Brand loyalty
 

I think I saw this brought up somewhere else here but I can't find it so here goes...

How do y'all feel about brand loyalty; or loyalty to a program? Are you going to stick with Morpeus no matter what? Or what made you leave Napster? Or any of the others.

Myself, I'd say my loyalty as a consumer is very very thin. I left Napster as soon as Audiognome became stable enough. And I've left Morpheus now that it is Gnucleus as I have Gnucleus already. I might have stuck Audiognome out but events dictated otherwise. And initially I was excited about Vinnie's interaction with Bearshare until I started disagreeing with nearly every direction he started pulling the program in. Regardless, no matter how friendly Vinnie was I would have jumped to Xolox immediately simply because it is a more stable client with superior features.

So, any brand loyalty here? Enough to even possibly make you pay $$ one day? None from me.

If they charge $$ for the software I'll get it cracked. If they charge for the network I'll either try to get around it or I'll switch to something else. And the second the # of files decrease or anything better comes along I'll switch.

Am I alone on that?

Nope...you aren't.

I switched from using napster when they first starting making all the changes to the client....remember when they added that auto-upgrade?...what version was that? I think i quit using napster before the metallica shit happened.

I can't even remember what was the last version of napster i used....i think it was a version hircos gave me with our names on it....so whatever version that was.

I have tried other programs, but i still pretty much stick with the same one, but not out of loyalty...out of ease of use....I still find the songs I am looking for when I start searching..which isnt often these days.

HellBound

No...I've got no brand loyalty. I stopped using napster when I no longer share files using it. I just moved on to other apps that worked, used them until they went down the tubes or just continue using them if they serve well. As long as I don't have to pay to use them, they offer a good file library and it isn't bloated with spyware, that's what i'll use. Once these apps go to a $$$ platform, I stop using it.

There are so many p2p apps out here today to choose from. I just stick to a few that are reliable and easy to use. (Audiognome has been the one i've used the longest.) I'm not much into fighting the spyware battle as long as there are non-spyware, easy to use apps to choose from.

Re: Brand loyalty
 

If somebody needs unconditional loyalty, get a dog. Loyalty cuts both ways, and any company that expects my loyalty had better be prepared to offer significant, ongoing, clearly differentiated value in return.

If it's a piece of software, and it's free, I'll use it as long as works. Once it ceases to work or fill my need, it's gone. If I'm paying for it, my expectations are gonna be much higher. If Napster returned tomorrow, with a bug-free version that worked liked the old one (re: unlimited d/l's, unlimited usage), and they wanted a couple of bucks a month for it, I'd certainly consider it...but they better be prepared to maintain a standard of quality.

Along these lines, I just ran across this approach today, which is kind of novel for a P2P application:

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../03092002b.php

While I'm sure the approach will fail miserably, I do admire the candor of their pitch. :hmm:

brand loyalty can be closely associated with band loyalty

the manic street preachers released generation terrorists....good album...i recommend them to my friends

they then release gold against the soul....quite good....they go on the 'ok' list

they then release the holy bible...i tell everyone to listen to it or they are stupid

they then release everything must go...it stinks of sell out but i tell everyone to bear with it.....things may get better

they then release whatever the fucking attrosity of an album they released next was called....i tell everyone the manics suck

they continue to release sell out crap...i tell everyone if they listen to it they are stupid

same can be applied to napster....a blip is one thing....but once you know they've sold out...kick them to the kerb faster than an offensive avatar can create 100 posts

I kinda got bored with Napster and downloading songs in general about the time I discovered the old Nappy forum. I still used Napster until it finally shut down mostly because I was spending a lot of time on the forum preaching my support. I took up Tankgirl's rally cry to improve the usability of the client and tried to support Napster as a company and a social gathering place, but they eventually cheated their user base. Bertlesman might think that Napster is still a household name and maybe it is, but I remember what Napster used to mean to people, and it isn't meaningful now.

Now I pretty much use WinMX because it's stable and it resembles Napster in the way it looks and acts. I didn't really like Gnutella when it first started out but if it's better now then it was then, I might use a Gnutella clone. I just use whatever's the fastest.