[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
I'm curious as to how much "bread & butter" Napster actually made.
They certainly didn't charge people to get the program or even use it, and I don't recall anything about ad sponsoring either.

I don't think Napster was ever making money. I think the reason they weren't making money is that their expected source of income sued them. They believed they were creating a new business model, and that the music industry would pay them to distribute their product. They hadn't counted on the fear of the new. Now the Peer-to-peer networks have taken up the slack while the Napster fight and general corporate klutziness kept large distributors out of the growing new 'culture' of music listening. They've cut their own throats now. There's no going back to central distribution.

Ideally, bands would now go Online and distribute their own samples. AND sell their own CDs direct, cutting out the exploiting suits. But 'artists' are not known for business sense, or even interest. That's how they got into their current situation with the recording industry. I guess a new 'middle-man' will appear or the old middle-man will adapt to the new situation and exploit them in new ways.

[ June 27, 2002, 17:23: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]