RSSNapster Blames Microsoft for Failures
By Ed Oswald | Published March 1, 2006, 1:40 PM
Napster chief executive Chris Gorog took Microsoft to task Tuesday, telling Reuters that Microsoft and its hardware partners were to blame for his company's inability to make headway against market leading iTunes. Recent surveys show Apple's music software has more than 80 percent of the market, with that number continuing to rise.
Gorog called Microsoft's execution "less than brilliant" and said that technical glitches with the company's digital rights management technology was hurting Napster's business.
Napster relies on Microsoft's digital music ecosystem and its PlaysForSure technology, which has continued to sputter in the face of strong competition from Apple with the iPod and iTunes.
Gorog did admit, however, that Microsoft's task of dealing with a multitude of services and device makers makes the Redmond's company's job a lot tougher.
"It's a lot more complex to get organized properly than it is to build one device and one service as Apple has done," Gorog told Reuters. "It's always been painful at the introduction of new technologies. But it always takes shape like it's done in the past."
Even after publicly criticizing Microsoft, Gorog then went on to say he expected the "Microsoft ecosystem" to eventually come out on top, noting that all the big name manufacturers would "come to the Windows Media party."
"Microsoft and its partners still have kinks to work out with respect to rights management and seamless, reliable transfer to portable devices. Apple got this right the first time," Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox commented to BetaNews.
"Additionally, time is long past for Windows Media partners -- Microsoft, device makers and music stores -- to do some serious marketing; at the least, they need to equal Apple's noise."
People are not looking at the big picture, Gorog says, saying only five percent of music sales were now digital. The Napster CEO said he expects the industry to be a lot different within 12 to 24 months.
Gorog also took the time to dispel rumors of a sale, saying that while the company had received offers to unload assets, it was not interested. He also admitted Napster itself had made some missteps in articulating the value of the business.
The company's losses widened last quarter, reaching $17 million versus $12.8 million the year before. Revenue nearly doubled, however, reaching $23.5 million, which is up from $12.1 million the year previous.
In a statement, Microsoft's direcor of Windows Digital Media Kevin Unangst said, "We're seeing higher than ever demand for Windows Media Player and PlaysForSure devices, and Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Vista will provide incredible music experiences when released later this year."
"In fact, Chris's own assessment was that a strategy of choice is the right approach in the long term," Unangst added.
The reason Napster is failing is not because of Microsoft. They are failing because they have nothing to offer that is any better than what itunes has. Why move away from something you like for something that's not any better.
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Dang... I just got a hangnail.
I'm gonna sue Microsoft. It must be their fault somehow.
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That's soooo ridiculous. Microsoft has NOTHING to do with your hangnail.
I've got a much better case: I wrote a memo calling my boss an A**hole and Microsoft's animated paper clip FAILED to stop me (even though he was clearly watching the whole time)! I estimate my damages at $2.1 billion.
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Napster chose DRM. Not that they had much choice, since they're *that* "Napster". DRM = No $ale. If I can't have the music I pay for unencumbered, I'm not buying it. End of story.
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DRM and PlayForSure is all a crock anyway. Sony ruined much consumer-based support for the DRM technology by utilizing rootkits in their XCP protection software. PlayForSure was never really implemented, just applied to existing products like a Band-Aid. It's decent, but I don't feel comfortable using a copyright technology invented by MS. I'll just stick with XM radio to get my music.
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apple is selling lots of tunes that hav drm. was drm invented by M$ ?
at the same time XM radio is very cool.
in my country we get worldspace.
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M$ came up with a very good GUI, and their competitors were left behind, coz they cannot copy.
i think windows GUI is THE best GUI.
same way ipod's design is THE best design, and nobody can copy that(except the Chinese|-).
that is why competition is so tough for the rest. there are not many buyers for ipod alternatives not because they dont come itunes, it is because people look at the design,price and features first and software it is compatible with LATER.
it is very stupid thing to do to criticise M$ , because almost every body is buying IPOD , so if they want to succeed in this biz they need to come up with a very very good "iPOD" alternative not the software.
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You missed 1 thing...they actually took the GUI based off of the Apple OS. Notice how MS's GUI is looking more and more like Safari? It's not coincidence. Microsoft has ALWAYS piggy-backed other people's ideas and built on top of them to make a decent product.
The iPod is different. iPod's design is truly the most efficient design, with a pretty slick look as well. People will always try to imitate a good idea just to make money. Look at Microsoft and DOS. What we technically use is MS-DOS, and not DOS that was originally created by someone other than Microsoft.
I agree on your last point, it is rather pointless to criticize. Once the market (aka "Consumers") have decided what they like, they typically stick with it. Any attempts from another company to impersonate the already well-known object gets them referred to as "knock-off's" or "imitations"; hence a negative inferrence, and a quick degrade to something that only the "less fortunate" would buy.
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...and Apple took the GUI from Xerox.
It is true that MS bought DOS from someone. Then again, the iPod wasn't an Apple-only creation either. The interface was developed by a company called Pixo. And OS X has BSD at the core. And Audi's have steering wheels in them which was based on Ford's car, not that he came up with the idea of steering either.
Like what's been said, at the end of the day it comes down to building a better mouse trap. The mouse trap itself has been invented, now lets make it better.
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i was about to post the same thing yohimbe9 posted"xerox".
"M$ copied OSX" i hav hear'd this a lot, but idont agree with it to me mac osx and windows are very different and if im wrong then what is stopping apple to sue M$ ?.
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Well said. MS is still around for a reason, as are many of the other companies. You can't reinvent the wheel, but you can sure as hell make it roll better... and with 6.5 billion people, original ideas are few and far between.
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I think that Microsoft may want to rethink Windows Media Player in favor of their PlaysForSure platform and to create a universal music store that promotes purchase of online music in a manner similar to iTunes.
The Mozilla Firefox-based "Songbird" is an excellent example of how this should be done on the PC. Microsoft has assets over Apple including: offering their platform users many choices (including iTunes), cheaper devices, a larger target audience (more people use Windows Media Player than any other media application and more people use Internet Explorer than any other browser based soley on the fact that they are the default offering to a PC user).
I think that Microsoft is largely to blame for terrible marketing of their Windows platform. Apple markets their computers and operating systems in a very aggressive, creative manner (no flying butterflies and corporate-style videos here).
I agree with Napster. If Microsoft isn't holding them back, the only other person to blame is the competition, Apple.
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You have got to be kidding. In WMP10 I have a choice of 21 stores. iTunes 1 Appls store. MSFT is helping giving more choice that is why I can buy a creative, Dell, Sony, etc. MP3 player and they will work. (I have already done so without any problems).
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What a loser
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The only one to blame here is Roxio themselves for being retards. They had a pretty good thing with their CD Burning apps, but no they had to buy a long dead p2p program thinking they'd get rich by turning it into a music store. Retards.
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They had a pretty good thing with selling their CD Burning Applications to CDR manufacturers. I'm entirely unimpressed with their actual software.
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How ridiculous is this article? Microsoft is also keeping me from flying. They have been super slow at creating the jet pack that I saw years ago on the Jetson's. They probably haven't even started making it yet, but they should, cause they're Microsoft. Maybe they can make it up by somehow incorporating Napster into the jetpack...Hurry up guys, geez! :-)
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It's Microsoft's fault that I don't have that super powerful, super sized robot I've always wanted ;)
No, Seriously... I dunno how Napster can blame Microsoft for anything...
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Now THAT's funny jshurst!:)
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Personally I think the IPOD's greatest success was marketting. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple paid money to newswriters to put their name in more times than "mp3 player". That way people would say IPOD everytime they wanted to say MP3 player. I personally have yet to see a mainstream article that didn't corroberate with my hypothesis.
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Napster is a use-ta-was, that's the problem here. This sounds like a libel suit waiting to happen.
Do I smell another SCO?
hmm.
Microsoft is preventing me from umm something, I dunno what yet, but it's something. I think I need $5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ($5 septillion, US) to get me going again.
Can you mail a check? Please? Huh? Could'ya?
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I have used several PlaysForSure products and they all have work flawlessly. Don't know what Napsters problem is, maybe they should market their products better.
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Or maybe its because Napster is a bloated, slow, and buggy pice of crap? Fix your own software before you blame others...
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How about just taking out the DRM and making mount-and-go MP3 players? That'll make things _so_ much simpler!
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Those miserable "rat bas****s"! They stopped me from getting that new network admin job too!
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LOL
Hey Gorog, do you think that maybe just chaning your name might have helped! Everyone was trying to stay away from getting caught and Napster was in the news so much, I am sure it scared a lot of people to use a different source.
What an Idiot. You know, the reason why I am not married is because Brad Pitt is dating Angelina too.
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You know, I made some crafts for a craft show and they didn't sell. I bet it has something to do with Microsoft and the way then do business. Man, am I mad! :-P
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Apple owning over 80% of the market has nothing to do with it!
It's all Bush's, I mean Microsoft's fault!
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You idiots! The corporate capitalistic PIG of American is squishing the world! We need to reinforce the support girders before there is nothing left for us to sell!
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No, It was all those Arabs with oil empires!
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ill make you a deal on the contract for that job. but if the job sucks and i use crappy aluminum instead of steel it is microsofts fault not mine
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