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Napster Business Model Not Generating Revenue

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the big-shocker-there dept.

An anonymous reader writes "We all know that Apple generates revenue from iTMS via hardware sales. How the hell can pureplay music stores like Napster generate revenue enough to even stay alive? They don't. Is this the first indication of the bubble bursting? Is it time to figure out what to do when your Napster WMA files go unsupported after Napster 2 dies?"

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Re:unsupported? by blowdart · · Score: 5, Informative
    It depends on how they coded the license, but in all probability no (unless they turned the backup license facility off and you need to recover your licenses after a hard disk crash).

    Windows Media licenses can be permanent, time limited or limited by number of plays. From the files I've seen Napster licenses are permanent. So if Napster dies, your licenses still work.

    But hey, lets not let facts enter into this <g>

  2. Re:unsupported? by Rip!ey · · Score: 5, Informative

    It means if Napster goes away and you lose your file, you're screwed. You can't get it again even though you paid for it.

    If that happens then your screwed anyway, even if Napster are still around and turning a healthy profit, something I'd personally like to see. Read the licence agreement.

    I quote: "If you have Purchased Tracks, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy or damage them. Napster shall have no liability to you in the event of any such loss, destruction, or damage."

    But since CD burners are mainstream now, and your allowed to burn each track to a CD up to five times, it's not too much to ask someone to take responsibility for looking after what they buy.

  3. Re:Figure this out by tgibbs · · Score: 5, Informative
    As long as Apple survives, it seems likely that your iTunes songs will continue to be playable and portable. Of course, people have been predicting Apple's imminent demise for over a decade...



    Worst case is you burn your stuff to disk and re-rip to mp3 or whatever the current DRM-free format is at the time (or use one of the shareware utilities that does the equivalent without the need for an actual disk), at the price of a small loss in quality.

  4. Re:It's not that great. (Probably a troll, but...) by Radon+Knight · · Score: 5, Informative
    How come Apple cant seem to let you hear the whole sone but instead gives you 30 secs.

    Because then people could listen to a single song streamed over the net and copy it to disk using a utility like Wiretap. If you could easily obtain a complete album in the time it takes to listen to it that would completely kill their business. Now, maybe 30 seconds isn't quite long enough, but it's not too bad and seems a reasonable compromise.