Napster (and AOL) Growth

[nekulturny]

I'm writing a paper about napster and riaa and i ran across a fact stating that napster has 37 million users. the service started a year and a half ago and uses no paid advertising. aol, on the other hand, has been around for years and only has 23 million users. and that's with all the unsolicited cds and floppies in the mail. not to mention the annoying ads on sportscenter.

there's really no point to this, just thought it was interesting.

 

[piku]

I think 36 million of those accounts are duplicates.

 

[nekulturny]

yeah, i plan to point that out in the paper. but i'm still all for free (even marginally legal) music, so i won't make it seem like a bad thing.

 

[piku]

Well yeah its not a bad thing. Its just that I would think alot of people have multiple accounts - one (or more even) for every member in the family, or one for serving and one for downloading, and stuff like that.

But yes, Napster rules ;P

 

[piku]

btw, this sounds like a good topic to write about

make sure you mention the BMG thing

 

[yakko]

And you pay how much to be a napster member?

 

[Mday]

don't forget that CD sales has increased with the existence of napster.

also, AOL makes their money from advertisements. they'd do anything to keep their members. tell your friends who use aol to call the number to cancel aol, and your friends will get offered several free months.

i stopped using aol. ;-)

also, who said napster was making money?

don't forget scour filed for bankruptcy in september.