Dumbshit Dept.

Napster 2.0 isn't any smarter than Napster 1.0

While I was in Portland blogging OSCON (more on that soon) this bit of news about Napster's earnings hit the net:

Last quarter Napster lost $19.9 million--that is,the company lost nearly a dollar for every dollar it took in. Nor is Napster's (nasdaq: NAPS - news - people ) loss an aberration: From April 2003 through the end of March 2005, the company lost $97.8 million selling digital music.

Groan! This is painful -- do they think that the dot bomb days are back? Not too long ago a friend of mine who had some insights to Roxio commented to me:

Roxio is being stupid by selling off their CD Burning business and focusing on Napster as their primary business.

Amen to that. Both Apple and M$ have realized that the margins in the download business are too thin to survive. Both companies use the download sales as a (loss) leader for their other offerings -- Apple hawks iPods and M$ hawks custom music stores. To actually create a music download site on the net that has no other business to promote via its downloads is monumentally stupid. To sell your business that has hope in favor of a business that has far fewer chances of surviving is so stupid that they deserve to die. And soon, please!

Posted by Mayhem at August 7, 2005 06:56 PM