Napster to Challenge iTunes and Amazon
By Raoul Railey
11:26, May 21st 2008
41 votes
Vote this story
Napster to Challenge iTunes and Amazon

Napster has announced it will enter the MP3 download market on Tuesday. The company hopes to lure customers away from iTunes, Apple’s online music store which accounts for 70 percent of the music downloads in the US, and Amazon.

Unlike iTunes, which mostly sells tracks in a format that plays only on iPods, Napster will come with mp3 tracks that can be played on any device. This became possible because music labels, seeing a drop in CD sales and fearing iTunes could become some sort of monopoly on the digital music download market, have agreed to allow companies to sell unrestricted digital music tracks and albums.

While Amazon already sells music without copy protection, Napster hopes it will have a greater success because its title library of about 6 million tracks is larger than Amazon’s, and Napster is a better known name when it comes to online digital music.

Until now, Napster has offered music only by streaming it over the internet to its subscribers, which, after paying a fee could listen to an unlimited number of tracks from the company’s database. One of the reasons Napster wanted to become an online store was to allow people to purchase the music they listened to.

The future could not be as bright as the company thinks. While beating Amazon sales is only a question of which company has a better understanding of the market, competing with Apple’s iTunes is a different matter. Even though ITunes sells music that can be played only on iPods, these devices are the most popular ones in the US, and users could see no reason to purchase music from anywhere else.



© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia
Share the News:
Del.icio.us Digg Stumble Upon Facebook Newsvine Mixx
dotclear

Other News in

Keep Hamsters and Exotic Pets Away From Your Children

Keep Hamsters and Exotic Pets Away From Your Children

U.S. leading pediatricians' group warned parents all over the nation and people with immune system problems, that hamsters, baby chicks, lizards, turtles and hedgehogs considerably increase the...

“SNL” Offers Viewers Another Tina Fey Performance of Palin

“SNL” Offers Viewers Another Tina Fey Performance of Palin

This weekend, the “Saturday Night Live” show served its audience a helping hand of Tina Fey’s performance of vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party Sarah Palin. The...

O.J. Recordings Were Enough for Jury to Decide

O.J. Recordings Were Enough for Jury to Decide

The jurors in the O.J. Simpson case said they didn’t actually need to hear witnesses to decide on the NFL fallen star’s culpability. Mr. Simpson’s secretly-recorded own words were just enough to...

Ford to Launch Chip Key That Controls Teen Drivers

Ford to Launch Chip Key That Controls Teen Drivers

Parents, stop worrying that your kid will give your car too much gas when you lend it to him. Ford Motor has come up with MyKey, a car key which incorporates a chip that makes the key and care...

1,150 Mammals On The 2008 Extinction “Red List”

1,150 Mammals On The 2008 Extinction “Red List”

Thousands of animal species face extinction and many more are currently endangered. Scientists warn that if we keep up with this rate of destroying the animals’ natural habitats and if we keep...

dotclear
Latest videos in Specials
Monkey waiters in Japan
Zero-G fashion in Japan
Phelps honoured in his...
Radio as a learning tool
Boy wreaks havoc at zoo

dotclear
Specials You are here: Specials
» Specials   
E-mail To A Friend Print RSS Text size: Decrease font size Increase font size
dotclear
dotclear
dotclear
Most Popular in Specials
Update2: Amazon's Kindle 2 On Its Way?Update2: Amazon's Kindle 2 On Its Way?

» read full story
dotclear

Interested In This Topic?

News Alert will keep you informed. Find out more.
dotclear
Photos Gallery
dotclear
Today's Latest News
Injured Misty May-Treanor "Out" Of DWTSInjured Misty May-Treanor "Out" Of DWTS

» read full story
dotclear