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Napster Signs Indie Deal
A reader:"The BBC News site has a story about Napster signing a deal with 150 record companies to distrube their music over the net." Interesting to note this piece though that the usage has totally dropped off the face of the earth.
- Napster wasn't the first to distribute (illegal) mp3z over the internet. Before napster there were plenty of warez sites where mp3z could easily be found and downloaded. Nothings changed. Just because i've stopped using napster doesn't mean i've stopped downloading mp3z. In fact I don't miss napster at all, what, with the poor quality mp3z and the transfer errors.
- Why pay when I can get it for free? I might want to pay to support the artists, but I don't think a napster type distribution method would support this. If you're only paying a few dollards a pop, how much do you think the artists will get? Currently they only get a few dollars out of record sales. Just because it is being distributed on the internet doesn't mean that the middle man (the record companies) is being cut out. Notice how the deal was signed with the middle man? The people the system was meant to abolish.
- Why would I wan't to be part of this system? Why should I pay to access a system just so that it can leech my resources? Napster's success was based on community. When I opened up my hard drive and bandwidth to the masses, I expected to get something in return, in this case free music. Now the record companies want to do the same thing, whilst charging me for the privilage. Hell, they'll probably force you to watch ads while searching for music. Too me this doesn't seem like value for money.
- How can quality of service be guarranted? If i'm downloading music stored on other people's computers, how can I be sure that what i'm getting is of a good quality? Files become corrupted during transit and this can spread through out the system. If i'm paying for it, I wan't to be sure that i'm getting the genuine article, not some cheap recording off the radio. It was annoying enough when I wasn't paying for it.
Napster, and p2p technology in general, will never become a valid way for distributing material, because it's very nature, that sense of community, isn't being up help when you are just paying to recieve a product. Issues such as quality of service can never be resolved because the machines are owned by individuals, who have no obligations to customers - as a company web server would. And in the end distribution is no cheaper, because the middle man is being retained.For more in-depth discussion of these issues, check out InfoAnarchy. Slyway is a good guide to what's currently the best way to obtain music, movies, and software.
Despite him getting his facts messed up, it is true that Napster usage has slacked off tremendously: a search for "funk" yielded no results on several servers a week ago, which I felt was a telling sign. There's no more funk in the system. Go home.
[singing] ...the day / the music died...
David E. Weekly
David E. Weekly
Code / Think / Teach / Learn
h4x0r for
I don't believe that napster ever was *really* used to find new music by bands users had never heard of...
Actually, I know several people who did exactly this. (To be fair, I didn't, I used it for sampling.) They didn't "type some random words", they used other techniques. One friend would type in "jpop" to find Japanese Pop music and discovered a number of artists. Other friends would search for an artist I liked, find a user sharing that file, and look for unknown artists the user also shared. Neither technique worked great, but they did work, and my friends found new music.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
One way to learn about new bands with napster is by browsing another users files.
When I search for a little known band that I like and find another user with a fat pipe I right click (in winblows) and select view files. I then download any other tunes I like and if the user shares common interests I might try downloading other bands that use likes.
This is not unlike how most people learn about bands in the real world. You meet someone, determine shared musical preferences, in the process of scoping out shared preferences inevitably you uncover some bands you haven't heard before.
The key for the indie music producers is to find their potential fan base and seed it somehow. Once there good ole word of mouth (and new fangled word-of-napster) will propagate the music to the remainder of the fan base. A good label will combine napster with a small directed marketing campaign towards influential users.
salsa_43 n0spam-at yahoo.com
And you trust those figures?
i used to use it to listen to find all the stuff done by someone i liked.
:) AND i paid to go and see their tour when they came to detroit ($50 each for me and 2 friends). There was no chance of that happening without napster. And ironically it was Dr Dre who was one of the movers against napster!
for instance, i heard eminem on the radio, downloaded some of his stuff and related stuff like NWA, Snoop Dogg and so on. Now I'm a gangsta-rap fan!
stay frosty and alert
Actually, I think there is a difference. The factory CD player in my car wont play CDR's. I've tried Maxell, Imation, and multiple brands of generics. I've varied the recording speeds, and tried various tricks with closed and open sessions. Heck, I even tried using CDRW's. Nada. The player can't read the disks and just spits them back out at me.
On a whim, I finally bought a 3-pack of Imation music CDR's and gave them a try. It worked perfectly, the first time and every time after that. Even more, my home theater system used to occasionally have problems while trying to seek through the music tracks on a burned CDR, and those problems have disappeared also. I'm not quite sure what the difference is, but there's apparently more to the "music" CDR's than RIAA royalties.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
It seems to me that everyone's missing another crucial point here... namely that this all happened at a bad time to judge "usage." Why? Because think about who the #1 users of Napster are/were. Stumped? College kids. And where are college kids in the months from May through September? That's right, at least 90% of them are miles from their beloved ethernet connections. Sure, some (like myself) have access to cablemodems or better at home or at a summer job, but the majority of students go back to a dialup connection.
I think it would be wise to WAIT until September/October to make a reliable estimate of usage dropoff.
--=Major
One useless man is called a disgrace; two are called a law firm; and three or more become a Congress. -John Adams, 1776
The incentive is very simple. When you hear music you like, you'd like to hear more, right? Well, the artist isn't going to be able to make more without your money. So you give them money. Maybe in exchange for a fancy package, maybe just as a pure donation. But one way or the other, if you want the music to keep coming, you need to support the artists.
The point is, you'll be paying not to get access to music in the first place, but in support and appreciation for what the artist provided you with freely.
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
The RIAA tried everything short of shutting down Napster. Now that Napster has this sort of support I can imagine that the RIAA will try something, inspite of Napster's new found support.
Of course only time will tell.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
As long as Napster is distributor and not publisher, then there is nothing stopping the indie labels from signing with another Napster like service.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
This whole Napster/RIAA thing of late and fairly high CD prices have practically turned me off "songs" per se.
I find my self going to ShoutCast, picking a station to suit my needs (mostly Trance nowadays) and listening for hours on end.
The only problem with radio is the commercials and lack of variety. Both of these are addressed though streaming stations.
Though, I'm sure the timer is ticking on them as well.
Check out Largest recipe database on the web.
Recently there were very few files shared on Napster because of their name filtering. People just left. Gnutella has been steadily growing though. I definitely say Gnutella is the future. I doubt Napster will be able to attract all those people back if they introduce a paid service. Gnutella has a pretty good chance of staying alive, and staying free.
just my 2 cents
I was thinking of how to intentionally fail my drug test... It would make a good memoir story someday.
I know that this is a good thing for Napster, but I don't think they'll ever get the userbase they had before. I know I listen to some indie label music, but I usually gain it by word of mouth / passing around a cd and then buying it.
I wish them luck -- unfortunately, I don't think I'll be a part of it.
Karnal
Anymore, it seems as if more and more artists are just using throw-together studios. There's plenty of high-quality equipment out there, and yes, it gets pricey, but as a part-part-part time musician, instruments/amps/cymbals etc are not cheap either. You set priorities.
Didn't Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters build a studio recently?
I can see this happening more and more...
Karnal
The minute Napster had to put those filters in place people left in droves. Its great that they are trying to do something to stay on their feet, but it is pointless now.
Anyone who was serious about music swapping has long since left Napster and found greener pastures.
Brian
Find out why AssortedInternet.com offers the BEST Linux Web Hosting Services anywhere:g es.shtml
http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/our-advan
>>(the price of a blank CD is what now?)
It depends on whether you buy a plain one, or the 'music' CD-R that has been specially optimized for recording music and playback in traditional CD players (read as: we sent a kickback to RIAA members)
Funny. My plain-jane Maxells work just fine without the extra $.20 tax.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Is it just me, or did napster already distribute music from over 150 companies over the net? ^_^
That wasn't distribution, that was 'aiding and abetting' distribution (remember, they weren't hosting the music at the time). Maybe this time round they'll be a traditional download service as well (e.g. 10% of Napster users actually end up being bots with addresses like indydist3.napster.com)?
deus does not exist but if he does
Hey! I thought Taylor series were supposed to be infinite.
The Signal/Noise ratio can be improved in two ways. Remaining silent is the OTHER way.
Why does mr_gerbik have panties to throw at the monitor?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Sure, it takes a little more knowledge to post and retrieve large binaries, but I don't see that as doing much more than keeping the AOLers and other lamers away. I'd like to see the RIAA just try to shut down the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3* hierarchy worldwide. They might roll a few weak-kneed domestic ISPs, but it'd be funny to see the reaction from some ISP in Bumfuckistan to an RIAA C&D.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Headline: "Napster Users Plummet"
Good God! The RIAA is pushing them out of helicopters now! Oh, the humanity...
hehe, dont worry about it. After all, I was paraphrasing the book "The Working Life" by Joanne B. Ciulla and god knows who she was paraphrasing.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The point of the tale: once you're getting paid it is no longer about fun anymore. By the last day the children felt that they deserved to be paid and so they were no longer willing to do for free what they used to do for fun.
How we know is more important than what we know.
There once was a taylor who moved to the South and opened a store. The Klu Klux Klan got wind of this and sent some children to yell nasty names and curses outside his store. The taylor saw that these children would drive away his business so he quickly dashed outside and said to the children "I will give each of you a quarter to keep swearing at my store." The children happily agreed, took the money, and continued swearing. The next day they came back and the taylor said "oh, I'm afraid the quaters were just for yesterday, today I will only give you a dime each." The children were a little upset but they took the money and kept swearing. The next day the taylor only offered them a nickle each, half the children left but the other half were happy to swear at his store for a nickle. The next day even more children gave up because the taylor would only pay them a penny each and on the last day none of the children would swear at his store because the taylor refused to pay them at all.
--
I'd like to see CD volume sales figures from this spring. If the RIAA is to be believed, the 2 order of magnitude decrease in Napster usage should translate into a CD sale increase. Granted it won't be proof of causation, but the short time of the change will rule out the long-term market fluctuations which distorted data about CD sales as Napster rose to power over 2 years.
My bet is on no significant change, and I'd love to see a decrease.
The story says he's a fan of Moby and Paul Oakenfold. Why am I not surprised at his taste for least-common-denominator electronic music?
Anyway, this deal likely only covers Moby's most recent work on Mute, not his earlier releases on WEA and Instinct.
As for Oakenfold, it seems odd that Napster would cite his inclusion in the deal - his discs are generally mixed compilations of material by other musicians, which suggests major licensing issues to me. That is, do the interlabel agreements by which these compilations are put together cover online distribution? Time will tell.
...that's exactly what I used Napster for.
If I knew what songs I wanted to listen to, I'd start WinAmp going with the copy of my CD that I ripped. But when it comes to finding new stuff, I've only got so many hours in the day, and I can't be bothered figuring out who Kool Keith's done work under an alias with this month, what other monikers Haujobb and Mouse on Mars are recording under and what new and hip crap will blow my mind that I've never even heard of.
So what to do? Search for artists I already know and like and look at the shared files of the people who have them. Plenty of "duhs", some head scratching (what are Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears doing alongside Carcass and Napalm Death?), and even the occasional gem.
That right there is my biggest gripe with Gnutella: I can't tell what files the guy on the other end's hosting.
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
Sure they could, but it's too hard.
In the wild, male lions are known to try and kill lion cubs to eliminate competition for food.
All these Napster deals are just the lion killing the cubs. If you're big enough, racketeering is always easier and more profitable than legitimizing your business, especially when you also write the laws.
----------------
Overheard: "Aww, why'd you go and install Windows on a perfectly good machine?"
Napster indexes music, it lists it, it allows you to search it's indexes, it provides forums to talk about music, and it gets blamed for pirating software, then taken to court, and now pays an undisclosed amount to distribute music -- something it doesn't do anyways!
Forget Napster. They still haven't come up with a system that will accrurately compensate rights holders, nor have they managed to strike deals with publishers.
Flipr, meanwhile, has a system in place that will track all downloads on their network, and have already managed to sign a deal with a major publisher.
Check out this Wired story on Flipr.
Note: I work for Flipr.I've had this job for a year and we're a linux shop. Best job I ever had.
They forgot signing me in to the deal. It is I the user that is supplying all the real product, why with my harddrive space sending out files over my bandwidth. Where is my cut?
This sure is not the same ole Napster I used when it first came out. Napster was ALL about free trading.
Napster is dead. R.I.P.
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
It seems to me, if I'm understanding this correctly, that I'll be able to legally purchase imports and indy records from Europe without paying insanely inflated prices and without the traditional long wait.
Personally, this is extremely exciting to me as it fills a market niche that previously has been suffering in the brick and mortar methodology. It no longer matters where I am, what the local stores are willing to risk stocking, or what the popular music of the day is on the radio. I can get the latest releases of the bands I actually want to listen to quickly and cheaply and those bands will probably see (I'm assuming) some portion of that money.
Two thumbs up for once.
No Zen is good zen
"The agreement covers music from more than 150 record companies, including artists such as Stereophonics, Moby, Ash, Paul Oakenfold, Underworld and Tom Jones."
If anyone can save Napster, its Tom Jones! When I heard the news, I threw my panties at the monitor!
-gerbik
When asked about falling user numbers, Mr Barry pointed to falling record sales in the US generally© He added: "We have been complying with the court injunction©©© As we move into the new service, hopefully we will be able to jettison that baggage, hopefully we will be able to move forward©"
The falling numbers would have nothing to do with the fact that there's hardly any music on napster anymore, right?
I like to search for live Phish stuff ¥which is perfectly legal since you can't charge money for it but for some reason, it's all blocked, making napster completely useless to me© They went with an overly broad filtering method, and killed the service©
Well, on to freenet and gnutella©
"This is not a company that appears to be bothered by ethical boundaries."
Attorney General Mike Hatch on Microsoft
Morpheus is virtually Kazaa with a different GUI. It uses a Gnutella-like hybrid protocol.
While it is probably possible to shut it down, it will be more difficult to do then just to go to Music City and tell them to shut down thier servers. Alteast I hope it isn't that easy to shut down. Morpheus in my opinion is Napster done right (if you don't mind the annoying GUI!)
What, me worry?
What, me worry?
"If I wanted to pay, I wouldn't be using Napster."
Yes, but it's a matter of time before Morpheus becomes as big as Napster
326895 users online, sharing 29106K files (125698.0 GB)
125698.0 GB. That's over 122 TB. Looks like Morpheus is already waaaaaay bigger than Napster ever was (even after you consider that Morpheus allows more than just MP3s to be shared).
---
DOOR!!
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
Interesting, that second article mentioned. I, of course, am one of those 7,000 remaining users. So where exactly are all the other /.ers that were using Napster for "legitimate" uses?
Wait untill all the poor college kids go back to school, ethernet is free, and procrastination is king...then maybe we'll see an increase in the Napster user base once again (I know I'll start using it again!). It isn't really too hard to find a (popular) song once you try a few misspellings anyway...
I will be the first to admit that I get turned on by new music via the web, and it has more than once prompted me to go out and purchase 'the' CD. The problem IMO is that as technology advances, you'll be able to basically replicate a store-bought CD.
So what rewards are there for musicians? Concert tickets? T-Shirts? I don't know all the economics of it, but it seems to me the bread 'n butter of a great band is its CD sales.
That said, free the music.
TK
I just switched to Ogg Vorbis and Napster is going to make a comeback? Oh, we'll have to pay them to share stuff? Oh. Um. Back to oggenc'ing I guess.
I do not have a signature
Bah.. I think he was going for "disturbed". Yes Napster is disturbed. It's like a zombie, everyone's abandoned it and jumped on OpenNap servers, yet the central corporation still thinks it can steal our eyeballs after it's pushed us away. I think it's funny.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
less sales of singles...
the price of singles has gone up here recently, don't know about anywhere else...
you can prove just about anything you like with statistics, the RIAA know exactly how to report the latest figures with the best spin.
but the bottom line is that they don't want to change the way the music industry works, with maybe one good song bundled with a stacks of songs you don't want. there's no reason we can't have burned-to-order cds... some places already sell them.
whether Napster will also offer a more sophisticated directory service. The deal is about independent, alternative music. Music that most of the teenies do not know but might appreciate. So by signing a deal with them and make it worthwhile for a) the per download share and b) the promotion factor how will it work? The lame chatrooms and even more lame homepage are not going to do much good here. Id like to see something like "oh, you are looking for song a, here it is and btw you might like that band, too". Something in a better whats related style. And if the "other" (non-Napsterized) music labels see these labels eating on their piece of the cake they might want to buy into the whole Napster thing, too. And this would be good for everybody. And yes, I will pay for the service and so should you ...
Just my $.02
Napster is dead already. For those of you that didn't get the memo, "Dogs Barking. Can't fly without umbrella!". Sound of Dieing Giraffe
:)
There are many alternatives currently available or under construction. Hotline, Direct Connect, Gnutella, Espra, Google.
Behold the next wave.
The major labels pay pennies on the dollar for records sales to the artist, who must also typically pay for all studio time and many production costs. I would like to think that this will allow better exposure for indie labels who are often at the mercy of the corporate megaliths, especially when it comes to distribution. (Many smaller labels are forced to use major label distribution companies to get their music out into the wde world.) Perhaps this will herald an internet-only record label? (Quick, patent it!) Seems feasible due to the low overhead. Would we bother to seek it out and listen?
Root Down
grep what I sed?
Cool photo of a "Zetland" foal, the result of unsupervised interaction between a Shetland pony and a zebra. It's sooo cute! You can go see it for yourself at Eden Ostrich World.
Systems were made to be circumvented.
download-proof albums like Metallica's Download This that really stymied Napster, and not the RIAA lawsuit.
You obviusly haven't heard his version of "Burning down the house"
My other sig is extremely clever...
When you offer a product you can compete on three properties. Price, Quality and Convenience. So if you product is cheaper, better and easy to get than your competitors you will win. Obviously firms might just be better, or easier to get, you dont have to compete on all three.
The problem with this model is you are not guaranteed proper quality. Why should I pay to get MP3's that may or may not be good? Why should I have to pay to spend my time searching around trying a few downloads to get a good MP3. When it was free, the cost to the consumer was the time spent finding good MP'3.
Now I am going to get mighy pissed off doing the same plus having the right to pay to do it. This is a problem on two levels. When the service was free people would leave their napster clients on all the time. Thus the amount of MP3's available to share was large. The problem now will be people might only leave their clients open when they are looking or stuff, so the total number of MP3's available will fall. If its a subscription based service, thats even worse, because who here is going to subscribe to EVERY month of the year. I would rather subscribe maybe once every other month of the year, and go nuts downloading stuff so i save money. So basically you should expect to get less files shared. Which is a deterent to using the service in the first place. Napster will find it difficult to gain from the previous network externalities is enjoyed when the service was free.
Basically they have to design a model where NAPSTER serves the files. I know its not P2P, but without doing that they cannot guarantee quality or convience. I would happily pay to go to a central server, knowing all the songs will be there, all in various qualities, and all be available when I want them. Suddenly Im not paying for the right to go and find MP3's but im also paying for the improved quality and convience in finding them.
So basically, unless you pay the users as well in a P2P app, to provide bandwidth , hard space etc, it will fail miserably.
-- Cheer, Cheer, The Red and the White.
The entire napster idea was great in its original state because of the sheer volume allowed for great redundancy. If I wanted to get a certain song, I could download 3 different instances and when they completed compare the length and fidelity to ensure it sounded as close to a CD as possible.
The new napster could have a sustained volume of the old eventually, the problem is that if I am now going to pay the artists (which is definitely a necessary action), I want the recording to come FROM the artist. I want to make sure that when I pay for my song I get a rip from the master recording or a full digital copy, not someone's 5 year old Sound Blaster value recording an analogue track from a dinged and scratched source CD.
The problem with this model is that all of the sudden you have to distribute these high quality mp3s and in various bitrate/size combinations to satisfy all of the various user types out there. To do this you either need to setup servers or give all versions to the most active users hoping that the music is of the genre that he/she listens to.
In the end the business looks very similar to the original server-based content delivery model that Akamai employs currently.
I htink its some kind of virus or something. It knocked my school network connection down for about a month one time. They they got smart and found it, and limited its bandwidth, so you could game effectivly again!! What was the original purpose for school again I forgot...
I'm amazed. Basically, the free nature of the service accounts for about 1,743,000 extra users. There isn't a single person in marketing who can't figure out a way to turn that demographic into a source of revenue?
You've got news websites out there giving away their content for free all the time and they're still alive -- and they don't have nearly the amount of dedicated traffic that Napster had in its heydey. What is it that is handcuffing Napster now?
They could advertise albums and shows, offer live show ticket sales and take a cut, set up some form of voluntary payment system which will lead to value-added service (customized server-side database options, notifications, rebates on ticket purchases or album purchases, better cient software), generate a good server-side file-sharing engine and license it (a la google), have high-quality custom-made CDs that'll get shipped to your home within the week, and those five are just off the top of my head.
(Oh yeah, and consider some kind of middleman elimination to get rid of the recording studios -- any system that charges $20 a CD, gives only a fraction of that in royalties to the artist and basically costs less than a buck to make, DEFINITELY needs to trim the fat, and is upping base costs everywhere. I think Napster would find it easier to offer a free service if they didn't have to help pay for mansions in Beverly Hills for people who don't even make the music.)
Subscription-based services fail when what you're trying to charge has already been offered for free. So many sites tried doing this before and then reinstated the free services when the community dropped off -- I remember when Starwave got bought by ESPN and tried to make you have to sign up and pay just to see things like basketball stats... you can bet that didn't last long. Turn Napster into THE primary industry marketing machine, and you've got a chance. Otherwise, the underground will keep swapping and the music companies will just keep missing the boat, not to mention the point.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Damn straight. I'm not going to pay for something when there are viable alternatives. And what a foolish notion to think that anybody would be willing to pay for something that can be had for free. (except for those linux distro's on the shelf at compUSA, some idiot must be buying them...perhaps the same idiot will pay for napster....)
I sympathise with you Napster. Keep trying and perhaps your show will go on.
There's always sufficient, but not always at the right place nor for the right folks.
I wonder if Napster actually thinks anyone will buy this?
I just switched over to Morpheus, and I can get Mp3s and Simpsons Episodes! WooHoo!
Napster is dead..the real battle for the RIAA'tards is Gnutella clones.
OK,
- B
--
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
But maybe this is how it will happen: As production means get cheaper and cheaper (the price of a blank CD is what now?) and the barriers to product entry have more to do with product awareness and promotion (e.g., huge advertising budgets and back-door payola like the major labels do), Napster can now provide a viable, viral marketing alternative to the media-saturation tactics of the majors. Smaller, lower-overhead operations may soon have a significant advantage over the corporate behemoths.
Samizdat killed the radio star, babe.
OK,
- B
--
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
Sadly, Napster is now little more than a security test platform for the recording industry. I remember when on typical evenings there would be nearly a million files available. Now it tends to be under 40,000. A 95% drop in activity underscores the fact that Napster isn't really serving the public any more. Instead of developing better and better filtering techniques, which the record companies will own when they divvy up Napsters assets, it would be more in the public interest if they just closed up shop.
Is that a Linux distro for country folk?
OOPS! I guess I accidently enocded all of my britney spears songs as TOOL songs. Oh well, its only 1.00 each to try again.....just dont download from brintneylvr45.
I suppose "open-sourcing" comments from Kuro5hin is really useful in bolstering Slashdot's discussions.
Knock Napster all you want, but at a certain point it achieved a critical mass that allowed you to find virtually anything. I wonder if I'd ever have seen my taste in music expand so much without being able to rove through its huge listings of foreign, experimental, and long-forgotten recordings. Musically, it became, briefly, for me, anyway, the digital equivalent of the Great Library at Alexandria....
:)
For that, I'm thankful to Napster -- a bunch of venture capitalists the world round saw fit to introduce me to tons and tons of unusual music. For free! So, actually, it's the venture capitalists to whom I owe thanks: your misspent millions really were enjoyed over here, guys.
Of course, that could only have happened as long as it was all free, encouraging everyone and his Swahili uncle to jump in. Sure, the idea wasn't altruistic; the good Napster funders always planned to extract gold from the service once they'd found a means to do so.
Now that (ostensibly) they finally have, most people have departed for greener pastures. Greener pastures, mind, that they showed how to plant. Hoping to get richer, they merely succeeded in creating the paradigm for sharing music on a vast public scale -- without making anyone richer. Brilliant move, that one. And now with their newly signed contracts for Tom Jones recordings they want to be paid. Hee hee! What's new, Pussycat?
Get 40 downloads for only a penny!
Napster is in with the record companies, and is now becoming a record company.
How long before it's a buck a rip, $16 for a full album?
--Blair
Napster signing a deal with 150 record companies to distrube their music over the net... Funny...Given the vast number of club remixes of songs available for download, I thought Napster didn't need deals to disturb music.
There is no such thing as 'world peace'.
That's an incredibly insightful tale. I'm not sure how it applies, but damn is it ever insightful.
--
324006
As much as large labels and their lawyers irritate me, I think I'm more sick of posts like this one. Boo hoo, artists have to pay for studo time, and indie labels are at the "mercy" of big companies. I expect that next he'll be suggesting that the government mandates labels to carry indie artists chosen by lottery. Whatever happened to taking care of yourself? Nobody is forced into this stuff, folks. If you want independently produced music, you have to look a little harder. Sure studio time costs money, should it be free? If you want the convenience of buying Britney Spears at Kmart, then don't complain about the big companies that put that CD there.
Invisible Agent
Invisible Agent
This post is a mirror; when a monkey stares in, no hacker gazes out.
Napster, once the bad boy of music sites is finally going legit, something they really should have done in the first place. Now they are signing licensing deals - the opt-in system.
Now the question is, will the users come back in droves, or will it be an easier-to-use version of mp3.com? First, Napster is destined to be a pay site. A lot of Napster's user base were teens looking for free tunes. Another question is that these are indie labels they're dealing with now. most of those teens were looking for mainstream, big-label music.
However, it does give the indies a portal for distribution over the net, exposure that the "big labels" are unlikely to take soon. And Napster can now work on removing the stigma of a "piracy site".
Only time will tell for sure.
Exactly! and Napster will be laughing all the way to the bank LOL ^5 Napster :).
.. even the storage of masters ... that's not fast money and so the recording industry wants no part of it. The record companies are only interested in the CURRENT fast moving music .. like what you can tape off the AM radio stations LOL. Oh yea they might keep the best hits (#1s) to redistribute as package cd's like greatest hits this and that and NOW records. Gimmie a f'n break!
.... MP3s came out in 1987, we heard about it in 1997 and we tried to litigate the technology to death. Woe is we
It would cost the 150 record companies a fortune to revive the "source tapes" it stored away, lost or got destroyed over the years to even vaguely supply the music EX napster users are really after.
Most downloads of mp3s are rare albums and cd's which the record companies did not retain the digital masters for. Inventory costs money
It's the record collectors (ordinary joes) that supply the MP3 sites with the REAL music and Napster knows that so hey why not sign a dead-end-deal with 150 labels and get some payola back for their grief hehe.
Now about the artists... there is at least a 3% royalty on all CDRs sold that was SUPPOSED to go into a digital fund for the artists! Does anyone know where this cash went? Maybe it's all tied up in those Beverly Hills mansions someone mentioned.
The unplayed, unshelved and great artists that the record companies (as a whole) reject do not stand a chance on the NEW Napster anymore than they did in the status-quo. That's the MAIN reason free music sites will thrive over anything the recording industry proposes or realizes.
So how do the artists get paid for their music? By us! How long will CDR mfg's stay afloat if they do not divy up the profits among artists? Will they go the same route as the recording industry is now? Chances are real good. How about live shows and music discussions (also mentioned above), will that not work to pay the artists in the long run? My bet is yes. It won't be fast, easy money, but then only the serious artists will survive and that's not half bad.
The epitath of the recording industry should read long
I never used Napster to get my Mp3s and I never will.. couldnt care less what they're up to.
I am Jack's creative sig.
i give much respect to shawn and all of napster. i try to be a big supporter. if you think the government doesnt try to stop good ideas, you're in the wrong country. napster will sort it self out eventually. in the mean time, it has provided ideas to software programers worldwide. if you need music, get a job and buy it, or download Aimster.
The dog got loose on my computer, and now there's XP all over the screen. -Paul www.ploeb.net
I am so glad to give my money to the big record companies, they give us so many quality boy and girl bands all with incredible singing and playing talent! Its even more agreeable to buy a CD that costs more than in the US(Rip-off UK). I just can't understand why napster,scour etc got so popular Sarcastic bloke
This was forseeable since the day the filters on Napster went in. As idealistic as Napster (and many of its users) claim to be about the right to exchange information and not be hampered by corporate greed, the program's popularity was based completely on the users' own greed. Put simply, people used Napster because they did not want to spend their money on CDs. Now that they can't do it anymore, all the "freedom of information" rhetoric has pretty much vanished.
Is it just me, or did napster already distribute music from over 150 companies over the net? ^_^
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People go on about how napster isn't being used, and that I agree, but people connect that with the way it looks and the way that it's set up. IT'S NOT RIGHT!!! People don't use it anymore because they have been taken to court and have had to remove all copyright material. Napster itself is much better than a number of other programs that you can get, not only in the way hat it looks, but also in the way that it works, as it is one of the VERY VERY FEW that I am able to install on my computer running Windows 95.
m00.
Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.
The creative brainpower astounds.
m00.
Napster has now signed deals with Bartleson (BMG), Sony (EMI), and TW/AOL. Who do you think controls the RIAA? While these 150 indies can't hurt with their support, the major moves have already been made.
I would have loved to see an independant Napster that artists could have signed onto to publish their music - an alternative to the major labels with reach the indies never dream of having. I would have payed $5 a month for that. $10 even. The way I see this coming out, though, is the big boys controlling Napster (after Napster is found libel for $400 million in lost revenue or some such) and just using it as another way to drain my pocket into theirs, once again bypassing the artists. No radical new distrobution methods. No alternative to the radio (God I hate the radio) to find new bands. No free mp3's (there at least).
Begin Scape_Goat
Way to fuck it up, Metallica.
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Not only is Napster completely deserted by users now, charging for songs will only get rid of those last few poeple. With the the .com crash I'm honestly suprised that these companies are dumb enough to invest even MORE money in what is obviously a dead end venture. Napster is now just a black hole, sucking up any money anyone is willing to put into it.
There will, in my opinion, never be a viable p2p business model. The main reason many people use these services is for free music, software, etc. Why pay for the service when there will almost always be free alternitives? Napster should just give up. You can't teach an old dog (free service) new tricks (pay service).
NO MORE SCHOOL!!!!!!!! 2+2=?
Saturday night, I wanted to hear some music from this band I hadn't heard before. Went to napster, downloaded it and all was good. The next day I went to the store and bought the CD. Of course things may be easier when you are looking for german metal.
They're just postposing the inevitable which is dying. No end user I know is using Napster let alone lifeless computer junkies. It'll be funny to see the /. headline..."Napster goes bankrupt and dies."
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
That after morpheus goes down, then its winmx, after winmx, its kaaza, after kaaza, then what? Freenet? AudioGalaxy?
I am not Slashdot's bitch!
Napster, in it's present state, could have some redeeming value if users were not left to 'blindly' search for their desired tunes. If users had the ability to browse the database of material, rather than just their own search results, we might stand a chance of finding some satisfying--albeit unfamiliar--music.
.sig is protected by international copyright laws.
Last time i logged on, there were still some 70-80Gb of data available, but 70-80Gb of what? Stuff i can never find unless i know precisely what to look for, or stuff i can find if i get really creative with the name, and hope some user out there has successfully done the same?
Doubtful we'll enjoy the thrill again, of accessing the massive data free-for-all that napster once was, but napster is tossing out the 'baby' of a gargantuan selection along with the 'bathwater' of it's legal troubles. Given the ability to browse the database, we might still be able to find some musical gems among the Irish traditionals (maybe), religious music (don't look at me), or show tunes (as if) still available on the network. I suppose they'd rather take us for AOLers or MSNers and lead us by the nose to the highest-promoted-artist-of-the-week.
Use of this
Gotta give it to Gabe... He's always one step ahead of tha' game...
- colin
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