You’ve probably heard aboutBest Buy‘s aggressive move today to grab Napster. Clearly leveraging their position as a retail giant, Best Buy hopes to cash in on content going into those players it sells. But there is more to it than just linear logic. Take these for example:
It’s illegal? I’ll buy it.
Today’s new marketing technique: build something illegal that kids love. Get busted. Come back a “lite” version of yourself (the kids all know your name, so why not?). Then sell out to a big company. It is pure genius when viewed in the rear view mirror. It has me thinking what can I do that is illegal?
Heads up, Apple.
Brian Dunn, president and COO of Best Buy, was quoted as saying, “over time we hope to strengthen our offerings to consumers, who we believe will increasingly seek devices and solutions that enable them to access their content wherever, whenever and however they want.” To me, this says we will be hawking our own sleek devices sold as a complete deal, just like iPod and iTunes, out of every enormous blue and gold building we’ve got. Make it pretty and easy to figure out and they just might sway some folks, especially if they keep the cost down vs. Apple. Appletell’s Josh Holat liked the Napster store a while back.
Music is for suckers
You’ll note in the quote above, Dunn also says “content”, not music. He means just that—more than music. Dave Morrish, EVP of connected digital solutions at Best Buy says, “"We can foresee Napster acting as a platform for accelerating our growth in the emerging industry of digital entertainment, beyond music subscriptions.” Did you hear that Netflix? Here comes Napster movie rentals. Again, all they have to do is build a decent store and keep the hardware cost down (or better yet, include the hardware for free) and consumers will sign up. This is the right deal at the right time.
The deal for $121 million offered by Best Buy really works out to $54 million after Napster’s assets are taken into account. Not a bad price tag for 700,000 subscribers and all the properties. This could shape up to be a good fight for Apple.
Read [channelweb]
No comments:
Post a Comment