Online Music Market Gets Hot

[wolverine_men]

iTunes for windows has finally been released by Apple. I subscribe to lockergnome newsletter. Toady's issue had a few reader reviews for the iTunes service. Apparently everyone seems to be satisfied. So what's the problem you ask? Well there is a tiny problem. Actually it's not so tiny and it's called The New and Improved(and legal)NAPSTER service. Napster has a couple of things going for it.
a) It has the largest collection of music anywhere
b) It has better deals on offer. They will sell individual songs for 99 cents each and albums for 9.95$. They also have monthly"Eat all you can"subscriptions for 9.95$.
Napster was purchased by Roxio Inc. after it had filed for bankruptcy. This is what Roxio's chief executive Chris Gorog had to say about the iTunes service-"If I were Apple, I would hate to compete with Napster. We have a larger catalogue of songs. Our service has more breadth. And there's no brand more powerful than ours in online music".
Other contenders in the market are Dell Inc., AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody service, privately held companies like MusicMatch and BuyMusic.com. Even Amazon Inc. is planning a foray into the market.
Who's gonna snatch away the greater share of the pie? It's too early to comment on that yet. But as of now, if all you want is quality service, try iTunes.
Vikram

[Fellfrosch]

Is this a press release? An opinion? I can't tell.

[Mistress of Darkness]

I've heard Microsoft will also be making a play into the market.

I, personally, don't care how it plays out, but I suspect that it will be very much like the difference between Media Play, Walmart, and bmgmusic.com. Just a bunch of different retailers with different deals, appealing to different people for different reasons.

I'm really excited about the idea that I can go to the web and purchase the one song that I like for $0.99, rather than having to pay $15-$20 for a whole CD. And it's legal, so no more pathetic rationalizations with my conscience.

Hopefully this will get the RIAA of our collective backs.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Hopefully this will get the RIAA of our collective backs.

Oh like THAT'll happen. I think the RIAA has made a job out of being a monkey on the back. Goodness knows they were never representing any artists.

[wolverine_men]

No-it wasn't a press release or an opinion. It was just an honest review of things to come. Although I would've posted a press release had Roxio been willing to pay me for it.

[EUOL]

The annoying thing about the new napster is--according to the reviews I've read--they're planning to charge $1 to download a song, then another $1 to burn it to CD's or move it to portables.  That makes it a far worse deal, in my mind, though the audio format is supposed to be superior.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

There isn't much difference to most people between 128 khz and 256 khz. So to most people its just stupid to need something that high of quality. Unless your a real stickler for how it sounds (and you wouldn't keep something you downloaded) you'll take the lower priced one. Even if that means losing that "quality" that you can't really hear unless you have superior speakers and ears the size of a mallet.

[wolverine_men]

Well there are a lot of alternatives out there. I think the i-tunes service is the best out there, at least for now.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

My wife has declared she wants an ipod
This means that I can take this as a spring board to get some expensive kit for Christmas. She gets her iPod, I get a new mobo and a cable modem. Everyone's happy.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Kirsty wants an Ipod! does she know how much they cost?

Well if you want it, talk to me I can get a federal govt discount.

[wolverine_men]

Well you can always download songs for free using Kazaa. You can burn it on a CD or do whatever the heck you want with it.
PS: I am not concurring Kazaa file sharing service(or any file sharing service for that matter) in any way.

[Entsuropi]

Kazaa is annoying. Assholes use it. They rename stuff so instead of, say, Trigun episode 6 you get bestiality pr0n. Not a happy thing i tell you.

Plus: Its ungodly slow.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

You should be using Kazaa Lite then. Easier, faster, no spyware.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

of couse 90% of the music on Kazaa has been disabled in some way and is full of clicks beeps and sometimes just dead space.
Or the songs are horrible in quality and seriously damaged.
Not to mention the near constant assault of viruses and the mislabled files.
Oh and the fact your breaking the law and stealing.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

eh, you over-rate the dangerous of Kazaa I think. I've had some bad files, but, at least on mp3s, if you pay attention to the bitrate youc an get a decent recording. THe worst I've had is that a lot of idiots think that the Cure performed "Melt With You." I've nto gotten a virus, but perhaps that's because I use AV anyway, but I don't recall ever finind one in a kazaa file.