Bumpy Start for Napster MP3 Store

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080520-hands-on-napsters-new-mp3-store-stumbles-out-of-the-gate.html' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...f-the-gate.html</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;Outside of the above-listed annoyances, Napster MP3 worked as expected, and the music sounded clear to my untrained ears. The DRM-free selection (no matter how difficult it is to get to) is indeed very wide&mdash;even if we're misled into thinking it's even wider than it actually is. Napster claims that it has the largest major-label MP3 catalog in addition to the largest library of independent music, so those who are committed to never buying a DRMed track ever again may indeed find Napster's offering compelling. From our perspective, though, Amazon MP3 offers a better shopping and downloading experience than Napster currently does. Napster will likely need to tweak its system to make it more user-friendly if it wants to appeal to a mass audience.&quot;<br /><br /></em><img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1211323459.usr10.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />Hopefully Amazon will be able to expand their catalog to compete.&nbsp; I think Amazon has a few things going for it.&nbsp; First off, they have a ton of customers that already have accounts with them and trust Amazon.&nbsp; This will be important in getting mainstream users purchasing digital tracks.&nbsp; Second, for their current customers, they have a ton of purchasing data which should help them make better recommendations.&nbsp; Finally, since they have lots of other lines of business, there is a lot of room for synergy.&nbsp; Buy an MP3 player from them, get 10 downloads or buy the physical CD, get discounted, or free immediate downloads.<br /><em></em>

[Stinger]

Have you guys seen the Amazon MP3 store integration in Grand Theft Auto 4?

If you hear a track you like on one of the in-game radio stations you can dial a number on your (again, in-game) cell phone and automatically purchase it from the Amazon MP3 store. It's pretty cool and I'm sure a lot of people will use it.

[Darius Wey]

Have you guys seen the Amazon MP3 store integration in Grand Theft Auto 4?

Yeah, that's a killer feature. There's also this page (http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=491304011) if you just want to browse every track played in-game. Good way to discover new artists. :)

[yslee]

I was *just* thinking about the GTA 3 radio on the way to work this morning, and thought that it'd be cool if the radio could interact in some way with your music collection or online shop. Cool to think they really did it!

[Jason Dunn]

If you hear a track you like on one of the in-game radio stations you can dial a number on your (again, in-game) cell phone and automatically purchase it from the Amazon MP3 store. It's pretty cool and I'm sure a lot of people will use it.

Wow - that's SO cool! I'm not into GTA so I'll never see it, but I love seeing that type of integration. Very slick!

[txa1265]

I think that the 'trust' thing is huge. For anti-piracy folks such as myself, the name Napster is poison. It is also true for corporations and firewalls - I can get to iTunes and Zune, but not to Napster from my laptop. Add to that the stuff the article talks about - especially the appearance of things being for sale that actually aren't ... and this doesn't look good.