The proposed acquisition will, in theory, allow the company to compete with the Apple iTunes service and its iPod music players. Best Buy and Napster have both offered digital music subscription services for quite some time, but neither has come within screaming range of a challenge to rival Apple. With over 35 million active users, iTunes holds more than 70 percent of the digital music market share in the United States.
"This is a very natural and appropriate time for Napster to lever up our position in the industry with a strategic bear hug from such a powerful partner," Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog said at a press conference, no doubt making his statement with the kind of skeevy excitement usually only found among embezzlers, jewel thieves and con men. That's because Gorog's company is otherwise doomed, you see. By itself, Napster is a thing of the past, a nostalgic reminder of simpler times, before 9/11, before the music labels fell on their faces and bands declared war on their fans. Nobody in their right mind fires up good ol' Nappy these days to do their downloading, and anyone who does is living in a time machine,
While Napster certainly has a better chance competing against iTunes by combining its resources with Best Buy, and the two companies plan to offer new services over an array of devices to reach new music customers, there is simply nothing they can do to push Apple off the mountaintop. The iPod is a multi-level status symbol. The iPhone, for all its controversy, is even moreso. Any speculation over whether Apple will soon be dethroned should be directed to the heap of useless, inferior Zune players at your nearest landfill.
Best Buy first offered its digital music service in 2006. They later teamed up with RealNetworks Inc and SanDisk Corp to create a compatible media player, which gained some traction in the music world but certainly not enough to be considered a high contender for the Apple crown.
Napster 1.0 was awesome. It marked a widespread beginning of file-sharing. Napster 2.0, the subscription service, as we all know, blew in every way. Napster 3.0, the Best Buy variation, the reinvention as a product marketing magnet, will make a bit of a splash, but ultimately will fall by the wayside.
But it will be interesting to see how the company adapts to life inside the box of a big retailer.
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