Apple May Be Holding Back The Music Biz
Which brings us to a grand irony: Apple, which launched the digital music revolution, may now be holding it back. Critics say Apple's proprietary technology and its refusal to offer more ways to buy or to stray from its rigid 99 cents a song model is dampening legal sales of digital tunes. "The villain in the story is the iPod," says Chris Gorog, CEO of Napster Inc., which sells both subscriptions and downloads. "You have this device consumers love, but they're being restricted from buying anything other than downloads from Apple. People are bored with that."Still, Apple will continue to take flak. That's because an army of companies has rolled out new ways to provide music -- from legal peer-to-peer sites to established players such as Real Networks Inc. and Napster that offer all-you-can-play subscriptions for a monthly fee. The thing is, very few work with the iPod. "I have half a million subscribers who would love to use an iPod with my service," says Napster's Gorog.
A mostly crap article with an eye-catching headline; the main critic of Apple's affect on the digital music business is, surprise, a competitor.
Note to Gorog: call me crazy, but with Apple set to sell 40 million iPods in 2006, I'm not sure the half million Napster subscribers you bring to the party is going to get you an email from Steve.
