Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - October 25th, '03

[Mazer]

I hate to say it but I'm impressed with Napster's new feature list.

Can The New Napster Cut It?
In an attempt to replicate what Napster president Mike Bebel calls "the central P2P [peer to peer] vision of Shawn Fanning", Roxio has developed a second, more comprehensive layer to Napster 2.0, which comes courtesy of a $9.95 monthly subscription. This opens up all the half million or so songs to more or less unrestricted use and also offers users email, customisable internet radio stations - you can even have one tailored to your own tastes - and the ability to send play-lists to non-Napster members. Once they receive your email they can listen to 30-second clips of songs before deciding whether to buy them. All users get a free interactive magazine and an archive of the Billboard charts.

It made the transformation from Internet Service Provider to Content Provider, something it could never have done under its original management. I have to give Roxio credit for knowing how to leverage its name brands so effectively, nobody else could have done this. I can imagine Napster hooking up with EarthLink to make a Music themed ISP, and it's popularity would rival AOL's content services. I guess I'll have to avoid joing Napster on principle.

Of course I doubt that it's DRM system is impenetrable, and once it's hacked Napster's database will flow directly onto the free networks, with the help of a few volunteers to pay the monthly fee. How long would it take to download and unwrap 500,000 songs?