iLike was once the most popular music application of Facebook, with close to 10 million active users generating 1.5 billion page views per month. On Tuesday, it finally shut down. Its demise proves once again that online music is a tough business to be in. Read More »
Tech
Music subscription service Rhapsody is going to Europe, but not under its own name. The company will use the Napster brand in the U.K. and Germany to compete with Spotify. The company announced the acquisition of Napster’s foreign assets three months after it bought Napster USA. Read More »
A consortium of more than 200 small electronic music labels have become the latest to quit Spotify — and other streaming services — in a protest at the amount of money they earn. But can compensation ever match consumption? Read More »
It’s time to say good-bye to the cat: The announced acquisition of Napster by Rhapsody means that the Napster brand will cease to exist. Company’s staff will be laid off in December, its offices shuttered, and the future of its international operations is undecided. Read More »
On-demand music service pioneer Rhapsody is acquiring Napster, the company announced Monday. The deal is just the latest example of how the rapid ascent of Spotify — which GigaOM called “the new Napster” back in 2009 — is shaking up the on-demand music space in a… Read More »
Last week Om broke a big story on Facebook’s plans for music. But is music Facebook’s next billion-dollar business? It will be hard for the company to cash in big on music. Here are three reasons why. Read More »
Rhapsody, the music subscription service, says its free iPhone application has been downloaded more than 330,000 times since its launch Sept. 9, making it the No. 2 music app in the iTunes store. But while that’s an enthusiastic display of interest in a… Read More »
Much like the late comic Rodney Dangerfield, peer-to-peer technologies can’t get no respect. Despite its obvious technological advantages, P2P has become a proverbial four-letter word. The technology seems to be tainted by its past, thanks to formerly popular applications such as Kazaa and Napster — which… Read More »
It’s been a busy September for the digital music business. Steve Jobs reappeared onstage to introduce the iTunes LP format and a series of new iPods. Anticipation grew around European streaming music service Spotify, which is due to arrive on U.S. shores in the… Read More »
Best Buy said today it would spend $121 million to buy former file-sharing poster child, Napster. The move gives Best Buy the ability to offer DRM-free movies and music downloads that would compete with Amazon.com’s download services as well as proprietary files offered by… Read More »
I was talking to an executive at a major label the other day. We were talking about startups and he noted that they either sue these companies out of business or legitimize them out of business. That is not far from the truth.… Read More »
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