November 7, 2005
Grokster Brand to Live On, Eventually Die
The Grokster settlement is now official. The sale to Mashboxx isn’t, but it seems like we’re headed in that direction.
Some may think that Grokster’s conversion to a legitimate service is
important because it’ll have brand name recognition. I doubt it –
we need only look at Napster 2.0 to see how little a previously popular
P2P brand can help a licensed service. Grokster’s going to live
and die by how good Mashboxx’s system is. If it’s just an iTunes
Music Store with a P2P client skin on top of it (e.g., Peer Impact), I
don’t think it’ll make any waves. If it can generate a richer
sharing experience than the current online music stores do, then it may
have some traction. Mostly, DRM, price points, and catalog will
still be the keys.
Filed by Derek Slater at 8:24 pm under General news
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