Napster To Go begs the question: buy music or rent it?
So Napster To Go debuted last week, enabling subscribers to not only stream and download the service's million-plus songs, but also copy them to their portable players. Personally, I hate anything that charges me a monthly fee, but the more time I spent fiddling with NTG, the more I liked it. And it got me thinking... Is this the future of music? Will we subscribe to digital libraries instead of purchasing individual songs and albums? I'm really starting to think we will. (Cue Dave: "Have you been abducted by mind-controlling aliens again?")
posted by Rick Broida @ 3:47 PM
6 Comments:
At February 16, 2005 10:24 AM,
Dave said…
Oh, no, I agree with you 100%. In fact, everything should work just like Napster To Go. No one should ever buy anything. Furniture should always be rented; cars always leased. In keeping with the Napster model, though, people might come in the middle of the night and take all your things if you miss a single payment. And even if you do pay regularly, suppose the company goes out of business or has some sort of server trouble--then your furniture should simply disappear even if you're in the middle of a party and people are sitting on it.
Didn't you hear about the family that recently lost all their digital photos because they used an online service and had no personal, local copies on their own PC?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/02/BUG7QB3U0S1.DTL
The online service deleted the photos and bam!, a lifetime of photos were gone in a heartbeat. Is that the way you also want your music to work? Is nothing personal and permanent in life anymore?
At February 22, 2005 2:03 PM,
Rick Broida said…
Silly, silly, silly Dave. How can you compare Napster To Go with a photo collection?! For one thing, the service enables you to download the songs to your PC (and portable player); they don't solely reside on Napster's servers. (OTOH, I do agree that relying on a functional Internet connection in order to access personal material is a crisis waiting to happen--but that's another argument.)
I think you left your Crank knob turned up to 11. Even you, with your 20GB music collection, have to appreciate the option of packing your 40GB iPod with twice as much music for a mere $15 a month. You listen to more music than anyone I know; what's your problem with Napster's service? Do you honestly think they're going to close up shop and leave people in a music vacuum?
At May 03, 2005 6:45 AM,
Dave said…
Well, sure... it's possible, isn't it? There are so many problems with the current online music models that I don't know where to start. I've read innumerable complaints from iTunes users about the difficulty of getting permission to re-download music after a catostrophic failure bites all their music. And personally, I have a handful of songs I downloaded from a service that I can't listen to becuase I somehow lost the DRM key that unlocks the tunes. So on top of all ofthese problems, you're suggesting that we just rent our music on some sort of Ruby Tuesday-esque day to day basis. Maybe that works for you--someone that has all the musical depth of a tone-dead salamander--but I find that I want to own private copies of music that I know will always be there for me. Music I can hear anytime, anywhere. Music I can listen to on any device I choose and not be limited by license agreements or playback compatibility.
At May 10, 2005 7:46 AM,
Rick Broida said…
"Oh, Rick, I don't want to use Napster To Go because I'm scaaaared. Something might go wrong. Ooooh, this Internet thing is so frightening!"
Your sky-is-falling mentality is apparently keeping you from seeing the big picture. Using NTG to stock your portable player with tunes is not the same thing as storing a photo library online, wrangling with iTunes over DRM issues, or misplacing your Powerpuff Girls doll collection. By your logic, I should never have used a Walkman because the battery might die, rendering my music collection utterly useless!
What bugs me about NTG is that only a few players are compatible. And Microsoft seems to be tightening its DRM grip even further with this Plays For Sure business. But I suppose the reality is that DRM is necessary, however ugly.
That, of course, is fodder for a different debate. As for Napster To Go, it's still a brilliant idea that other services will undoubtedly emulate (Rhapsody already has). Get with the program, Chicken Little.
At May 11, 2005 9:04 AM,
Dave said…
I am utterly amazed that you're so cavalier about spending money to get limited privileges to use something that you ultimately have very limited control over. There was a mantra a few years back about not spending a dime on music unless it was in a totally transparent, MP3-like container. The logic was that buying into DRM would just embolden companies to further erode our rights as consumers and as fair-use users.
Well, people like you have relented and opened the floodgates. Companies have learned that people are willing to buy crippled music, and we're already seeing the effects in other digital industries. Nikon's newest cameras, for instance, now encrypt some of the data in the photo files--meaning that they're asserting they own pictures you take with your own camera and they can actually prohibit you from using them. Or, more likely, charge you a dime every time you print one of your own photos, if they like.
Creepy, isn't it? And it's all because you told Napster it was okay to sell you music you didn't have the right to play anywhere, anytime. I hope you're happy with what you've done.
At May 11, 2005 12:18 PM,
Rick Broida said…
Mwa ha ha ha! You're right, my evil plan to pay a mere $15 per month to fill my portable player with music has come to fruition. I have embraced change. Nothing can stop me now!
You really need to put down that copy of "1984" and chill. How many times do I need to explain to you that Napster To Go has NOTHING to do with digital photography?! You have so missed the point that you're now on a different continent than the point.
Honestly, there's little reason to continue this debate, because apparently the idea of renting music (which, for the last time, is an entirely different animal than buying music) is so anathema to you, it short-circuits the logic center in your brain.
Sorry, I didn't mean that. There IS no logic center in your brain.
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