would likely pull the plug. Clearly the advantage for Napster is that if they can get these kids “hooked” on their service, the kids will have to continue to subscribe to Napster forever if they want to keep their music collections. Any idiot should be able to see that is a racket, and that if successful, rates will keep going up and up, just like cable TV.
Boy, miss a single payment and have your entire music collection goes away. What then, you have to start all over? Is that extortion or what?
Just my 2¢ worth.
Use Griffin’s iFill, available for both Mac and Windows. It will load the iPod with free Inernet Radio music for a one time payment of $20. That’s a $40 savings.
I forgot to add: Napster is working just like the cigarette companies and drug dealers: They hope to get folks “hooked” so that they have lifelong customers.
That might work if Napster had a monopoly, but they don’t. There are lots of stupid people in the world, for sure, but even a dull witted person can eventually see that it is cheaper to buy than rent for the rest of your life. Thanks to Apple, people do have choices.
Many people rent their homes, their cars, their movies, their parking spaces, their TV viewing, their TV recording, and some even rent their radio.
I can see where Napster’s management gets the not so wild idea that perhaps people will rent their songs too (and I used to think it was a stupid idea as well, but when you consider just how much other crap is rented or leased, one has to presume that perhaps there’s something in it from Napster’s point of view… it’s just traditionally, people have owned music.)
So tell me, do people rent so they can *look* successful, even though they don’t actually own *anything*?? Hope you’re all saving the remainder of the cash for your retirement fund or some other worthwhile cause, and not plowing it into further subscription services.)
And why the hell is a university giving music to the kids anyway? They’re supposed to be studying. I would think $60 worth of condoms a year might be more useful.
Kassandra –
Before the digital age, recording companies would promote their albums by getting airtime on radio stations. People heard the songs on the radio, liked them, and bought them.
But if you ask me, the promise of the digital age is that we can get away from “pop” songs… or at least change the way in which songs become popular. Currently, it is those who promote and advertise artists who decide what will be “popular.” Although Napster allows folks to sample music without buying, i don’t see how they are much different from a radio station. You still have to find music which is of interest to you personally. Radio is an excellent, passive way to do that.
Some of the best music i own most folks have never heard of. Stuff like:
http://www.quinlanroad.com/homepage/index.asp?LangType=1033
http://www.chanceworld.com/RecordedMusic.aspx
Mac4Life, I don’t know what kind of flame your getting at, I’m not dissing iTunes or supporting Napster, I’m just saying that whoever wrote the MDN take is foolish for comparing free internet radio to the ability to stream, for free or very cheaply, an entire music store worth of content from major record companies. There is a merit to going with Napster on this one if their students really want free music even if they don’t own it, and they don’t mind not supporting the leading music player. iTunes doesn’t offer that and the competition does. I still fail to see why anybody would want to use Napster, but in this instance I see the point, both for the university and for the students. It really depends on how the students want to use their music.
Rainy Day,
I understand that too, but I happen to love pop music, and very little music of that genre is on internet radio stations, or Podsafe music collections like the Podsafe Music Network. I enjoy music from every genre, and I love discovering new music from radio stations and podcasts, but Napster at it’s heart is a music “store”, which has anything and everything the other also-ran music stores have, and being limited to what a free radio station can offer generally doesn’t appeal to me, except for trance and other genres that are largely underground, and under smaller labels (or no label at all in some cases), that are willing to put their music on internet radio stations for free. MS’s WMP offers a number of free and pay-based radio stations, the payed ones being higher quality and playing more FM-radio stuff. I’ve never seen why anyone would want to pay for that, but apparently some people do. I don’t think iTunes needs or should have a subscription model, but for a university full of music hungry students, who don’t have or don’t want to pay 99 cents a song, are willing to “rent” it so long as they get unlimited access to that. They can always buy songs later on anyways. I’m just saying that Napster isn’t the dumbest idea in the world here. Now, what would really work well, is if they gave away free PlaysForSure (haha) mp3 players to all the students, or at a huge discount, and had a Mac-compatible version of their software, so that all the students, Mac user or not, can enjoy “free”, unlimited music downloads and/or streaming. I think that would work great for the students in that situation, provided it all “just worked”, which I doubt it would, and it certainly wouldn’t come close to the iTunes/iPod experience. If they want to rent their music, I think thats fine as long as their not excluding Mac users, which sadly, likly they would be. Anyways, enough rambling from me, if I made the choice for my school, I would definatly go with iTunes, say the sudents get 10 free downloads and month, and they pay like half price for songs after that on an educational discount, that would keep it comparable in price (and would certainly win as far as user rights are concerned, owning your music, ect) to the Napster “sollution”, and would be reasonable I think. I don’t know how the iTunes for colleges pricing is worked out or anything, but I would imagine the school passes on some discount to students, otherwise they would have no real reason to use the school’s store.
1) The University is NOT giving music to the students. The University taxes the parents and then uses SOME of that money to pay for this ‘service’. Also, I’ll bet parents have no option to not NOT pay this tax.
2) It’s hard for me to imagine that the paying parents know their money is being given to Napster, even when their kid can’t use Napster. If my kid was at this University (or Napster tried this at the University my kid attends) I’d be standing in a Deans office demanding answers.
If you want to see this change, figure out a way to inform those who are paying for something they can’t use.
I was working for Cornell in 1984.
From day #1, Cornell was a HUGE Mac campus. From my friends who are still there, I understand that hasn’t changed.
What I want to know is who let Napster on campus in the first place?
MW = think
Mac4life … actually it’s “you’re” an idiot … you know short for “you are” …
(Those in glass houses …)