Napster Executive: “It’s Stupid To Buy An iPod!”

New Media Age in the UK quotes Napster CEO: “that it’s stupid to buy an iPod.”

Writer Yinka Adegoke reports, “Napster has revealed that it’s planning an aggressive marketing campaign again Apple’s iPod as part of its plans for a full launch of the Napster To Go portable subscription service later this quarter.”

New Media Age also reports, “The service, which soft-launched in the US in November, is likely to roll out in the UK in March. It’s one of the first services enabled by Microsoft’s Janus technology, which for the first time allows music files bought via subscription services to be transferred from a PC to a portable device.”

You see, Napster, the once free and illegal online music swapping service was bought by software developer Roxio. Gorog sold Roxio, gathered more investment money and the Napster brand, and headed down the highway to do battle with the Kids from Cupertino, Apple and company.

The battle hasn’t been going well for Napster in the direct selling of music from their online store, so they resorted to a special “subscription model.” Pay money each month and you can download and listen to whatever music you want, a million songs if you want.

And you can play them on any player you want. Except an iPod. Why? Because “it’s stupid to buy an iPod.” How many people have bought iPods so far? 11-million?

Adegoke says, “According to Napster CEO Chris Gorog, speaking to NMA at MidemNet this week, his company is betting heavily that the monthly ‘all you can eat’ subscription model will win the battle of the digital services, rather than the download strategy currently pursued by Apple’s iTunes, which has around 70% of legal download sales.”

“He (Napster CEO Gorog) believes the best way to market the new service is to emphasise its advantages over iTunes.”

Still, the battle isn’t going well. While traffic to the Napster web site increased 30-percent after the company spent nearly $2.5-million on a Super Bowl commercial, Apple didn’t spend a dime and traffic increased 170-percent due to the Pepsi-iTunes promotion.

Financial losses continue to be heavy at cash-strapped Napster causing some analysts to wonder how much longer the company may stay in business. Apple’s iTunes Music Store remains profitable and growing steadily, while iPod sales boom. Apple accounts for 70-percent of the legal online music business and 90-percent of the hard drive portable music player market.

Napster refuses to give out numbers other than financial information required by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

How does Napster’s finest and highest paid executive feel the company will make inroads against Apple’s iPod and iTMS?

Gorog says, “We’re going to be communicating to people that it’s stupid to buy an iPod.”

If you’re one of the approximately 11-million people who bought an iPod over the past few years, how do you feel about such a statement?

Are you ready to run out and try Napster? Do you plan to ditch your iPod and buy a Gateway music player? Or a Dell DJ player?

Click Here to read the full article from New Media.

Do I need to summarize? Or evangelize?

There is a tremendous amount of misinformation (not to mention misguided executives) in the tech world today. Mac users tend to be more discriminating, more thoughtful, do more research, than the average Windows user. Not to mention that we have more education, drive nicer cars, and have better sex lives.

Oh, we also have the iPod.