Word: bertelsmann
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...ever wrong. Back in November, I wrote an op-ed in this newspaper celebrating the beginning of a new era in the distribution of music. Napster had just signed a pact with the record label Bertelsmann, and it looked as if the rest of the Big Five labels would follow suit shortly. Napster would set up a subscription service, I predicted, and you and I would never buy another CD at Tower Records again...
...Anybody else think Napster just might have a March surprise planned? The site has already announced plans to transform itself into a pay-for-play service in July. Yet in the months since it scored a big cash investment from erstwhile litigant BMG (courtesy of parent Bertelsmann) it's been mummer than mum about how the project is actually progressing...
...Bertelsmann insists the process will be "transparent"--that is, users won't know it is happening. But it would quickly rewrite the regulations of Napster, imposing rules on the relative anarchy that now exists. Napster would probably hand out different keys for different fees. Pay one fee, and you get to listen to some music. Pay more, and you get to keep the music by burning it onto...
...legit by charging subscription fees of, say, $15 a month, part of which will then be passed on to performers and record labels. The new technology could give Napster the control over its system that it needs to make Napster II a reality. Andreas Schmidt, president and CEO of Bertelsmann's eCommerce Group, calls it "the most important building block for the new business...
Napster has been meeting with the big labels steadily, but except for the deal with Bertelsmann, it has not yet got to yes. Richard Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, a major music distributor (and parent company of TIME), told reporters earlier this month that he had yet to see an acceptable business model from Napster...