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Movies Media The Internet

Napster to Offer Movie Downloads 190

Posted by samzenpus from the not-so-free dept.
sebFlyte writes "silicon.com is reporting that Napster is going to move into legal movie downloads. They are aiming particularly to tap the younger video-game generation."
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Napster to Offer Movie Downloads More

Napster to Offer Movie Downloads

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  • It is simply good business sense to move into this largely untapped market, especially if you already have a platform for charging for and delivering digital content. Though they aren't the first; MovieLink [movielink.com] and CinemaNow [cinemanow.com] are already offering movies for legal download.

    • Re:Move quick! You are the third to arrive... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrLZRDMN ( 728996 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:45PM (#11462657)
      Sorry, but in order to enjoy the Movielink service you must have Windows 98/SE, ME, 2000 or XP, which support certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies. We do not support Mac or Linux.

      To watch films on CinemaNow you will need the minimum of Microsoft Windows Media Player version 9
      No problem realy I wouldn't want ot pay the movie industry any more then the music industry.
      • Do you think Napster will be any better? Their current music service is Windows-only.
      • Sorry, but in order to enjoy the Movielink service you must use Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, which supports certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies. Click here to get the latest version of Internet Explorer.

        We do not support Mozilla or Netscape. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

        I can't wait for the time when the IE-only sites realize that their usage has gradually been declining.
    • Until an online movie store with lienient DRM arrives like ITMS, I really doubt online movie sales are going to go anywhere. Just too slow and too much bother for most people.

      The Tivo/Netflix thing may have a good shot though, being a lot like pay-per-view and well integrated into the box. I don't think any cable service would partner with any of the movie download places as they would want to control that all themselves.
    • They haven't even departed, let alone arrived. They haven't even booked a flight, so to speak. From the article: "We are currently considering moving into video".

      Business as usual at slashdot. Inflating the news for a good headline. Napster has no partners or agreements in place, at least none that they're willing to go on the record about.
    • >largely untapped market

      untapped or non-existent?

      i'm not convinced at all that a download video market exists. i don't see compelling reasons why downloading would be any more convenient or cost effective than something like netflix. and if they think they can charge more for movies than music, then forget about it because you can buy DVDs cheaper than CDs at most stores. also, there's no compelling reason to split up the movie contents - while ability to sell ind. songs definitely helped with the po

      • I am convinced that TV shows will be online before movies. They are a third to a quarter of the size and it's an untapped market for selling something that is actually free (outside of the new and still rare TV on DVD trend).
      • if they think they can charge more for movies than music, then forget about it because you can buy DVDs cheaper than CDs at most stores.

        In Malaysia they charge a hell of a lot for DVD's. around 70-80 ringgit for a "hot" title. A music CD is only 40-45 ringgit. And it's way too expensive to buy, especially when most of it is crap. 1 ringgit is 3.8 USD, but to put things into an "afforability" perspective, a meal at a fast food chain (say McDonald's) cost around 8 ringgit for a burger, a drink and some frie
        • Your comment suggests another obstacle to anybody offering online movie downloads: region-encoding. The movie studios will insist on extreme measures to prevent anyone in countries besides the U.S. from downloading movies "early" (before their overseas release date).

          The DRM on movie downloads will have to be extreme, and I doubt that Napster is prepared with sufficient technology. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like they are preparing to distribute Hollywood movies just yet. Maybe they can start with

      • BT (Score:2)

        by guet ( 525509 )
        Re the download video market - we're not quite there yet in terms of infrastructure, but there is a lot of demand for this stuff (TV episodes and films). When you can download quickly and reliably from a store that offers a lot of choice, this sort of thing will really take off. Why would you tun on a TV on the off chance something is on if you could choose exactly what you wanted to see? Most of the appeal of an online music store is that you can buy something straight away.

        Re distribution/bandwidth probl
  • Considering how much I dislike watching movies on a monitor, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

    • Considering how much I dislike watching movies on a monitor, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

      Considering how much I dislike hearing music on my laptop speaker, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

      Many people I know watch movies from their computers, either onto monitors apparently better than yours, TV's, and even projectors.

      • Did I mess it up again?

        Considering how much I dislike hearing music on my laptop speaker, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

        It should be:

        Considering how much I dislike hearing music on my laptop speaker, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading music instead of renting or buying.

        • Heh.

          Considering how much I hate brussel sprouts, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

          Considering how much I hate being kicked in the face. . .

          Considering how much I hate you. . . .

          Considering how creepy most people think I am. . .

          =)
    • Considering how much I dislike watching movies on a monitor, I doubt there are many people out there interested in downloading movies instead of renting or buying.

      Maybe you won't think the same after realizing that for a small 2 hours download you can watch the latest episode (fansubbed) of Xenosaga: the anime series.

      Movie downloads may not be really popular, but the anime market shows promise. Unfortunately I don't think it can be legitimized due to the marginally-legal status of fansubs.

    • Use a laptop much? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Jozone ( 835038 )
      My computer is probably what I watch movies on most-- and thats not to say I have a bad home entertainment system. I find myself watching my rented Netflix while on the go, flights, road trips, and even at the library in between classes (I study sometimes too ;]). As soon as someone rolls out a decent service with all of the titles I'm looking for I will probably cancel my netflix account and move to something like thus.
    • I have a laptop and connected to it is a 21" CRT monitor I got a long time ago. It doubles as a second monitor for working on, or if I'm watching a DVD, it plays fullscreen on that and whatever window on my laptop. I also have a TV tuner that behaves the same way (which leads to the idea that it's a video card/drive features) and it's the best thing that has happened.

      Now, this is my bedroom, and when I'm in bed, it's about 10ft from the monitor to my eyes. It's a very convenient system and I didn't even
    • I have a 19inch samsung syncmaster 910T with 1000:1 contrast ratio on my desk at college with a stereo hooked up as my speakers and a pitiful 13 inch TV with built in speakers in my dorm room, guess which I watch stuff on?

      It all depends what equiptment you have at your disposal, at home I will usually use the 40-something inch TV in the living room, but if its being used my 21inch CRT monitor on my computer with its dolby 5.1 setup function admirably as TV/movie watching devices. Plus as I d/l many TV seri

  • Future (Score:5, Interesting)

    by someguy456 ( 607900 ) <someguy456@phreaker.net> on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:41PM (#11462592) Homepage Journal
    Frankly, I can't see a major online content vendor not delivering video in the future. Napster and iTunes and all better be prepared to enter the movie market once the technology is ready (bandwith).

  • Speed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rjelks ( 635588 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:41PM (#11462594) Homepage
    I wonder if the speed will compare to Bittorrent.

    ...not that I've ever used that for movies...
  • Hey this sucks, it started out like The Matrix but 3 minutes in, it just loops continously.

  • "tap the younger video-game generation" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Qzukk ( 229616 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:42PM (#11462598) Journal
    Does this mean that they're going to be selling Tron, Cloak and Dagger, and The Wiz?
  • Don't associate the two. Seriously. Also, is the Internet ready for this kind of traffic?

  • Movies are Shared Experiences (Score:3, Insightful)

    by reporter ( 666905 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:46PM (#11462665) Homepage
    A movie is intended to be a shared experience in a social setting. Hence, DVDs and VHS tapes never wiped out the movie theaters even though the movie tickets are relatively pricey at $9.00 per pop. Even then, people tend to rent movies on DVDs/VHS tapes to watch as a group.

    After people watch the movie, they want to talk about it with their friends. How much fun is watching a movie by yourself?

    The only exception is pornography. Unless Napster intends that its service will be predominantly for pornography downloads, Napster will not achieve much market penetration (pun intended).

    Perhaps, Napster should offer a special deal: After 10 downloads, you receive a free jar of vaseline. <chuckle>

  • Not really a suprise (Score:3, Interesting)

    by digitalgimpus ( 468277 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:46PM (#11462667) Homepage
    But I wonder what encoding they will use?

    Will it be usable if say I have a media PC? Would it look decent if I downloaded a movie and hooked my computer up to a TV?

    If they can do that, and make download decent... it's got a good shot.

    Unlike Kazaa, Napster is clean of viruses, trojans, and other garbage infecting files in hopes of getting a loophole in your buggy media player.

  • Key word: "Considering" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by schmidt349 ( 690948 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:46PM (#11462669)
    "Original music download heavyweight Napster is considering remaking itself as a movie download site too."

    So let's see... no business plan, no decisions on DRM or encoding format or anything remotely technical, just the statement that it's being "considered..."

    Should this really be considered news? I mean, a lot of groups are looking at doing movie downloads...
    • I think you mean:

      1. Put out a press release that Napster is "considering" movie downloads

      2. ?

      3. Profit!
      • lots of times stock prices can increase, if only temporary, due to speculation of new business ideas they may roll out in the future. So I think that question mark can finally be answered.
    • I think this is so they can move from not making money on selling music, to not making money selling music and movies.
    • Or you could read between the lines:

      "Original music download heavyweight Napster is considering throwing in the towel and conceding victory to Apple's iTunes Music Store. Napster CEO Chris Gorog said the company is currently examining ways to bail out of this mess, and was looking at distributing movies online, selling pet supplies, or creating a search engine to help the company out of its present plight."
  • I thought the average age of gamers nowadays was 29 [usatoday.com].

  • One in four people seems unlikley (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) * on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:51PM (#11462724)
    Perhaps I am wrong on this, but I would say tha statistic given in the article (not really backed by the link) that one in four people online have downloaded a film sounds rather high.

    I know it is spreading in popularilty, but even so I know very few people at work (for example) that even know what Bittorrent is, much less have downloaded a film!
    • Just guessing, but I bet that figure is for people who have downloaded any sort of video to their computer, whether it be an unauthorized copy of a feature length motion picture, a clip of kittens singing "Gay Bar", or a movie trailer. I was going to mention pr0n, but as I like to masturbate to kittens dressed in viking garb, I thought it was implicit.

  • Does the market even exist yet? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by allometry ( 840925 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:52PM (#11462744)
    Since iTunes came out, I started paying for my music. I don't mind doing so, but it's easier to obtain from iTunes rather than hunting down files on news or torrent. But, downloading movies is a completely different realm.

    * Are there any decent portable movie players?
    * Can we burn our movies to DVD like we can burn our music to CD?
    * I have a Mac & PC, but for everyone here who lives on *nix, will there be cross-platform software?
    * Are we going to be downloading 4.6GB DVD's or compressed divx-like files? Also, how are you going to pay for all that bandwidth without killing your customers with additional charges?
    * Finally, what will be the selling point to downloading movies to your computer. Why not just go out and rent, or even yet, rent online through NetFlix or Blockbuster?

    These are all very valid points that need to be addressed before anyone tackles this. Napster has yet to do this and I see them headed for a bust.

    • Re:Does the market even exist yet? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Wesley Felter ( 138342 ) <wesley@felter.org> on Monday January 24, 2005 @08:13PM (#11462951) Homepage
      Are there any decent portable movie players?

      Not really. e.g. MS Portable Media Center is only VHS resolution (320x240)

      Can we burn our movies to DVD like we can burn our music to CD?

      If so, don't expect to pay much less than the cost of a regular DVD.

      I have a Mac & PC, but for everyone here who lives on *nix, will there be cross-platform software?

      Of course not!

      Are we going to be downloading 4.6GB DVD's or compressed divx-like files?

      It's gotta be WMV9 or H.264 or VP7, which makes it a little harder to burn to DVD.

      Also, how are you going to pay for all that bandwidth without killing your customers with additional charges?

      By offloading the bandwidth cost to the customers (BitTorrent-style), of course!

      Finally, what will be the selling point to downloading movies to your computer. Why not just go out and rent, or even yet, rent online through NetFlix or Blockbuster?

      Owning != renting.
    • it's easier to obtain from iTunes rather than hunting down files on news or torrent.

      but does iTunes actually have anything in their library worth buying? every time i look stuff up it's not found, or just a compilation. even artists like rolling stones, the pogues, radiohead, etc. have pretty much zero presence there. a parody, some live albums, is all.

      i wonder if the same will happen with the video content. it seems like the artists who sell their soul^H^H^H^Hstuff on iTunes need the extra outlet, i

  • Right direction, wrong step. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by brasten ( 699342 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:52PM (#11462747)
    Some people like watching movies on their laptops, yes, but I would hardly call it a vast market. However, earlier commenters are correct: internet delivery of movies will eventually become mainstream.

    So what's the catch? I don't want to sit around for a few hours while my laptop downloads a movie, only to have to burn it to a DVD to watch it on my TV (or plug my laptop in to the TV, making it useless for anything else). What *I* want is the ability to browse, order, download and view movies from my TV.

    I think this is where TiVo, or perhaps and Apple/TiVo partership, would kick ass. Being able to buy and download a movie through my TiVo, and when it's ready, I can watch it all I want on the TV... or burn a DVD right there on the device. Or copy it to my laptop if I really want to watch it there.

    THAT'S the way to go.
    • I don't want to sit around for a few hours while my laptop downloads a movie, only to have to burn it to a DVD to watch it on my TV

      Funnily enough, I was looking at something to solve this a few hours ago. Depends on the format they send of course, but have a look at the Elgato EyeHome [elgato.com]. Sounds like a good product to me - stored films (in DiVX or various MPEGs), iPhoto access, iTunes access, wireless access...not bad.

      The MythTV lot will be jumping up and down here too I imagine, and quiet rightly so. Cop

    • What *I* want is the ability to browse, order, download and view movies from my TV.

      Try Akimbo [akimbo.com].

    • I don't want to sit around for a few hours while my laptop downloads a movie, only to have to ... plug my laptop in to the TV, making it useless for anything else

      When you watch a movie, you are useless for anything else. Unlike music, which a fellow generally listens to in the background while doing something else, movies are intended to be watched as your foreground process.

  • Whatster?

    Ohhhh. Napster. Yeah, I remember that. So this is some sort of commercial for them then?

  • "Video game generation"? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Glowing Fish ( 155236 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @07:55PM (#11462772) Homepage

    They are aiming particularly to tap the younger video-game generation.

    Is this some marketing term for the young kidz who like totally radical xtreme eye popping special fx at the touch of a button?!?!?!

    Are "video games" the mark of the young generation? Are these a target group for downloading movies? Right now, the generation that "grew up" with video games would be anyone 35 and under. So is the main feature of everyone under 35 that they like video games?

    What does any of this mean?

  • Cable companies will win (Score:5, Insightful)

    by popo ( 107611 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @08:11PM (#11462932) Homepage

    Ultimately the cable companies will be the winners here. They have a high speed digital cable running into a box which is attached to your TV.

    What more can you possibly say?
  • One of the defining characteristics of the "younger video-game generation", IMO, is their tendency to share with their friends.

    I doubt this will catch on very well if Billy can't give a copy of a movie he's just downloaded to little Jimmy.

    As far as I can see, this is still the same old business model with a slightly different distribution method.

    Not that I'm suggesting a new business model (ooh, how about voluntary micropayments to the temporaily formed company that made the film instead of "If you don't

  • Music Videos (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SlashdotOgre ( 739181 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @08:24PM (#11463041) Journal
    One application of this I'd be interested in is perhaps the opportunity to buy music videos in addition to songs. I almost never buy songs; I believe $1 is overpriced when I can get the whole CD used for $7 if I drive a couple miles to my local independent record shop in Pacific Beach. Since there really isn't a place to buy music videos unless the band released a DVD (in which case there's likely multiple videos -- the majority of which I likely don't want), this would be a product which I couldn't buy anywhere else and I can somewhat justify a dollar or two.

    • One application of this I'd be interested in is perhaps the opportunity to buy music videos in addition to songs.

      Then it is with supreme irony that you'll find the iTunes Music Store supplying videos for free while charging for the audio track alone. You don't get to pick and choose, though, since not every song gets made into a video.

    • d be interested in is perhaps the opportunity to buy music videos in addition to songs.

      BLASPHEME!

      Don't give them any ideas, right now they're free at the iTMS!

  • 1 Chance (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @08:29PM (#11463094) Homepage
    Napster is at a fork in the road. They have sold out, and every single person on the internet knows it, and their main competitor has a much higher "cool" factor than they do (ITMS).

    They get ONE chance to win our trust and our praise on this, and one chance only. They screw it up, and they will have paved the road for Apple to do it right, which they inevitably will.

    Napster needs to offer no DRM, fast downloads, no annoying and invasive advertising in the middle of the movies or anything, and a wide selection. If they can't do it, someone else will. Frankly though, I don't have much hope for them doing the right thing.

    • 'sold out'???

      The _name_ was bought out by another company. There is no relationship between the current Napster and the original pirate-enabler.

      Napster are making a profit by making deals with movie companies. Those deals will undoubtably be just as free as the deals they made with music companies - i.e. not very free at all.

      Napster don't get to choose whether there is DRM on the movies. Thinking they have any control over this is hopelessly naive.
    • Napster needs to offer no DRM, fast downloads, no annoying and invasive advertising in the middle of the movies or anything, and a wide selection. If they can't do it, someone else will. Frankly though, I don't have much hope for them doing the right thing.
      "You've been living in a dream world, Neo." No DRM==No content. The MPAA will not license to anyone who would distribute it without DRM. That's just reality, friend.
  • Okay,I know not everyone has a cable box, but assuming the primary market for downloadable movies are people with either digital cable or satelite capable of movies-on-demand, I am having a hard time seeing how this is better.

    Like the iPod/iTunes simplified music buying and listening, I think the cable industry has already solved the movide buying thing.

    If they would just increase the library of movies on demand and allow us to save them in our PVR, burn to DVD, etc, then you have an easy way to buy, stor
    • Okay,I know not everyone has a cable box, but assuming the primary market for downloadable movies are people with either digital cable or satelite capable of movies-on-demand, I am having a hard time seeing how this is better.

      The primary market is people with internet connections (presumably broadband), and some way of watching the movie (TV, computer display, portable media player).

      You're making an assumption similar to those made by IBM that there was no market for the PC because customers using mainfr
      • I made my assumption that the market for downloadable movies are people with digital cable or satelite because those are the people who have already shown their willingness to spend money on TV entertainment.

        I would wager that a study would find a direct correlation between those who spend money for premium cable services and those who buy movies (in any format - PPV, DVD, etc).
        • You may well be right that Cable TV has already adequately solved this problem (though I didn't know that PPV and OnDemand was searchable and offered large persistent catalogs), but I still think you're way off on the target market. Just because most premium cable customers also rent or buy DVDs does NOT mean that most DVD renters/buyers are also premium cable customers. Do you see your fallacy?
  • i don't get it.. the CEO said that they are "considering" and that there "could be" a role for napster. did anyone RTA?

    why does this mean that napster is definitely going into the movie distribution business? lots of companies are considering lots of things - this is not news. and the headline "Napster to Offer Movie Downloads"? wildly inaccurate.

  • The Apple Stategy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Frogbeater ( 216054 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @10:59PM (#11464153) Homepage
    If the mac mini is designed as the machine that we hook up to our HDTVs (I currently have a modded G4 cube [frogbeater.com] doing that for now.)

    And assuming (this might be a stretch) that the "Asteroid" box is really a HD video box (Jobs said it's the year of HD) and that my iPod Photo has the hardware already to play movies [ipodhacks.com] then Apple will have a perfect set of distribution/watch on HDTV/carry on iPod. A formidable concept.

    Apple is putting into place the exact pieces to create the iTunes store for movies. With Steves experience in the film business (Pixar) he already has more connections than he did with the record companies and now he has a track record, no, he has written the book on legal downloading.

    Napster is talking abut dilly-dallying around with the concepts that Apple is preparing the major groundwork for.
  • With stories about Apple having trouble making money off of music downloads, they only make money by people who buy hardware to play it, I have to wonder how any company thinks they are going to make many on movie downloads. For an album they charge 10.99??, and that's for probably about 50 minutes of music the way most albums go these days. That's maybe around 200 megs encoded. Probably way less. A decently encoded movie is 700 MB. I wouldn't even pay for a movie that's that badly encoded. A movie I
  • Yeah i think its a great idea!
    If it has a huge list of movies and a no wait download or any waiting time, i would personally watch them.
    Instead of waiting on that hard to find movie coming from amazon that you ordered weeks ago, paying for postage and packaging , why not load up your napster client hit in your search for that movie and up it comes , sit back relax and watch the movie you cant find in the shops, or a new movie in the cinema maybe.
    But how far will they go , will warez groups have the ab

  • When I was still running the Open Music Registry, it used to annoy me greatly that articles online and off would refer to "legal music downloads" in a manner that implied the only way to legally download music was to pay for it. No reference to or acknowledgement of the public domain. No open-licensing. Just "pay or it's illegal."

    Obviously that pet peeve is ripe for renewal on a different front: "legal" movie downloads. {sigh}

  • They are aiming particularly to tap the younger video-game generation

    I think they misspelled tapster.com [archive.org]

    Background story> [nyrock.com].

    sorry for the archive.org link, apparently tapster - like its lesser known brother - has succumbed to the power of the RIAA. Or was it because they streamed in dobly?

  • What for? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by KlausBreuer ( 105581 ) on Tuesday January 25, 2005 @04:27AM (#11465941) Homepage
    Let me guess: massive Digital Restriction management, viewable only n times, no possibility of a backup, low resolution, Windows only, and about $5 per downloaded movie (which will cost me the download as well, depending onmy ISP).

    I like my way better: there's a robot DVD shop around the corner. Open 24h. Costs me just one buck to rent a film for three hours (more if I keep it longer, of course).
    Plenty time to view it and decide if I want to maxe an Xvid of it.
    Anonymously. No restrictions. For a dollar. In any resolution. On any OS.

    Could be too late for offering movies to download.

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