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

Online Music

[Anonymous Coward]

It's amazing how agressive the online music selling business is getting, companies teaming up with each other to get that advantage over their rivals etc.
My only problem with them all is they're US based. I realise of course this is where the major market appeal is, it does mean however the rest of us end up having to resort to pirated music if we want to get the latest and greatest online.

Here's hoping that soon iTunes and all the other online music stores will soon be available the world over. License rights I guess will be the biggest hurdle to this though.

Re:Rhapsody?

[Peyna]

We've also had Napster and Rhapsody products in the store; but we used Rhapsody on all of the store kiosks. More than likely all this means is that we'll be using Napster instead of Rhapsody on our kiosks in the stores.

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.

Best Buy BAD!!!!!

[elasticwings]

So will the Metallicops be stopping by the local Best Buy to beat up fans in the near future?

Napster and the Proverbial Straws

[Reenigne]

Napster is getting desperate now. First they offer to give away players, now they wish to give away stock. I can't see this stock going anywhere but down. These new 'plans' will not bring the needed cash in. (Too long term too many bills to pay) The online music industry is a market that has no room for napster any more. I for one am saddened by this, napster allowed me to broaden my music tastes.

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

[Muddie]

When they started doing Rhapsody, I had about 5 employees come up to me one day and try to sell me the service. I don't mean just hawk it. No. I mean trying to offer me demos, explaining to me what the service was, etc. Every time I'm in best buy, I have no less than 6 people ask me if I need help with something. While I appreciate the attentitiveness to an extent, it is a little over the top. Now, they'll be trying to hawk Napster to me. I love the store and I like shopping there but I just want to be left alone while I'm there. You have HUGE signs saying "customer service" and those distictly blue shirts. If I need you, I'll find you.

Lately it has been magazines. "Oh. You purchased a CD. You are entitled to 6 months free of Entertainment Weekly or People!"

No. No I'm not.

And am I the only one that thinks that a reciept that is no less than a foot and a half long for a single CD purchase is a little extreme? /rant

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

[Epistax]

You so nailed it. I seriously avoid people in places like Best Buy. "Can I help you?" More like can I help them. The only reason they have the job is because they initiate every conversation so it looks like their working (to be fair, they are trying). One store I walked into lately (it wasn't a best buy) was very small-- about the size of say, the electronics department at walmart. There were at least eight sales reps standing around, and a couple customers. I tried to do some quick math to figure out how they could possibly make money but I lost interest (trying to get out of the store as fast as possible).

If I need help, I'll ask. If you can replace a job with a bunch of inanimate signs then from a practicality standpoint I'd say do it. I hate to say fire people who might be trying but it just seems like they try to hard. Sales reps should not be overachievers. I would rather they are bitter and hostile to me. Hell I'd rather they smell bad. Actually scratch. The majority of sales reps are already overly friendly, bitter and hostile. Also most can't afford the deodorant that they so say you need without trying to insult you (until you say no). Actually at this point I'm just rambling so if you haven't hit the back button on your browser yet we might as well have a conversation. I regret to inform you that it will be quite one way but I have a feeling you already knew this. Well anyway as some background I grew up in Maine in a small town. The university was the lifeblood of the area and because of it we had a downtown with more restaurants than our town was worth. The only fast food to speak of is Subway which isn't strictly unhealthy, but rather has the feeling of being in a dentist's office. That is, a dentist's office with roast beef and a cute petite female behind the counter. This has caught me as quite odd. Every cute petite female I knew in high school has worked at a subway and virtually every subway I go to has a cute petite female behind the counter. I don't know if they're trying to tell me that I'll turn into a cute petite female if I eat their subs. I certainly hope not because I don't have nearly enough experience putting on makeup. The extent of that being deodorant, which I see as a polish for the olfactory sense. The funny thing about that word is you wonder what factory the guy had in mind who named it. Obviously some factory smelled really bad and needed some cleaning. The problem with cleaning things is that bristles on brushes are far too weak to get any real scrubbing down except for the toilet brush. I think many people would have an aversion to using the toilet brush on anything but the toilet, however I think they could be convinced otherwise simply by buying two toilet brushes and using only one on the toilet, and using the other on everything else needed. This brings me back to the guinea pigs I used to own. I thought their cage was too small so I gave them free range over a large section of tiled floor. The floor was white before the guinea pigs were there and it's now a rich musky yellow color/smell. I can't think of any makeup that will work on that floor as bleach failed it quite easily. I used enough bleach to kill a medium sized animal. I know that this is the amount I used because I consider myself a medium sized animal and I'd be quite dead if I stayed in the room. That's why I left the room which was nice because I could go out doors. Being from Maine we have a large forest in the back and a brook to play in. It's not deep enough to swim but the rocks are there so you can sure give yourself a bad time. During the spring the water would be very strong from all the melting snow which is exactly the kind of water you do not want to fall in, and so I did. Actually twice: once in the winter, once in the spring. All I can remember about the spring incident is that I was wearing a sweater. The thing about sweaters is that chewing on them gives me chills all over. I hate it so much but I just cannot resist the urge to take a bite. It's such a horrible feeling and to top it all off my sweater might now be ripped or at the very least wet. Wet was exactly my concern after falling into the water.

Yup.

Longer Checkout Times

[sjb2016]

Best Buy Clerk: Thanks for shopping with us today. Would you like to sign up for a Sports Illustrated or Entertainment Weekly Subscription with your Napster purchase? Perhaps sign up for Rhapsody as well?

Customer: I'm not interested.

Clerk: You know for just $.45 you can purchase an extended warranty on your Napster download. It cover's against damage caused by power surges, unlike Naptster's own warranty.

Customer: Not interested.

Clerk: Oh, it looks like we're actually out of that song, sorry.

Re:Mac

[XryanX]

G5 for sale on Best Buy's website

Re:Napster and Best Buy Joining Forces...

[davebarnes]

What can I say, but www.allofmp3.com

Download songs in your choise of format AND enoding bit rate.

All for 3 cents per song.

And, it is legal (in Russia). ,dave

P.S. My daughter (the 18 year old iPod junkie) thinks it is great.