“The majority of consumers have not yet accepted the subscription model to rent rather than buy music but this is likely to change over the next year, according to the head of the online service Napster Inc.,” Kate Holton reports for Reuters.
MacDailyNews Take: Hope springs eternal. It’s always going to change “next year” for the Gorog types. People don’t want to rent music, they want to own it.
Holton continues, “Once synonymous with piracy in online music, Napster now offers music via a subscription service but it is hindered by the dominance of Apple Computer’s iPod which, due to a rights management issue, cannot play Napster music. Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog told Reuters that Apple’s approach was ‘anti-consumer’ and had held the subscription model back.”
MacDailyNews Take: Gorog is a moron. As the market has proven: people don’t want to rent music, they want to own it.
Holton continues, “But Gorog expects the picture to change as consumers turn to mobile phones that also operate as MP3 players…”
MacDailyNews Take: Do the math. People who care most about music on mobile phones are salivating over Apple’s iPhone with which Napster will be incompatible, too.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “amp” for the heads up.]
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Beleaguered Napster hires UBS to evaluate possible company sale – September 18, 2006
Beleaguered Napster circles bowl, subscribers drop 7 percent, Gorog won’t rule out sale of company – August 03, 2006
Free, legal and ignored: Mac- and iPod-incompatible beleaguered Napster dying at colleges – July 06, 2006Napster CEO Gorog blames Microsoft for failure to compete with Apple’s iTunes Music Store – March 01, 2006
Napster CEO Chris Gorog has ‘secret plan’ to help beleaguered company become profitable – February 09, 2006
Google: no interest in Napster, no plans to develop music store at this time – January 31, 2006
Napster does the math: layoffs commence with 10-percent of workforce lopped off – January 25, 2006
EMI Music Chairman: Music subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody haven’t beeen huge – January 23, 2006
Napster CEO Gorog: ‘we are extremely excited about the future’ – January 18, 2006
Report: Napster executives do the math, consider selling or shutting down, layoffs imminent – January 16, 2006
Napster CEO Gorog: Apple iPod is a ‘villain’ – December 12, 2005
Do the math: Napster posts $13.6 million second-quarter loss – November 02, 2005
Napster President: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has ‘tricked people into buying a hardware trap’ – August 22, 2005
Apple’s roadkill whine in unison: ‘incompatibility is slowing growth of digital music’ – August 12, 2005
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SmartMoney: Napster is a snooze, gushing money and renting music is un-American anyway – July 06, 2005
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Napster is a joke – April 05, 2005
Napster CEO Gorog: Steve Jobs ‘must be pretty frightened’ of Napster To Go – March 14, 2005
Napster’s math does not add up – February 28, 2005
Users thwart Napster To Go’s copy protection; do the music labels realize the piracy potential? – February 15, 2005
Napster CEO Gorog: ‘it’s stupid to buy an iPod’ – February 10, 2005
$10,000 to fill an iPod? Napster’s going to end up with egg on their face – February 04, 2005
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Napster 2.0 posts US$15 million relaunch loss – February 08, 2004
What a dweeb. I hate renting anything, of course that doesn’t make it universal, but anyway…
Me Gorog. Gorog hate Apple and iPod. Gorog want to crush Apple.
Napster, Swirling the Bowl.
How long is it taking for this outfit to die and disappear…?
Nap who?
If Apple were to offer a subscription service, does anyone think it would be a complete failure? Perhaps, but at this point, no one can say for certain. And until it’s tried, you can’t definitively say that “people don’t want to rent music.” People rejecting a service that doesn’t work with the vast majority of portable music players sold is not really a true indication of what consumers may or may not want.
Ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black! How is Napster in any way “pro-consumer”; the freakin service is Windows-only! It can’t get anymore anti-consumer than that (other than that Zune thing):-P
I didn’t know Napster was still in business. It looks like they’re still losing money
This is so funny, One of the biggest “Once synonymous with piracy in online music” is now telling to the biggest legal music seller (number 3) in the world that his approach is ‘anti-consumer’. That is really funny. May be Those napster guys are trained by Microsoft, they see everything backwards.
Me Gorog. Me be bankrupt soon. iPod bad. iTunes worse.
Looking at teh Napster regulations these two choice morsels are probably the primary reasons why Napster is beleaguered (or should that read buggered?).
1) If you wish to burn Downloads to CDs or transfer them to compatible portable devices you will need to pay for them as Purchased Tracks.
2) …. in order to play any Download after the end of a Subscription Month, you must log on to the Service so that Napster can renew your rights for those Tracks.
If I want to play them in my car CD player or put them ion my iPod, I have top pay for each track even though I bought a subscription? I also have to check in each month likle someone out on parole?
Stupid stupid stupid….and they wonder why it is not taking off…..
Sticks and stones Mr. Gorog, sticks and stones…
Actually, I think it would be pretty cool to have a music sampler option where I could periodically purchase a key which would allow me very limited rights to a certain number of songs. Let’s say that for $10 I could download 50 songs which could only be played three times before expiring. If I like a song, then I could mark it for purchase.
If Apple introduced this option, I think they would destroy the main selling point to subscription plans.
” Napster now offers music via a subscription service but it is hindered by the dominance of Apple Computer’s iPod which, due to a rights management issue, cannot play Napster music.”
No, it’s hindered by the fact that the vast majority of people do not want to pay in perpetuity for their music, and would rather pay once.
And furthermore what is stopping Napster from developing a software program for the iPod that would essentially replace iTunes? Nothing.
Sour grapes. Bitching and whining.
DIAF Gorog.
Buying the name ‘Napster’ and trying to use it to make money makes just about as much sense as buying the name ‘Enron’
ATTN PEOPLE WITH TOO MUCH MONEY: YOU CANT TURN BACK TIME.
Stop trying to collect lost revenues on a illegal company that you didnt have anything to do with.
talk about anti consumer.. trying to trick us by using that name…
Apple is anti consumer just about as much as walmart is pro consumer.
these fuks just dont get it.
Compete dude. That’s the lesson Apple learned after years of wallowing in their own superiority.
Make a better product then maybe others will buy into it. If the players are bad work with the manufacturers to improve them. Same goes for the software.
Fact is Apple invested a lot of time and money making the whole widget. And it worked. Not anti-competitive business here, just good product design.
There were a ton of MP3 players before Apple joined in. Apple just made better products and provided a better service.
This guy’s right. iPod and the iTunes store sucks ass. Hey iPod lemmings: YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF!
I love the Napster integration with my Dell Ditty. It’s a close second to Zune Marketplace and my Zune. What I really like is the subscription model. The IT guys at work said paying for individual tracks or albums is for suckers. You can get a lot more if you go with the subscription. More is always better.
Welcome to the Social.
^^^
Thats either you TRYING to be funny, or you got paid for the post..
Using windows is for idiots.
Using a Zune or a Dell device for music playback only makes sense if you got the device for free. and if it was me it would have been long gone to some schmuck like you on ebay.
Napster is anti-sucess
is “anti-consumer” is the awful the hardware, software, and integration of the Plays For Shit partners.
DogGone,
Nicely put, sir.
Somebody please kill Zune Tang. He’s making my eye bleed!
If iTunes is so anti-consumer then why is that iTunes owns 80% of the consumer marketshare? Why is it that iTunes is the only PC/Mac friendly online store on the net to date. This guys got a whole in his head apparently.
Like the rest of the consumers, I don’t want to rent my music. I want to know that when I wake up tomorrow my music is in my control not Napsters or anyone else for that matter.
Napster is a failure and Gorog should just shut it down as his insults won’t help anything.
What the hell makes Gorog think the Telcos will be any more open than Apple?
Gorog, you wanta rent tunes for cell phones?
Make the Gorogphone and talk to and talk to the cell phone companies just like Apple did.
Good luck with that.
Gorog, I have a one-click account. I click once to select the song, then I click buy and the song downloads in about fifteen seconds.
When you get out of denial and make Napster that easy, then you might make some money. Putting down the company that sets your
standards for you is not going to get your company anywhere. Instead, you should be criticizing M$ for not having a decent product and
for coming out 5 years too late. The key is the quality of the hardware product and the simplicity of buying songs…don’t you get it?