Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

Two new options for legally downloading music have been released to the market. One option is Apple's Windows version of their hit iTunes software. 13 million songs were purchased from the Macintosh version of iTunes in six months, and it's likely that the Windows version will generate even more success with its wider larger amount of users. The other option is Napster's new legal software, Napster 2.0, which has been released in Beta but is not out for the general public until October 29. Both bits of software boast impressive numbers of songs (Napster claims they have over 500,000, while Apple will provice 400,000 by the end of the month, as well as audiobooks and gift certificates), but the real question is whether they will pull people away from illegal download clients such as KaZaA. Anyone here think they will use these programs?

Also, one bonus chunk from Napster is that if you pre-register, you get 5 free tracks.

--------------------

Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

These programs will be very, very popular and very successful. But they will not eliminate Kazaa - only hard and fast legal injunctions will do that.

Do we know the prices? I think Apple's 99 cents per song on the Mac iTunes is a bit steep, given the recent price cuts in new CDs. I could have gotten the new Dido CD for $9.99 the week it came out, and it has 12 songs on it. It would have cost me $11.88 to download it, and I wouldn't have gotten any of the extras.

I think that means that people who want albums will still shop stores or DL from Kazaa - people who just want singles will get them from these new sources at a much faster rate. In two years, I think CD Singles will be dead.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

IIRC, Apple lets you download an entire album for $9.95. I think it's the same for Napster.

--------------------

Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Even so, you still don't get the liner notes or anything like that, do you? I'd rather pay the same and have an original hard copy. But I guess those who know me know the point is moot anyway.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

However many people do not wish to purchase a full album, just a few songs. For instance, The White Stripes, I really don't like the album, but I love Seven Nation Army. I would much rather pay the 99cents for that one song than to get the hard copy. The music industry has known this for a while, which is why they release singles, but why pay $5 for the single when you can now get it legally for a fraction of the cost of purchase in store. Either way the music industry like this cause they get their share. iTunes I think will be more successful in the long run scince they are more established, and I don't see a second coming of Napster being successful. That being said, there are still going to be many many people still using Kazaa and other P2P to get their songs illeagally. Like R51 said, the only way to stop these will be legal injunctions. Even if that occurs, more P2P programs will come out that aren't based in the US and thus are not subject to our laws. I think this will be interesting to see how this plays out.

--------------------

"My impersonation of an ordinary person was flawless." - Neal

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Legal Injunctions don't seem to be working. They recently sued like 450 people, and there was one case of mistaken identity, so illegal downloading had a small spike.

I'd personally have a hard copy. I prefer them over mix CDs, burned copies, etc. I'm not sure why, it just seems like the real copy, the real CD.

You may want to go buy your singles at a different place, Hanyou. I have gotten a few "singles," and they (and others in music stores) were $2.99-3.99, and they had 3-4 songs on each of them (depending on how elaborate the packaging).

This post has been edited by Dark Paladin on 17th October 2003 09:05

--------------------

"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Yeah but P2P software is like cochroaches, stomp one and 50 are in it's place by tomorrow. I actually buy CDs all the time, I just have to like the album or the artist enough. However most of my kind of music in unavilable here anyway so the point is often cancelled by lack of aviliability. Hell I would perfer to buy my CDs, the only reasons why downloading is apealing to me anyway is the following.

1. Like Josh said, a buck a song is still a little bit steep.
2. I think artists still make quite a bit of money, even with the rampant downloading. When I see Fred Durst starving, I'll stop.
3. Availibility to my artists, when I see an MSI CD around here, I'll fly right.

I think they should have somthing like a cell phone deal, so many minutes a month. A nice rollover option would be nice...

--------------------

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

Quote (AnarchistDream @ 17th October 2003 07:59)

Yeah but P2P software is like cochroaches, stomp one and 50 are in it's place by tomorrow.

Isn't that what happened with the original Napster?

Quote (AnarchistDream @ 17th October 2003 07:59)

2. I think artists still make quite a bit of money, even with the rampant downloading. When I see Fred Durst starving, I'll stop.

I think it's been mentioned at this forums that artists don't make any money off their CDs.

--------------------

"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Quote (AnarchistDream @ 17th October 2003 06:59)

1. Like Josh said, a buck a song is still a little bit steep.

You got the words right but the implication wrong. If they can sell complete albums for a small discount under what you can buy them for in a store, they'll sell very well. But to compile an entire album at the $0.99 single-track price is too high. The $9.95 per album cost Neal quotes ain't too bad. Knock another buck off of there and you have a huge winner in the making.

I really want to download the iTunes software because it is a GREAT player. I use it a lot at work for playing, organizing, and burning. But 19MB for the installer only when I can have a fully-functional Winamp 2 for like 10MB installed and the versatile Nero for all sorts of burning? The footprint doesn't seem THAT logical.

I'll probably download it eventually anyway. >_>

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

What kind of song selection are we talking about on these? I use WinMX, and I DL all sorts of stuff--everything from Evanescence to Vivaldi to obscure Japanese instrumentals. I'd be extremely frustrated if I were relying on a service that failed to deliver what I wanted from it. I don't have a problem with paying for music, but sometimes that option just isn't open.

--------------------

Veni, vidi, dormivi.

the bad part about itunes is that u can only use it with windows xp... and do you know if the new napster is any good... anyone out there use it?

Moderator Edit

Edited for offensive language. - Tiddles

This post has been edited by Tiddles on 31st October 2003 10:21

--------------------

|\Bob/|

Dealing out the agony within
charging hard and no one's gonna give in
Living on your knees, conformity
or dying on your feet for honesty
Inbred, our bodies work as one
bloody, but never cry submission
Following our instinct not a trend
go against the grain until the end...

Piracy forever, suckers. I haven't bought a CD in about two years, and I don't plan on it. What I did buy was a bunch of blank CD-Rs and a CD-R drive. Ha.

...that doesnt deserve a comment, really, apart from
Anyway, the quicker the internet puts rubbish bands out of buissnes, and stops the money-making part, the quicker we get cheaper CD's.
(UK cd prices are extortionate IMO- £12-15 per album, £3-5 per single. )
but i rarley download songs anyway- then next thing i want to d/l is the Max Payne 2 end credits song...
mainly cos i cant buy it in the shops for sure, and besides, its going to be from the offical site.

--------------------

"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.