Napster’s Fuzzy Math

I admit it, I tune into the Super Bowl for two reasons—to marvel at what the advertising industry can do when it really puts its mind (and dollars) to something and to despair at the bland extravagance of the typical half-time show. This year I’m afraid that the annual football fest fully delivered on only one count. The flag waving and fireworks that accompanied the closing strains of McCartney’s “Hey Jude” provided the awful excessiveness I’d hoped for, but the fact that McCartney and company appeared to actually be singing and playing rather than aping to a tape, as typically happens, elevated the show above its usual dreadful standard.

Much of the advertising was up to the usual Super Bowl standards. Rather than discuss the wisdom of blunting the effectiveness of Ford’s Mustang-convertible-meets- Fargo vignette by showing it twice in succession, I’d like to draw your attention to Napster’s Do the Math ad. If you missed the ad (and the media attention surrounding the new Napster To Go service), this ad copy should make the gist pretty clear:

Apple + iPod = $10,000

Napster To Go + a variety of music players = $15 a month

Let’s take a look and see how this pans out.

Apple + iPod = $10,000

In the world of Napster’s ad agency, if I have a 40GB iPod and fill it with music purchased from the iTunes Music Store at $.99 a song, it will cost me $10,000 to do so. Fair enough. Let me take a gander at my iPod and see what’s there.

501 Protected AAC files 6 audiobooks 2046 MPEG audio files 783 AAC audio files

A goodly portion of those unprotected audio files were ripped from an LP and CD library I’ve accumulated over the years. Yes, I paid for them, but as an existing asset I’m going to call them free. That leaves $501 worth of music on my 40GB iPod (and, of course, this figure should be even less because I purchased most of that music in album form where cost-per-track is usually less than $.99). This is music that I can burn to CD (thus allowing me to play it from my home stereo, in-car stereo, and any boombox I happen to pass by) and stream across a houseful of computers thanks to iTunes’ built-in music sharing capabilities. And, of course, when I pass beyond this vale of tears, my progeny’s progeny will be able to participate in the time-honored tradition of making fun of grandpa’s musical tastes.

Napster To Go + a variety of music players = $15 a month

For $15 a month I can have access to one million songs and download those songs to a variety of music players. Cool. Let me fire up my Mac and zip on over to Napster, click the Download Napster button, and…

Oh.

Not compatible with anything but Windows 2000 and XP.

Okay, fine, over to the Windows machine. Might as well check compatible players and…

Oh.

Not compatible with my iPod.

Okay, fine, I’ll just use it with my Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen and…

Oh.

Not compatible with most MP3 players. I see that I need to purchase one of about 10 players to make the thing work (and the most highly-recommended players hold only 5GB of music).

Right, so I need to drop between $325 and $350 to buy a clumsy new player that holds 15GB less music than my $300 fourth-generation iPod. For $15 a month I can pack that player with as much music as it can hold but I can’t burn that music to CD or stream it unless I pay download fees comparable to what Apple’s iTunes Music Store charges. And when I stop paying Napster’s monthly fee, the music is gone, gone, gone.

Apples and Not Apples

If I may return to my original theme of advertising and what it can do when it makes an effort, I’d like to suggest that when this campaign was brought before Napster’s board of directors, they should have rustled up enough of the company’s bygone pirate-spirit to make someone walk the plank.

Subscription services have real value to certain types of listeners—those who want to explore lots of new music but care little for owning it. This is a real strength and one that should be emphasized as something missing from the iTunes Music Store. But that’s not what the Napster campaign tells us. Rather than trying to distinguish the service’s strengths, the ad goes after the Big Boys on the Block and tries to make Napster To Go and the iPod/iTunes experience equivalent.

No ad campaign—however packed with stupid math tricks and apples and oranges comparisons—can make that so.