Leader: Are download services the new free ISPs?

When The Sun starts dabbling in tech you know it must be in an area that must have become totally ordinary.

A few years back, around the height of the dot-com boom in February of 1999, this publication broke the story of how that tabloid, as well as rival red top The Mirror were about to launch themselves as internet service providers (Phew! What a dial-up: UK tabloids take to the net). They weren't, of course, about to go out and buy some servers, routers and a facility somewhere in the heart of Docklands (any docklands) and hire dozens of techies. No, they would offer a branded ISP service.

Fair enough, thought most. There were opportunities for those with expertise elsewhere, in this case print media, to use their marketing nous to nab consumers who could by that stage use one of several hundred companies for simple, dial-up internet access.

That playing field has changed in the last five years, especially as broadband has become much more common, meaning that even after initially doing well there was a thinning of that 'free ISP' field, and 'free' models weren't sustainable.

So after what seems like dozens of launches for legal digital music download services over the past year, imagine our déjà vu this week when it was announced that The Sun has teamed up with Roxio-owned Napster to offer its readers free - though still legal - track downloads.

Now we're not about to name all the companies doing download offers, though Coca-Cola, HMV and Virgin spring to mind. But what is clear is that those that run services such as iTunes, Rhapsody (from RealNetworks) and Napster don't have a monopoly on appealing to music buyers.

As others have pointed out on many occasions, buyers may have more of an affinity with a music retailer, a media brand or even a consumer product such as can of fizzy drink or a mobile operator.

(OK, Napster has a brand here but it's never going to be the edgy, 'underground' service it was three years ago.)

The irony is that it is doubtful whether a Sun or a Coca-Cola will go into an area like this as wholeheartedly some did with their new media brands way back when but it is an area, unlike internet access provision, where they actually have more appeal and stand a fair chance of doing well.

The Sun's offer is of course only limited to the next nine Saturdays and is more of a means for Napster to try and hook a slice of the red top's 10 million readership but other media brands will no doubt be watching with interest.