Divx for MP3s

Remember Divx? When the home entertainment industry thought consumers were reticent to pay $20 to own a DVD, it created limited-use DVDs called Divx that cost less than regular DVDs. The DVD/Divx player would hook up to the Internet through a phone line and the Divx disc would literally expire after a certain number of viewings based on the feedback from the player (this oversimplifies greatly, but I knew Divx was crap when I heard about it so I never bothered with it).

Now, Napster and other online music services are allowing subscribers to their services to upload rented songs onto mp3 players that compete with the iPod through a Janus software program. It seems that subscribers who rented songs could not upload them onto portable mp3 players (what's the point then, computer based sound dynamics are so inferior to stereo sound on a dollar-for-dollar basis that the whole concept is inane; maybe that's why Napster, Real Networks, et al. are getting whomped by iTunes). The songs would expire after a certain number of plays or a certain amount of time in the portable mp3 device.

This is all stupid. The reason that iTunes destroys its competition is that it allows people to OWN music for $.99 (+tax) per song. And people LIKE to own music. It's part of our culture -- ownership is good because it is yours and (for the young target audience) says something about your own individuality. Good music is classic and timeless and therefore shouldn't go dead in the mp3 player. Indeed, only a corporate exec could come up with something this dumb:

Alan McGlade, president and chief executive of MusicNet [one of the major distributors to Napster, et al.], said consumers will see the value in being able to rent music.

"When you think about it, you can log on Tuesday when the new records are in the stores and download whatever new albums are out," McGlade said. "If you have to pay a la carte, then you have to make a buying decision."

When The Monk thinks about it, he can go to iTunes, listen to previews of every track he might want to buy and then spend the price of a vending-machine soda on a song. The preposterously low price per song on iTunes makes the risk of getting a crappy song bearable because it only costs a buck.

Napster's Janus: it's the new Divx.