Tim Anderson's ITWriting

May 3, 2006

Napster makes bold move while iTunes gets it wrong

The press is reporting how 99c fixed pricing is a victory for Steve Jobs, while Napster has announced free music for up to five connected plays of any song in its catalog.

I reckon the 99c thing is a victory for iTunes competitors. It makes no sense. With music, all the costs are up-front. Once you have created the first master copy, further copies cost pretty much nothing. This is especially so with a download, but even CDs cost very little, otherwise they wouldn't fall out of newspapapers every weekend, as they do here in the UK.

It follows that 99c is far too much for a back number. I may not be the best person to comment, because I reckon iTunes is overpriced at almost any price (because of its lossy compression and lock-in DRM), but 99c is salt in the wound.

What people see as a consumer victory is that 99c is cheap for a brand new song. Personally I don't see why the record companies should not charge more if they can. But the real issue is about how Apple works with its content partners. I doubt it will pay, long-term, for Apple to ignore their reasonable concerns.

Napster, on the other hand, is giving music away. Any of 2 million songs (not all songs are covered) up to five times, free. Pay if you want to download or copy to a device. I'll sign up for this one as soon as it comes to the UK. Is it giving too much away? Possibly, since any song that plays can be copied, but then again piracy is so easy with audio files that the issue is almost more about encouraging honesty than preventing piracy. I'm not clear yet about the quality issue - personally I'd like to see lossless FLAC files for purchasers. Otherwise - I'll use Napster to trial music, then go out and buy the CD.

This is going to raise Napster's profile substantially.

Tags: napster itunes ipod drm apple