CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market trading After-hours trading Winners/losers/actives Bonds Currencies Commodities Money Magazine Retirement Mutual Funds Taxes Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Loan Center Best Places to Live Calculators Mortgage Rates Personal tech Big Tech blog Techland blog Sectors and stocks Fortune 500 techs Tech Talk 100 best places to launch Ultimate resource guide Small biz makeovers FSB 100 Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management Rankings Main Create portfolio Edit portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
Napster's ghost rises
The creator of Napster and the former president of Grokster are ready to rescue the music labels from Steve Jobs and iTunes.
By Robert Levine, FORTUNE

(FORTUNE Magazine) - Steve Jobs helped save the music biz from file sharers like Shawn Fanning and Wayne Rosso. Now Fanning and Rosso--the creator of Napster and former president of Grokster, respectively--want to save the labels from Jobs. Apple's (Research) iTunes store practically created the music-downloads business, and according to NPD controls 70% of online sales. Says Rosso: "Steve Jobs has them by the balls."

Rosso now heads a file-sharing service called Mashboxx, which bought Grokster's assets and plans to start selling authorized downloads by summer. It has deals with Universal Music and Sony BMG and is negotiating with EMI and Warner Music. The service will be powered by Snocap, a system Fanning designed that lets peer-to-peer networks filter out "stolen" files.

Apple reaches for the living room
The new iPod HiFi is Apple's entry into the audio market. (Full story)

Rosso, 57, an almost cartoonishly outspoken former publicist, is spoiling for a fight. "Steve Jobs and Apple are going to be toast," he says. "There's going to be a completely different landscape." Toast, maybe not--but the game may well change, if only because of two other entrants: MTV and Amazon.com. The former will launch Urge, an online store that sells music in Windows Media format, by summer. And Amazon (Research) will reportedly start a service that could include its own music player.

The labels are rooting for all three --and not just to lessen iTunes' leverage. The new services could be more lucrative: Mashboxx will let labels vary wholesale prices the way they do for retail stores; Urge and Amazon are expected to sell subscriptions that offer unlimited music for a flat fee, probably around $15. Subscriptions, already used by Rhapsody, could give labels the kind of annuity enjoyed by cable providers.

All this is good news for the music biz, which badly needs some: CD sales, which account for 95% of revenues, fell 8% last year. "The subscription model is going to change the game," says Michael Nash, senior VP at Warner. He insists it's too early to anoint iTunes the winner: "The race is far from run." Top of page

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.

Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
Manage alerts | What is this?
© 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. All Times are ET.
Intraday data provided by ComStock, an Interactive Data Company and subject to the Terms of Use.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by FT Interactive Data.
Fundamental data provided by Hemscott.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time.† - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges.• Disclaimer