Napster Beats iTunes To Europe

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Napster+beats+iTunes+to+Europe+with+U.K.+launch/2100-1027_3-5216678.html' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Napster+beats+iTunes+to+Europe+with+U.K.+launch/2100-1027_3-5216678.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Digital download service Napster on Thursday scored a major victory over archrival iTunes when it became the first of the high-flying Internet music stores to make a European debut. In a move that surprised many in the industry, Napster announced that as of Thursday the music download and song-streaming service would be live to users in Britain. It had kept the launch date a tight secret, previously saying only that it would make its U.K. arrival by the end of summer."<br /><br />Big flipping deal. :roll: Napster is inferior to iTunes. I played around with it for a short time and was left under whelmed. Being first won't guarantee success. It all comes down to who delivers the best service, user experience, with least restrictive DRM, and so far Apple has that formula right...for now. To the Europeans I say.."Good things come to those who wait". :P

[Felix Torres]

Time will tell.
Let's see how the numbers add up in a year.

[Mojo Jojo]

Just wanted to post so that Felix sees my name and cringes. :)

Actually... this might be a good test. To see if Apple has something better then Napster or if it was just the first to market reason for sales. I propose we record the firsts months sales for Britain (if they announce them) for both companies and see who has higher sales. I think that would be a fair test on which service is better accepted, do you agree?

[Felix Torres]

Just wanted to post so that Felix sees my name and cringes. :)

Actually... this might be a good test. To see if Apple has something better then Napster or if it was just the first to market reason for sales. I propose we record the firsts months sales for Britain (if they announce them) for both companies and see who has higher sales. I think that would be a fair test on which service is better accepted, do you agree?

No reason to cringe.
There really isn't much of a story here as Britain is already well-served by a bunch of local music d/l sites. Most of which are also cheaper than Napster.

Only time will tell how price and/or image conscious the brits are.
Until then, no story...

Have a weekend!

[Mojo Jojo]

Update...

Apple iTunes has eclipsed sales of online musice in Europe. In the UK alone Apple has sold 16 times more downloads then its nearest competitor, OD2, selling 450,000 songs in the first week. Total sales for all of Europe reached 800,000 in the first week.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jun/23itunes.html

Didn't even take a month, just one week.