'Steer clear of Apple', urges Napster boss

[elektro80]

From the most excellent Macworld Magazine:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=7772

Napster CEO Chris Gorog has warned music delegates at the Midem international music fair in Cannes to "stay-off the Apple platform".


Gorog's attempt to convince music execs they should make their record catalogues available on Napster rather than Apple was based on claims that Napster's Windows-based PC platform is compatible with two-thirds of all the mobile music devices currently available.


This dispute between Napster and Apple could be a taste of things to come. The report on Mail & Guardian Online (an African online newspaper) suggests: "2004 could see war break out between the fledgling host of new legitimate online stores due to launch this year".


And Europe is likely to see the music revolution reach its computer screens with full force soon: both Apple and Napster have confirmed that they will launch their European music download services in the first half of this year.[/quote]

[paul e.]

ai yi yi

could get ugly....

[Cyxeris]

Or it could be beautiful, because what I expect is a situation where accessability to artists, as a feature, a service, and a marketing device, could quickly evolve in a profound way. How long until these outlets are approaching artists and saying "Hey, why don't we cut the shit and cut out the middle man, the labels. Whad'ya say, kid?" and the usual vast success and abysmal pitfalls develop and we end up back where we've been, but the transition could be a golden age. If it comes down to all the music ending up on all the online outlets, then, to a consumer, it comes down to a preference of outlet, and the more of those there are, the more off-the-beaten path each will have to trod in order to gain consumer preference. From that point of view, the outlets will feel bottlenecked by the labels, the same way artists have always been. The outlets themselves will have to be that much more prestigious, and one prime and simple way of going about that is offering independent artists. The independent artist becomes it's own easily exploited marketing weapon, and very often winds up being the future of popular music anyway.

Ergo, brothers, cast not a nieve and vulnerable eye towards the doings and biddings of those whose attention we have so earnestly sought, for they are not the heros and saviors they have oft represented. These are not deities They do the work and they pay the bills, so that we may become eloi. Toodles.

Cyx