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HP to Launch Music Service, Player In 2004
securitas writes "HPShopping.com CEO Peter Appl told Reuters that HP will launch its own branded online music service and a portable MP3 / digital music player in 2004. Appl (the CEO) said that the newcomers would compete with Apple (the company's) music products such as the iTunes music store and iPod music player, among others. HP expects its store to be a branded version of an existing service. Appl also said that the launch will take place at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Compaq sold its own line of digital music players, now discontinued, before its merger with HP. Mirrors of the Reuters story at CNN and Boston.com. A quick check shows that HPMusic.com resolves to an
'HP customer care local language selection' technical support page, and the domain has been registered since 1999."
...is that HP's entering the business. They're not creating anything new on their own: instead, they've decided to brand an existing product. Yawn.
I meta-mod all positive moderation Unfair, because it's abuse of the system.
With half a bajillion companies now offering song downloads at $0.99 and none coming to us without some sort of DRM involved, why would we choose one over another? The Apple iTunes store has had so much success because of (1) the sales success of the ipod and (2) the ease on integration of iTunes and OS X. Now let's turn this into a look at HP. HP's MP3 player (while the MP3 player in question is purely speculative since it has not been released) is probably no different than any other MP3 player and I doubt they could be much better than the Neuros. So this gives us no need to choose the HP music store over any other store. Further, HP hardware is not proprietary in the sense that getting music from the HP store would either be a required method of getting music or the easiest because of a lack of other sources. This seems to tell me one thing: HP's journey into online digital music sales will most likely be short lived.
Thing is, portable mp3 players are 10 a penny.
Hell, I can walk into my local computer store and find at least three different flash drives, all with inbuilt mp3/wma players.
If they want their product to sell, why not make it worthwhile and put in stuff that tech-savvy people would use, like Tremor (integer Ogg Vorbis decoding) support for those who don't want to pay Fraunhoffer.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
"1. The collapse of the RIAA's scare-tactics business model for coercion to expensive copyright, and a change in how people listen and contribute to the music industry."
The RIAA's lawsuits (and by the way, there were more today) are symbiotic with, and not counter to, the growth in the legitimate download services. The RIAA's tactic is to scare people away from downloading copyrighted music without permission. The theory is that with greater awareness that doing so is illegal, and/or a fear of being caught, downloaders will migrate to legitimate sources, like iTMS, Napster, and the metric squillion others that have popped up.
So, "collapse" isn't the best word -- ideally, the need to resort to legal action will eventually evaporate.
"2. The total destruction of all online music sales, as all said businesses compete eachother out of existence."
The online music industry is like any other: some big players, some small players, some smart ones, some not-so-smart. It's been clearly shown that there's growing demand, so the industry will probably be around for some time to come.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
However, Napster, BuyMusic, Dell, and HP should be shitting their pants now that MS will be in the business. They're all dealing with the same DRM (wma files), the same catalog, and the same music. MS has the resources to make sure they wind up on top.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Sometimes, watching the computer industry is like watching a bunch of lemmings. Next thing you know, SCO will be launching a music service as well! :)
I have CD's that are 17 years old. They still work and I have been able to rip all of them and use them in my MP3 player. The beauty of an open format.
DRM sucks. The files only last for as long as you have the software/hardware to play them. What is my guarantee that I will be able to listen to this music in 20 years after I spend the money to license it? Let's face it, at $10/album or $0.99/song it is not as good of a deal as a $16 CD. The data is in a crippled format that is less valuable to me because I may not be able to use it in a few years. If HP or Apple or whoever later decides to stop supporting the format then I am screwed, I can't legally convert the files to another format unless the vendor is nice enough to provide me with an officially sanctioned tool. Do you think they will do that instead of forcing me to buy another copy in a different format?
How am I supposed to keep track of which file came from which vendor and thus needs player X to play?
1) Servers
2) Printer Supplies
The rest of the product line was basically dead weight. This strikes me as one more piece of dead weight. HP seems desperate to find something that will make money-desperate enough to do just about anything except create strong incentives for technical excellence.
My prediction: The iTunes Music Store will still be going string five years from now, but all but one or two of other digital music stores will be gone.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I can only hope that this one will be availible in Canada. The Apple iTunes sounds really good, and I do *want* to pay for my music downloads, but right now it's just not possible. (Yes, i'm aware of that Canadian service, but the reviews seem to be mixed).
HP goes "ooh, ooh, us too!" - too little too late with no compelling reason to choose HP, and their competitors have 6-12 months to lock up the market. That's what "the New HP" is all about.
I must get around to sending Carly that copy of "The HP Way".
Apple is saying that's one of the reasons that they're not too worried about all of these other companies starting their own services. The ones that don't have an accompanying product like the iPod (or oodles of cash to throw away (MS)) probably won't be able to eek an existence out of online music sales alone.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Cash cow? What are you talking about? The market leader can't even make money, for cripe's sake.
Perhaps it's infinitely more revenue than was being brought in before, but that doesn't mean that it's profitable or a feasible business plan. And they're just going to be reselling someone else's service, which gives them an even smaller piece of revenue to play with...
We all fall for the scam. We follow. We are lemmings. We cannot question The Standard. It's god-made. No one questions The Standard. We know - we fall for the same pyramid scheme. Over and over again. But we can't help it. Maybe we hope for mercy. They couldn't -possibly- push us out of the business after we build it up. Could they? Could they? Noooo.. That would be too evil. Even for them. No way. No way.
What's the outcome if you use WMA - or any other Microsoft-owned standard?
Two possibilities:
- If your business model (heavily dependent on WMA) is a big success, M$ will jump into the game and kick you out by leveraging its control over the standard. Your devices become incompatible. Strange errors creep in. FUD spreads. You are out.
- If you lose money or break even, M$ will stay out of it. Great.
Bottom line: You lose.
Why they do it - i can't comprehend.
You are aware you are at the mercy of one of the most merciless companies ever known? Oh you are, ok.
we want it... we want the shiny thing... yess yess..