As we reported yesterday, Pressplay and Musicnet are set to launch soon, here is some more information about the paid 'napster alternatives':
PressPlay (formerly Duet) announced they would be up mid-month only days before the attack on the WTC. It only makes sense that didn't happen, the record industry has curtailed all events for the next few weeks as seems proper. Still, it is an important moment in the online music world as the first half of the industry's answer to Napster is ready to offer digital music for sale. |
As we have pointed out in several articles in the past, the prices and conditions of ownership that MusicNet and PressPlay offer are a poor deal for the consumer (see MusicNet and Duet: Downloads Expire After 30 Days ). First of all music is rented, not purchased. A CDs worth of music will cost $20 per year to possess, which is more than a standard CD costs in stores. After the year, you can purchase additional time for another $20 a year, bringing the total cost for that CD to $40. Stop paying at any point, and the music expires leaving you with nothing.
Furthermore, neither service has access to all music. PressPlay only has the music of Universal and Sony. MusicNet offers the music of AOL Time Warner, EMI, and Bertelsmann. To be able to choose music from all five labels means you need to subscribe to both at about $240 a year. The average person to date spends about $90 a year on CDs.
As described in this article. There is/will be an alternative to Napster and his free clones, but the industry doesn't seem to get the point WHY those things exist: it's all TOO much, too much paying, too much efforts, too much this, too much that...
As long as a 'smart' guy won't come up with downloading an mp3 for 20ct, i won't give a penny for those thingies. I'd rather open grokster/musiccity/... and download the song for 0ct .
Source: homepage
