Comments on: Napster

By: dave foster

dave foster — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:10:03 +0000

it may not be constructive to add this here, but barry, what did you do with your lps from the 70s? drop that needle and i bet you’ll be surprised how much more you’ll enjoy the music. and new vinyl sales are up

that said, downloadable music doesn’t sound so great. i usually go to best buy to get my cds

By: Scott Tavegia

Scott Tavegia — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:45:05 +0000

What if we made it truly a social marketplace…. New Artists trying to be discovered, not just musically. Digital Artists with digital cameras sharing their vision and their compositions, Short film directors and producers sharing their works…. Have a Comedy section for people wanting to be found… Then at the same time. The artists can tag their works with music that inspires them, and much like the pandora model that will recommend similar music.
We can market to and inspire people to do more with the technology that we sell.. Just a thought

By: Scott Burglechner

Scott Burglechner — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:57:39 +0000

Apple has a few things that we should learn from: primarily a focus on complete experience: device + content + proprietary accessories. Our teams are set up in silos, like Sony for example… one buyer managing devices, another accessories, another business unit altogether managing service. We should drive a business predicated on delivering a strong alternative to the iPod+iTunes experience, consolidated under one general manager.

For Napster, I think this will take a lot of investment on top of the $$ we just spent to buy it. As I understand it, it is a comparatively old platform suffering from deferred maintenance and few recent capability upgrades. Support for online communities/social networking, as well as support for video are two major elements that need to be addressed.

While we are doing this, we need to target a niche customer group that is open to developing a rabidly loyal relationship with us. This group might be based on demographics, or music tastes, or some other type of segmentation. Once we have learned how to target and build a group of zealots, we can copy this with other niche groups.

I say this because I think our experiment with BBDMS shows that trying to be all things to all people is an average way yields very little in terms of loyal repeat customers.

By: Janet Aubry

Janet Aubry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:34:38 +0000

Here is why I switched from Napster to Itunes. It was easier to make it work. Napster was complicated. Lots of people besides kids like to download music but many of us are not as computer competent as the younger people who have been raised in the electronic age. I evidence this by my friends trying to maneuver on Face Book which could be made easier as well. Even some of the younger friends of my kids are confused. My best advice to you with Napster is this: SIMPLIFY! MAKE IT EASY AND CLEAR TO USE! and then, once it’s fixed, promote the livin’ heck out of it in all the right places including AARP and especially TV!!

By: Victoria

Victoria — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:16:42 +0000

An opportunity for Best Buy could be to use Napster to make the boxes they sell come to life – so everything walks out working. Think about how many people still don’t have an ipod because they don’t have a computer at home and therefore can’t download content. What if everything Best Buy sold could be uploaded with content there and then? MP3 players could be customized for you there and then and you could walk out listening to it. And computers could be full of fun stuff before you even got them home. Best Buy could continue to manage and update the content for you online or in-store or you could license it to yourself.
Napster should help make the technology Best Buy sells work better. It shouldn’t compete with iTunes – it should connect all the kit Best Buy sells.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:17:52 +0000

Napster is like Madonna. Had it’s time, but is so far from anything remotely cool now, it’s kind of sad.I think trying to hang onto that juice is a mistake. I’m not an insider, as far as Napster goes. So if I think it’s branding is dated, lots of people do.

By: Dion Hughes

Dion Hughes — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:42:13 +0000

glad to hear it, barry. also agree cpb are excellent at this sort of thing… and i wonder if any of their business growth opportunity thinking might apply as well. of course, making the most of the napster brand’s maverick-plus-one heritage means ensuring that the value proposition has some of the disruptive to it. geek squad, has kept its brand relatively intact as it pushed its application further, and part of that has been keeping the proposition fresh. best of luck as you think all these opportunities through.

By: Kal

Kal — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:19:55 +0000

Hi Barry,
I really like your blog. Some very cool ideas being posted here.

By: Barry Judge

Barry Judge — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:45:54 +0000

I think the Napster brand may have some juice left as well. The brand has heritage in the maverick space from its early days. I think with the right value proposition behind it, napster can be something. And one of our agency partners, Crispin, porter, has some experience in doing this very well.

By: gary

gary — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:05:25 +0000

lol