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Napster Launches UK Music Service
amichalo writes "Napster just went multi-continent with the surprise announcement of a Napster UK on-line music service. From the website, singles at 1.09 British pounds, albums start at 9.95 pounds. Availability for other European nations not available. Apple has previously announced they would be entering the European market by the end of the year with rumors of singles priced at 1.49 Euro."
You're having a giraffe ain'tcha?
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
The RIAA isn't going to allow music stores to sell non DRM protected songs, and Apple is going to give up their hold on AAC. So there isn't a heck of a lot Napster can do about it.
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This sig is inoffensive.
"1.09 British pounds" Lemme guess -
0.20 Tax
0.01 Payment to the artist
0.78 Music industry profits
and now with added -
0.10 DRM administration
And you don't even have a physical object, so if your HDD fries you have to buy it all over again...
My housemate downloads large amounts of music - as he puts it - "I paid for it once on vinyl, once on tape, once on CD. After my CD's were stolen did they really think I was gonna buy them all over again?"
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
The Apple iTunes price of 1.49 for a single is ludicrous. Especially considering that the Euro is at $1.19 now.
Haven't they considered that average European salary is less than in the US ?
Bah
Tristan
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The world is divided in two categories:
those with a loaded gun and those who dig. You dig.
When I saw a spray-painted logo of Napster.co.uk on the sidewalk outside my office this morning.
Is it just me, or is this an especially despicable form of advertising? Marketers must love it... not having to pay for ad space, while at the same time making it more noticeable because the one place we can expect not to see ads is under our feet...lovely.
The [fixed] amount to be given to artists is 0.80 euro.
Given to artists, or given to the RIAA? If it will actually be given to the artist, I'd be seriously surprised and incredibly happy.
You are 100% correct.
I'm posting anonymously because I'd prefer Napster to _not_ know which school I'm from - they're currently in negotiations with us. I saw what happened to the last guy who spoke up on this topic, and I'd prefer to save us the hassle.
Both Napster and Real/Rhapsody said the _same damn thing_ when we were talking to them: basically, that the RIAA was setting pretty much all the terms, and Apple/Real/Napster2 are just middlemen. If they could offer those songs at a cheaper price, _they would_. I don't trust any of them all that much, to be honest, but I really believe that they think the pricing and DRM schemes are bad, too.
There's also a surprisingly large amount of oversight going on by the RIAA. When we were talking about volume pricing, both Real and Napster responded that they could offer us a better deal, but they'd _need to talk to the RIAA first_.
Don't bitch at Apple, Napster2, and Real about the crappy prices and DRM. There's very little they can do about them. The RIAA is the bad actor here. You can get easy concrete proof of this because the academic contracts for Rhapsody and Napster2 both include the same terms about "stopping IP infringement on University networks".
Since I posted as an AC, I understand a fairish number of you won't believe I'm telling the truth. That's fine, and I don't blame you. But for the rest of you: stop blaming Napster2 for being greedy with the prices and DRM. They're definitely not the ones responsible.
It's another thing entirely to go say "this isn't a good value", though - I'm not sure it is.
On the other hand, since ITMS doesn't support the EU, the popularity of the iPod may fall dramatically now.
Looks like Apple just lost half their target in the EU
That's completely normal. For some reason everyone has decided to simply charge more in Europe...
I've recently tried to buy a new camera from Amazon. Canon EOS 300D is priced at:
Amazon US: $850 (adding 20% sales tax-> $1020)
Amazon UK: UKP 780 ($1400)
Amazon Germany: EUR 1000 ($1200)
I thought these markets are meant to be competitive? Why is Amazon UK charging a mark-up of more than 40% on a digital camera???
Similar things go for cars, clothing, CDs, DVDs, etc. What is needed with all this globalisation is a complete freedom to re-import things from anywhere in the world, that would see prices crashing down right, left and centre!
That explains all the chalk grafitti that popped up everywhere in Edinburgh today.
Pic here:here
As one option is to pay Napster GBP9.99 for a month's worth of unlimited streams, what's to stop me from ripping them with a system sound recorder and making my own MP3s, Oggs etc.?
I reckon of Napster's library of 500,000 tracks, I could probably find everything I like (and don't already have) and record it in this way in a month. That's gotta be worth a tenner of anyone's money ;)
"So, why do you think there are so few musicians who do use their own lawyer? You'd have thought a few of them might have had the sense to get representation."
Some of them do. These guys are successful in the industry. Maybe not superstars, but successful.
My current writting partner has 3 platniums and one grammy nomination. He is constantly moving from place to place because his royalty checks aren't that much and his past pay didn't last as far as he thought it would. He is the music director for a well known performer and I found out he was getting paid per the week as opposed to per the show. I work with him occasionally, and when I do more than 2 shows a week, I come out ahead of him easily...and technically, I work directly for him.
For the last important television gig we did -- the Letterman Show -- we had to fill out W2s (err...it wasn't the W2s -- it was the independant contractor ones..I90s???...I can't remember now) as the network was paying instead of the artists. Not one of them knew how to fill these things out. I had to hold their hands and do this for the guys. As I alluded, I'm a tech, but I generally do far more than just that.
If these guys can't figure out W2s, how are they going to read a contract. *GREAT* guys and all that shit...but damn. They can kick my ass every which way in music -- and I'm embarassed when I have to sit in for one of them -- but these guys have all let industry appointed lawyers tell them whats right. The last time they came up for negotiations, the guitarist asked me to look it over for him and I instantly struck out 3 paragraphs and told him to TALK TO A REAL LAWYER NOT APPOINTED BY THE COMPANY and gave him my lawyer and even warned him he should look for his own.
He refused and asked be what I'd say to them about the struck paragraphs...I told him to tell them you want a new contract striking those, but otherwise the same (and to verify they didn't just switch things around).
They didn't even blink. Ok. The reps had a new one faxed without it and didn't say another word about it.
Contracts are there for negotiations. These guys signed blindly. 3 Paragraphs ended up meaning the guitarist ended up with a couple thousand dollars of items he was supposed to reimburse the company for (shit like exec perks that would have charged him for industry execs flying into a show, staying for 15 minutes and leaving -- he'd be responsible for a percentage of that guys time billed however they wanted, as well as the flight -- corporate jet -- and other shit -- this is just an example of things this would have covered) as well as several points that were 'redirected'.
You go in for a job -- the boss might ask you to work at minimum wage, pick him up on the way to office, and give you backrubs, you are going to tell them to go to hell. Most bosses will laugh and give you the real deal. If you say Ok, I've Really Wanted This Job -- I'll Do What It Takes, well then you deserve what you get.
Again, the guys on the other side of the contract want to give you nothing, you want to get everything, and if you don't read you will get nothing.
I see nothing wrong with this -- idiot musicians want to be heard and willing to sign their life over without reading the fine print deserve to have their soul bought from them. Any job that is not willing to negotiate on the pay and benefits doesn't want you anyways. If they aren't willing to deal, one needs to just walk away...
A cartel means you can't get past any other way -- I know too many independant artists to believe that there is some sort of barrier that if you can't get through them, you can't go anywhere...
Former 'RIAA' Flunky