Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Napster Business Model
Author: Tucker Goodrich Posted: 6/27/2000; 9:55:17 AM Topic: Napster Business Model Msg #: 18169 (In response to 18160) Prev/Next: 18168 / 18170
Here is the success story: www.dead.net. They were a little ahead of the net, but they made a success of giving music away: they would let you tape their concerts, then trade the music. So long as you didn't try to make money from their music, you could trade, swap, and copy to your heart's content. You had to pay for their studio music, and you weren't supposed to copy that. They made their money from selling music, concert tickets, and paraphenalia to people who, often, got turned on to their music from free tapes.When the 'net came along, they said, "MP3? No different from tape, as far as we're concerned. Same rules. Enjoy."
Not a very different business model from what is proposed for the net. No one ever said you had to get all you revenue from the 'net, but the freely copied music helped them alot.
Oh, yeah, they also have a nice business selling CD's made from the original master tapes of the concerts... they taped all the concerts, you see. Now that the old analog copies are getting fuzzy, people are looking for replacements, and the band has the best copy around...
I use Napster, but I use it to download live Dead stuff, that is permitted by the band. Silly thing, but I don't like the fact that Napster knows what you do...
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