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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."
Only secure WMA downloads available. Not the greatest idea IMHO bearing in mind the popularity of the iPod.
both prices seem inacceptable - given the current exchange rate, a song should not be more than about 0.85 euros, or 1 euro max (to round it up).
The price difference is very evident in times when the American prices at iTMS are just one click away. Ripping off customers is the wrong signal for both stores, and for the music industry. Will they ever learn?
Napster beats iTunes to Europe with U.K. launch
Hmmm.
How do they keep their prices so low and still make a profit?
That's really not that much cheaper than a "real" single... and you only have to look at a site like to see that pricing for "real" albums is already less than 9.99!
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.
one thing i'm disappointed about those offerings is the fact that the formats they use can't store the text for the songs, so that hearing impaired people could follow a song while it's being played (alongside the vibration, the bass).
I went along to the .com site last night, and was promptly redirected to the .co.uk as it has detected I was from the UK. Fair enough I guess.
The free 11meg download intrigued me, so went to look. Didn't get far mind.
At the bottom of the front page it does say:
System Requirements
PC only, Windows XP/2000, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher, Windows Media Player 7.1 or higher, Internet connectivity
The page I was sent to, as a Konq user, was even worse:
Napster is currently compatible with Windows XP/2000.
Windows 95, Windows NT and the Mac OS are not supported at this time.
They wouldn't have had my custom anyway, but even if they would have had, after that, no chance.
Get with it Napster
saying that Napster UK is Napster breaking into the European market is like saying that the USA and Europe went to war together in Iraq...
we've been waiting for iTunes here in Ireland for the last 6 months or so and we're not holding our breath...
I can get it on a CD with no DRM for that. Hell, if I take advantage of the current exchange rate I can probably get it for half
--
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
--
The world is divided in two categories:
those with a loaded gun and those who dig. You dig.
This article is just full of errors. I have lots of albums, and NONE of them weigh more than a pound.
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Branding is one of the greatest scams ever perpetrated on people, but as long as they fall for it, it'll keep going. It might be a good service, or it might not, I haven't tried it to know, but I'd like to think that I'm smart enough to know that using the Napster trademark does not make you the successor of the Napster of old. If I ever use this service, it's because it's good and has a good selection and reasonable prices, not because of the Napster name.
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
"Yes, we have multiple resuilts for 'zerfnarkle'"
Oddly enough "Beatles" didn't return "The Beatles" amongst the list of matches.
I'd prefer to convert music into my desired format, so I will continue to purchase physical media.
GBP1.09 is expensive compared with US prices - iTunes at 99c (about GBP0.55, or half this price). This is yet another example of where us British have to pay substantially more for the same product than our American (and often European) counterparts. PCs and components have often been the same number of pounds here as dollars there. It's just not fair.
Come on, we're fed up of being ripped off by international big businesses. DVDs are another example - and of course region encoding is designed to stop us from importing more cheaply from the US.
All you British reading this, I urge you to boycott products at these prices - and write to the company concerned explaining your actions and why.
At least car prices have started to become a bit more reasonable recently, but only compared to the rest of Europe. I believe they are still a lot cheaper in the US.
DFJA
43 - For those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
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.
If people go and see that Napster UK and Napster Europe are offering terrible prices, what incentive are they going to have to buy online? It will encourage either (a) people buying more real albums or (b) people downloading more music illegally. (A) will be a boon for the recording industry, (B) will be a bane for it, both of them will suck for Napster.
That explains all the chalk grafitti that popped up everywhere in Edinburgh today.
Pic here:here
Dont think ill be using it any time soon :(
When will these companies realise that the only reason Napster et al. were popular was because of the ease of access to a free catalogue of music ?
Who cares about a digital delivery system if you can buy a CD (and something tangible) for less ?
The majority of people will not care that it is 'easier', 'faster' [insert marketing crap here] etc... they'd rather buy cheap and spend the money saved on a few more beers after work - I know I would.
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 ;)
They need to learn that we want to but non DRM protected files. If we can't buy them we will get them for free.
:-(
Back to kazaa etc....
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
They might do OK on the singles. They may be a rip-off relative to the US prices, but they're still a hell of a lot cheaper than buying singles in the shops. Last time I looked it was 3.99+ for a CD single containing 1 track and a couple of shitty remixed.
With Play.com selling albums for 9.99, 8.99 and even 5.99, however, I can't see many people paying up for Napster.
WHY do companies continue to put up these artificial barriers? Why not simply call it a US company and have Napster US sell worldwide? Are the laws that screwed up? Isn't that the point of the internet?
Another point in regards to compensation is that healthcare (which has its ups and downs) is "free" to all residents. When simply comparing prices or visting the UK, it does feel like a rip off but in perspective its not as bad as its made out to be stateside. Beyond that, I agree that there will be some turbululence with the rest of the continent if the Euroskeptics do not get their way and the Euro is implemented in GB and one could only begin to imagine the potential economic impact.
Fun Fact: A mile of travel on the tube (London Underground Subway System) is more expensive than a mile of travel on the concorde [tfl.gov.uk]and is the most expensive subway system in the world.