Napster and Best Buy Joining Forces

Ruds writes "Best Buy will market a music service co-branded with Napster. Napster will give Best Buy stock valued up to $10 million, and they'll share marketing costs. From the story: 'The retail chain will feature Napster products in its brick-and-mortar stores and demonstrate the service through interactive kiosks throughout the nation. Napster will also support Best Buy's artist promotions.'"

Comments

Mac

[mpost4]

What about mac's, I use my mac for all my music, so I can not use their service, and I dont think that they support iPod's (or the other way around) No thanks, just like the sony one, I will not use it, infact the other day I got a code for the sony one (bigmac) that I asked if any one wanted, no one wanted it so I just trashed it. ( Of cource I do not buy sony products since they don't us SD cards and only use the stupid memory stick BS)

Rhapsody?

[ErichTheWebGuy]

BestBuy used to partner with Rhapsody. Apparently that didn't last long. Anyone know what happened? Not that I really care, Rhapsody and Real Networks stuff are pretty crappy anyway...

Re:Rhapsody?

[gcaseye6677]

It would only be fitting for Best Buy to use Real Player for this service. 2 companies that don't give a crap about their customers would go together very well. Best Buy is already known for teaming up with less reputable business partners, such as Household Bank for the Best Buy credit card. As a general rule, I avoid Best Buy and everything they own/operate. They have shown many times that they hold the customer in very low regard, so I will always shop somewhere else now, even if I have to pay a little more.

This is so sad...

[k4_pacific]

I remember back when Napster was still cool. I was at a party and all the music was downloaded illegally (wasnt my house, I'm not liable la la la la). Anyway, the guy had a fast internet connection so we could have pretty much play any song we wanted on demand. Kinda miss that. At one point it turned into sort of a one-ups-manship of trying to find and download increasingly obscure songs.

anyone else think

[falcon5768]

Best Buy shot itself in the foot again with Apple..... they struggled for ages to get iPod sales, got it taken away when they failed to live up to Apples reseller policy and then begged to get it back.

And with this it just seems like Apple will pull the plug on both its iPod and monitor sales at best buy

Re:Online Music

[SIGALRM]

My only problem with them all is they're US based

The hapless Napster II is already in the UK.

Europe has all kinds of different licensing and retail practices, and, from Sweden to Spain, an album often has different prices and staggered release dates. An Italian singer with a devoted following at home, for example, often doesn't have a distribution deal in Britain.

napster's evolution

[Man in Spandex]

So First, we had Napster comming back. Then they decided to give away free mp3 players for registered users IIRC and now partnership with one of the biggest retailers in north america? Yes They really don't like iTunes do they? heh. An Alliance with BestBuy will surely boost popularity among average joes but if they really want to hurt the iTunes Music Store, they have to offer something special to their customers.

What I'd like to see from these music stores is something unique in it's kind. Maybe some kind offer which says "Buy 65% of the songs of any album and get the album shipped for free!" Or I donno I can think of many other special offers but I guess that would make em lose that $1 which is so precious for them... damn capitalists

Re:Napster is reaching for corporate partnerships

[WenisMonger]

And I don't think anybody blames them for reaching for those partnerships. The incredible sales of the iPod is what initialized, promotes, and sustains iTunes.

For that matter, the iPod is what's keeping Apple alive. I don't think Napster will ever see the success of Apple in the (paid-for) music industry unless they are successful in something other than just their software.

Best Buy, Minnesota and the Death of Music

[teamhasnoi]

This is horribly off-topic, so mod it down, but I had to rant about this for a bit. Best Buy used to have a 'local music' section but killed it for more blonde singdancers. They supported bands from here until the endcap was needed for mousepads.

1st Ave just lost the guy who's been running the club for the last 30 years. This is one of the last nails in the coffin of indy music in Minneapolis, and probably MN. Sure, bands are still going to play and write, but the locales have dwindled over the years. One of the few bars left with any integrity is the 400 Club in Mpls.

I've watched the slow dissolution of original music in MN for the last 5-10 years, and the clubs that host them replaced with Clear Channel owned properties and cover band havens.

I don't buy music from Best Buy, I don't support Clear Channel, and I ain't gonna be picking up any songs from Napster.

But someone will.

Missing the point here????

[l0ungeb0y]

This deal makes absolutely no sense.
Why can't retailers get out of the "tangible object" mode and realize that it's bits that are being sold not a product that needs a bunch of packaging.

What I'd like to see is an obitquitous KIOSK equipted with touchscreen, a mag-card reader and USB/USB2/Firewire cables.
User walks up, browses the online store via the touchscreen, makes a shopping cart and swipes their credit card to copy songs to a /temp/$user directory. User is prompted that their files are ready and to attach their MP3 player via one of the available cables and transfer their files over. As another option, blank CD's could be available in a handy vending machin for $.50 a pop and the KIOSK equipted with a slotloading CD Burner.

The point is, this is something that makes no sense for bestbuy, but makes perfect sense for a company who wants to build and market a network of KIOSKS that could be installed at 7-11, blockbuster, Kinkos, Malls and well... just about anywhere that you could stick one.

Re:...and give them a new reason to pester me.

[nekura]

Haha, I feel for you. I worked at Best Buy during the holiday season to make a little money, and I tried to avoid pushing Rhapsody or Netflix on people whenever I could, only because I know how annoying it can be. Unfortunately, the sales managers really get on your case about that sort of thing; same goes with accessories and the like.

When it came to DVDs, music CDs, and games, I typically didn't approach a customer to ask if they required assistance, unless it was a clueless looking mom who you just knew was shopping for presents. Additionally, I tried to stick to working the software section whenever I could, since not a lot of computer literate people tend to shop at Best Buy (seeing as how most of the stuff was priced rip-off style). However, I was fortunate enough to meet people who did know their stuff, which made the job actually seem worthwhile.

Too bad the only decent manager in my Media Department switched to cellphones; the guy I was stuck with made me despise the job even more. He once yelled at me because I was helping my sister find some software that she wanted to buy, because we're supposed to be helping customers, not talking to family members. If my sister is going to buy something, is she not a customer? /me shrugs.

I learned my lesson, fuck working retail unless it's necessary. Excuse my profanity. =)

Re:A good thing about owning an iPod...

[ajservo]

I'm not downplaying their stupidity. I know of it intimately.

My local best buys are rife with kids who picked a department out of a hat to work in.

I was shopping for a cell phone headset, and found another customer milling over buying an iPod. The employee was lost as to how it worked, what music was compatible, if it even worked on a PC. I waved mine around, offered help, and the BB employee VANISHED for 20 minutes. I ended up helping the customer all the way to getting his 'pod out of lockup. He even chased me down at the register to thank me...

2 weeks later, I was shopping for a wireless router, and accessories for my computers and xbox. I had the video games guy tell me that the xbox MUST be wireless when you have a wireless router. meaning, you can't run a line from the ports on the back of the router to the unit.

And the computer dept guy told me that the wireless unit had to be from linksys in order to work with the xbox adapter.

I don't take terrible issue with their advice, since I choose to ignore it, and go against their recommendations. But there are people out there spending their hard earned cash on stuff they don't need, want, or are pressured into buying, simply because the 16 year old on the floor is supposed to be a percieved "authority" on their chosen department's products. Their customers don't deserve this service. People are being lied to about quality and preference by a child's part time job. If the kid's got parents that bought him a Sony/Panasonic/Samsung/etc. TV/VCR/DVD player, they're biased. Let them spend their own money, do their own research and form their own REAL opinion about what's good and what's not, and not base it off of what they think looks cool.

Hell, I'd even settle to find a kid working at a BB who can properly manage to navigate their way through setting a TV up via Video Essentials. They don't even align their floor models for good color and brightness.

That's why I'd support Tweeter or Ultimate Electronics over BB, since at least they have the forsight to hire people who have SOME knowledge of what they sell.

They're desperate, but here's the interesting part

[adzoox]

Best Buy is the number #2 distributor of the iPod, behind Apple. Why would they want to distribute a service that isn't even compatible with their NUMBER 4 selling product in the whole store and not sell a service that is compatible with the # one music store, the #1 player, and that is cross platform compatible.

It's just a bad marketing analysis in my opinion.