[MidemNet] Chris Gorog, CEO, Napster: Subscription Is Going to Be The Model

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Chris Gorog of Napster has settled it for us: subscription is the way to go, long term, otherwise there is not business. Read his comments below:

This year Roxio will go $80-90 million in software…in the next 12 months, we will sell about $20-40 million of music…we do see money in selling music, as opposed to other players…
The margin for the a la carte downloads are healthy, but certainly not robust. The subscription side margins are much more significant…the consumer model of choice is going to be subscription, going forward. A la carte is a good way to jumpstart the industry…

It is this point [subscription] that will help the industry cross the chasm from early adopters to mass market…in about 2.5 years, subscription will start becoming the pre-dominant business model

Launch: The Napster brand for us is very important…this is the kind of affinity Pressplay was lacking…we did 15 times the run rate of Pressplay overnight…

Downloads are in 100s of thousands…subscription is a substantial business…

From free to fee: What Napster was about is not free music, but the ability to access music instantaneously and share it with friends

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