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Is Napster The Blade For Best Buy's Razors?

Yesterday, online music provider Napster slashed its streaming service from $12.95 to $5 a month. Now is the time for owner Best Buy to do something to support it...and help itself.

Napster pretty much debuted the online music business or, more accurately, it presaged the destruction of the packaged goods distribution model, as it was the first popular tool to let people swap digital songs. Since it did so for free, it was less a business model than crime syndicate, and I say this having been an early and active offender.

Now, it charges for doing the same things as iTunes, Pandora, Rhapsody, MySpace, Amazon, or Wal-Mart do, give or take. It has one of the catchier logos, and a dicey trendsetter history, but the world doesn't need an endless list of music services. This is where Best Buy comes in, and why I think its purchase of Napster late last year could make lots of sense.

The inexorable connection between hardware and software has been self-evident to consumer appliance makers for generations. Loaves of bread are readily available, and work in most toasters. Toothpaste transforms plastic sticks with bristles into decay-fighting systems, and blades allow us to shave with razors.

Only it's not obvious when it comes to CE products, especially those that deliver media experiences. Apple's killer idea was to market iTunes with iPods, effectively negating the compatibility and usability issues that bedevil everyone else. Choice isn't terribly empowering when you're not technically literate or, like you, working in a day job that makes you so.

Why couldn't Best Buy make Napster its distributor of choice?

Imagine if it made the service simpler (there are way too many pricing plans), and came up with exclusive music offers (bands or tracks only available on Napster)? It could offer special previews, just like Apple used Star Wars trailers to get QuickTime downloaded like a zillion times, or use Napster as the driver of real user communities, offering TripAdvisor-like music ratings and referrals. It could allow consumers to visit stores and accrue points, or tokens (or whatever), and thereby prompt more music purchases. And why couldn't it make the interface so that it looked and felt like we’re swapping songs again for free (even if we've really paid for the privilege)?

As of now, Napster is getting handled like it's a stand-alone blade. Without the razor getting sold with it, I'm not sure it’s going to do anybody any good.

Jonathan Salem Baskin writes the Dim Bulb blog and is the author of Branding Only Works On Cattle.