Let Napster Revitalize The PC Business

from the of-subways-and-downloadable-music dept

A good article by Bob Cringely about why Napster should remain free. The basic argument is that it's the killer app, and its stimulating all sorts of other, related business. Hundreds of thousands of people use Napster at any point in the day, and sales of CD-Rs and drives was very strong this last quarter partly because of all the downloading of music going on. If the music industry could just get a cut of those sales, and leave Napster as free - then consumers would be happy, businesses would be making money, and the PC manufacturers might be selling more products too. An interesting theory, but one that the music industry would almost definitely never agree to.

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Name
Email	Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
URL
Subject
Comment	this is for spambots, do not use this
Options	Plain Text HTML
	Save me a cookie

Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
Allowed HTML Tags: <a> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>

<< Selling Your Soul On eBay | China Cut Off From The Internet >>

Search Techdirt

And now, a word from our Sponsors..

15% off discount for Techdirt Readers

Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter