Napster To Be Acquired by Google?

YesSir writes "The New York Post claims that Google is considering an alliance or possibly an acquisition of Napster. Rather then starting their own, Google could jump start their music service with the help of Napster. Napster's share price soared more than 30 percent as a result of the report that they are in discussions with Google." From the article: " The company in January told Reuters that it was not on the block. 'The company is not looking to be sold, the management is not looking to step out. It's simply not true,' a Napster spokesman said on Jan. 23. Last week, Napster, founded by college student Shawn Fanning and was once synonymous with the pirating of music, laid off 10 managers." More information available from C|Net. Update: 01/31 19:16 GMT by Z : A Reuters article has Google denying that it has plans to acquire Napster or start a music store anytime soon.

Isn't that really Roxio who bought the name?

Napster, founded by college student Shawn Fanning, as far as I can tell doesn't really exist any more. AFAIR Roxio bought it because they had a brand that meant "mediocre software" and wanted a brand/name that meant "cool".

Re:Isn't that really Roxio who bought the name?

not only this, but napster uses Microsoft Windows Media technology for ALL of it's downloads - including the MS DRM solution.

Google buying them is as unlikely as...[insert favorite conspiracy theory here]

Yay!

Finally! No more annoying Napster commercials.

Gnapster is for you!

Coming to a GNu world gnear you! You can google your songs, google your bands, you can even joing mygooglespace to talk to people and we will watch everything you do so we can recommend gnew music to you as well!

We gnow what you gneed

Next up

Google buys the Library of Congress. They change the name to glibc.

Idiots

This "Napster" is not the company founded by Shawn Fanning. This is the company that was formerly known as Roxio that sold off all of their software assets to Sonic and then hired Shawn Fanning and bought the name Napster.

This company has been mismanaged from the moment it was spun off from Adaptec. This would not surprise me in the least, but unfortunately it is probably a really good move for the current Napster folks. They will make out like bandits.

Google already denied the rumor

Google already came out and denied any involvement with napster, according to this [marketwatch.com]

Again?

Is it just me, or can you not go a day on Slashdot without hearing that google is trying to reach into a new market?

I'm already ahead of the curve; I have faced the inevitable and sewn "Google" into the tag on my underwear.

So what will this new service be named. Noogle? Gnapster? Goopster? Goosic(As in Google Music)? Or the best combination og Music+Google: Moogle!

Re:Again?

I have faced the inevitable and sewn "Google" into the tag on my underwear.
 
Puts a whole new spin on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" search, eh?

These stories are getting annoying..

Let's wait for official world of an imminent buyout before we start pissing over ourselves with inane discussions. That's two in a row today.

Too many google rumors....

Remember earlier this month, we had this: this [slashdot.org]. I've even heard people rumor that Google will be building a Space Elevator. Where do these people come up with this stuff? Who knows, this one could be right, but there's still a lot of these out there.

Actually...

The napster acquisition is further down the list. Next up is Cisco after they've acquired Nintendo. The whole shebang will be paid for after the Goobuntu Vista project comes to fruition.

Yeah... er... no.

From Reuters: A spokesman at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters was not immediately available to comment. However, a spokeswoman in Google's U.K. office told Reuters, "I can completely deny the report." "No, we have no plans at this time to develop a music store, or to compete with existing online and offline music retailers," the spokeswoman said in a prepared statement."

Denied!

Google said: "We have no plans to acquire Napster, nor do we have plans to develop a music store at this time." 13:01 EST

Awesome!

I've got both my shuffle and mini ready!
Can't wait!

Ummm...

Is this only news because Google is supposedly not buying Napster?

How is Napster even relevant anymore?

Raise your hand if you use Napster's service.
Now everyone who has iTunes, raise your hand.

Napster was the first on the market with a pay-for-music service and they still couldn't turn that into a leading position.

competing against iTunes

Considering a recent Slashdot story about an analyst's predictions that Google may be gearing up to compete against iTunes, combined with their recent launch of Google Video [google.com], I think they may be on to something.

And of course, combined with the fact that Microsoft [slashdot.org] is also interested in this market, I think 2006 could turn out to be the year of video and music downloading.

Napster hoping for a miracle?

If you were sitting in Napster's corporate offices in December, you were probably wondering what was worse, the quick death you thought you would get or the slow painful fall into nothingness you seemed to find.

Now, if Google is really interested, they cannot come out and say "please save us." They need, like SCO, to keep at least the illusion that they are viable so the price does not plummet before they can sell.

I do wonder though, what does Google get out of this?

In other news...

Amongst many of the rumors lately, one has come to the forefront, and may be the end or beginning of us all.

According to the International Herald, God plans to acquire George Bush. More specifically, they state, God intends to acquire the office of President of the United States, and use that to help turn more people towards His Will, as well as enacting greater protection for national forests.

"Absolutely crazy," stated Vice President Dick Cheney, caught between heart surgeries. "God has never talked to us. Uh, well, myself. Ol' George says he's heard a few snippets here and there, but I'm not too sure."

However, the International Herald sticks by their piece, claiming to get the news from a source they would only name as "Gabriel".

We were unable to contact God before press time.

(I realize stock prices rise and fall based on the Rumor of the Day, but it's been crazy lately.)

This reminds me of...

This reminds me of the spending spree done by tech companies during the stock price boom of the late 90's. Google has now found themselves with a shit load of cash, and they figure they better do something with it before people realise how overvalued the stock is.

Seems that Google's main strategy is...

...leaking tips about its future strategy (like that previous news [slashdot.org]), and confusing the competition.

When is he planning on graduating???

Napster, founded by college student Shawn Fanning...

He must be having trouble chossing a major. I suggest something involving computers.

Google rumours

Seems google is about to buy everything.

Google CEO visits Vatican. Share price in Catholicism rocket.

And it shall be called ...

... Goopster, to go with the vaporic Goobuntu. Goo and Goop as far as the eye can see.

Oh Thank God.

It's been, like, thirty minutes since the last Google story and I was really starting to Jones out.

Thanks for the Google fix.

Google Digest? Googleback?

Hey editors...if you're going to insist on a news story every time someone from Google gets up and makes a peanut butter sandwich, can you at least give us a Digest version?

You know...instead of 3 (or more- it's only lunchtime so far) stories a day about Google, ONE Googleback?

If you think I'm joking, you're right. What I really want is a section for just Google, so that I can click the "NOT ON MY HOMEPAGE" checkbox.

While you're at it, I'd also like a "web logs" section, so that I can block crap like "Boing-Boing gets a scary letter from a 15 year old kid who 'called the FBI on them for harassment on the intar-web'".

Doesn't Nap run on MS DRM?

Isn't Napster just a me-too user of MS's DRM like everyone else? It's just a brand name slapped on top of MS's proprietary (but free-as-in-koolaid) media system, right? Why would Google buy technology (they sure don't want the logo/brand) based on lock-in to a MS proprietary DRM layer? Aren't they trying to unseat MS?

raphsody is more popular

But I suppose that would make napster cheaper than rahsody which is $10 a month.

I bought my Ipod because of Itunes and I now realize there are much chaper alternatives. Its a wonder why napster never caught on? Price is alot cheaper than Itunes. But with google behind it I am sure it would become popular.

I am waiting for a google movie/audio player. Microsoft has monopolized the market which is a shame. Windows is now required to watch porn with some codecs which is hurting Linux. The only alternative is the crappy realplayer but no one seems to use it anymore.

cahnge in strategy

I think what gave google the initial boost was just how it came up with its own way of doing things and how it tried to be unique. Goodle products were made by google people, and many of them were a result of employees just thinking up new ways to do things. Sure not always it was ground breaking, but they tried approaching challenges with a different perspective. If google starts buying up areas that it wants to expand to it will loose its charm. I think they are already beginning to face this challenge and loose some popularity because of their actions. Google wake up, every thing you do now is going to be scrutinized.

Noogle, Gnapster, Googster, Naggle & Napoogle

The company in January told Reuters that it was not on the block. "The company is not looking to be sold, the management is not looking to step out. It's simply not true," a Napster spokesman said on Jan. 23.

NAPSTER HQ
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
January 31, 2006
We are sad to report that the same spokesman was seen earlier today being taken out by stretcher crying,
"It can't be...it's simply not true! It's not truuuuuueeee!!"
Napster will neither confirm or deny anything until the stock price hits double digits.

Google : buy Napster ? No, we're not *that* evil.

I thought for a minute that this rumor might be true. I mean, since Google has decided it's not too evil to help the Chinese government censor the internet, what would the harm be in peddling badly DRM'd music ?

But then I realized, no way. Google might be evil now, but they didn't suddenly become stupid as well... they're more likely to buy a company that could possibly become profitable. Which pretty much excludes Napster.

apparently..

a search for the keyword "google" on google.com shows slashdot as the first result!

Wrong rumor...

I don't know how this all got mixed up, but I am closely involved in Google's next acquisition. To bring all of these silly rumors to rest I am proud to formally announce that Google is going to buy my WANG.

That's right, it will be by invite only in it's beta stage next week.

Microsoft Killer!

Oh man Microsoft is finished now!!!

Oh Sweet Jesus

Please make this true.

The buffet is losing out to a la carte

When the iTunes store first opened, a lot of people at /. bitched and moaned about how terrible it was that you were forced to buy individual songs or albums. Who would want to do that when you can pay a monthly fee and listen to everything in the catalog with a subscription service?

As it turns out, a lot of people actually.

The "all you can eat" method sounds great in theory, but the tracks from the major subscription services are often saddled with layers of rules and restrictions well beyond those you find with iTunes. Extra fees for moving them to portable music devices, extra fees for burning them to CDs and oh yeah...when you stop paying your monthly fee, everything goes away. Hundreds of dollars over years gone with one missed payment. All that money and you own absolutely *nothing*.

iTunes is not perfect, iTunes has problems. The artists do get far, far less than they should, but that is due to the way the contracts are written between the labels and the artists. Yes, you are restricted to playing (but not storing) the songs to any 5 computers at once (which you can change as often as you like). No, Steve Jobs can't lower the prices to 10 cents a track like you so often hear the uninformed claim. Yes, you can put the songs on as many iPods as you want without restriction. No, you can't get higher-bitrate tracks even though that should be an option. Etc.

At the end of the day, however...you can buy one song for 99 cents and that song will be there for you to play today, tomorrow and next year, the year after, etc. Wherever you want, whenever you want. You can buy that one song, buy 1,000 songs it doesn't matter. You only pay when you want to pay, and you don't feel compelled to justify what you spend each month, because unlike Napster and the Yahoo! Music Store, you only get what you pay for, and you only pay for what you get.

The dominance of the iPod, and its incompatibility with the other services is only part of the reason iTunes' competition is withering on the vine. People want to feel like they are left with something at the end of the day, and iTunes delivers that better than anyone else.

Re:The buffet is losing out to a la carte

"and oh yeah...when you stop paying your monthly fee, everything goes away. Hundreds of dollars over years gone with one missed payment. All that money and you own absolutely *nothing*." If you are going to make criticism at least understand how the system works. If you miss a payment, you can simply pay again next month *and still get all the songs you had before*. What you are saying happens doesn't make any sense. Lets say I join netflix, if I miss a month's payment, when I join back I don't have to do something to build back up to having access to netflix's full catalog: the same thing applies here. So it's not if you miss *a* month; it's if you quit subscribing permenantly.

Google

Google google google google. Google, google google. Google google. Google sexy lingerie google, google google google. Google!

(bit of a Google overload today)

Question

Will Goognapster run on GoogOS?

I have heard that.

Google is going to release a new version of their toolbar.
Google is going to bundle a bunch of useful software for the PC together.
If we are going to make stuff up how about this.
Google is going into Bio-tech.
Using Google's search experience and expertise in clustering Google is going into bio-tech. They feel that once they have enough sequence combined with medical records their search technology will find the genetic markers for all disease.
In a secret deal with the Chinese government Google now has over one billion blood samples and medical histories.

Sounds Unlikely. Motive for Rumors?

Does anyone ever investigate the investment behavior of the people originating these rumors to see if they're attempting to manipulate stock prices? After seeing that recent article suggesting that Apple had a battery life problem because of a Windows driver issue with the Core Duo cpu, I really had to wonder.

I really doubt that Google wants anything to do with Microsoft DRM. They avoided it with video. Buying Napster for the name makes no sense since it's a joke at this point. And buying it to have access to an instant library with distribution agreements seems unlikely, since those agreements are no-doubt tied to MS DRM and would have to be renegotiated for something else. About all it would give them would be faster time to market since they would have the music industry contacts. I suspect Napster is way overpriced to buy just for that.

I doubt that very many people would be drawn to a service having an inferior store, inferior DRM, an inferior PC client, and generally inferior players - just to get cheaper music.

I think to succeed they'd need to do something really different. Provide national free (ad-supported) WiFi and gives us ad-supported VoIP phones that double as music players, THEN we'd have a reason to have something besides an iPod. I think the player should be free or very cheap too. Especially if the music is a subscription service. We don't pay a bunch for a cable or satellite box when subscribing to those services, why should music subscription be any different? A cheap/free Music GooPhone could always be distributed with a drive/flash slot so the user could pick up the cost when they wanted a decent amount of storage.

I hope that Google remembers...

... the geek from the recent remake of "The Italian Job". After all, it was all his idea, and he seemed pissed enough to hit Google for squillions.

Next wild Google rumor

An unsubstantiated report from gP Reuters states that Google is considering the acquisition of the United States of America. A senior management source who would not be quoted said that this is clearly in keeping with the company motto "Do No Evil". Google sees the purchase of the USA as a chance to continue their practice of buying half finished or poorly built products and improving on the product. The first order of business will be to restructure the government to provide quicker response with minimal flash and attention getting.

Google a spokesman pointed out that much of the country has already been converted over to a marketing/advertising platform. They feel Google can improve the scatter gun advertising that is somewhat haphazard in TV, Radio, and magazines. they continued, "Interested in taking a ride to Grandma's house? Road signs will now start to display targeted advertising relating to what best fits Grandma's needs". When pushed about the various ongoing conflicts the US is involved in Google stated that by purchasing the US, wars will be eliminated from the business plan as they are bad areas for advertising. One other minor result of the purchase will be the total destruction of Microsoft as an American corporation. "Google cannot abide having such evil in its land".

Why would they BUY? That would be silly!

It would be just plain silly for Google to BUY napster and try to COMPETE with the other music services. That's not how be the master of the internet universe and all it's data. To be the omnipresent magnificence that google really aspires to, it seems much smarter to partner with ALL of the music services. If I'm new to the world of buying music online and want to find "Like a Virgin", I google it, and it hooks me up with all of the services that carry it, and how much it'll cost me from each provider. Google can take a cut for connecting the searcher with provider. Teaming with napster would be a great first step. Once everybody finds music via google and they're the all-pervasive hub, ONLY THEN they can buy all of the content and nobody will be able to stop them.

Google's F'n up... Napster = Market Cancer

Napster is dead, its been dead since it Metallica destroyed it :) It's not a left over cancer that no one wants to touch.

Google's screwing up, if they think its a good idea to infect the google name with the cancer that is Napster.

Yahoo's desktop search is better than googles.
Yahoo Desktop Widgets is great fun.

Google shouldnt spread itself so thin, and start a real unified movement.

Google 2000 = Microsoft 1990

Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-GoOgle. But it seems as if Google buys companies with good software. Spins it around, calls it their own, and its not as good as the original.

Profit?

I know this is late, but is it possible someone started this rumor for that predictable 30% stock increase?

It seems like every "google is looking to buy..." story is plausible, and the results (if you had a day's notice on the rumor or possibly started it) are always profitable.

Re:Google isn't fun anymore (tm).

Unclear strategy.

Heh. If it's unclear, it's because they want it to be unclear.

<tin foil hat>It's all part of the plan to Take Over the World!!</hat>

Seriously, tho - Google doesn't want ppl to know what their plans are. Never have.

--LWM

No kidding.

It almost looks like Google's chief contribution to the world will be the invention of the single-company bubble.

Re:Google isn't fun anymore (tm).

"Google isn't fun anymore (tm). Unclear strategy. Bows for dictators. New pathetic services like Google Video.

What's next?"

Perhaps Google could hire Carly Fiorina [hp.com] as CEO and buy back Compaq?

Time to short Googles over priced stock!

Re:Google isn't fun anymore (tm).

No clear stategy... HAHA. Which if funnier- business people talking about tech, or tech people talking about business.... I think it is the latter.

Re:Google isn't fun anymore (tm).

Well, seeing that Microsoft heavily endorses and supports napster, i think this promises to be interesting...

Re:Google isn't fun anymore (tm).

<opinion>Grow up. Google isn't your internet based teddy bear.
Google is like every other company. They want to make money. They are out to make money and they'd better make a lot since they've just hired tons of new people.

I am so sick of hearing tons of people (not just /.ers) refer to Google as some evil corperation who is going to take over the world. They may. Maybe they have plans to do so. I don't know but honestly how can anyone on this website claim to know their plan?

Everyone is complaining that Google is bowing to some evil government. Well you know what I would have done the same. Better to have censored searching rather than no searching. I mean a lot of places have chinese versions of their site. Are they not censoring? Are they evil? Google seems to be a company who a lot of people like (and look up to) and since a lot of people like them they are expected to be angels and turn down everything that makes money. If half of you got the chance you'd sell a censored version of your own software to china if it made a buck. Not even to mention you'd be doing it 100% out of profit, not to open the doors a little.

Google may not be the most wonderful company but on the list of good corperations they're still on the top of my list. I think people need to give them a little slack and let things play out. When Google does something they do it well (after it is out of beta). I think that before pointing fingers you all should look at yourselves. We all have our pricetag and I don't think anyone has found Google's. They haven't been bought and they haven't done enough bad to destroy all the good they've done.</opinion>