Controversial Napster sends wake-up call to the music industry

Napster, the company that created and freely distributes software that enables computer users to search the hard drives of other computers on the Internet for audio files, was recently granted a stay of execution, of sorts. A judge overturned a previous ruling that would have forced the company to cease operation indefinitely. However, as cyber-traders continue downloading the files by the megabyte -- some copyright-protected, some not -- the company that made doing so easier than ever before still faces a lawsuit filed by the music industry. As of press time, a court date had not yet been determined.

by Frederick Talbott

While copyright attorneys do their best to put Napster to sleep, it's wake-up time for the music industry. Computers and the Internet have changed customers' horizons, creating a groundswell of interests and need framed in convenience and immediacy.

Napster saw this change and created a way to serve it. The music industry correctly defended copyrights while missing the marketing point altogether.

For many years the music industry has peered not out the window of opportunity but into a mirror. It has focused on how to best serve itself, often howling when technology arrived that made the consumer's access to music more convenient. Remember the moans and groans when CDs arrived? Now there is the Internet.

It's time for the music industry to take a dynamic transformational approach. First, put your consumers' needs, time and convenience preferences first. And for Napster, see it as a problem that is really a challenge that demonstrates a grand opportunity.

As a music lover I want immediate access and convenience. I don't want to carry around a shoebox full of tapes and CDs -- yikes, I forgot the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," and I'd sure like a shot of each before I go to my next meeting!

And I don't want to go through the awkward process of calling a local radio station and requesting the songs, hoping the DJ is taking requests, and then having to sit there until the mood leaves me before the songs are played and maybe hear them spoiled by a DJ quip or quick dash to the next commercial spot. Whew!

Put simply, I want access to all music now, as I sit here at my computer.

And I also want a tiny portable system that lets me retrieve and listen to music I want to hear. Anywhere. All the time.

And yes -- quick, call your accountants -- I'll pay for it!

But, the industry will argue, how can this work? The answer is the marriage of technology, licensing, consumer understanding and basic arithmetic.

Napster demonstrated the technology. And if the Napster system is too heady, just look at any well-stocked radio station's music collection. Then decide how to feed or stream it to me.

Next, consider your licensing options. You can offer direct Internet user subscriptions. You can add a license fee to each receiver device sold. And you can apply mathematical sampling to rate song play working with BMI, ASCAP and others and arrange payments to songwriters, performers and others.

The Internet and e-commerce offer unlimited immediate opportunities for the music industry and consumers. But those participating best understand the basic rule of the new marketplace, and that rule is do it now.

If you do, great fortune will pour in from the satisfied masses. If you wait, they will find that satisfaction elsewhere.

Frederick Talbott teaches communication and problem solving at the Owen Graduate School of Management

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Controversial Napster sends wake-up call to the music industry