I am very concerned that you mention that the VC (venture capital) money may be running out for Napster. If that is the case, I see their new gesture as a "hail mary" pass that could possibly have devastating consequences for both itself and Rhapsody.
If you sell a service below your costs (this is hypothetical as I have no idea what Napster's costs are) then you are not going to make up for it by increasing the volume of sales, or even by mooching sales from Rhapsody. All you are going to do is get customers used to a certain price point and then when you later raise that price to a sustainable level, you will most likely lose those customers again. Not a very viable long term strategy. When you compare the prices (before price drop) of Napster and Rhapsody, they are bargains for what they deliver: any album, any song, any artist on demand. I use my Rhapsody service ten times more than I use my cable TV service, and yet I pay ten times more for cable TV. So if my math is correct, that means that internet radio is 100 times cheaper than cable TV. Many years ago I remember a neighbor of mine started a small shop to rent roller skates for use at the beach. When another skate store lowered its prices, then my neighbor lowered his prices even more. This spiraled out of control to the point that it put both stores out of business. If Napster's strategy is to try to put Rhapsody out of business, then this may be an anti-trust issue. I encourage healthy competition, not predatory pricing. Of course all of this is a result of the short-sightedness of the record companies who are not pricing their own products in a healthy manner. Record companies are forcing this upon Napster and it may be the ruin of all the companies. Record companies don't get any royalties from terrestial radio although there is talk in Congress about changing that. If radio stations pay, maybe there will less pressure for internet radio to pay more than their fair share. I hope Napster is playing fair with its new price structure but I doubt it. I am going to stick with Rhapsody for the moment till I see where the dust settles. I am more than happy to pay value for value. I understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. I understand that Napster may be underpricing in a last desperate misguided attempt to survive. If that is the case, then rest in peace Napster. I won't be party to your shenanigans. -- mortslim ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mortslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11039 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63479 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
