p2pnet - rss feed: Roxio is dead
p2pnet.net News:- Troubled Roxio, owner of the equally troubled Napster II, is changing its name in hopes of reviving its fortunes.
Sonic Solutions bought Roxio’s consumer software division for $80 million - $70 million in cash and shares of Sonic common stock valued at $10 million - and Roxio will henceforth be known as Napster.
But whether or not this will be sufficient to keep the company alive is very much open to question.
In spite of faithful partisan support and backing from the Big Four record labels which used Napster II to penetrate the US educational system, it was never able to promote the Napster name to the extent that it became a significant player in the corporate online music market, such as it is.
While Big Music tries in vain to peddle its 750,000 or so available tracks through the various plastic online sites it backs and supplies, music lovers are ignoring its ‘product’ in their hundreds of millions, preferring the p2p networks.
Last month alone, simultaneous peak sum p2p users online at any given moment came to 8,240,798 and shared files for the month were close to one-and-a-quarter BILLION, Big Champagne ceo Eric Garland told p2pnet..
Neither Napster II nor any of the corporate online music ’stores’ stand a chance against this and Napster’s efforts to become a factor are doomed to failure, its various marketing and promotional efforts notwithstanding.
Napster died when the then Big Five record labels drove a steak through its heart and nothing Roxio-that-was can do will change that.
However, you have to give Roxio (oops, Napster) A for effort. It isn’t giving up and with another $70M now available, still hopes to get into the online game.
“Under the terms of the deal, Sonic will purchase essentially the entire Roxio software operation including Roxio’s CD and DVD recording, authoring, photo and video editing application products including Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy and Toast,” says Roxio in a statement.
“Sonic expects to retain most of the current employees of the Roxio organization. Sonic intends to continue the Roxio brands, and current distribution and OEM relationships.”
